On Food and Cooking

of bread making. Today very little bread is
made in the home, and with the exception of
countries with a strong tradition of buying
fresh bread every day — especially France,
Germany, and Italy — most bread is made in
large central factories, not in small local
bakeries. Mechanical aids to breadmaking,
powered mixers and others, began to appear
around 1900, and culminated in the 1960s in
largely automated factories that produce bread
in a fraction of the usual time. These
manufacturing systems replace biological
dough development, the gradual, hours-long
leavening and gluten strengthening of the
dough by yeast, with nearly instantaneous,
mechanical and chemical dough development.
This production method produces breads with
a soft, cake-like interior, an uncrusty crust,
and an uncharacteristic flavor. They are
formulated to remain soft and edible in plastic
bags for a week or more. Industrial breads
bear little resemblance to traditional breads.