50 Fun Facts About Bread

The oldest evidence of bread-making, about 14,500 years old, was found in which country?

The site belonged to the Natufian culture; grain farming only took off a few thousand years later.

What two gases produced by yeast fermentation create the air pockets in bread?

The alcohol bakes off; the carbon dioxide is trapped by the dough's protein network, which is why bread counts as a foam.

Which protein complex gives wheat dough its sponginess and elasticity?

It forms when two insoluble proteins, glutenin and gliadin, link up as flour is mixed with water and kneaded.

Which species of yeast, also used in brewing, is most commonly used to leaven bread?

Commercial baker's yeast is a pure culture of it, which gives fast, uniform and reliable results.

Besides wild yeast, which bacteria ferment a sourdough starter and give it its tang?

They produce lactic acid, and in long ferments some acetic acid, the main non-water component of vinegar.

Which ancient people refined bread-making and began adding yeast around 3000 BC?

Leavened bread was being baked in southern Mesopotamia as early as 6000 BC, and the Sumerians may have passed on the knowledge.

Pliny wrote that the Gauls and Iberians leavened bread with foam skimmed from what?

The foam is called barm; wine-drinking regions used fermenting grape juice and flour instead.

The Chorleywood process behind most British supermarket loaves dates from which year?

High-speed mixing slashes fermentation time and allows lower-protein wheat; most UK bread is still made this way.

Loaves raised with baking soda or baking powder rather than yeast are called what?

Banana bread, muffins, pancakes and American-style biscuits all fall in this family.

Which preservative do commercial bakeries commonly add to bread to slow mould?

Additives in mass-produced bread also target flavour, texture, colour and ease of production.

Besides adding flavour, what does salt do to the yeast in a bread dough?

Salt also stabilises and strengthens the dough, which is why some bakers add it only after a 20-minute rest.

What browning process between sugars and amino acids colours a bread crust?

More than 99 percent of the acrylamide in bread is found in the crust, a by-product of the same high heat.

Which unusual American loaf is leavened by Clostridium perfringens rather than yeast?

The same bacterium is one of the most common causes of food poisoning, yet the traditional bread is safe once baked.

The Aerated Bread Company of 1862 leavened loaves by forcing what into the dough?

The company ran a chain of British high-street tearooms until it ceased independent operations in 1955.

The English word "lord" derives from an Anglo-Saxon term meaning what?

The word was hlāfweard; "dough" and "bread" also double as slang for money.

Which Roman poet coined "bread and circuses" to mock a public that cared for nothing else?

The Latin is panem et circenses; the Bolsheviks later promised "peace, land, and bread".

In medieval times, which filler was used to adulterate bread?

Bread fraud has a long history; the Russo-Ukrainian war revived worries about flour adulteration.

Which flour, milled from a tiny Ethiopian grain, is traditionally used for injera?

The batter ferments before cooking, giving the spongy pancake-like flatbread its sour taste.

Who invented the first single-loaf bread-slicing machine?

His 1912 prototype burned in a fire, and a working machine was not ready until 1928.

In which Missouri town was machine-sliced bread first sold, on July 7, 1928?

It was marketed as Kleen Maid Sliced Bread and billed as "the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped".

Why did U.S. officials briefly ban sliced bread in January 1943?

Sliced loaves needed heavier wrapping to keep from drying out; the ban was also meant to hold down bread prices.

Who introduced Viennese steam-oven baking to Paris in 1839, helping create the baguette?

He also brought Vienna bread and the croissant to the city, so some French sources credit him with the baguette itself.

The word "baguette" was first recorded as a type of bread in what year?

A regulation for the Seine department set a minimum weight of 80 g and a maximum length of 40 cm; the word means "stick" or "wand".

Which bread roll is shaped into a ring, boiled briefly, then baked?

The ring shape cooks evenly and lets batches be strung on a dowel for display.

According to the popular story, a monk invented the pretzel in 610 AD to resemble what?

He supposedly handed them to students as "pretiola", little rewards; the shape later became tied to Lent.

What gives traditional pretzels their dark, shiny skin?

The alkaline dip speeds up browning; the same dough makes lye rolls and even lye croissants in Germany.

The first commercial hard-pretzel bakery opened in 1850 in which U.S. state?

The Sturgis bakery in Lititz started it; a 1949 "pretzel bender" machine later twisted 50 a minute.

Ciabatta was created in 1982 by an Italian baker in response to the popularity of what?

Arnaldo Cavallari of Adria feared imported baguette sandwiches; the name means "carpet slipper".

Which Italian flat oven bread takes its name from the Latin word for "hearth"?

Panis focacius was baked on the hearth in ancient Rome; the Genoese version is dimpled with finger holes.

Challah, the braided Jewish bread, is traditionally not eaten on which two occasions?

Passover forbids leavened bread and Yom Kippur is a fast; the word itself means "loaf".

Bagels were first mentioned in 1610 in Jewish community ordinances of which city?

They have been associated with Ashkenazi Jews since the 17th century and are now a staple of North American cities.

Naan is traditionally slapped onto the inner wall of which oven?

The clay walls can reach about 480 °C, baking the bread in minutes with its signature brown spots.

The German word Pumpernickel originally referred to a black bread from which region?

North American pumpernickel is lighter, often adds wheat flour and colouring, and bakes far faster than the dense original.

Which country is the world's largest exporter of rye bread?

Rye was a medieval staple across northern and eastern Europe and remains a speciality of the Swiss canton of Valais.

Irish soda bread rises when baking soda reacts with the acid in which ingredient?

The lactic acid sets off carbon dioxide bubbles; the dough is barely kneaded so it stays crumbly.

Pandesal, the Philippines' breakfast bread roll, is rolled in what before baking?

Its name means "bread of salt", yet it actually tastes slightly sweet.

Lavash, a thin flatbread that keeps for months when dried, is a staple of which country?

Dried lavash keeps for months and is crumbled into the Armenian stew khash.

Panettone, the tall Christmas sweet bread, is associated with which Italian city?

The name comes from the Milanese panattón, a "large bread"; Italians treat it as a dessert, not a bakery loaf.

Damper is a simple flour-and-water bread baked in campfire coals in which country?

Stockmen carried flour, sugar and tea into the outback; small portions are called bush scones or johnnycakes.

The croissant's flaky layers come from which technique of folding butter into dough?

It is a Viennoiserie inspired by the Austrian kipferl; the modern yeast-leavened version dates to the early 20th century.

Brioche owes its rich, tender crumb to a high content of butter and what?

Chef Joël Robuchon described it as "light and slightly puffy, more or less fine, according to the proportion of butter and eggs".

One of the oldest known sourdough loaves, from 3700 BC, was excavated in which country?

Sourdough was the standard way to leaven bread until the Middle Ages, when barm took over.

Pita is also nicknamed what, for its hollow centre?

The English word was borrowed from Modern Greek and first appears in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1936.

By 1933, roughly what share of bread sold in the United States was pre-sliced?

That rapid takeover is why "the greatest thing since sliced bread" became an idiom.

A poolish, a biga and a pâte fermentée are all types of what?

Each mixes some flour, water and leaven a day ahead; a poolish is loose, a biga stiff, and pâte fermentée is saved dough.

Which two nutrients, along with calcium and iron, must be added to most UK flour by law?

Wholemeal flour is exempt because milling has not stripped its nutrients.

Steamed mantou, fried puri and pan-baked tortillas show bread does not always need what?

Bread can even be unleavened, like matzo, and still count as bread.

What is the usual ratio of liquid to flour in a yeast bread?

Hard wheat flours absorb about 62% water and soft ones about 56%.

What is bread's internal porous structure called, as opposed to the crust?

As bread goes stale, this part firms up; old wives' tales claim the crust makes your hair curly.

In what year did a Tottenham bakery install Britain's first slicing-and-wrapping machine?

By the 1950s around four in five loaves sold in Britain were pre-sliced.