The fermentation which occurs in bread making is similar to that which
is responsible for the transformation of plant juices into
intoxicating drinks. The former process is not so old, however, since
the use of alcoholic beverages dates back to the very dawn of history,
and the authentic record of raised or leavened bread is but little
more than 3000 years old.
214. The Bread of Antiquity. The original method of bread making and
the method employed by savage tribes of to-day is to mix crushed grain
and water until a paste is formed, and then to bake this over a camp
fire. The result is a hard compact substance known as unleavened
bread. A considerable improvement over this tasteless mass is
self-raised bread. If dough is left standing in a warm place a number
of hours, it swells up with gas and becomes porous, and when baked, is
less compact and hard than the savage bread. Exposure to air and
warmth brings about changes in dough as well as in fruit juices, and
alters the character of the dough and the bread made from it. Bread
made in this way would not seem palatable to civilized man of the
present day, accustomed, as he is, to delicious bread made light and
porous by yeast; but to the ancients, the least softening and
lightening was welcome, and self-fermented bread, therefore,
supplanted the original unleavened bread.
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