“Without bread, all is misery,” wrote social reformer William Cobbett (1763–1835) in his 1821 book Cottage Economy, where he extolled breadmaking and bemoaned the rise of the potato, which he felt threatened his beloved foodstuff. Fears about bread, how it’s made and what goes into it have never gone away – and that’s because it’s such a daily staple in almost every British household.
What's the difference between white, brown and sourdough bread?
The two most commonly encountered loaves come in the form of white and brown bread. White bread is made from wheat flour where the grain’s outer husk, known as bran, is removed prior to milling, leaving just white flour as the base material. Brown bread includes the bran in the milling process, hence the name ‘wholegrain’ and may also incorporate rye flour from rye berries, a cereal related to wheat and barley. Some brown loaves include wholegrains and malted wheat flakes to give texture and flavour. This is commonly called granary bread. Because of these wholegrains, brown bread generally contains more health-giving fibre, minerals and vitamins than white bread. But the sheer joy of a crusty white loaf often overrides nutritional concerns.
How do you make bread?
Traditional breadmaking involves mixing flour with water and yeast (the rising or ‘leavening’ agent) and then kneading it with palms and knuckles to break down the gluten in the wheat, creating an elastic dough. The dough is left in a warm place to ‘prove’ or rise. The yeast, a living organism, feeds on the sugars in the dough starch and emits carbon dioxide, which forms pockets of gas – air bubbles – giving the loaf its shape and fluffy texture. The action of the yeast also produces alcohol, which provides extra flavour. Once the dough has ‘risen’ sufficiently, which can take hours or even days, it can be baked.
Sourdough uses a fermented mix of flour and water known as a ‘starter’ as the leavening agent rather than yeast. It takes several days to create a starter and it needs regular ‘feeding’ with flour to keep the fermentation process going. It is this fermentation that gives sourdough bread its characteristic tangy flavour and chewiness.
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How did modern manufacturing change Britain's bread?
In 1961, the world of commercial bread baking was turned on its head with the development of the Chorleywood Process. Developed at the Chorleywood Flour Milling and Bakery Research Association laboratories in Hertfordshire, the process involves the use of extra yeast, hard fat and certain chemicals.
Mixing it all up at high speed, the scientists could accelerate the leavening process and create a cheap, uniform, light and fluffy loaf that stayed fresh longer. It also meant bread could be made from low-protein flour from British wheat instead of expensive imports from North America. This was an instant win for manufacturers and British farming – and offered cheap bread for consumers.
Is modern bread bad for you?
Now, almost all supermarket and bakery-chain bread is made using the Chorleywood Process. But is sliced bread the best thing since… what we ate before? The Real Bread Campaign (RBC) and many nutritionists claim the accelerated process involves excessive levels of yeast while the gluten does not break down sufficiently, leaving ‘unripe bread’ that may be less digestible, causing the rise in gluten intolerance.
Critics also voice fears about the chemicals and additives used, as well as the lack of nutritional value in the final loaves. However, there is no clear proof that the additives are harmful or that there is a link between Chorleywood-Process bread and gluten intolerance. But what is inarguable is that bread that has longer dough-fermentation times, especially sourdough, has a richer and more complex flavour than bread produced using industrial techniques.
In addition, the cheapness of modern bread could also be a problem. Recycling and waste disposal company Waste Managed reports 900,000 tonnes of bread are thrown away each year in the UK, equal to 24 million slices of bread a day. Could it be that, through being so inexpensive for many households, modern sliced bread is considered disposable?
One way to ensure you know exactly what is going into your bread is to make it yourself. It’s a simple and hugely satisfying process where you can experiment with flour combinations and flavours as much as you wish. Some may claim it is time consuming but, beyond 15 minutes of mixing and kneading the ingredients, almost all the subsequent work is done by the yeast and dough while you can get on with other tasks. And the end result is fresher and more delicious than almost anything you can buy commercially.
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Main image: loaves of bread at a bakery. Credit: Getty
