R
esearchers found out that grain was cultivated as early as around the year 8,000 BC in the Middle East. This is also where the art of baking bread started. The seeds from the grasses were ground, mixed with water and processed into dough. Roasted on a hot stone, the unleavened form of pitta bread resulted from this. Even today, people in developing countries bake that way.
Since in the neolithic Age, around 5,000 BC, the agrarian grain culture came to Western Europe. Especially the ancient grains spelt, emmer and einkorn were cultivated. Also before Christ, corn and rice were cultivated in Latin America and today’s USA as well as in Asia. Back then, cereal grains were mainly used to bake bread. In Egypt, for example, the first bakeries of arose. The Celts and their use of yeast in order to produce beer helped to developed the first yeast mixtures. The Romans revolutionized the processing of the grain to flour with modern techniques and built the first community ovens. You can learn everything about bread and its history in our sisterMAG feature in issue 23 .
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