Changes

During the Classical period, there were many varieties of bread (Figure 2), ranging from sourdough, honey-and-oil bread, oyster, barley, wheat, poppy seeds, and even rolls. Bread in Near Eastern and European societies became intertwined with meals and often even the main part of meals, where other foods were sometimes called the condiments or extras that one adds to the meal. The Romans had formed special guilds for bread bakers, calling them COLLEGIUM PISTORUM. Bread bakers also became experts in the production of pastries, where Rome itself likely had several hundred pastry chefs during the apex of its ancient population. Sweet breads and breads filled with meats or vegetables became one specialty type. From the Roman period, we learn also about types of breads mad made of oats, groats, and rye. White bread, usually made from wheat, however, became associated with the wealthy classes. Above all types of breads and pastries, having white bread served at a meal demonstrated important status of for someone. Whole wheat and coarse grain breads in Rome would have been seen as food for poor people, while today such breads are more greatly desired for their nutrition and it is white bread that is seen as less healthy and more for poorer classes.<ref>For more on bread types in antiquity, see: Tamang, J. P., & Kailasapathy, K. (Eds.). (2010). <i>Fermented foods and beverages of the world.</i> Boca Raton: CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, pg. 14.</ref>

Molds growing on breads were already recognized for their potential medicinal value. This would become the forerunner of penicillin, which was not formally invented until 1933. However, ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Indians, and likely other societies recognized that molds could be used to rub heal wounds, which would help where moldy bread could be rubbed on wounds to healhelp with the healing process. Bread left to mold, therefore, were also became part of medical applications used for healing as it provided a way to clean wounds and infections.<ref>For more on penicillin mold and how it was used in the ancient world, see: Ballen, K. G. (2010). <i>Seven wonders of medicine.</i> Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, pg. 37.</ref>

<dh-ad/> The use of seeds, such as wheat or barley, to grow grains that would then become bread helped bread and life giving sustenance to be closely affiliated , most likely already by the Neolithic. The idea that a few seeds can create enough wheat or barley to create a lot of bread symbolized the importance of grains to society but with that symbolism was closely associated with bread.<ref>For more on the symbolism of bread, including in religion, see: Jacob, H. E. (2007). <i>Six thousand years of bread: its holy and unholy history. </i> New York: Skyhorse Pub.</ref>

New large-scale dough making processes were developed in the 19th and 20th centuries. The most significant was the Chorleywood bread process, which allowed a dramatic reduction in time (down to about 3.5 hrs from flour to finished bread) for the bread dough to be made and to rise. The process also took advantage of lower quality grains that were more widely available. With its use, not only were far more grain was grains utilized in the bread production process, helping but this helped to also keep bread prices low since it was easy to produce and could be produced quicklyby making production much easier. Most modern breads today use dough with added chemicals that help speed up the process in which dough rise rises and can be made into bread. This saves time in the kneading and resting phases needed. In fact, most breadmakers bread making machines commercially sold provide L-cysteine or sodium metabisulfite that help with catalyze dough rising far more quickly than traditional breads, allowing for an easy way to mass produce breadwith simple bread makers. Large food retailers have generally sold variations of this type of bread in most Western states today. Many bakeries in Europe and North America the West have, in fact, even become almost fully automated, where robots could now simply mix ready made dough with added chemical that allows fast rising bread to be possible.<ref>For more on how quick-rising bread is created, see: Edelstein, S. (Ed.). (2014). <i>Food science: an ecological approach.</i> Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning, pg. 387.</ref>

Bread in Western societies is perhaps one of the most symbolically important foods. Given its early developed even before the rise of agriculture, and that it became the primary staple food in the Middle East and Europe as agriculture developed, demonstrates that bread has played a central role in societal change. The production of wheat, barley, and other grains developed to make breadsdemonstrates the variety of grain types that could be used in the bread making process. Beer became the way in which the longevity of bread could be extended, where moldy making it less costly as excess bread could then be used to make put into beermaking production. Different societies with different primary grains Bread has gained a sustenance symbolic link, but it was also used different for medicinal purposes where early forms of breads, such as millet-based flat bread or corn-based tortillaspenicillin developed. Bread technologies largely did not change until the 19th and 20th centuries, when automation was introduced to speed up the production of foods. One major developed was the introduction of sliced bread. More recent changes have been the creation of doughs that can rise faster by adding chemicals to the dough that catalyze the action of yeast. Despite these changes, bread has retained its centrality as a primary food for most Western societies today. <div class="portal" style="width:85%;">==Related DailyHistory.org Articles==*[[How Did Ancient Societies Adapt to Dairy Consumption?]]*[[How Did Honey Evolve in our Diet?]]*[[How Did Black Pepper Spread in Popularity?]]*[[What Factors Led to the Creation of the First Cities?]]*[[How Did Chocolate Become Popular?]]</div>{{mediawiki:Food History}}