Bread - Students | Britannica Kids | Homework Help

People of various countries and cultures eat different kinds of bread, one of the most widely consumed foods in the world. Bread, which is often called the “staff of life,” can make up part of a well-balanced diet. For years, particularly in Western countries, the baking of fresh, hot homemade bread was a tradition in many families. Commercial bakeries make most of the bread in those countries today, but some people still bake smaller quantities of bread, including rolls and biscuits, at home.

Bread has been a major food since prehistoric times. It has been made in various forms using a variety of ingredients and methods throughout the world. Archaeological evidence suggests that people were making bread some 14,000 years ago. Bread making became more widespread during Neolithic times, about 10,000 years ago. At that time humans began to raise crops and cultivate grains. The early bread was probably made of coarsely crushed grain mixed with water. People probably laid the dough on heated stones and baked it by covering it with hot ashes. The Egyptians apparently discovered that allowing doughs to ferment, and thus to form gas bubbles, produced a light, expanded loaf. They also developed baking ovens.

The earliest form of bread was flatbread. These breads are still eaten, especially in much of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Although wheat is sometimes used, the principal grains in such breads are corn (maize), barley, millet, and buckwheat, which all lack sufficient properties to make raised breads. Millet cakes and chapatis (crisp cakes cooked on a griddle) are popular flatbreads in India. Thin, round tortillas, which are important throughout much of Latin America, are traditionally made from corn.

Most raised bread is produced through fermentation, a chemical process in which the sugar in the dough is broken down and carbon dioxide is released, causing aeration. The earliest raised breads relied on spontaneous fermentation, carried out by naturally present bacteria or wild yeasts (a type of fungus). Bakers later learned to produce fermentation by adding yeast.

Only wheat and rye flours produce the gluten needed to make raised loaves. Gluten is a mixture of chainlike molecules of protein that form an elastic network. This network traps the carbon dioxide produced by the yeast and expands with the gas. Raised black bread, common in Germany, Russia, and Scandinavia, is made chiefly from rye. Lighter rye loaves, with wheat flour added, are popular in the United States. There are several types of raised wheat breads. They include white bread, which is made from finely sifted wheat flour containing the starchy inner part of the wheat kernel. The fiber-rich bran and oily germ portions of the kernel have been largely removed. Whole wheat bread is made from unsifted flour containing the entire wheat kernel. Other forms of raised breads include rolls and buns and yeast-leavened sweet goods that are rich in sugar and fat.

This article provides an introduction to the processes involved in making and baking bread. For a more detailed account of producing baked goods, including bread, see baking.