What Is the Historical Development of Bread

In Western societies, bread has come to symbolize the primary food that God has given us. Bread and life are intertwined as being seen as being part of each other. The utility of bread to societies in the Old and New World has evolved significantly, where different grains became important and those grains were used to form different types of breads. However, some of the important qualities of bread were likely accidental discoveries, while others still only developed much later.

Early History of Bread

The earliest bread may have been made from cattails and ferns, where these plants were pounded into a fine substance using primitive mortars found that date to nearly 30,000 years ago. This suggests that even before the rise of agriculture, humans had begun to form a type of flour that they would then bake, perhaps in an open fire, to form bread. The earliest wheat and barley-based breads developed from pre-agricultural and agricultural societies in the Middle East, including in the Levant (Israel, Palestine, Syria), Turkey, Mesopotamia (Iraq), and Iran by around 12,000 years ago. The earliest breads were likely unleavened. However, probably accidentally, leavened bread developed as yeast naturally occurring in the environment respires as it consumes natural sugars in wheat. Leavened bread is the release of gases by the yeast bacteria. A document from around 3900 BP indicates how beer was also made from bread. One problem with the production of early bread was preservation, where often it would quickly mold. The solution was to convert unused bread into beer, which proved far more amenable for storage.

Already, with the development of the earliest breads, new technologies arose to help with the baking process. This included enclosed ovens and open ovens that used mud or brick to make a hot surface that flat breads could be prepared from a dough mix. Bread and earlier agricultural foods affected the development of many food preparation technologies, including mortar, pestles, querns, and mills. The production of bread led to many major changes in society, where production and processing of wheat and barely for bread and other foods transformed economies and social structures. Initially, the grinding of grain to flour would have been done by hand, often resulting in coarse grains. However, mills and large flat stones were used by early historical periods, perhaps by the 3rd millennium BCE, to make more refined flour. This helped bread to become less coarse.

Millet was another grain used to make bread, particularly in India and China, where a form of flat bread made of millet is still a main food type in India. In China Sorghum and rice were used as varieties for making bread, which made the consistency and quality very different from wheat and barley based bread. This also likely explains why bread developed into different levels of significance in Chinese foods and often did not always accompany Chinese food. In the New World, corn was pounded and used to make bread, which was mostly a flat, unleavend bread that is similar to the modern tortilla.

Bread and Society

During the Classical period, there were many varieties of bread, ranging from sourdough, honey-and-oil bread, barley, wheat, poppy seeds, and even rolls. Bread in Near Eastern and European societies became intertwined with meals and often even the main part of meals, where other foods were sometimes called the condiments or extras that one adds to the meal. The Romans had formed special guilds for bread bakers, calling them COLLEGIUM PISTORUM. Bread bakers also became experts in the production of pastries, where Rome itself likely had several hundred pastry chefs during the apex of its ancient population. Sweet breads and breads filled with meats or vegetables became one specialty type. From the Roman period, we learn also about types of breads mad of oats, groats, and rye. White bread, usually made from wheat, however, became associated with the wealthy classes. Above all types of breads and pastries, having white bread served at a meal demonstrated important status of someone.

Molds growing on breads were already recognized for their potential medicinal value. This would become the forerunner of penicillin, which was not formally invented until 1933. However, ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Indians, and likely other societies recognized that molds could be used to rub wounds, which would help wounds to heal. Bread left to mold, therefore, were also used for healing as it provided a way to clean wounds and infections.

The use of seeds, such as wheat or barley, to grow grains that would then become bread helped bread and life giving sustenance to be closely affiliated most likely already by the Neolithic. The idea that a few seeds can create enough wheat or barley to create a lot of bread symbolized the importance of grains to society but that symbolism was closely associated with bread.