Learning About The Rich History Of Bread Making
Bread is one of the most popular, staple foods around the entire world
. It has been filling bellies and warming hearts for centuries.
After all, wheat has been cultivated by man since before recorded history. It is conjectured by anthropologists that hungry hunter/gatherers first stockpiled the grain as a storable food source.
When it got wet, it sprouted, and people found that if the grain was planted it yielded yet more seeds. With its roots in Mesopotamia and Egypt, it was discovered that it could be pulverized and made into a kind of paste substance.
Set over a fire, the paste hardened into flat bread that kept for several days. It did not take much of a leap to discover leavened bread when yeast was accidentally introduced to the paste.
Instead of waiting for fortuitous circumstances to raise their bread, people found that they could save a piece of dough from a batch of bread to put into the next day's dough. This was the origin of sourdough, a process still used today.
In Egypt, around one thousand BC, inquiring minds isolated yeast and were able to introduce the culture directly to their breads. In addition, a new strain of wheat was grown that allowed for refined white bread.
This was the first truly modern bread. Up to thirty varieties may have been popular in ancient Egypt.
It was also during this time that bread beer was developed. It was soaked in water, and sweetened until the foamy liquor run off.
Beer was as popular in ancient Egypt as it is in America today, if you can believe it. The Greeks picked up the technology for making this delicacy from the Egyptians.
From Greece, the practice spread over the rest of Europe. Bread and wheat were especially important in Rome, where it was believed to be more vital than meat.
Soldiers felt slighted if they were not given their allotment. The Roman welfare state was based on the distribution of grain to people living in Rome.
Later the government even baked it, just as we do today. Through much of history, a person's social station could be discerned by the color of bread they consumed, as strange as that sounds.
The darker the bread, the lower the social station. This was because whiter flours were more expensive, and harder for millers to adulterate with other products.
Today, we have seen a reversal of this trend, when darker ones are more expensive and highly prized for their taste as well as their nutritional value. It is interesting how things change over time!
In the middle ages, it was commonly baked in the ovens of the lord of the manor for a price. It was one of the few foods that sustained the poor through the dark age.
It continued to be important through history as riots over the substance during the French Revolution attest. The famous quotation attributed to Marie Antoinette that if the poor could not get it for their table then "let them eat cake," became a famous illustration of how royalty had become ignorant of the plight of the lower classes.
Actually, Marie Antoinette never said this, and was merely being slandered by her detractors. Still thought of as the "staff of life," for centuries this spongy staple has been used in religious ceremonies.
Even the Lord's prayer requests of God to "Give us this day our daily bread," meaning not merely loaves, but moral sustenance. Today, even with the competition of a growing variety of foods, it remains important to our diet and our psyche.
It has a prominent place in at the local market, in our cupboards, and even in our language. The name is even commonly used as a slang term for money.
It denotes importance, as when we say that some aspect of our work is "our bread and butter." In many households it is still served in some form or another with every meal.
This food has a long history for a reason. It is a healthy and nutritious food, that fills the stomach as well as the soul.
Whether it is made by hand or a machine, try some new recipes, discover the magic that is in the very taste and smell of a freshly baked loaf. Teach your children about It while you make a loaf today.
by: Tom Selwick
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