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Bread
Bread is a baked food product made from water, flour, and often yeast. It is a staple food across the world, particularly in Europe and the Middle East. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diets. It is one of the oldest human-made foods, having been of significance since the dawn of Agriculture#History, agriculture, and plays an essential role in both religious rituals and secular culture. Bread may be Leavening agent, leavened by naturally occurring microbes (e.g. sourdough), chemicals (e.g. baking soda), industrially produced Baker's yeast, yeast, or high-pressure aeration, which creates the gas bubbles that fluff up bread. Bread may also be Unleavened bread, unleavened. In many countries, mass-produced bread often contains Food additive, additives to improve flavor, texture, color, shelf life, nutrition, and ease of production. Etymology The Old English language, Old English word for bread was ( in Gothic langua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sourdough
Sourdough is a type of bread that uses the fermentation by naturally occurring yeast and lactobacillus bacteria to raise the dough. In addition to leavening the bread, the fermentation process produces lactic acid, which gives the bread its distinctive sour taste and improves its keeping-qualities. History Sourdough is one of the most ancient forms of bread. It was the standard method of breadmaking for most of human history until the Middle Ages, when it was replaced by barm. Barm, in turn, was replaced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by industrially produced baker's yeast. The ''Encyclopedia of Food Microbiology'' states: "One of the oldest sourdough breads dates from 3700 BCE and was excavated in Switzerland, but the origin of sourdough fermentation likely relates to the origin of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent and Egypt several thousand years earlier", and "Bread production relied on the use of sourdough as a leavening agent for most of human history; the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flatbread
A flatbread is bread made usually with flour; water, milk, yogurt, or other liquid; and salt, and then thoroughly rolled into flattened dough. Many flatbreads are Unleavened bread, unleavened, although some are leavened, such as pita bread. A Serving size, serving of 85g (~3 ounces) of pita bread has 234 Calorie, calories. Flatbreads range from below one millimeter to a few centimeters thick so that they can be easily eaten without being sliced. They can be baked in an oven, fried in hot oil, grilled over hot coals, cooked on a hot pan, tava, Comal (cookware), comal, or metal griddle, and eaten fresh or packaged and frozen for later use. History Flatbreads were amongst the earliest food processing, processed foods, and evidence of their production has been found at ancient sites in Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, and the Indus Valley Civilisation, Indus civilization. The origin of all flatbread baking systems are said to be from the Fertile Crescent in West Asia, where they would su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unleavened Bread
Unleavened bread is any of a wide variety of breads which are prepared without using rising agents such as yeast or sodium bicarbonate. The preparation of bread-like non-leavened cooked grain foods appeared in prehistoric times. Unleavened breads are generally flat breads. Unleavened breads, such as the tortilla and roti, are staple foods in Central America and South Asia, respectively. Unleavened sacramental bread plays a major part in Christian liturgy and Eucharistic theology. Religious significance Unleavened breads have symbolic importance in Judaism and Christianity. Jews and Christians consume unleavened breads such as Matzah during Passover and Eucharist, respectively, Jews as commanded in Exodus 12:18. Per the Torah, they were instructed, "Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land." Canon L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flour
Flour is a powder made by Mill (grinding), grinding raw grains, List of root vegetables, roots, beans, Nut (fruit), nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures. Maize flour, Corn flour has been important in Mesoamerican cuisine since ancient times and remains a staple in the Americas. Rye flour is a constituent of bread in both Central Europe and Northern Europe. Cereal flour consists either of the endosperm, cereal germ, germ, and bran together (whole-grain flour) or of the endosperm alone (refined flour). ''Meal'' is either differentiable from flour as having slightly coarser particle size (degree of comminution) or is synonymous with flour; the word is used both ways. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC has cautioned not to eat raw flour doughs or batters. Raw flour can contain harmful bacteria such as ''E. coli'' and needs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baker's Yeast
Baker's yeast is the common name for the strains of yeast commonly used in baking bread and other bakery products, serving as a leavening agent which causes the bread to rise (expand and become lighter and softer) by converting the fermentable sugars present in the dough into carbon dioxide and ethanol. Baker's yeast is of the species ''Saccharomyces cerevisiae'', and is the same species (but a different strain) as the kind commonly used in alcoholic fermentation, which is called brewer's yeast or the deactivated form nutritional yeast. Baker's yeast is also a single-cell microorganism found on and around the human body. The use of steamed or boiled potatoes, water from potato boiling, or sugar in a bread dough provides food for the growth of yeasts; however, too much sugar will dehydrate them. Yeast growth is inhibited by both salt and sugar, but more so by salt than sugar. Some sources say fats, such as butter and eggs, slow down yeast growth; others say the effect of fat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cereal
A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize ( Corn). Edible grains from other plant families, such as amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa, are pseudocereals. Most cereals are annuals, producing one crop from each planting, though rice is sometimes grown as a perennial. Winter varieties are hardy enough to be planted in the autumn, becoming dormant in the winter, and harvested in spring or early summer; spring varieties are planted in spring and harvested in late summer. The term cereal is derived from the name of the Roman goddess of grain crops and fertility, Ceres. Cereals were domesticated in the Neolithic around 8,000 years ago. Wheat and barley were domesticated in the Fertile Crescent; rice and some millets were domesticated in East Asia, while sorghum and other millets were domesticated in West Africa. Maize was domesticat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Loaf
A loaf (: loaves) is a (usually) rounded or oblong quantity of food, typically and originally of bread. It is common to bake bread in a rectangular bread pan or loaf pan because some kinds of bread dough tend to collapse and spread out during the cooking process if not constrained;Stanley Cauvain, Linda S. Young, ''Technology of Breadmaking'', p. 146, 231, 380.Keith Cohen, ''Artisan Bread: Techniques & Recipes from New York's Orwasher's Bakery'' (2014), p. 59. the shape of less viscous doughs can be maintained with a bread pan whose sides are higher than the uncooked dough. More viscous doughs can be hand-molded into the desired loaf shape and cooked on a flat oven tray. The same principle applies to non-bread products such as meatloaf and cakes that are cooked so as to retain their shape during the cooking process. In determining the size of the loaf, the cook or baker must take into consideration the need for heat to penetrate the loaf evenly during the cooking process, so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natufian Culture
The Natufian culture ( ) is an archaeological culture of the late Epipalaeolithic Near East in West Asia from 15–11,500 Before Present. The culture was unusual in that it supported a sedentism, sedentary or semi-sedentary population even before the Origins of agriculture in West Asia, introduction of agriculture. Natufian communities may be the ancestors of the builders of the region's first List of Neolithic settlements, Neolithic settlements, which may have been the earliest in the world. Some evidence suggests deliberate cultivation of cereals, specifically rye, by the Natufian culture at Tell Abu Hureyra, the site of the earliest evidence of agriculture in the world. The world's oldest known evidence of the production of bread-like foodstuff has been found at Shubayqa 1, a 14,400-year-old site in Jordan, Jordan's northeastern desert, 4,000 years before the Origins of agriculture in West Asia, emergence of agriculture in Southwest Asia. In addition, the oldest known evidence ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leavening Agent
In cooking, a leavening agent () or raising agent, also called a leaven () or leavener, is any one of a number of substances used in doughs and batters that cause a foaming action (gas bubbles) that lightens and softens the mixture. An alternative or supplement to leavening agents is mechanical action by which air is incorporated (i.e. kneading). Leavening agents can be biological or synthetic chemical compounds. The gas produced is often carbon dioxide, or occasionally hydrogen. When a dough or batter is mixed, the starch in the flour and the water in the dough form a matrix (often supported further by proteins like gluten or polysaccharides, such as pentosans or xanthan gum). The starch then gelatinizes and sets, leaving gas bubbles that remain. Biological leavening agents * ''Saccharomyces cerevisiae'' producing carbon dioxide found in: ** baker's yeast ** Beer barm (unpasteurised—live yeast) ** ginger beer ** kefir ** sourdough starter * '' Clostridium perfring ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Staple Food
A staple food, food staple, or simply staple, is a food that is eaten often and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a standard diet for an individual or a population group, supplying a large fraction of energy needs and generally forming a significant proportion of the intake of other nutrients as well. For humans, a staple food of a specific society may be eaten as often as every day or every meal, and most people live on a diet based on just a small variety of food staples. Specific staples vary from place to place, but typically are inexpensive or readily available foods that supply one or more of the macronutrients and micronutrients needed for survival and health: carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals, and vitamins. Typical examples include grains (cereals and legumes), seeds, nuts and root vegetables (tubers and roots). Among them, cereals (rice, wheat, oat, maize, etc.), legumes ( lentils and beans) and tubers (e.g. potato, taro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neolithic
The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts of the world. This "Neolithic package" included the History of agriculture, introduction of farming, domestication of animals, and change from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one of sedentism, settlement. The term 'Neolithic' was coined by John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury, Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system. The Neolithic began about 12,000 years ago, when farming appeared in the Epipalaeolithic Near East and Mesopotamia, and later in other parts of the world. It lasted in the Near East until the transitional period of the Chalcolithic (Copper Age) from about 6,500 years ago (4500 BCE), marked by the development ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
