DO YOU KNOW WHAT IS BREAD?

Whole wheat bread on wooden plate

obtaining a living. Earner of bread. It’s her butter and bread. He is aware of which side is buttered in his bread. Please pardon our transgressions and grant us our daily bread today. Show me a civilization, anywhere in the globe, that hasn’t invented and gotten totally dependent on bread.

Life is bread. In addition to being a basic need, it is also a primordial, stomach-churning urge. It is a fundamental building block—or maybe a better way to put it, the bottom line. a human privilege. It serves as a metaphor for both expertise and self-interest, as well as riches and stability. However, it also has a spiritual component and an almost mysterious sense of solace. The aroma of warm, freshly made bread evokes memories of cozy homes, cozy fireplaces, and (often) moms and grandmothers. Any seasoned traveler would fall under its spell with just one sniff.

But what is it, exactly? There are many long-standing culinary mysteries in life, the most of which are lying unchecked right in front of us: what is the Maillard reaction, exactly? Are they all just stating that they like wasabi, or does anyone genuinely enjoy it? Is a sandwich or a hot dog? However, a much more fundamental query has been on my mind lately: What is bread?

“A food made from a dough of flour or meal mixed with water or milk, usually raised with yeast or baking powder and then baked,” according to the Collins English Dictionary, is what bread is defined as. Even if I had tried, I doubt I could have made it much less obvious, and even then, I’m not positive they’re totally correct. Although few definitions of bread are given in the books I’ve studied, practically all of them concur that the ingredients are typically flour, water, yeast, and salt. Let’s take a closer look at those components.

Flour

One ingredient in bread that may not be negotiable is flour. However, that’s mostly because the word “flour” is so ambiguous. In many regions of the world, wheat is harvested, threshed, dried, and ground into flour by default. The magical protein called gluten, which gives bread structure and traps gas throughout the fermentation process to allow the dough to rise, is generally found in large quantities in wheat. This resourceful small grain can be ground into whole meal, brown, or white flour. Next are the low- or no-gluten flours, such as rye, spelt, rice, soy, potato, oat, amaranth, corn, arrowroot, and the euphemistically termed buckwheat, which can likewise be used in a variety of combinations for bread-making. It is an infinite list.

Yeast

There’s little doubt that yeast is the best choice when creating bread. It is dependable, tried-and-true, simple to store, and, given the proper conditions, nearly always rises. However, the fact that baking soda is used in place of yeast does not make Irish soda bread any less of a loaf. Of course, there is also the always in style but extremely finicky sourdough, which is a live colony of wild yeast, lactic acid, and bacteria that can torture even the most dedicated bakers and needs to be fed on a daily basis and have its temperature controlled. A sourdough starter can give your loaf a nice slow rise and tang from the sourness, and some people find it easier to stomach than yeast-based bread. You can use it in place of commercial yeast or soda. You may believe that a rising star in some sort or another is essential to the business, but think of Indian roti or Mexican tortillas first. Unleavened bread is a topic with biblical depth and magnitude, and it is a category unto itself.

Hydration

The issue of hydration comes next. While water is typically used to make bread, other ingredients include milk, beer, or whey—the clear, protein-rich portion of milk that remains after the particles are removed. Wonderfully porous, light, and fluffy, focaccia features a relatively high water-to-flour ratio. But if you use too much water, batters are actually what we’re talking about. What is a bread, exactly? For sure not. What about injera, which is essentially a flavorful, crumb-like Ethiopian pancake? Okay, Less water results in a denser, tighter crumb similar to that of a bagel (a dough so hard that while it kneads, my KitchenAid jumps around on the bench). However, with even less water, we must wonder: where does bread stop and the crackers start? The purpose of the Swedish “crispy breads,” or knäckebröd, is actually to cause confusion.

Salt

The unsung hero of the bread world is salt. Have you ever pondered why a particularly tasteless loaf of bread existed? It’s likely that someone neglected to season the dough with salt. Salt has a distinct flavor (known as “saltiness”) in all culinary endeavors, but it also enhances other flavors—such as those that are spicy, sweet, sour, bitter, or umami—in food. It is a double-edged weapon in the world of bread and needs to be handled carefully. Yeast will be killed by salt when it comes into touch with it and when it is present in excess. Paul Hollywood has a religious insistence that we put the yeast on one side of the mixing bowl because of this salt in one bowl and the other. However, a modest amount of salt will prevent an overzealous fermentation, resulting in a more nuanced flavor and a gradual rise. A miracle substance, salt can either make or shatter your loaf.

Value-adds

Next are the value-added components. Sick! A dough made with a spoon or two of olive oil will be smooth and silky. Additionally, a healthy dose of butter, milk, or egg produces incredibly soft “enriched” breads, such as challah or brioche. However, if we include too much fat, we’ll move past scones and right into cakes and pastries. Sugars (as well as ingredients close to sugar, such as cinnamon, vanilla, or dried fruits) are also found outside of yeasted society. Smaller doses will nourish the ravenous yeast enzymes, while bigger amounts will directly approach the illusive hot cross or Chelsea buns split. When sugar and wheat are mixed, it’s as if a siren calling to us to fill up on easily processed, high-carb foods energies.

Conditioners

Let’s not even discuss “improvers” or bread conditioners, which can be as basic as milk powders or
a difficult-to-break combination of chemical substances. To enhance the dough’s consistency as well as the finished product’s softness and durability, a tiny amount can be utilized. You may be surprised to learn that the “flour treatment agent (300)” in your Edmonds Sure bake Active Yeast Mixture is a little amount of ascorbic acid, or vitamin C. Although I am unable to understand the emulsifiers in Sure bake, it is undeniably effective.

Bake (or not)

Not even baking bread is required. Consider a yeasted dough. Once steamed, it becomes a bao bun. Naan can be made by peeling it from the surface of a tandoor. To prepare cornbread, pour it into a castiron skillet and place it on the heat. When fried, it becomes paraʱoa parai, or doughnuts with a bit of sugar added.

Bread is bread

It’s a big and beautifully variegated church, and the more I think about bread, the more I go toward Justice Potter Stewart’s well-known characterization of hardcore pornography: “I know it when I see it.” Although it’s possible that a man cannot survive on bread alone, thankfully, there are a plethora of options. Furthermore, I don’t think we could have genuinely fulfilling lives without it.