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Bread from Wheat

Prehistoric Bread

Roman Bread

Monastic Bread

Bread Types

Prehistoric Bread

Archaeological evidence indicates that grain was milled on stone querns in the earliest Neolithic times, over 10,000 years ago. It is uncertain as to how this grain was used, but it was probably made into a thick porridge with water or milk. When heated, such a mixture will bake into a firm cake of unleavened bread. Perhaps the first bread cakes were made by pouring milk and flour mixture onto a hot slab of stone over an open fire.

Earliest grain was smaller than modern varieties, similar to the wild wheat Triticum boeoticum and T. dicoccoides. These grains have similarities with the cultivated wheat varieties Einkorn and Emmer.

The earliest evidence of bread eating comes from the preserved bodies of the Late Neolithic and Middle Bronze ages, where analysis of stomach residues have discovered cooked bran fibre, typical of bread making. The flour of this period was gritty from the wearing of the querns and this lead to abrasion and rapid wearing of the teeth.

Recipe

500g wholemeal flour
250ml milk (or a mixture of milk and water)

Place a thin flat stone slab onto an open fire to heat for at least 30 minutes.
Mix the ingredients into a stiff batter.
Spoon some batter onto the hot slab of stone.
Turn using a wooden spatula.
Eat when cooked on both sides.

Bread cooked in this way is firm and tasty, but it will dry and go stale in a couple of hours, so it needs to be eaten freshly baked.