dough, the ovens that bake the loaves, the
people who make the bread and eat it. One
consistent theme from ancient times has been
the prestige of refined and enriched versions
of this basic sustenance. Bread has become a
product increasingly defined by the use of
high-rising bread wheats, the milling of that
wheat into a white flour with little of the
grain’s bran or germ, leavening with ever
purer cultures of mild-flavored yeasts,
enrichment with ever greater quantities of fat
and sugar. In the 20th century we managed to
take refinement and enrichment to the
extreme, and now have industrial breads with
little flavor or texture left in them, and cakes
that contain more sugar than flour. In the last
couple of decades, bread lovers have led a
rediscovery of the pleasures of simple, less
refined breads freshly baked in old-fashioned
brick ovens, and even supermarket breads are
getting more flavorful.
Prehistoric Times