Featured Ingredient: Bread
Photo by @tallgrassbakery
Bread falls into two categories, with little middle ground. On one hand, it’s taken for granted, another item to check-off on the grocery shopping list. On the other, a fresh loaf can be praised as the greatest food on earth. Whether enjoyed as a bagel, baguette, or roti, bread in all its iterations is an essential staple around the world, with a history that’s older than you may think.
Which came first, the farm or the wheat? Until 2018, archeologists and researchers understood that the invention of bread occurred some 10,000 years ago, around the same time as humans turned away from a nomadic way of life to agriculture, including the farming of cereals. This theory was turned on it’s head when Amaia Arranz-Otaegui, an archeologist working on an excavation site in Jordan, found what looked like the charred bits you find at the bottom of a toaster scattered around an ancient campfire. After consulting with colleague Lara Gonzalez Carretero- a specialist in identifying prehistoric bread- the researchers were stunned to confirm that they were, in fact, looking at breadcrumbs. The site on which they were found belonged to the Natufians, a hunter-gatherer tribe that lived in present-day Jordan more than 14,000 years ago. That’s 4,000 years before the invention of agriculture.
It makes sense that the invention of farming would follow the invention of something as delicious as bread. Why go through the trouble of planting, growing, and harvesting unless you knew something amazing would result from all that labor? After the invention of bread and subsequent development of farming, bread-making took off in the Middle East, starting with flat breads and eventually fluffy, yeasted breads. It is thought that the Ancient Egyptians were the first to discover that fermenting wheat doughs leads to fluffy, expanded loaves, and they are also attributed with inventing early baking ovens.
At market, you can find both gluten-free and glutenous progeny of the early food staple. Tall Grass Bakery, All You Need Is Loaf, and Oh Yeah Farms are your go-to’s for gluten-y breads, while Shambala Bakery makes delicious gluten-free bakes.
To learn the full story of how researchers found the oldest bread on earth, check out this awesome article from NPR.