You have probably heard the saying "baking is a science", and this is true. Measuring ingredients for baking recipes needs to be exact or else your entire product is going to come out wrong. Unlike cooking, where you can eye-ball your ingredients, baking needs to be precise. Excess flour in measuring cups need to be scraped off and if a recipe says 165 grams you make sure it is 165 grams! One art in baking that has played a crucial role in humans domesticating and establishing towns is bread making. I have start to get into bread making during this pandemic and I wanted to read more (and watch documentaries) about the art, history and chemistry of bread making.
I have decided to split this blog into three parts. Today we will focus on the history of bread making. particularly traveling in time starting from the Egyptians to the Romans, 18th century Britain, and modern day western civilization.
Looking back into human history, the rise of agriculture allowed groups of people to remain in one location and leave behind their nomadic lifestyle. Wheat, barley, rice and rye were some of the grains first grown by farmers and after numerous trial and errors, perfecting techniques and understanding the chemistry and balance of ingredients bread making became and important trade. The definition of bread is food made of flour, water and yeast or another leavening agent, mixed together and baked. Some of the oldest bread (different from what we would consider a typical loaf bread) making discoveries were found as charred bread crumbs in Jordan. This bread was a type of flatbread and actually was made before agriculture began. It contained wild barley, einkorn wheat, oats and a type of rush called Bolboschoenus glaucus. If we want to know when the oldest bread (more relatable to modern day bread) was made in human history, we look towards the Egyptians.
Egyptians: Masters and Bread...and Beer
Egyptians developed the first grinding tool, which was used to crush grain into powder and then used by bakers to create bread similar to roti and tortillas. While learning how to make more sustainable bread, the Egyptians were also skilled beer brewers. Living in a warm climate, they were able to study how fermentation helped produce the first kind of beer and new types of bread known as sourdough. They used the yeast they discovered in beer making to enhance the rise of bread mixtures. I like the nickname given to them, the booze and bread people of the Mid-East.
Roman Empire
Fast forwarding to 450 BC, the Romans invented the water-milling system. This is when bread making became an art form. New shapes were created by bakers and types of bread soon became a sign of class in society. Richer Roman families would eat white bread since it was the highest quality. Whole wheat bread was given to the poor and slaves as back then its nutritional value was not known and recognized. The use of bread to distinguish class continued into the British medieval times. Upper class society ate fine, white loaves while the poor were only given rye, bran and coarser breads (like the stale bread you see soldiers in movies and Game of Thrones eat)
Sorry I could not help it, I had to add a meme :P
Bread Making in the 19th Century
From the Egyptians, Romans and medieval Brits, bread making was refined, modernized and experimented with different techniques and ingredients. After 100 BC when Mexicans developed the first stone-ground corn tortillas, steel roller mills in Switzerland became the near advancement in the baking profession in 1834. The steel roller mill broke open the grains instead of powdering them, making it easier for bakers and soon machines to separate the endosperm, germ and bran.This was good news for people who were gluten intolerant since they could eat bread without suffering health repercussions. However, bread in this century did have a bit of a dark side. Bread sold in 19th century Europe was often adulterated (made in poor quality) with material that were hazardous to the human body, including clay, chalk, sawdust, plaster, aluminium and ammonium carbonate (i.e. smelling salt). Now you are probably wondering, "Why did the British add these hazardous materials to bread if it was not good for the human body?". Well the main reason is the material were used as additives to increase the weight of the loaves and it was sometimes cheaper to use them instead of natural or safer additives. It was not until 1820, when chemical analyst Frederick Accum exposed the dangers of food adulteration. He wanted to point out the harms of these ingredients. His famous quote, T"he man who robs a fellow subject of a few shillings on the highway is sentenced to death, but he who distributes a slow poison to the whole community escapes unpunished." got him in trouble and made a lot of enemies in Britain, This eventually led to him fleeing to Germany in 1821 and his analytical work on food adulteration was forgotten, until Thomas Wakley and Arthur Hill Hassal fought against adulteration after it was discovered coloured sweet contained traces of metal. Hassal proposed a act to ban the use of hazardous additives in food. It was not until revised version of his proposal was implemented in 1875 that it was made illegal to add these hazardous additives to food, including bread.
Industrialization of the Bread Making Industry
The 20th century came with new automated methods to make, proof, rise and bake bread. The first bread slicing and wrapping prototype machine was developed in 1912 by Otto Frederick Rohwedder. He had the first successful model made in 1927, and sold the design to a friend and baker Frank Bench in 1928. This is when bread making became part of the capitalized government. Made, packaged and sold in the millions to people all across Europe and North America. Before I mentioned white bread was a status for the rich while whole wheat, rye and barley-based bread was a status for the poor. In western civilization now, it is the opposite. The superior nutritional value of whole wheat bread made it more desirable than white bread. This is why when you go to the supermarket price increase as you move from white -> whole wheat -> whole grain -> seeded/fruit/spiced/cheesy/etc. The 20th century is also when chemical additives were used to accelerate the rising stage of bread making. Batches of bread could be made in a matter of a few hours. Bread made with chemical additives is known as "quick bread". These chemical additives include sodium metabisulfite, L-cysteine and oxidants.
If you want another interesting fact, calcium was added to the flour in the UK because it helped prevent rickets.
My Attempts at Bread Making
For those who are new or have not had a chance to read some of my old blog posts, I bought a bread maker in March when COVID-19 began shutting town countries. I wanted to make my own loaves of bread and it was very easy with the machine, but it was not as fulfilling as I imagined. It was not because the bread was bad, in fact, it was quite delicious. I just felt like since I did not mix, knead and baked the bread myself that I could not confidently say I bake bread. So I decided it was time to make bread without the machine (not that I got rid of machine, it is still extremely handy when I want to make regular loaves quickly). I followed a Youtuber recipe for a bread recipe that did not require kneading. It later found out that skipping the kneading step does mean your loaf when be dense.
I did realize I had to improvises when baking the bread because I do not own a Dutch Oven. The Dutch Oven is very important because it keeps the bread moist while it bakes. Without it, your bread will become dry and rock solid. I had a glass baking dish with a lid that was big enough for my bread mixture so I was in the clear...this time.
For a first attempt, the loaf came out really well! A bit dense, but the golden-brown crust was nice and crispy, the interior had air pockets, and it tasted like...well...bread :P I am going to make another loaf using a recipe that does require kneading. It will be a lot more work but I think the mixture will get a better rise and the interior will be lighter and fluffier.
Stay tuned for Part 2 where we will look at the chemistry of bread making :)
See you all next time!
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