The History of Bread
Ten to fifteen thousand years ago, humans discovered wheat (whose origins are probably somewhere in Southeast Asia) as a food source. In 1948, archaeologists in Iraq found a 7,000-year-old settlement in whose ruins two different varieties of wheat grains were discovered, similar to our current plant. At that man cooked form these grains porridges.
It is obvious the breadmaking must be one of the oldest human-made foods. Breadmaking in became important with the discovery of beermaking from bread in Sumeria and Egypt around 6000 BC. In fact, it was for the local economy so crucial that grains and beer were used as currencies. Bread baking and beer making were in the hands of women. In Sumeria, more than over 30 types of beers and 200 varieties of “bread” were recorded in a collection of tablets (Benno Lansberger). These local bakeries used different flours, kneading techniques, additional ingredients (with pistachios and dried figs, raisins, etc.), cooking and presentations.
It is believed that sourdough fermentation was discovered in Egypt, which started to produced bread in large scale with the discovery of high efficient ovens that were made of clay and resembled beehives. In it, a very high heat could be reached, which immediately transforms the moisture present in the dough into steam. Thus, the volume of bread is significantly increased and delayed crusting. From Egypt and Mesopotamia, the knowledge of baking bread spread through Greece and the Roman Empire to reach Europe. The Romans built the first large mills and were already able to produce very fine flour. They invented a device for kneading dough: in a trough, large agitators were moved by a mechanical mechanism, with an ox or a slave running around it. Around 400 AD, there were already more than 250 bakeries in Rome, some of the large farms that milled and processed over 30 tons of grain daily. Thus these Roman bakeries were able to produce an estimated 36,000 kg of bread per day.
Although there are worldwide thousands of variations of bread we can classify them into e two basic types of bread:
1. leavened bread made with the help of leavening agents ( such as starters or yeast ) which are giving it an elastic consistency
2. unleavened bread, without the addition of leavening agents. It is often baked as flatbread and consumed fresh while it is still soft.
Further, it is often classified according to:
- the type of cereal (such as wheat, spelt, kamut, rye, and others )
- the kind of flour (flour or wholemeal flour, sprouted flour, finely ground or coarsely ground)
- individual ingredients (such as nuts, berries, seeds, etc. )
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Porridge Bread (No-Knead Bread) with cracked Barley and Dal
