History of Bread
Wheat has been cultivated by man since the time before recorded history. It is conjectured by anthropologists that hungry hunter gatherers first stockpiled the grain as a storable food source. When it got wet, it sprouted, and people found that if the grain was planted it yielded yet more seeds.
Grown in Mesopotamia and Egypt, wheat was likely first merely chewed. Later it was discovered that it could be pulverised and made into a paste. Set over a fire, the paste hardened into a flat bread and was kept for days.
In Egypt, around 1000 BC, inquiring minds isolated yeast and were able to introduce the culture directly to their breads. Also a new strain of wheat was developed that allowed for refined white bread. This was the first truly modern bread. Up to thirty varieties of bread may have been popular in ancient Egypt.
The Greeks picked up the technology for making bread from the Egyptians. It then spread over Europe. Bread and wheat were especially important in Rome where it was thought more vital than meat.
Through much of history, a person's social station could be discerned by the colour of bread they consumed. The darker the bread, the lower the social station. This was because whiter flours were more expensive and harder for millers to adulterate with other products. Today, we have seen a reversal of this trend when darker breads are more expensive and highly prized for their taste as well as their nutritional value.
History of Chocolate
Cocoa is said to have originated in the Amazon at least 4,000 years ago.
Wheat has been cultivated by man since the time before recorded history. It is conjectured by anthropologists that hungry hunter gatherers first stockpiled the grain as a storable food source. When it got wet, it sprouted, and people found that if the grain was planted it yielded yet more seeds.
Grown in Mesopotamia and Egypt, wheat was likely first merely chewed. Later it was discovered that it could be pulverised and made into a paste. Set over a fire, the paste hardened into a flat bread and was kept for days.
In Egypt, around 1000 BC, inquiring minds isolated yeast and were able to introduce the culture directly to their breads. Also a new strain of wheat was developed that allowed for refined white bread. This was the first truly modern bread. Up to thirty varieties of bread may have been popular in ancient Egypt.
The Greeks picked up the technology for making bread from the Egyptians. It then spread over Europe. Bread and wheat were especially important in Rome where it was thought more vital than meat.
Through much of history, a person's social station could be discerned by the colour of bread they consumed. The darker the bread, the lower the social station. This was because whiter flours were more expensive and harder for millers to adulterate with other products. Today, we have seen a reversal of this trend when darker breads are more expensive and highly prized for their taste as well as their nutritional value.
History of Chocolate
Cocoa is said to have originated in the Amazon at least 4,000 years ago.
The Cacao Tree was worshipped by the Mayan civilization of Central America and Southern Mexico, who believed it to be of divine origin.
The first chocolate factories opened in Spain, where the dried fermented beans brought back from the new world by the Spanish treasure fleets were roasted and ground, from which the European version of the drink was made.
Within a few years, the Cocoa beverage made from the powder produced in Spain had become popular throughout Europe. In about 1520, it arrived in England.
The first chocolate that was being eaten in solid form is when bakers in England began adding cocoa powder to cakes in the mid 1600's. Then in 1828 a Dutch chemist, Johannes Van Houten, invented a method of extracting the bitter tasting fat or "cocoa butter" from the roasted ground beans.
Chocolate as we know it today first appeared in 1847 when Fry & Sons of Bristol, England - mixed sugar with cocoa powder and cocoa butter to produce the first solid chocolate bar then, in 1875 a Swiss manufacturer, Daniel Peters, found a way to combine cocoa powder and cocoa butter with sugar and dried milk powder to produce the first milk chocolate.
Source: http://www.gol27.Historyfood.html
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