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Bread in history

Bread, like all other ancient things that originated with man, is buried in history in the depths of history and is not uncovered by the pilgrims except on suspicion. Otherwise, what he finds of the effects left by those ancient times on earth.

Among these monuments are the drawings left by the ancient Egyptians in their tombs. These drawings indicate that these ancient people knew how to plant wheat, harvest it, grind it, and mix its flour to make bread and bake it.

It is also known that these ancient Egyptians discovered through experimentation that if dough was left alone, it fermented, and gases were released from this fermentation, which increased the volume of the dough, and that when baking, they produced a lighter loaf from this dough than what they were accustomed to without leavening. This fact was the most important thing that happened in the history of the loaf, even though clarifying the truth of this phenomenon in detail did not happen except in these present and modern centuries, the centuries of modern science.

And of course, ancient nations, such as Rome, Athens, and others, had their own bread and ovens. But this industry remained a home-made industry until recent times, and in the countryside, planting, grinding, kneading, and baking were all work carried out by local men and women.

Then the loaf eventually moved out of homes and into factories, just as all other needs were produced due to modern industry.

Two things took this industry, bread making, forward:

(a) Progress of the milling industry.
(b) Detection and separation of yeasts.

Of course, before that, people were motivating themselves to fulfill one of their primary needs for living, the need for food. Bread was the first food item, which is why it was called “living” in some countries. They say, “The house is empty today.” or «
There was nothing left in the basket of bread except two loaves of bread.”

(This drawing was found by archaeologists in the tomb of one of the brilliant men of the ancient Egyptians from the Fifth Dynasty. It is a tomb they uncovered in Saqqara near Cairo. It represents the making of bread, starting from wheat to the resulting loaf. This was in the 24th century BC.)