By Global Bakery Solutions
Bread was so important to the Egyptian way of life that it was used as a type of currency. They revered it so much they would often place it in the tombs of their dead.
- The ancient Greeks were already producing more than 80 types of bread in 2500 B.C.
- Bread was so important to the Egyptian way of life that it was used as a type of currency. They revered it so much they would often place it in the tombs of their dead.
- Bakers were powerful credit brokers during the Middle Ages in France. They often loaned out bread as currency and as a form of credit King Louis IV said, “He who controls a nation’s bread is a greater ruler than he who controls their souls.”
- Napoleon gave a common bread its name when he demanded a loaf of dark rye bread for his horse during tne Prussian campaign. “Pain pour Nicole,” he ordered, which meant “Bread for Nicole,” his horse. To Germanic ears, the request sounded like “Pumpemickel,” which is the term we use today for this traditional loaf.
- In Britain, the ceremony of First Footing is traditionally observed in the early hours of New Year’s Day. A piece of bread is left outside a door, with a piece of coal and a silver coin, and is supposed to bring you food, warmth and riches in the year ahead.
- Bakers used to be fined if their loaves were underweight, so they added an extra loaf to every dozen, hence the term ”Bakers Dozen.”
- Scandinavian traditions hold that if a boy and girl eat from the same loaf, they are bound to fall in love.
- Superstition says it is bad luck to turn a loaf of bread upside down or cut an unbaked loaf.
- Assuming a sandwich was eaten for brealkfast, lunch, and dinner, it would take 168 days to eat the amount of bread produced from one bushel of wheat. A family of four could live 10 years off the bread produced by one acre of wheat.
- The inner part of the bread encased in the crust is called the “crumb” hence why small bits of this part of the bread are called “crumbs.”
