A Brief History of Bread
Breads are considered the stuff of life in many cultures. Those of us who are gluten-free in a gluten-loving country can fee left out of the main event of our culinary heritage. Knowing something about the history of bread has helped me keep gluten in perspective. When did people start making bread? The most ancient and the simplest method of making bread does not use fermentation. This is the method that's still used to make tortillas: a simple mixture of flour and water, patted into a flat circle and grilled on both sides until done. People have been using this process for making flatbreads since time immemorial. People figured out how to ferment the water-and-flour mixture as long as 20,000 years ago in Africa. The invention of cultured doughs made injera and other types of sourdough pancakes possible. The grains used for these yeasted flatbreads are mainly teff and sorghum.