Breads

Breads

One of the oldest foods known to man.

Consider what has to happen to get a loaf of Bread.

It is a mix of ingredients; It  has to be Cooked or Steamed; The ingredients have to be in a certain proportion to make it happen and it has to be timed properly to be fully cooked but still tasty.

Getting to the point of "Tasty" must have seemed like magic to the person or persons eating it for the very first time. And the Cook? Probably elevated to high priest/priestess. Maybe even Shaman or Medicine Man.

It comes in hundreds of varieties, and is created in almost every country on earth. The exception is Antarctica and the Arctic all the way south to where permafrost ends.

The Polar region did not know fruit or grains of any kind due to the lack of plants that produce these things. So farming or picking wild grains, nuts, fruits was and is impossible. Importation of ingredients for bread and later, the advent of Greenhouses, ended the lack of obtaining the necessary grains used in Bread making in the far north.

I have concentrated this series on Bread to only the varieties grown and eaten in North America and Mexico.

Definitions

Flour:

1. the grains of wheat or corn, primarily, that are dried and ground to a very fine powder.

Bread:

1. A mix of flour, water, salt and in most cases, a leavening substance.

Leaven:

1. A substance that causes fermentation of dough (a mix of flour and water) to expand.
   
   

Ferment:

1. A group of living organisms such as bacteria, mold, yeast, etc.

Examples of fermentation:

1. Yeast that converts sugar to alcohol.
2. Yeast or bacteria (such as in sourdough) That causes dough to expand and rise and adds flavor.

Sourdough:

1. Uncooked but fermented dough set aside for, and used, as a starter leaven for the next batch. No fresh yeast is needed after that first batch is made.

Egg Wash:

1. 2 eggs with 1/2 cup milk and flavored with a quarter teaspoon of vanilla and beaten with an egg beater till frothy.

Plain Bread, White or Wheat

White bread is wheat flour bleached to remove the yellow brown color of natural ground wheat and is cut to 1/2 inch slices, packaged and sold by the one and half pound package, aka, loaf.

Wheat bread is the same as white but without the bleaching.

The bleaching agent most often used is a mix of bromine and potassium.

Texas Toast

The history of Texas Toast is a little clouded, except for the Texas part.

The story I know of was that an order of bread delivered  to a Dallas Restaurant had some that were sliced too thick  for the toasters so an enterprising cook simply buttered  both sides and grilled it and promoted the idea to the customers that it was a new menu item called Texas Style Toast (you know, "everything is bigger in Texas?)

Obviously it caught on and as time passed the middle word, style, was dropped.

All of that makes a great story but when I was researching the trail drives and Chuck wagon food, I found that cooks, when they ran out of biscuits, would whip up what was left of the flour, add water and a pinch of salt, flatten it in a pan and fry it over coals. It became known as Fry bread and Pan fried bread.

But in the here and now, Texas Toast is simply a loaf of White Bread, sliced twice as thick as in the standard loaf and the top is weighted down during fermenting and baking so as to make a square loaf.
To make the toast, simply butter both sides and fry it, both sides, till golden brown in your frying pan.
It goes great with honey or Jam/Jelly.

French Toast

Prepare an egg wash and soak two slices of Texas Toast bread on both sides and fry as in Texas Toast above.

When golden brown on both sides, it is done and served up with maple syrup. Add a couple of fried eggs, bacon or sausage and you have the almost perfect breakfast.