The Twin Births of Cultivation and Civilization

The development of grain cultivation is closely linked to the cultural history of humankind. Indeed the original meaning of the word culture is cultivation. As we all recall from our history classes, humans lived as wandering hunter-gatherers for eons. The first civilizations arose as humans developed agriculture and animal husbandry. These monumental innovations enabled humans to live in permanent settlements because they provided adequate food production to sustain life in a fixed location. Since the dawn of civilization grain products have formed the base of the human diet.

The First Foods Made from Grains

Wheat and barely have been discovered at Jericho (in modern Jordan), the oldest known site of human civilization, which dates back to 10,000 BC. However, millennia would pass before bread was developed as we know it today.

Whole or cracked grains were first eaten raw or after being dried, like modern seeds and nuts. The direct predecessors of bread were porridges (grains mixed and cooked with water) and flat cakes (doughs baked directly on coals, or on heated stones and tiles). Various forms of porridge or mush are still eaten daily by a large percentage of the earth's population. Ancestors of early flat cakes are still common today in the form of crepes, pita, rice cakes, papadum, fritters, nan, pancakes, tamales, and, of course, pizza.

D i d  Y o u  K n o w ?  The earliest pizzas were pancakes cooked with onions and pickled fish.

Grains Rise to New Heights

The first true breads were probably developed in the Mediterranean area and Middle East around 2500 BC when fermented doughs (sourdoughs) were added to flour to make flat cakes rise when baked. Like many innovations, sourdough leavening probably came about by accident.

D i d  Y o u  K n o w ?  The tradition of Challah and other kosher, yeast-leavened breads can be traced back to the Ancient Hebrew belief that breads leavened with sourdoughs were impure due to the fermentation.

An early improvement on baking bread on top of coals or griddles was the addition of a clay bell-shaped dome that enveloped the baking dough. This insulation technique improved the rising action and cooked the dough more evenly. Baking molds and ovens further refined this process.

The Ancient Egyptians baked breads in stacked molds placed in an oven. The Assyrians used a different approach all together: They placed doughs in heated earthen pots that were sealed and buried in the ground.

D i d  Y o u  K n o w ?  In Ancient Egypt, bread was used as a form of currency.

Greek Innovations

Culinary historians credit the Greeks for developing bread baking into an art. Proper front-loaded bread ovens originated in Ancient Greece. The Greeks created a wide variety of doughs, loaf shapes and styles of serving bread with other foods. Baking developed as a trade and profession as bread increasingly was prepared outside of the family home by specially trained workers to be sold to the public.

The Greeks also pioneered sweetbreads, fritters, puddings, cheesecakes, pastries, and even wedding cakes. Often prepared in symbolic shapes, these products were originally served during special occasions and ceremonies. By 300 AD, the Greeks had developed over seventy different kinds of bread.

D i d  Y o u  K n o w ?  The Romans began a long-standing tradition that seems strange in modern times: Wedding cakes were given as an offering and sacrificed (by burning)—they were not actually eaten.

Rome and Beyond

Greek settlements in Gaul predated Roman control of the area. The Greeks brought the tradition of beer making to Gaul, as well as their baking techniques. Bakers in Gaul began using beer yeast to improve the rising action of certain breads. Greek bakers dominated the bread trade in Rome. They established a strict guild system for their craft in Rome, extending a tradition that dated back to 800 BC in Greece. Through the expansion of the Roman Empire, Greek baking traditions influenced a vast area of the world, especially Western Europe. In time, France would assume the leadership position in the craft of making bread (as well as wine) formerly held by Greece.

The Staple of the Table

Leavened bread became the staple food, particularly of the masses, though flat cakes and porridges in particular were still widely consumed. Workers took hunks of bread into the field to sustain themselves throughout the day. At the table, thick slices of bread known as trenchers were served with a variety of dishes, often forming the centerpiece or base of a meal. Long before John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, made his famous innovation of adding a second slice on top in the 1700s, bread was commonly served as a base for meats and sauces. Certain soups and stews were poured on top of bread placed inside a bowl or dish.

D i d  Y o u  K n o w ?  The word companion means "sharer of bread."  This term hails from the fact that trenchers were often intended for use by two people seated together at the table.

The Mill, the Bake House and the Bakery

As discussed above, leavened bread, unlike porridge and flat cakes, was usually prepared outside of the family home. The process of making bread required equipment and specialized skills beyond the reach of the average household. Interestingly, bread was not, as a rule, prepared in bakeries. Until well into the Middle Ages, bakeries (establishments that sold and distributed bread) were generally kept separate from bake houses (facilities that baked bread). The principal reasons for this tradition were highly practical in nature: fire prevention, logistics and cost management.

Like most structures, private homes and bakeries were made of highly flammable materials. Large bread-baking ovens were serious fire hazards. To protect life and property, bake houses were located away from inhabited areas. They were often constructed near rivers. This practice had two main benefits. Water was ready at hand for putting out fires, preparing doughs and cleaning purposes. In addition, bake houses were frequently located next to water-powered mills where flour was produced. This reduced the time and expense of transporting flour.

Ovens and related baking equipment were also expensive. Bake houses were often owned by wealthy feudal lords or businessmen. They allowed the bakery owners of the region to use their facilities in a communal fashion on a fee-basis or in exchange for provision of bread. This widespread practice made the cost of producing bread much lower for the individual bakery owners.

D i d  Y o u  K n o w ?  The earliest mills were powered by humans and animals, and later, by flowing water. Windmills did not emerge until after the Dark Ages.

As construction standards improved in cities over time, officials allowed ovens to be located adjacent to bakeries. Like butcher's shops and other food-related businesses, such sites were restricted to the outer regions of urban areas to minimize rat infestation. Bake houses, like slaughterhouses, were often still operated on a communal basis within city limits. Bread was sold in bakeries, at market stands and by wandering merchants. As the food staple, bread was the item most commonly sold on credit, and was frequently bartered.

The Profession of Baking and Regulation

The baking trade was highly regulated through rulers/officials and guilds, known as corporations in France. There were laws governing and penalties enforcing the cleanliness of baking establishments, the ingredients used in flour, the quality of the finished product and the training of the bakers. As in other crafts and trades, bakers began their training as unpaid apprentices who worked for room and board. After several years, they progressed to the title of journeyman, which allowed them to train apprentices. Accomplished journeyman could later become certified masters.

The corporations, in particular the regulation of competition, were gradually abolished in the 1700s and 1800s. However, the apprentice-journeyman-master training and certification system still exists today in many European countries. Strict laws governing the ingredients and additives permitted in bread (and in wine and beer) are still in force in France and Germany.

D i d  Y o u  K n o w ?  Bread price controls were not abolished in France until 1981.

New Delicacies and Sweets

In the 1400s a separate corporation of pastry cooks arose in France. Later on, a waffle-maker corporation split off from the pastry cooks, further specializing the trade. Advances in the filo pastry technique, the increase in the availability of butter and sugar, the influence of Italian cuisine, and the introduction of chocolate (from colonies in the New World) brought about a surge in the development and consumption of bread and pastry delicacies starting in the 1500s.

Oublies, macaroons, frangipane, marzipan treats and other pastry specialties including the Viennese croissant became very popular. Sweetbreads and yeast-leavened cakes, like the French gorenflot and the Alsatian kugelhopf (also known as guglhupf) also flourished. Sweet buns, fruit breads and biscuits were especially popular in France and Britain.

D i d  Y o u  K n o w ?  According to legend, a baker alerted the forces of Vienna to the approach of the Turks in the siege of 1683. The curved shape of the croissant was intended to commemorate the Viennese victory over the Turks, whose flag bore the crescent.

The Rise of White Wheat Bread

Until the 1500s, the principal grain used to make bread was barley. It was the staple bread grain of the masses living in the countryside and the poor in the cities. Wheat breads have existed since at least the time of Ancient Egypt. Yet white wheat bread did not become a bread staple in France, for example, until the mid-1800s.

D i d  Y o u  K n o w ?  In the modern developed world, barley is not commonly eaten as a food in the form of porridge or bread. Its chief use is in the production of beer.

Explanations for this change are difficult to determine, as they are in all matters of taste. However, there is a well-developed cultural trend that sheds light on the issue. Early on in the history of bread, a taste bias in favor of lighter, wheat breads developed along socioeconomic and regional lines. In the Modern Era this preference became the standard.

For centuries, wheat was considered a luxury grain in comparison to barley, rye and other types. Wheat breads were reserved for festive or religious occasions, or consumption by the rich. Wheat, especially white wheat, was more expensive to process and refine, and had a lower relative yield.

Lighter breads became associated with the upper classes and the city, whereas darker breads were linked to the lower classes and the countryside. Increasingly, both the milling and baking facilities capable of producing highly refined wheat breads, and the affluent customers able to afford them, were located in urban areas.

In times of war, famine and disease, grains became a scarce, prized commodity. Revolutions and social upheavals were sometimes sparked by bread riots. Due to limited resources, people of all class levels were often forced to eat darker grains out of necessity in such periods. This process may well have heightened the preference for lighter breads in times of relative peace and prosperity.

D i d  Y o u  K n o w ?  The famous Storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, in Paris, which set off the French Revolution, was started by a bread mob.

Changes in the Modern Era

During the Industrial Revolution, advances in agriculture, particularly in fertilization, irrigation and machinery, greatly increased grain harvests. At the same time, the mechanization of production was implemented in the new heavy industries as well as in traditional trades like bread baking.

These developments allowed bakers to produce bread, particularly white wheat bread, much more cheaply. For the first time, the bread preference of the rich was affordable for the masses. During this time frame (the mid-1800s) white wheat bread rose to prominence across Europe and North America.

Ironically, as white wheat bread has increased in popularity in the Modern Era, overall bread consumption has declined. In France, for example, daily bread intake per person decreased 70% from 1880 to 1977.

The same innovations of the Industrial Revolution that made white wheat bread more plentiful and affordable also made many other foods more accessible. Potatoes and packaged/processed foods increasingly competed with bread as food staples. The dramatic increase in the consumption of meat and dairy products further eroded the dominance of bread in the daily diet.

The inclusion of hydrogenated oils, artificial preservatives, emulsifiers, additives and other chemicals in bread became the standard practice. Whole meal flour was replaced by bleached, enriched white flour. (In this process, grain is bleached and sterilized with chemicals to make it white and soft. It is then artificially "enriched" by adding vitamins, minerals and other materials destroyed in the process.) These changes radically altered the ingredients, taste, appearance and nutritional value of mainstream bread in America.

As bread consumption continued to decrease, the intake of less healthy foods increased substantially. In some countries, the daily consumption of fat has gone up by 300% since 1950, while the intake of sugar has grown by 1000%.

These issues are explored further in Bread, Health and Taste.

New Trends in Modern Baking

Artisan Baking

Over the past two decades, the interest level in healthy, organic, traditional foods has increased dramatically in the US. Like meat, fruits and vegetables, commercially produced bread has come under scrutiny. In response, traditional European bakeries have been launched in the US with considerable success. These bakeries use traditional ingredients, techniques and equipment, such as whole meal grains, sourdough leavening, manual dough preparation and stone-hearth baking to produce a wide range of healthy breads.

The Return of Rustic Grains

Rustic bread grains have become more popular as well. They are increasingly being combined with wheat and rye in multigrain breads. In addition, they are being used individually to make bread for people who are allergic to wheat and rye.