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The art and science of bread
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Tuesday, 18 August, 2015, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Antonio Tardi
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fiogf49gjkf0d History of bread
The history of bread begins with the first traces of men, ceasing to hunt and gather what grew wild for food, having become sedentary. They stopped at a place and began to co-exist, 5,000 years before the present era was born in Europe with the evolution of the first agricultural techniques such as tillage, cultivation, and selection of species.
Ever since man began to devote himself to agriculture, cereals have formed the basis of his power. Before the passage of time spread its ways and most refined techniques for cultivating and grinding grains came to exist, for thousands of years cereals were the food that allowed the survival of all humanity.
Bread in the Roman Empire
The power of the Greek and Roman civilisation was based on the cultivation of cereals. The famous "puls" spelled, true national dish of the Romans at the dawn of their history with even soups and buns and later learned to make breads. Spelt is a kind of wheat very important in the food history of mankind because it descends from the wheat hull, that the Romans obtained lafarina from its grinding had proved to be the best absolute in regard to the bakery. During the period of the Roman Empire, corn was the most important food for the population and was consumed mainly in the form of bread. Among the Romans it was customary that the flour that came from the mill was immediately transformed into a paste, and then cooked.
Monument to the master’s baker
In Rome, near the Porta Maggiore, you can still see a curious monument erected to the glory of the bakers. It is a kind of tower formed by three large vessels in which they left the bread to rise. The vessels are arranged stacked vertically and horizontally on each other and is then surmounted by a fresco representing the various operations that undergoes a grain of wheat until it becomes bread. Milling of the grain was assured by the work of a donkey, which was turning the heavy stone slabs, conically shaped. At the foot of the monument is inscribed the name of Marcus Vergilius Eurysaces, who was a baker and official supplier of bread to the Romans.
The evolution of techniques for baking
Although handmade bread is much tastier, it is difficult to prepare in large quantities to feed an entire population. The workmanship of the bread was done manually until the second half of the 18th century, when machines such as the mixer of the Parisian baker Salignac, were used.
By the time the technique of baking progressed, especially with the introduction of new machinery as moulding and cutting, electric ovens to radiation and the introduction of modern yeasts, it brought about the discovery of Pasteur on fermentation.
Bread’s ingredients
The common bread is a mixture composed of a few simple ingredients, which are flour, water, yeast and salt. It differs as per the type of processing, leavening, forged in different forms and for cooking in the oven.
The wheat flour
The wheat fields are the symbol of bread production; extend along campaigns tracing horizons of unrivalled landscape poetry. The current wheat, hard or soft it is, comes from the Roman wheat. The word "flour" could come right from the word "spelt", or "make" of the Romans. The flour, the main ingredient for making bread, is the product obtained from grains of wheat or corn, properly ground.
The wheat flour is distinguished according to the fineness of grinding into flour type "00," "0," and type "1," type "2." Flour type "00" is also called "fine flour," is the finest and the most widespread, completely free of bran. Flour type "0" and "00" are called "low-sifting rate" and are considered as the most valuable. In addition to these two popular flours, also exists types "1" and "2," which contain increasing amounts of bran. The absence or reduction of the impurities of the flour at the same time depletes the grain of nutrients.
Bread made with other flours, such as wheat flour, rye, rice, and corn are marketed under specific names.
The water
Water, which is essential for the body, is the key ingredient for making breads. Off hundred parts flour, 40 or 50 parts is water.
Yeast
The yeast is the third necessary element for baking, at least with regards to the leavened bread. It's a compound of microscopic mushrooms, unicellular that multiply in a given environment, and are able to secrete enzymes that cause the bread fermentation. Organisms that multiply very rapidly, every 10 minutes, and the speed of playback explains the high percentage of protein, vitamins and minerals it contains
Salt
It is an essential ingredient for making bread, except for a few types such as the typical Tuscan or Umbrian that of Terni, which are traditionally prepared without adding salt. The consumption of salt is universal, can be cooking, reduced almost only to sodium chloride, or sea salt, i.e., not refined, where they are present, in a minimum quantity many elements such as magnesium, calcium, potassium, zinc, and so on are able to exert an important biological function.
Various types of bread in Italy
The traditional Italian breads are over 250 types, with over a 1,000 variants, ranging from the islands to the Alps. They are more or less known breads, packaged by small communities, cooked in a wood oven, which would be worth knowing and discovering.
The varieties of bread in the various Italian regions are numerous and as per ingredients’ availability. For example, in the regions of Southern Italy, the wheat flour that is traditionally used for pasta is used for making breads. It’s a type of cultivation less widespread because it requires warm climates and is typical of the regions where the climate is also mild. The bread made with whole wheat flour has a lighter texture than the one packed with wheat flour. In Sicily, the surface of the bread of durum wheat is flavoured with caraway seeds, sesame or anise. The anise seeds are also used by master bakers Puglia for the preparation of the set.
In other regions, such as Lombardy, where rice cultivation is practiced intensively, rice bread, light and soft, is prepared with wheat flour mixed with rice flour, which gives it a particularly light consistency.
In other areas with widespread cultivation of corn, such as Emilia Romagna and Lombardy, still is used to prepare the "yellow bread;" certain bakeries offer it once a week and is made with a high percentage of corn flour mixed with wheat flour. Bread with olives is a typical specialty of the Mediterranean regions, especially in southern Italy, and now has spread throughout the country.
Bread with rye flour is typical of mountain regions, as the rye is a cereal that needs a colder climate, which is why the bread segaleè typical of Valle d'Aosta, Piedmont, Trentino Alto Adige, and Valtellina (Lombardy) are produced in this region.
The bread prepared with fruits like raisins, dried figs, walnuts, grapes must be in season, since it is particularly suitable for snack and breakfast.
Special breads are prepared for occasions such as Easter, as for example in Umbria and Basilicata, or for parties and weddings in Sardinia.
Bakeries nowadays enjoy even of the title of a boutique due to so much varied and spectacular variety of breads that offer every day, with forms and ingredients of all types, flavours to suit all tastes, different sizes, recipes and perfumes with names sometimes so curious that reveal the history and customs.
The bread in the world
Bread is the basis of food in most countries of the world, except for agriculturally inhabitable areas/people such as the Eskimos, or some African tribes, who are dependent on meats. The bread is the symbol of French Baguette, where although the consumption of bread has much diminished.
In Japan the use of bread was spread by the Americans during the occupation of World War II. In China, the bread is replaced by rice, but on special occasions unusual small bread are made and steamed.
In many countries of the Middle-East and the Orient, namely the Arab countries and India, instead of using the bread to bring food on the fork, the bread is already the "fork" with which to take the food. After tearing a piece of bread is wrapped around a mouthful of food, too soft to be picked up with your fingers, and slips into his mouth is the food that the "resting."
In Russia common bread is always black, and in the Sunday dinner table is present in at least three types of breads. In India, the bread is prepared at home with unleavened dough on a griddle.
The bread with oats flour is prepared in Scotland, Ireland and the North of England. The oat flour has a high content of protein and fat, more than any other cereal and is particularly suited to cold climates.
Even millet flour was used for baking, and thus the name "mile panic" indicates what once used to make bread, something that still happens today in some countries like Saudi, Moldova, and Romania and even in areas of southern Italy.
Rye flour was the main cereal producing bread in Germany until the mid-19th century. This type of bread is still being made. You get nutritious and tasty bread that keeps well for several days.
Baking bread
Baking loaves occurs in electric furnaces, to direct radiation or steam. Baking in wood-fired ovens is now almost completely abandoned barring a few small villages and bakeries.
Cooking stops the fermentation, which otherwise would continue until the complete transformation of the starch and drive away the excess water required in the preparation of the dough.
At 60 degrees there is a considerable development, gaseous ending beyond 70 degrees. At 100 degrees there is considerable evaporation of water and the formation of the crust on the surface that is coloured. The cooking time will vary depending on the size from 15 to 20 minutes for smaller shapes, and over an hour for larger breads.
On leaving the oven, the bread is collected on a conveyor belt and passed to special cooling galleries. It comes to the stores, where it is weighed and eventually packaged & sold.
As rightly said, “Bread is the king of the table and all else is merely the court that surrounds the king. The countries are the soup, the meat, the vegetables, the salad, but bread is king” – Louis Bromfield, American novelist (1896-1956).
(The author is executive chef, Shangri-La Hotel, Bengaluru)
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