Bread

Breads are a group of staple food-products prepared by baking, steaming, or
frying a dough consisting primarily of flour, water and optionally a
leavening agent.

The word itself, Old English bread, is common in various forms to many
Teutonic languages; cf. German Brot, Dutch brood, and Swedish and Danish
bršd; 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 leipŠ.

Bread is a popular food in Western society. It is often made from wheaten
flour that is allowed to ferment by the addition of liquids and yeast, and
then baked in an oven.

Adding yeast, which is the process of leavening bread, gives it lightness
and improves digestibility. But there is also unleavened bread which has
important symbolic use in Judaism and is used by some Christian churches.

An alternate technique for leavening bread is the use of baking powder,
which typically consists of bicarbonate of soda and rising agents. Some
wheat flours are sold with baking powder mixed in; this is known as
self-rising flour, but these are customarily used for cakes and biscuits
rather than for bread proper.

A third technique for preparing leavening bread is known as sourdough.
Instead of cultivated baker's yeast, wild airborne yeasts are used and the
dough is allowed to ferment for a longer period. The wild yeasts impart 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 are said to keep their
freshness longer.

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.

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

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.

Recipes

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 100Á, 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.

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Bread is mentioned in the Lord's Prayer, where it may mean necessities in general.

Similarly, bread is now a common word in Britain for money from the rhyming
slang 'Bread and honey'.