“Archaeology and history show that bread has been eaten since the earliest times “ (The World Encyclopedia of Bread and Bread Making). Some form of bread can be found in every culture and every time period across the world. It is not just a source of food but also has a significant impact on civilization as a whole. When you dig into the history of bread in a particular area it can show you the evolution that took place at that time, from the development of new tools to the use of new ingredients based on necessity and what was available to people. The more you look, the more you find that making bread from scratch, in your home, is not a new concept at all but has been part of traditions for thousands of years.
The first bread was made around 10,000 years BC or over 12,000 years in the past, which may have been developed by deliberate experimentation with water and grain flour. (Bread Baking - A Review). Whether or not bread was an intentional development, or merely a result of different grain storage methods has been up for debate. But one thing that cannot be argued is the importance of fermentation and how following certain steps in a certain order will have the most impact on your final result. The main ingredients in bread as nothing special, typically just water, flour and yeast (unless you want to get fancy with it), but what happens when you combine them is a whole different thing. In the “Air” episode of Cooked, author Michael Pollan talks about how bread is a living food. Humans could not survive just by eating flour and water individually, but by combining them, allowing the bacteria to break down nutrients, glutens to develop and then adding heat, bread has become a foundational food.
“In times of crisis, people covet creature comforts, and few things are as simple, yet satisfying, as freshly baked bread.” (The science behind why everyone is suddenly baking bread). For a recent point of reference, we saw a large increase in the number of people baking bread from scratch during the Covid-19 pandemic and related shutdowns. Not only were people stuck at home looking for things to do, but grocery stores hours and the availability of day to day essentials became something that could no longer be relied on. People were looking for ways to sustain themselves without the ready access they had grown used to.