Bread: Traditional food in time of hunger

Across the country this weekend grocery stores and big-box stores are running out of vegetables, frozen foods, pasta, canned goods, and bread as well as a number of other products. While this may not reflect real shortages, it definitely reflects people’s increasing fears of the growing pandemic, and fear that going into stores will soon risk unnecessary exposure to those already infected with the virus.

Bread has been regarded as a fundamental food during much of European and American history. Although the current Western diet no longer gives this central role to bread, it remains important and well-loved. Baking bread is a comforting activity during times like these, and it’s reassuring to have a good supply of flour and yeast or starter that can be used to continue baking.

Len baked a very dark rye bread this weekend.  

Checking that the bread is done.

The bread came out a beautiful color and texture. It was great with butter,
along with eggs and vegetables.

In keeping with the mood around here, I decided to read this book: The History of Bread by Bernard Dupaigne, translated from French (published 1999). The early history is fairly condensed, covering topics like the development of cultivation of wheat and other grain, the relationship of beer and bread in ancient Egypt, and the importance of  “bread and circuses” in ancient Rome. The author briefly touches on the spread of wheat cultivation, the invention of various types of mills and ovens, and the symbolic significance of bread in early civilizations, mainly around the Mediterranean. The real heart of the book is the description of the role of bread in French history. 

As I read, I was thinking about how important bread has been -- often the source of most of the nutrition of societies that preceded ours, and also the importance of plentiful bread as a symbol of security and social stability. Though the book does talk about civil unrest of various kinds in France when bread became scarce or expensive, it's mostly about happier topics like different flavors and shapes and ritual uses of bread. I have read other books about famine and about people's desperation when wheat flour was scarce and they resorted to nearly inedible materials to make their loaves.

Dupaigne ends with a brief description of breads around the world, and then a few recipes. The main attraction of this book is its fabulous illustrations. The pages are beautifully designed and laid out to combine text and images. It's not a particularly complete or profound history of bread, but the pictures make up for the lack of depth.

Illustration of a medieval bread oven.

A typical page of the book, with picture of an
ancient kneading trough in use.

We are trying to stay isolated as the number of cases of virus in Michigan is growing rapidly.
However we felt safe taking a walk by the river. A large number of other people had the same idea,
but it was not difficult to stay at least 6 feet from them.

Blog post © 2020 mae sander for mae food dot blog spot dot com.