The baking of bread spread throughout the Mediterranean and the Romans turned it into an art. The Greeks and Italians did not care for beer, so used wine yeasts to raise their breads. Pliny the Elder described some of the varieties of bread that the Romans perfected:

As for bread itself, it is superfluous to give an account of the various types. In some places bread is called after the dishes eaten with it, such as oyster-bread, in others from its special delicacy, as cake-bread, in others from the short time spent in baking it, as a hasty bread, and also from the methods of baking, as oven-bread or tin loaf or pan bread; while not long ago there was even bread imported from Parthia, called water bread because through the use of water it is drawn out into a thin, spongy consistency full of holes; others just call it Parthian bread.

Eurysaces, a Roman baker who was a Greek slave, is credited with inventing the mechanical dough mixer (Sheppard 1971:20). Scenes of baking bread in a beehive oven and the mechanical dough kneader, powered by horse or donkey, are depicted on his masters tomb. The oven goddess, Fornax was honored every June 9. It was the one day the donkeys had off and the ovens weren’t used. Feasting on bread and foods baked the day before was enjoyed by all.

Early grains were high in protein but separating the edible portion from the chaff required much work. The grinding and threshing of grain before the invention of the rotary mill produced a coarse flour. Sand and bits of the grinding stone were generally incorporated with the flour. Archaeologists have studied the teeth found in skulls of ancient people. The way the teeth wore reveals that the common person ate a very coarsely ground bread along with other hard items such as nuts. 

There is some dispute over whether the rotary mill was invented by the Romans as Sheppard claims in The Story of Bread, or whether several different ancient peoples developed it at roughly the same time (1,000 BC) (Bailey 1975:24). One thing is clear, however. The development of the rotary mill or quern made it possible to produce much larger quantities of flour. Prior to that time, households possessed saddle querns which were saddle shaped slabs of stone on which the grain was placed and rubbed by hand with a smaller rubbing stone. The grain was rubbed with a back-and-forth motion. Rotary mills, in the shape of hourglasses, made it possible for animals, notably donkeys, to power the action of two stones rubbing together. Commercial bakeries became an option and remains of early bakeries have been excavated at Pompeii. 

Early on the controversy concerning the merits of white versus brown bread was born. White flour which was carefully sieved so that most of the bran was eliminated from the flour, was much more costly. Consequently, only the wealthy could afford it. White bread was established as a status food for the privileged.

A later development occurred that made white flour much less costly. The roller mill was invented in Hungary in the 1840’s. Rather than pulverizing the bran and germ of the wheat kernel with the endosperm, the roller mill separated them. Both the bran and germ contain oils and therefore could turn rancid. This greatly affected the shelf life of the flour. They added a yellowish tinge to the color of the flour as well. However, the bran and germ contain the greatest vitamin/mineral rich portion of the grain. The roller mill meant that nutrition was compromised for color and shelf life. 

Flour has been adulterated through the ages. Pliny stated, “Pound the wheat grains with sand to remove the husks, the grain then being but one-half its former measure. Then twenty-five per cent gypsum is added to seventy-five per cent of this meal and mixed, and the flour is bolted” (Brothwell 1969:95). 

The desire for white bread sometimes lured bakers into adding such items as alum, chalk, and even pulverized bone. A British pamphlet published in 1757 tried to warn the populace: 

 …there is another ingredient, which is far more shocking to the heart, and if possible more hurtful to the health of mankind. It must stagger human belief; I shall only just mention it, to make it abhorred. It is averred by very credible authority, that sacks of unground bones are not unfrequently used by some of the bakers amongst their other impurities, to increase the quantity, and injure the quality of flour and bread. Thus, the charnel houses of the dead are raked to add filthiness to the food of the living (Sheppard 1971:72). 

The chant of the giant in Jack-in-the-Beanstalk perhaps was based on this practice. 

Fee, Fie, Fo, Fum,

I smell the blood of an Englishman,

Be he alive, or be he dead,

I’ll grind his bones to make my bread.

Bread has been made of ingredients other than grain flours with or without the addition of pulverized bones. Flour made from ground acorns has been used since ancient times. Acorn meal is still eaten in times of scarcity and was the daily food of the Yosemite Indians in California. Bread has been made from such unconventional ingredients as ground beans, groundnuts, crushed tree bark, and cassava.

Trencher bread – stale bread used as an edible plate

During medieval times bread served the function as a plate for the common person. Trenchers were stale, flat slabs of coarse bread made from a mix of wholewheat, rye, or barley flour. The meal, usually consisting of a stew, would be placed on the trencher. Whatever juices there were would soak into the bread but since it was stale it would still serve as a plate. The other primary utensil was the fingers which the stew was eaten with. Trenchers were often eaten by the diner at the end of the meal. Otherwise, they were given to servants, the poor, or dogs to consume. 

The novel idea of eating a meal between two slices of bread is credited to the British Earl of Sandwich, John Montague, in 1762. A compulsive gambler, the Earl did not want to take time out for a meal during one of his gambling marathons. He ordered meat brought to him between two slices of bread so he would not have to worry about leaving to eat or getting his hands messy. Little did he realize what a trend he had started in his practicality. 

Bread has played a prominent symbolic role in terms of the religion, customs, and literature of many cultures. The Egyptians thought bread was a gift of the god Osiris, the Greeks a gift from Demeter, goddess of the cornfield. Our language is rich with associations regarding bread, from being the “bread winner,” to “breaking bread together.” Christians use bread in their religious ceremonies to represent the body of Christ. Matzo represents the unleavened bread the Jews ate during their rapid departure from Egypt and is featured during Passover ceremonies. Soul cakes were passed out on Halloween to represent the souls of the deceased. During the Beltane festival the person unlucky enough to receive the charred piece of Bannock (wheel shaped oat bread) after it rolled down the hillside was designated the carline, “old woman” and destined to die in the sacrificial fire (Bailey 1975:104). The Aztecs ate a bread in the shape of their god Huitzilopochtli. Bread has been baked in shapes as varied as gods and goddesses to fertility symbols. Fairy tales abound with images of bread and its role with good and evil. The significance of bread throughout history, symbolically and nutritionally, cannot be overstated.