Bread history

Bread is a staple food of European, Middle Eastern and Indian cultures that is prepared by baking, steaming, or frying dough. It consists minimally of flour and water. Salt is present in most cases, and usually a leavening agent such as yeast is used. Bread may also contain some amounts of sugar, spices, fruit (such as raisins, pumpkin or bananas), vegetables (like onion or zucchini), nuts, or seeds (such as caraway, sesame or poppy seeds). There is a wide variety of breads, with preferences differing from region to region.

Fresh bread is prized for its taste and texture, and retaining its freshness is important to keep it appetizing. Bread that has stiffened or dried past its prime is said to be stale. Modern bread is often wrapped in paper or plastic film, or stored in an airtight container such as a breadbox to keep it fresh longer. Bread that is kept in warm, moist environments is prone to the growth of mold. It becomes stale more quickly in the low temperature of a refrigerator, although by keeping it cool, mold is less likely to grow.

The inner, soft part of bread is referred to as the crumb, which is not to be confused with small bits of bread that often fall off, called crumbs. The latter term is in common use, while crumb is an esoteric word used mainly by culinary professionals. The outer hard portion of bread is referred to as the crust.

As a foodstuff of great historical and contemporary importance, in many cultures in the West and Near and Middle East bread has a significance beyond mere nutrition. The Lord's Prayer, for example, contains the line 'Give us today our daily bread'; here, 'bread' is commonly understood to mean necessities in general. In Israel the most usual phrase in work related demonstrations is "lekhem, avoda" [bread, work], and during the 1950s, the beatnik community used the term bread as a euphemism for money.[citation needed] The word bread is now commonly used around the world in English speaking countries as a synonym for money, in part, derived from the rhyming slang "Bread and honey". The cultural importance of 'bread' goes beyond slang, however, to serve as a metaphor for basic necessities and living conditions in general. A 'bread-winner' is a household's main economic contributor and has little to do with actual bread-provision, for example. This also goes along with the phrase "putting bread on the table." In the USSR, Lenin and his fellow Bolsheviks promised "Peace, Land, and Bread," which thereby became a mainstay slogan of Soviet propaganda. In Newfoundland, bread was seen as having the power to protect against fairies. The term "breadbasket" is often used to denote an agriculturally productive region. In Slavic cultures bread and salt is offered as a welcome to all guests.
The political significance of bread is considerable. In Britain in the nineteenth century the inflated price of bread due to the Corn Laws caused major political and social divisions, and was central to debates over free trade and protectionism. The Assize of Bread and Ale in the thirteenth century showed the importance of bread in medieval times by setting heavy punishments for short-changing bakers, and bread appeared in Magna Carta a century later.

Making Bread



· 225g ( 1 and a half cups) Strong plain white flour or plain wholemeal flour
· 1 level teaspoon salt
· 1 level teaspoon sugar
· 15g soft tub margarine
· 1 sachet (6g) easy blend dried yeast or fast action easy blend dried yeast
· 150 ml warm water


Collect all the tool and ingredients together.
Put the flour in the mixing bowl and add the sugar and the salt.
Add the margarine and rub into the flour using your finger tips.
Add the dried yeast and stir into the flour mix.
Add all the water at once on the flour mix and stir together using the wooden spoon.
Use your hands as the dough gets tough and when it leaves the sides of the bowl clean (add a little more flour if is too sticky), put the dough onto a floured surface.
Now the hard work! The dough will feel tight and lumpy and you must “knead” it to make it smooth and stretchy. Push your hands into the dough, gather it back into a ball, turn it slightly. Do this for about 5 minutes until the dough feels smooth.


Project from
Aline, Caroline, Grabriela and Lucas
Higher 3
Teacher Fernanda

Centro Britânico
Pompéia Branch