The story of bread

The beginnings

When you next enjoy your conveniently wrapped, sliced and deliciously soft textured daily bread, keep in mind that you are biting into a slice of history. The story of bread goes back a long time – in fact, about 8000 years, when the use of wheat for this purpose originated in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley (modern Syria, Iraq and Iran).

The first humans were hunters who moved around in search of food. They eventually settled in areas where the plants we now know as wheat thrived after they realised they could eat and store the seeds.

The discovery of dough

During the Stone Age these early humans learnt how to grind seeds between two stones and then discovered that a mixture of this flour and water formed dough, which could be cooked on heated stones to make it more palatable. These primitive breads were hard and flat and probably eaten for survival rather than enjoyment.

The ancient Egyptians improved the art of bread making when they discovered fermented dough. At last the world had leavened bread with a light texture. This knowledge, along with surplus wheat produced by the Egyptians, was exported to the neighbouring east and west.

The Greeks, and later the Romans, spread the art of bread making throughout the world. In the next seventeen centuries, milling gradually changed from hand mills to those driven by animals, and later to water mills and windmills.

The modern era

In 1769, the invention of the steam engine by James Watt introduced a new era. Coal stoves and steam-pipe ovens replaced wood fired clay ovens. Watt eventually designed a steam and roller mill, making millers independent of natural sources of energy. Yeast was discovered in the 19th century and replaced the lengthy fermentation process. Bread making was now on the verge of the modern era of electrification and mechanisation.

Today, bread is as varied as the different people who inhabit the earth. Due to a worldwide fusion of cultures, consumers are presented with a large variety of breads to choose from: from mass-produced standard and fortified breads, to instore and speciality bakeries that supply anything from a French baguette to a pita bread from the Middle East. But variety is the spice of life and bread certainly has come a long, long way to prove it.