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Bread

For the 1970s rock and roll band, see Bread (band).

Breads are a group of staple foods prepared by baking, steaming, or frying a dough consisting minimally of flour and water. Salt is necessary in most cases, and optionally a leavening agent is used.

The word itself, Old English bread, is common in various forms to many Germanic languages; cf. German Brot, Dutch brood, Swedish bröd, and Danish brød; it has been derived from the root of brew, but more probably is connected with the root of break, for its early uses are confined to broken pieces, or bits of bread, the Latin frustum, and it was not till the 12th century that it took the place as the generic name of bread, of hlaf, loaf, which appears to be the oldest Teutonic name, cf. Old High German hleib, and modern German Laib, or Finnish [via Swedish?] leipä.

Types

Bread is a popular food in Western society. It is often made from a wheat-flour dough that is cultured with yeast, allowed to rise, and finally baked in an oven. Owing to its high levels of gluten (which give the dough sponginess and elasticity), wheat is the most common grain used for the preparation of bread, but bread is also made from the flour of rye, barley, maize (or corn), and oats, usually, but not always, in combination with wheat flour.

Leavening

Leavening is the process of adding gas to a dough before baking to produce a lighter, more easily-chewed bread. Most bread consumed in the West is leavened. But there is also unleavened bread which has important symbolic use in Judaism and is used by some Christian churches.

Chemical leavening

A simple technique for leavening bread is the use of gas-producing chemicals. There are two common methods. The first is to use baking powder or a self-rising flour that includes baking powder. The second is to have an acidic ingredient such as buttermilk and add baking soda. The reaction of the acid with the soda produces gas.

Chemically-leavened breads are called called quick breads and soda breads.

Yeast leavening

Many breads are leavened by the fungus yeast. The yeast ferments carbohydrates in the flour and any sugar, producing carbon dioxide. Most commercial and home bakers culture their doughs with baker's yeast. Alternatively, other bakers try to capture wild yeasts from the air or fruit. Although depending on wild yeast can be risky, it often results in a more flavorful, complex bread.

Most yeast breads are straight doughs. The entire batch of dough is mixed along with the yeast. The bread is then allowed to rise, is formed, risen again, and finally baked. This process takes less than a day.

Alternatively, there are sourdoughs. Initially, only a small amount of starter (or chef) is made, which is then cultured either from wild or commercial yeasts. This starter is then carefully maintained indefinitely, allowing it to develop flavor. Periodically, some of the starter is combined with a dough, which is leavened by it. This is similar to the 'solera' system for sherry, and ensures that some of the starter used has fermented for a very long time. The dough is then allowed to ferment for a longer period than for straight dough. The starter imparts a slightly sour flavor to the dough (hence the name) and the extended fermentation serves to partly break down the complex carbohydrates in the flour, making the bread more digestible. Sourdough breads have a slightly different texture than conventional yeast breads and are said to keep their freshness longer. San Francisco is known for its really sour sourdough bread. In France, the pain au levain is leavened bread which a far less sour taste than sourdough bread, due to the use of different yeasts.

Steam leavening

The rapid expansion of steam produced during baking leavens the bread, which is as simple as it is unpredictable. The best known steam-leavened bread is the popover. Steam-leavening is unpredictable since the steam isn't produced until the bread is baked.

Steam leavening is happening regardless of the rising agents (soda powder, yeast, baking-powder, sour dough, egg snow?)

• The rising agent generates carbon dioxide - or contains already air - bubbles.
• The heat vaporises the water from the inner surface of the bubbles within the dough.
• The steam expends and makes the bread rise.

It is actually the main factor in the rise. CO2 generation, on its own, is too small to account for the rise. Heat kills bacteria or yeast at an early stage, so the CO2 generation is stopped.

Bacterial leavening

Usually called salt-risen bread, this is an uncommon form of leavening due to its inconsistent results. However, the bread has a unique cheese-like flavor thats often desired.

Breads across different cultures

There are many variations on the basic recipe of bread, including pizza, chapatis, tortillas, baguettes, pitas, lavash, biscuits, pretzels, naan, bagels, puris and many other variations.

• In the British Isles and the United States, the most widely consumed type of bread is soft-textured with a thin crust and is sold ready-sliced in packages. In France, such bread is known as pain de mie and is used only for toast or for making stuffing; standard bread (in the form of baguettes or thicker breads) has a thick crust and often has large bubbles of air inside. Some fancy breads contain walnuts, or are encrusted with poppy seeds.
• White bread is made from flour containing only the central core of the grain(endosperm).
• Brown bread is made with endosperm and 10% bran.
• Wholemeal bread contains the whole of the wheatgrain (endosperm and bran).
• Wheatgerm bread has added wheatgerm for flavouring.
• Wholegrain bread is white bread with added wholegrains to increase the fibre content.
• Granary bread is brown bread with added wholegrains.

History

Bread is one of the oldest prepared foods, dating back to the Neolithic era when cereal grains and water were mixed into a paste and cooked. In ancient Egypt bread-making became one of the most significant areas of food preparation, along with the making of beer; both had religious significance as well. It is thought that the Egyptians invented the first closed oven for use in baking. Bread was a primary staple of diet in much of European history, from at least 1000 BCE into modern times.

Otto Frederick Rohwedder is considered to be the father of sliced bread. In 1912 Rohwedder started work on inventing a machine that sliced bread, but bakeries were reluctant to use it since they were concerned the sliced bread would go stale. It wasn't until 1928, when Rohwedder invented a machine that both sliced and wrapped the bread, that sliced bread caught on. A bakery in Battle Creek, Michigan was the first to use this machine to produce sliced bread.

For generations, white bread was considered the preferred bread of the rich while the poor ate dark bread. However, the connotations reversed in the 20th Century with dark bread getting becoming preferred as having superior nutritional value while white bread became associated with lower class ignorant of nutrition.

Recipes

For more recipes, see

The following instructions to make bread were taken from the Household Cyclopedia of 1881:

"Place in a large pan twenty-eight pounds of flour; make a hole with the hand in the centre of it like a large basin, into which strain a. pint of brewers, yeast; this must be tested, and if too bitter a little flour sprinkled into it, and then strained directly, then pour in two quarts of water of the temperature of 100°, or blood heat, and stir the flour round from the bottom of the hole formed by the hand till that part of the flour is quite thick and well mixed, though all the rest must remain unwetted; then sprinkle a little flour over the moist part and cover it with a cloth; this is called sponge, and must be left to rise. Some leave it only half an hour, others all night.

"When the sponge is light, however, add four quarts of water the same temperature as above, and well knead the whole mass into a smooth dough. This is hard work if done well. Then cover the dough and leave it for au hour. In cold weather both sponge and dough must be placed on the kitchen hearth, or in some room not too cold, or it will not rise well. Before the last water is put in two tablespoonful of salt must be sprinkled over the flour. Sometimes the flour will absorb another pint of water.

"After the dough has risen it should be made quickly into loaves; if much handled then the bread will be heavy. It will require an hour and a half to bake, if made into fourpound loaves. The oven should be well heated before the dough is put into it. To try its heat, throw a little flour into it; if it brown directly, it will do. "

French bread recipe

Put a pint of milk into three quarts of water. In winter let it be scalding hot, but in summer little more than milk warm. Put in salt sufficient. Take a pint and a half of good ale yeast, free from bitterness, and lay it in a gallon of water the night before. Pour off the yeast into the milk and water, and then break in rather more than a quarter of' a pound of butter. Work it well till it is dissolved; then beat up two eggs in a basin, and stir them in. Mix about a peck and a half of flour with the liquor, and in winter make the dough pretty stiff, but more slack in! summer; mix it well, and the less it is worked the better. Stir the liquor into flour, as for pie-crust, and after the dough is made cover it with a cloth, and let it lie to rise while the oven is heating. When the loaves have lain in a quick oven about a quarter of an hour, turn them on the other side for about a quarter of an hour longer. Then take them out, and chip them with a knife, which will make them look spongy, and of a fine yellow. whereas rasping takes off this fine color, and renders their look less inviting.

Note this is not a "true" French bread recipe as according to French law, French bread should contain nothing more than flour, salt, water and yeast.

See also

• bread clip
• bread roll
• bun
• cornbread