The History of Bread Making
It has been compellingly
argued that the advent of consistent grain
farming and the subsequent development
of bread, a long lasting, reasonably safe
and reliable food-stuff, allowed for human
society to progress from hunter gathers
and small subsistence farmers into city-dwelling
peoples with populations large enough
to support specialists like scholars,
artisans and professional soldiers. The
history of bread is long. Archeological
evidence suggests primitive bread was
being made as early as 8,000 years ago.
Bread and bread-bakers have historically
held a special position in most societies.
Hieroglyphs depict grain harvests and
bread distribution in the Egyptian Age
of Pharaohs, and in the old Roman Republic
bakers were considered so important to
society that neither they nor their children
were permitted to leave the Bakers Guild.
In frequently famine-ravaged medieval
England the king regulated price of bread
to keep them affordable for the average
citizen, while apprentice bread makers
spent 7 years in service slowly learning
the “secrets” of their craft.
Until quite recently only the wealthy
had their choice of breads. It wasn’t
until the early 1880’s that new milling
technology made white flour, and consequently
white bread, widely affordable for the
general public.
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