A Guide To The Many Types Of Bread
Overview: A Brief History Of Bread
Jump To Glossary
If you love good bread, you’re in luck: There’s a bread renaissance in America. Artisan bakers in many cities, and the availability of good breads in gourmet markets and by mail order, mean that one no longer has to take a trip to Europe to get a good piece of bread.
It Started As Porridge
Bread is one of the oldest prepared foods (foods that do not grow naturally but require preparation). It dates to the Neolithic era, around 10,000 B.C.E.), when man farmed barley, einkorn wheat, millet and spelt. Man had discovered that adding water to the grain—i.e., creating porridge—made it more palatable.
Further experimentation led to cooking the mixture on stones that had been heated in a fire, creating the first breads, which were flat and tortilla-like. The earliest bread-making tools date to 8,000 B.C.E. Leavening, using wild yeast to make the bread rise, came later during prehistoric times; the art of using yeast to leaven bread was mastered by the ancient Egyptians. Many cultures still enjoy forms of these early breads (see flatbread). The closed oven was invented around 3000 B.C.E., enabling the production of different types of bread.
The Romans Invented Grinding
The Romans invented the concept of grinding grain by rubbing it between two stones. Even after manual grinding was replaced by revolving grindstones driven by cattle (or slaves), grinding was a time-consuming process and leavened bread was a costly food. White bread, also invented by the Romans and made by sifting the grains through linen, was even costlier.
Ironically, given what we know about nutrition today, the poor ate dark whole-grain bread and the wealthy ate white bread, stripped of essential nutrients. This class separation by bread continued until the Industrial Revolution made the more elegant white bread available to everyone.
After you’ve boned up on bread, take a look at our other food glossaries—an easy way to get up to speed on more than fifty different food categories.
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