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 "Bread is the head of everything" - rightly believe many inhabitants of the earth. It is one of the oldest crops in the world. It's hard to imagine a day without a fragrant toast with a cup of hot coffee or a ham or cheese sandwich. It would seem that humanity knows everything about this product. We just take from the store shelf a soft baguette, rye with caraway seeds, bruschetta with garlic, and serve neatly sliced bread for lunch or dinner, considering it a common addition to the meal.
However, this subject of our daily diet is not so simple. Here are some interesting facts.
How did the word bread appear?
The word "bread" has ancient Greek roots. Ancient inhabitants baked bread in a special pottery "klibanos", which, together with Greek travelers, spread to Europe. On the continent, the word has undergone changes and turned into "hlife", and it already meant not only the dishes for baking, but also its contents. Thus, in the Old German it was preserved “hlaib”, in the Estonian “life”, and in the Russian “bread”.
Napoleon became the author of the bread brand
During the Prussian campaign, after one of the battles, the great commander decided to reward his horse for its endurance on the battlefield - to give it a piece of bread. Napoleon loudly commanded "Pain pour Nicole", that is, "Bread for Nicole." The French language was poorly perceived by the German ear, so the audience heard "pumpernickel". Since those in Germany, this is the name for bread made from coarsely ground rye flour and whole grains of rye.
Banned sliced bread
In America, in January 1943, the head of the committee responsible for the supply of food to the front, as well as concurrently the Minister of Agriculture, Claude R. Vicard prohibited the sale of sliced bread... The official believed that the shell in which the bread is packed adversely affects its taste, and the slices quickly lose their freshness. The initiative did not find support among citizens, so sliced bread returned to store shelves and soldiers' food rations in March of the same year.
Egyptians - the inventors of bread
The first loaf of bread was baked in Egypt about 8,000 years ago. The papyrus scrolls and hieroglyphs on the walls of the pyramids did not retain the name of the baker, but it is known that he made the discovery completely by accident. Having forgotten in the evening in the clay oven the flour diluted with water, in the morning he found a ruddy cake.
Why a sandwich?
In the 16th century, there was John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, who was an avid gambler. The game was so addictive that he could not even interrupt for food. He asked his servant to cut off a slice of toasted bread and put a piece of meat on it. Over time, other players also adopted the Count's habit and asked, "Me the same as Sandwich." The culinary invention went beyond the circle of gambling and exists to this day in a wide variety of forms.
9 km of sweet pleasure
The largest loaf of bread was baked in 1995 in Acapulco, Mexico. The length of the product was 9 km. This achievement was even included in the Guinness Book of Records. Unfortunately, it is not known how much flour, butter, eggs and other ingredients were used to create the giant masterpiece.
Bread is a substitute for money
In the 20s of the last century, a food crisis broke out in Soviet Russia, which fell on unprecedented inflation. Money has finally depreciated, but bread, which cannot be dispensed with, has always been appreciated, so the government issued checks. One check was equal to 1 pound of bread. This "monetary unit" helped many people not to die of hunger.
Bocca O.
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