As far as we know, breadmaking started almost as far back in history as man goes. It is believed to have been discovered by someone in the Middle East some 5000 or more years before Christ. Wheat was grown in this area as a grass. No one know who made the first loaf but it has been speculated that a poor breadmaker left his flour mixed with water too long as he or she went to take care of a different problem. When that person came back, yeast had done its trick of raising the bread. Being too poor to throw it out, they baked it and voila!

Egyptians usually get credit for inventing the oven and discovering leavening. Bread was offered to their Gods. You can see pictures of their breads in Pharaohs' tombs. According to historians, bread was used as money. Egyptians paid their slaves who built their historic pyramids 3 loaves of bread and 2 jugs of beer a day for each worker.

During the excavation of the ancient city of Ur of the Chaldeas, archaeologists discovered-and lighted-ovens used for bread baking some 3,900 years before.

The Greeks refined the milling of flour and baking methods. The Romans learned from them and improved the cultivation of wheat, developing new varieties.

Baker's Guild
A college of bakers was formed shortly after Christ's death (the beginnings of the Baker's Guild). Through the centuries strict laws were imposed on bakers regarding the "social classes of bread" - senator's bread, nobles' bread, knights' bread, people's bread, peasants' bread, the bread varing from white to coarse dark, depending on the category. The quality and weight of each loaf were also supervised. The baker milled his own flour until the Middle Ages, when the specialized miller moved near the streams to utilize the water power for his mills, and the baker remained close to his customers.

Bakers all over the world have an unwritten law, which was once an oath, to bake enough each day. The baker's dozen originated in the Middle Ages when the bakers,\ who didn't abide by the oath, or short-weighed the bread, were beheaded in England and dunked in public in the Germanic provinces: hence the adding of one extra to the dozen!

American Breads
Friendly Indians showed colonists how to grow corn and how to prepare it for food. Pioneer women improved on the cooking techniques, adding flour to the corn. When people traveled, they went on foot or horseback, sleeping and eating in the forest. They carried corn bread for sustenance. That's why it was called journeycake.

When rough roads and taverns were built and stagecoaches carried passengers, journeycake somehow became johnnycake, a name may easterners still use for corn breads. There are many kinds of cornbreads in American and each region has it specialties.
Sour dough breads are considered to have come from the American Old West . There are many stories about a crock of sour dough starter being left near the fire to warm and bubble. "Sourdough" was the name attached to Alaskan prospectors or Canadian foresters because these pioneers carried the wild yeast, sour dough, with them in a lump for making bread while camping. During the Gold Rush days, according to legend, the prospectors treasured their sourdough starter like gold nuggets. They carried it with them from camp to camp, sometimes nestled in the top of a bag of flour, so they could have fresh sourdough biscuits every day.

The starter, part of which was saved from one baking to the next, usually leavened sour dough biscuits and pancakes and gave them the characteristic tangy flavor. Sour dough is kept in a closed jar or crock and contains a living, continuous fermentation. After the Starter has reached the desired "sourness", keep it in the refrigerator. Bring the amount required for a recipe up to room temperature before making bread. If it is not used frequently, starter has to be "fed " a cup of flour or a tablespoon of sugar a week, add water as needed to keep the starter from becoming too thick.

The Magic Protein
The magic in flour is gluten, a protein. Bread bakers in the ancient world used "barm," the thick scum on top of fermenting wine, for leavening. Sometime along history's path, women began to make their own yeast from hops. However, the strength of this home-made product varied. In our grandmother's day, cakes of dry yeast, containing a few slow-growing yeast plants, were used. To give the yeast time to grow, bread bakers set a sponge of water, flour and the crumbled yeast cake, and let it stand overnight in a warm place. By morning, the yeast plants had multiplied enough that it could be used.

During WWII, research workers discovered how to remove water from moist yeast. Active dry yeast was the result. This active dry yeast had remarkable keeping qualities, providing it was stored in airtight packages. You can proof the yeast (to see if it is still alive after sitting in the refrigerator for months) by putting it in about 1/4 cup warm water (about 80F degrees) with a little sugar and letting it sit for 15 minutes. If it becomes bubbly on top, it can be used.