   #copyright

Bread

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Food and agriculture

   This article is part
   of the Cuisine series
   Preparation techniques and cooking items
   Techniques - Utensils
   Weights and measures
        Ingredients and types of food
   Spices and Herbs
   Sauces - Soups - Desserts
   Cheese - Pasta - Bread - Tea

   Other ingredients
              Regional cuisines
   Asia - Europe - Caribbean
   South Asian - Latin America
   Mideast - North America - Africa
   Other cuisines...
                  See also:
   Famous chefs - Kitchens - Meals
   Wikibooks: Cookbook
      Bread, whole-wheat (typical)
   Nutritional value per 100 g
        Energy 250 kcal   1030 kJ

   Carbohydrates                  46 g
   - Dietary fibre  7 g
   Fat                            4 g
   Protein                        10 g
   Thiamin (Vit. B1)  0.4 mg      31%
   Riboflavin (Vit. B2)  0.2 mg   13%
   Niacin (Vit. B3)  4 mg         27%
   Sodium  527 mg                 35%
     Percentages are relative to US
   recommendations for adults.
         Bread, white (typical)
   Nutritional value per 100 g
        Energy 270 kcal   1110 kJ

   Carbohydrates                  51 g
   - Dietary fibre  2.4 g
   Fat                            3 g
   Protein                        8 g
   Thiamin (Vit. B1)  0.5 mg      38%
   Riboflavin (Vit. B2)  0.3 mg   20%
   Niacin (Vit. B3)  4 mg         27%
   Sodium  681 mg                 45%
     Percentages are relative to US
   recommendations for adults.

   Bread is a staple food of European, Middle Eastern and Indian cultures
   which is prepared by baking, steaming, or frying dough. Bread consists
   minimally of flour and water; salt is present in most cases; and
   usually a leavening agent such as yeast (baking) is used. Breads 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 are 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 airtight containers such
   as a breadbox to keep it fresh longer. You can also slice it, put it in
   a ziploc, and freeze it to keep it fresh. 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. A way to keep bread
   longer is to put it in the freezer, preserving it for several weeks. To
   avoid freezer burn, push all of the air out of the plastic bag before
   sealing. This will preserve the flavor and texture longer.

Usage

   Bread can be served ranging anywhere from room temperature to piping
   hot. Once baked, bread can subsequently be toasted. Bread is most
   commonly picked up and eaten with the hands, although some applications
   of bread are more easily eaten with the aid of a utensil such as a
   fork. It can be eaten by itself or as a carrier for another, usually
   less compact food. Bread may be dunked or dipped into a liquid (such as
   beef gravy or olive oil), topped with various spreads, both sweet and
   savory, or serve as the enclosure for the ubiquitous sandwich with any
   number of meats, cheeses, vegetables or condiments inside. Across the
   world, bread is the preferred vehicle for many toppings that vary from
   culture to culture, such as:
     * butter—"bread and butter" has become a famous phrase connoting a
       duo.
     * nut butters such as peanut butter
     * fruit-based spreads such as jam, jelly, apple butter or marmalade
     * molasses, maple syrup or honey
     * liverwurst or other forms of pâté
     * cream cheese or other soft processed cheese spreads, such as The
       Laughing Cow
     * yeast-based spreads such as Marmite or Vegemite
     * hummus, refried beans and other bean-based spreads
     * prepared salads, such as tuna, chicken, egg or ham salad, and a
       myriad other foods
     * toast with butter and cinnamon
     * tortillas form of bread found long ago-today used in tacos,
       quesadillas, etc.
     * garlic

Etymology

   The word itself, Old English bread, is common in various forms to many
   Germanic languages; such as Frisian brea, Dutch brood, German Brot,
   Swedish bröd, and Norwegian brød; it has been derived from the root of
   brew, but more probably is connected with the root of break, for its
   early uses are confined to broken pieces, or bits of bread, the Latin
   frustum, and it was not until the 12th century that it took the
   place—as the generic name for bread—of hlaf (modern English loaf),
   which appears to be the oldest Teutonic name; Old High German hleib and
   modern German Laib, or Finnish leipä, Estonian leib, and Russian хлеб
   (khleb) are similar (all are derived from Old Germanic).

History

   Bread is one of the oldest prepared foods, dating back to the Neolithic
   era. The first breads produced were probably cooked versions of a
   grain-paste, made from ground cereal grains and water, and may have
   been developed by accidental cooking or deliberate experimentation with
   water and grain flour. Descendants of these early breads are still
   commonly made from various grains worldwide, including the Mexican
   tortilla, Indian and Pakistani chapati, South Indian dosa, Scottish
   oatcake, North American johnnycake, Hebrew Pita bread (Pitot in Hebrew)
   and Ethiopian injera. The basic flat breads of this type also formed a
   staple in the diet of many early civilizations with the Sumerians
   eating a type of barley flat cake, and the 12th century BC Egyptians
   being able to purchase a flat bread called ta from stalls in the
   village streets.

   The development of leavened bread can probably also be traced to
   prehistoric times. Yeast spores occur everywhere, including the surface
   of cereal grains, so any dough left to rest will become naturally
   leavened. Although leavening is likely of prehistoric origin, the
   earliest archaeological evidence is from ancient Egypt. Scanning
   electron microscopy has detected yeast cells in some ancient Egyptian
   loaves. However, ancient Egyptian bread was made from emmer wheat and
   has a dense crumb. In cases where yeast cells are not visible, it is
   difficult to determine whether the bread was leavened by visual
   examination. As a result, the extent to which bread was leavened in
   ancient Egypt remains uncertain.

   There were multiple sources of leavening available for early bread. Air
   borne yeasts could be harnessed by leaving uncooked dough exposed to
   air for some time before cooking. Pliny the Elder reported that the
   Gauls and Iberians used the foam skimmed from beer to produce "a
   lighter kind of bread than other peoples". Parts of the ancient world
   that drank wine instead of beer used a paste composed of grape juice
   and flour that was allowed to begin fermenting, or wheat bran steeped
   in wine, as a source for yeast. The most common source of leavening
   however was to retain a piece of dough from the previous day to utilize
   as a form of sourdough starter.

   Even within antiquity there was a wide variety of breads available. In
   the Deipnosophistae, the Greek author Athenaeus describes some of the
   breads, cakes, cookies, and pastries available in the Classical world.
   Among the breads mentioned are griddle cakes, honey-and-oil bread,
   mushroom shaped loaves covered in poppy seeds, and the military
   specialty of rolls baked on a spit. The type and quality of flour used
   to produce bread could also vary as noted by Diphilus when he declared
   "bread made of wheat, as compared with that made of barley, is more
   nourishing, more digestible, and in every way superior. In order of
   merit, the bread made from refined [thoroughly sieved] flour comes
   first, after that bread from ordinary wheat, and then the unbolted,
   made of flour that has not been sifted."

   Within medieval Europe bread served not only as a staple food but also
   as part of the table service. In the standard table setting of the day
   the trencher, a piece of stale bread roughly 6 inches by 4 inches (15
   cm by 10 cm), served as an absorbent plate. At the completion of a meal
   the trencher could then be eaten, given to the poor, or fed to the
   dogs. It was not until the 15th Century that trenchers made of wood
   started to replace the bread variety.

   Otto Frederick Rohwedder is considered to be the father of sliced
   bread. In 1912 Rohwedder started work on inventing a machine that
   sliced bread, but bakeries were reluctant to use it since they were
   concerned the sliced bread would go stale. It was not until 1928, when
   Rohwedder invented a machine that both sliced and wrapped the bread,
   that sliced bread caught on. A bakery in Chillicothe, Missouri was the
   first to use this machine to produce sliced bread.

   For generations, white bread was considered the preferred bread of the
   rich while the poor ate dark bread. However, the connotations reversed
   in the 20th century with dark bread becoming preferred as having
   superior nutritional value while white bread became associated with
   lower class ignorance of nutrition.

   Another major advance happened in 1961 with the development of the
   Chorleywood Bread Process which used the intense mechanical working of
   dough to dramatically reduce the fermentation period and the time taken
   to produce a loaf. This process is now widely used around the world.

   Recently, domestic breadmakers that automate the process of making
   bread are becoming popular in the home.

Cultural and political importance in the United Kingdom

   As a foodstuff of great historical and contemporary importance, in many
   cultures 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 "lehem,
   avoda" [bread, work], and during the 1960s, the hippie community used
   the term bread as a euphemism for money. 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. In Newfoundland,
   bread was also seen as having the power to protect against fairies.

   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 the foodstuff
   appeared in Magna Carta a century later.

Types

   Bread is a popular food in Western and most other societies, although
   East Asian societies typically prefer rice or noodles. It is often made
   from a wheat- flour dough that is cultured with yeast, allowed to rise,
   and finally baked in an oven. Owing to its high levels of gluten (which
   give the dough sponginess and elasticity), common wheat (also known as
   bread wheat) is the most common grain used for the preparation of
   bread, but bread is also made from the flour of other wheat species
   (including durum, spelt and emmer), rye, barley, maize (or corn), and
   oats, usually, but not always, in combination with wheat flour.
   Although common wheat is best suited for making highly-risen white
   bread, other wheat species are capable of giving a good crumb. Spelt
   bread (Dinkelbrot) continues to be widely consumed in Germany, and
   emmer bread was a staple food in ancient Egypt.

Gallery

   European sweetbread (strucla)

   Four loaves

   French bread

   Breads and Bread Rolls at a bakery

   Continental Italian Bread

   Tin Vienna Bread

   Bread in a traditional oven

   Pre-sliced bread

   Bread rolls

   Pain aux noix (nut bread)

   A cereal grain

   An Indian/Pakistani form of flatbread- Roti

Composition and chemistry

Formulation

   The amount of water and flour are the most significant measurements in
   a bread recipe, as they affect texture and crumb the most. Professional
   bakers use a system of percentages known as Bakers' Percentage in their
   recipe formulations, and measure ingredients by weight instead of by
   volume. Measurement by weight is much more accurate and consistent than
   measurement by volume, especially for the dry ingredients.

   Flour is always 100%, and the rest of the ingredients are a percent of
   that amount by weight. Common table bread in the U.S. uses
   approximately 50% water, resulting in a finely textured, light, bread.
   Most artisan bread formulas contain anywhere from 60 to 75% water. In
   yeast breads, the higher water percentages result in more CO[2]
   bubbles, and a coarser bread crumb. One pound (500 g) of flour will
   yield a standard loaf of bread, or two french loaves.

Flour

   Flour is a product made from grain that has been ground into a powdery
   consistency. It is flour that provides the primary structure to the
   final baked bread. Commonly available flours are made from rye, barley,
   maize, and other grains, but it is wheat flour that is most commonly
   used for breads. Each of these grains provides starch and protein to
   the final product.

   Wheat flour in addition to its starch contains three water soluble
   proteins groups, albumin, globulin, proteoses, and two non-water
   soluble proteins groups, glutenin and gliadin. When flour is mixed with
   water the water-soluble proteins dissolve, leaving the glutenin and
   gliadin to form the structure of the resulting dough. When worked by
   kneading, the glutenin forms strands of long thin chainlike molecules
   while the shorter gliadin forms bridges between the strands of
   glutenin. The resulting networks of strands produced by these two
   proteins is known as gluten. Gluten development improves if the dough
   is allowed to autolyse.

Liquids

   Water, or some other liquid, is used to form the flour into a paste or
   dough. The volume of liquid required varies between recipes, but a
   ratio of 1 cup (2 dL) of liquid to 3 cups (7 dL) of flour is common for
   yeast breads while recipes that use steam as the primary leavening
   method may have a liquid content in excess of one part liquid to one
   part flour by volume. In addition to water, other types of liquids that
   may be used include dairy products, fruit juices, or beer. In addition
   to the water in each of these they also bring additional sweeteners,
   fats, and or leavening components.

Leavening

   Leavening is the process of adding gas to a dough before or during
   baking to produce a lighter, more easily chewed bread. Most bread
   consumed in the West is leavened. However, unleavened breads have
   symbolic importance in Judaism and Christianity. Jews consume
   unleavened breads such as Matzo during Passover. They are also used in
   the Christan liturgy when they perform the Eucharist, a rite derived
   from the Last Supper when Jesus broke bread with his disciples during a
   Passover Seder.

Chemical leavening

   A simple technique for leavening bread is the use of gas-producing
   chemicals. There are two common methods. The first is to use baking
   powder or a self-rising flour that includes baking powder. The second
   is to have an acidic ingredient such as buttermilk and add baking soda.
   The reaction of the acid with the soda produces gas.

   Chemically-leavened breads are called quick breads and soda breads.
   This technique is commonly used to make muffins and sweet breads such
   as banana bread.

Yeast leavening

   Many breads are leavened by yeast, a type of single-celled fungus. The
   yeast used for leavening bread is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the same
   species used for brewing alcoholic beverages. This yeast ferments
   carbohydrates in the flour, including any sugar, producing carbon
   dioxide. Most bakers in the U.S. leaven their doughs with commercially
   produced baker's yeast. Baker's yeast has the advantage of producing
   uniform, quick, and reliable results, because it is obtained from a
   pure culture.

   Both the baker's yeast, and the sourdough method of baking bread follow
   the same pattern. Water is mixed with flour, salt and the leavening
   agent (baker's yeast or sourdough starter). Other additions (spices,
   herbs, fats, seeds, fruit, etc.) are not necessary to bake bread, but
   often used. The mixed dough is then allowed to rise one or more times
   (a longer rising time results in more flavor, so bakers often punch
   down the dough and let it rise again), then loaves are formed and
   (after an optional final rising time) the bread is baked in an oven.

   Many breads are made from a straight dough, which means that all of the
   ingredients are combined in one step, and the dough baked after the
   rising time. Alternatively, doughs can be made with the starter method,
   when some of the flour, water, and the leavening are combined a day or
   so ahead of baking, and allowed to ferment overnight. (Such as the
   poolish typically used for baguettes) On the day of the baking, the
   rest of the ingredients are added, and the rest of the process is the
   same as that for straight doughs. This produces a more flavorful bread
   with better texture. Many bakers see the starter method as a compromise
   between the highly reliable results of baker's yeast, and the
   flavor/complexity of a longer fermentation. It also allows the baker to
   use only a minimal amount of baker's yeast, which was scarce and
   expensive when it first became available.

Sourdough

   Sourdough loaves
   Enlarge
   Sourdough loaves

   The sour taste of sourdoughs actually comes not from the yeast, but
   from a lactobacillus, with which the yeast lives in symbiosis. The
   lactobacillus feeds on the byproducts of the yeast fermentation, and in
   turn makes the culture go sour by excreting lactic acid, which protects
   it from spoiling (since most microbes are unable to survive in an acid
   environment). All breads used to be sourdoughs, and the leavening
   process was not understood until the 19th century, when with the
   advance of microscopes, scientists were able to discover the microbes
   that make the dough rise. Since then, strains of yeast have been
   selected and cultured mainly for reliability and quickness of
   fermentation. Billions of cells of these strains are then packaged and
   marketed as "Baker's Yeast". Bread made with baker's yeast is not sour
   because of the absence of the lactobacillus. Bakers around the world
   quickly embraced baker's yeast for it made baking simple and so allowed
   for more flexibility in the bakery's operations. It made baking quick
   as well, allowing bakeries to make fresh bread from scratch as often as
   three times a day. While European bakeries kept producing sourdough
   breads, in the U.S., sourdough baking was widely replaced by baker's
   yeast, and only recently has that country (or parts of it, at least)
   seen the rebirth of sour-vinegar dough in artisan bakeries.

   Sourdough breads are most often made with a sourdough starter (not to
   be confused with the starter method discussed above). A sourdough
   starter is a culture of yeast and lactobacillus. It is essentially a
   dough-like or pancake-like flour/water mixture in which the yeast and
   lactobacilli live. A starter can be maintained indefinitely by
   periodically discarding a part of it and refreshing it by adding fresh
   flour and water. (When refrigerated, a starter can go weeks without
   needing to be fed.) There are starters owned by bakeries and families
   that are several human generations old, much revered for creating a
   special taste or texture. Starters can be obtained by taking a piece of
   another starter and growing it, or they can be made from scratch. There
   are hobbyist groups on the web who will send their starter for a
   stamped, self-addressed envelope, and there are even mailorder
   companies that sell different starters from all over the world. An
   acquired starter has the advantage to be more proven and established
   (stable and reliable, resisting spoiling and behaving predictably) than
   from-scratch starters.

   There are other ways of sourdough baking and culture maintenance. A
   more traditional one is the process that was followed by peasant
   families throughout Europe in past centuries. The family (usually the
   woman was in charge of breadmaking) would bake on a fixed schedule,
   perhaps once a week. The starter was saved from the previous week's
   dough. The starter was mixed with the new ingredients, the dough was
   left to rise, then a piece of it was saved (to be the starter for next
   week's bread). The rest was formed into loaves which were marked with
   the family sign (this is where today's decorative slashing of bread
   loaves originates from), and taken to the communal oven to bake. These
   communal ovens over time evolved into what we know today as bakeries,
   when certain people specialized in bread baking, and with time enhanced
   the process so far as to be able to mass produce cheap bread for
   everyone in the village.

San Francisco sourdoughs

   The most famous sourdough bread made in the U.S. is the San Francisco
   Sourdough, which in contrast to the majority of the country has
   remained in continuous production for nearly 150 years, with some
   bakeries able to trace their starters back to California's territorial
   period. It is a white bread, characterized by a pronounced sourness
   (not all sourdoughs are as sour as the San Francisco Sourdough), so
   much so that the dominant strain of lactobacillus in sourdough starters
   was named Lactobacillus sanfrancisco.

Steam leavening

   The rapid expansion of steam produced during baking leavens the bread,
   which is as simple as it is unpredictable. The best known
   steam-leavened bread is the popover. Steam-leavening is unpredictable
   since the steam is not produced until the bread is baked.

   Steam leavening happens regardless of the rising agents (soda powder,
   yeast, baking-powder, sour dough, egg snow…)
     * The rising agent generates carbon dioxide - or already contains air
       bubbles.
     * The heat vaporises the water from the inner surface of the bubbles
       within the dough.
     * The steam expands and makes the bread rise.

   It is actually the main factor in the rise. CO[2] generation, on its
   own, is too small to account for the rise. Heat kills bacteria or yeast
   at an early stage, so the CO[2] generation is stopped.

Bacterial leavening

   Salt-risen bread employs a form of bacterial leavening that does not
   require yeast. Although the leavening action is not always consistent,
   and requires close attention to the incubating conditions, this bread
   is making a comeback due to its unique cheese-like flavor and fine
   texture. .

Aeration

   Aerated bread is leavened by carbon dioxide being forced into dough
   under pressure. The technique is no longer in common use, but from the
   mid 19th to 20th centuries bread made this way was somewhat popular in
   the United Kingdom, made by the Aerated Bread Company and sold in its
   high-street tea rooms.

Fats or shortenings

   Fats such as butter, vegetable oils, lard, or that contained in eggs
   affects the development of gluten in breads by coating and lubricating
   the individual strands of protein and also helping hold the structure
   together. If too much fat is included in a bread dough, the lubrication
   effect will cause the protein structures to divide. A fat content of
   approximately 3% by weight is the concentration that will produce the
   greatest leavening action.

   This effect is used most popularly in cookies, in that increased fat -
   typically shortening - causes a harder cookie (more popular in cookies
   such as chocolate chip) while increased flour causes a softer cookie
   (more popular in cookies such as oatmeal). As it is typically not
   acceptable to have harder bread, this effect is usually not available
   for use in breads.

   In addition to their effects on leavening, fats also serve to tenderize
   the breads they are used in and also help to keep the bread fresh
   longer after baking.

Breads across different cultures

   Sourdough breads like this baguette (left) and roundbread begin with a
   starter passed down from excess batter from a previous loaf.
   Enlarge
   Sourdough breads like this baguette (left) and roundbread begin with a
   starter passed down from excess batter from a previous loaf.

   There are many variations on the basic recipe of bread, including
   pizza, chapatis, tortillas, baguettes, brioche, pitas, lavash,
   biscuits, pretzels, naan, bagels, puris, and many other variations.
     * In Britain and the United States, the most widely consumed type of
       bread is soft-textured with a thin crust and is sold ready-sliced
       in packages. It is usually eaten with the crust, but some eaters or
       preparers may remove the crust due to a personal preference or
       style of serving, as for high tea.
     * In South Asia ( India, Pakistan, etc.), Roti or Chapati, types of
       flat breads, are commonly used. A variant uses mustard flour rather
       than white flour. Another variant is Puri, a thin flat bread which
       is fried rather than baked and puffs up while cooked. Paratha is
       another variation on Roti. Nan, however, is baked in brick ovens
       and is rarely prepared at home. White and brown breads are also
       very common, but not as much as Roti.
     * Jews have traditionally baked challah, a type of egg bread with a
       thin, hard crust and a soft, well-leavened centre. It is made by
       wrapping plaits of dough and then lightly baking them in an oven.
       Challah is sometimes sweetened using honey and sometimes includes
       raisins.
     * In Scotland, another form of bread called plain bread is also
       consumed. Plain bread loaves are noticeably taller and thinner,
       with burned crusts at only the top and bottom of the loaf. Plain
       bread has a much firmer texture than English and American pan
       bread. Plain Bread is becoming less common as the bread consumed
       elsewhere in Britain is becoming more popular with consumers.
     * In France, pan bread is known as pain de mie and is used only for
       toast or for making stuffing; standard bread (in the form of
       baguettes or thicker breads) has a thick crust and often has large
       bubbles of air inside. It is often baked three times daily and is
       sold totally unwrapped to keep the crust crisp. Some fancy breads
       contain walnuts, or are encrusted with poppy seeds.
     * Focaccia is quite popular in Italy, and is known in Provence as
       fougasse or as fouace in the rest of southern France. It is usually
       seasoned with olive oil and herbs, and often either topped with
       cheese or stuffed with meat or vegetables. Focaccia doughs are
       similar in style and texture to pizza doughs.
     * White bread is made from flour containing only the central core of
       the grain (endosperm).
     * Brown bread is made with endosperm and 10% bran.
     * Whole meal bread contains the whole of the wheat grain (endosperm
       and bran).
     * Wheat germ bread has added wheat germ for flavouring.
     * Whole grain bread is white bread with added whole grains to
       increase the fibre content.
     * Granary bread is bread made from granary flour. Trademarked to
       Hovis, it is made from malted white or brown flour, wheat germ and
       whole grains.
     * Stottie cake is a thick, flat, round loaf. Stotties are common in
       the North East of England. Although it is called a cake, it is a
       type of bread.
     * Being the simplest, cheapest and most basic type of food, bread is
       often referred as a metaphor for "food" in general, in some
       languages and dialects, such as Greek.
     * Christian traditional societies (usually in poor communities), used
       to respect bread since Jesus symbolised his body with it. The sign
       of the cross was performed with the knife on the bread's surface,
       before the loaf was cut. Sometimes it was considered a sin to
       desecrate bread (e.g., throw it away).

Bread in Germany

   Germany has the widest variety of bread available to its residents.
   About 6,000 types of breads and approximately 1200 different types of
   pastry and rolls are produced in about 17,000 bakeries and another
   10,000 in-shop bakeries. Bread is served with almost every meal. A
   German breakfast typically consists of sliced bread or Semmeln (rolls)
   with either cold cuts, cheese etc. or jam, honey and other sweet
   toppings. Supper, traditionally, usually just consists of cold cuts and
   cheese (Abendbrot), although this tradition is rapidly changing. Bread
   is not considered a side dish and is considered important for a healthy
   diet.

   Germany's top ten in bread are:
    1. Rye-wheat ("Roggenmischbrot")
    2. Toast bread ("Toastbrot")
    3. Whole-grain ("Vollkornbrot")
    4. Wheat-rye ("Weizenmischbrot")
    5. White bread ("Weißbrot")
    6. Multi-grain ("Mehrkornbrot")
    7. Rye ("Roggenbrot")
    8. Sunflower seed ("Sonnenblumenkernbrot")
    9. Pumpkin seed ("Kürbiskernbrot")
   10. Onion bread ("Zwiebelbrot")

   Especially the darker kinds of bread like Vollkornbrot or Schwarzbrot
   are typical of German cuisine. Internationally well known is
   Pumpernickel which is steamed for a very long time, it is one kind of
   dark bread from Germany but not representative. Most German breads are
   made with sourdough. Whole grain is preferred for high fibre. Germans
   use almost all available types of grain for their breads — wheat, rye,
   barley, spelt, oats, sorghum, corn and rice. Some breads are even made
   from potato flour.

Denmark and Bread

   Bread is a very important part of the Scandinavian table. It is usually
   enjoyed at home, in the workplace or in Danish restaurants and is
   usually based primarily on rugbrød, which is unleavened rye bread. It
   is a dark, heavy bread which is often bought pre-sliced, in varieties
   from light-coloured rye, to very dark, and refined to whole grain. It
   forms the basis of smørrebrød, which is closely related to the Swedish
   smörgås, literally 'spread bread' (smør is butter). Traditional
   toppings include sild, which are pickled herrings (marinerede - plain,
   krydder - spiced, or karry - curried, being the most popular), slightly
   sweeter than Dutch or German herrings; thinly-sliced cheese in many
   varieties; sliced cucumber, tomato and boiled eggs; leverpostej, which
   is pork liver-paste; dozens of types of cured or processed meat in thin
   slices, or smoked fish such as salmon; mackerel in tomato sauce;
   pickled cucumber; boiled egg, and rings of red onion. Mayonnaise mixed
   with peas and diced carrot, remoulade or other thick sauces often top
   the layered open sandwich, which is usually eaten with utensils. It is
   custom to pass the dish of sliced breads around the table, and then to
   pass around each dish of toppings, and people help themselves. Hundreds
   of combinations and varieties of smørrebord are available.

   A famous and very old restaurant in Copenhagen's historic Nyhavn
   harbour, Ida Davidsen, serves up many imaginative combinations, and the
   fridge in a typical Danish home will often be stocked with toppings for
   rugbrødsmad, or "rye bread meal", which is a way of saying "a plain
   normal lunch". Denmark has strong traditions of special types of food
   eaten at particular times of the year, such as smoked eel with slices
   of a sort of scrambled-egg loaf eaten on rye bread at New Year,
   accompanied by beer. Other types of bread are sold in supermarkets and
   in bakeries, which are important shops in every town and shopping
   centre. Many women still bake at home, particularly boller, which are
   small bread rolls, and often the traditional kringle, which is a long
   cooked dough with currants and a brown sugar and butter paste.
   Home-baked bread uses moist yeast, and many thousands of packs are sold
   every day, the major brand being a division of Carlsberg Brewery. In
   the great trucking strikes of 1998, yeast was one of the first products
   to be sold out in shops, indicating the importance of home baking in
   Denmark. Sliced square white bread is known in Denmark as franskbrød,
   literally "French bread", and is not as common as it is in many other
   western countries. People often eat jam with cheese on crusty white
   bread for breakfast, and also very thin slices of chocolate, called
   pålægschokolade.

   Another popular way of consuming bread in Denmark is as tiny buns for
   long hotdogs, like small puffy napkins made out of white bread, which
   are available in little kiosks everywhere and in pølservogn
   ("sausage-vans") that move about the cities.

Trivia

     * The anime and manga Yakitate!! Japan chronicles the quest of a
       young baker to create a 'bread that tastes better than rice'; i.e.,
       one that the Japanese people would accept as a staple food.
     * The phrase " the greatest thing since sliced bread", to mean
       something of superlative quality, is common in the UK and United
       States, there is also at least a German and French equivalent.
     * Lithuanian folk saying: "Bread cries when a lazy person eats it".
       Refers to how difficult it was to produce bread, from sowing to
       baking, in antiquity.
     * The word "companion" literally means one with whom bread is shared
       (com with + pani bread).
     * In some Asian Christian churches, the people eat rice cakes instead
       of bread served in the holy communion.
     * Turkmen President Saparmyrat Niyazov re-named the word bread (çorek
       [chorek]) after his mother (Gurbansoltan eže [Gurbansoltan edzhe]),
       as another of his eccentric policies.
     * There are some kinds of bread that can take four days to make.

Related patents

     * U.S. Patent 1867377 -- Bread slicer
     * U.S. Patent 1740038 -- Bread slicer wire
     * U.S. Patent 1591357 -- Bread rack
     * U.S. Patent 1724368 -- Bread staples
     * U.S. Patent 1759592 -- Bread staples
     * U.S. Patent 1935996 -- Bread handler
     * U.S. Patent 2034250 -- Bread handler
     * U.S. Patent 2061315 -- Bread handler

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
