A loaf (: loaves) is a (usually) rounded or
oblong
An oblong is an object longer than it is wide, especially a non-square rectangle.
Oblong may also refer to:
Places
* Oblong, Illinois, a village in the United States
* Oblong Township, Crawford County, Illinois, United States
* A strip of land ...
quantity of food, typically and originally of
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 cu ...
. 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 that no parts are overcooked or undercooked. Many kinds of
mass-produced bread are distinctly squared, with well-defined corners on the bottom of the loaf. Loaves of rectangular shape can be made more or less identical, and can be packed and shipped efficiently.
Etymology
The modern English word loaf is derived from
Old English
Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...
''hlaf'', 'bread', which in turn is from
Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic languages, Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages.
Proto-Germanic eventually developed from ...
''*khlaibuz''.
Old Norse
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
''hleifr'',
Swedish ''lev'',
Old Frisian
Old Frisian was a West Germanic language spoken between the late 13th century and the end of 16th century. It is the common ancestor of all the modern Frisian languages except for the North Frisian language#Insular North Frisian, Insular North ...
''hlef'',
Gothic ''hlaifs'',
Old High German
Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...
''hleib'' and modern
German ''Laib'' derive from this Proto-Germanic word, which was also borrowed into Slavic (
Polish ''chleb'',
Russian ''khleb'') and Finnic (
Finnish ''leipä'',
Estonian ''leib'') languages as well.
See also
*
Cottage loaf, an English double-decker loaf of bread
*
Malt loaf, a sweet dark bread, sometimes with fruit
*
Meatloaf, a meat dish shaped in the form of a loaf
*
Nutraloaf, a type of food served in some US prisons
*
Sugarloaf
A sugarloaf was the usual form in which refined sugar was produced and sold until the late 19th century, when granulated and cube sugars were introduced. A tall cone with a rounded top was the end product of a process in which dark molasses, ...
, a solid form of refined sugar
*
Sandwich loaf, a layer-cake like party dish, made from a loaf of bread with savory fillings.
*
Zwieback
Zwieback () is a form of rusk eaten in Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Scandinavia, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Turkey. It is a ...
*
Japanese milk bread
*
Tiger bread
References
{{Portal bar, Food
Breads