It seems extraordinary, but it is, nevertheless, a fact, that, up to this present time, there has not been written, in the English language, a History of Bread, although it is called ‘the Staff of Life,’ and really is a large staple of food.
There have been small brochures on the subject, and large volumes on the Chemistry of Bread, its making and baking; and long controversies as to the merits of whole meal, and other kindred questions, but no History. It is to remedy this that I have written this book, in which I have endeavoured to trace Bread from Pre-historic to Modern Times.
John Ashton.
CONTENTS
| Page. | |||
| Chapter | I. | Pre-historic Bread | [13] |
| ” | II. | Corn in Egypt and Assyria | [20] |
| ” | III. | Bread in Palestine | [29] |
| ” | IV. | The Bread of the Classic Lands | [43] |
| ” | V. | Bread in Eastern Lands | [56] |
| ” | VI. | Bread in Europe and America | [69] |
| ” | VII. | Early English Bread | [83] |
| ” | VIII. | How Grain becomes Flour | [103] |
| ” | IX. | The Miller and His Tolls | [114] |
| ” | X. | Bread-Making and Baking | [123] |
| ” | XI. | Ovens Ancient and Modern | [136] |
| ” | XII. | The Religious Use of Bread | [142] |
| ” | XIII. | Ginger Bread and Charity Bread | [150] |
| ” | XIV. | Bread Riots | [162] |
| ” | XV. | Legends about Bread | [170] |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Egyptians Threshing Corn by Hand; Winnowingand Storing it in Sacks, and a Scribe Notingthe Quantities | [Frontispiece.] |
| Page. | |
| Pre-historic Mills and Corn-Crushers | [17] |
| Egyptian Reapers | [20] |
| Egyptians Stacking Corn | [21] |
Egyptians Carrying Grain to the Threshing-Floor and Threshing | [23] |
| Egyptian Methods of Bread-Making | [25] |
| Assyrian Bread-Making | [26] |
| Egyptian Cake Seller and Bread | [27] |
| A Palestine Hand-Mill | [36] |
| Demeter and Triptolemus | [45] |
| Pithoi found at Hissarlik | [47] |
| Etruscan Women Pounding Grain | [49] |
| A Bake-House at Pompeii | [51] |
| Roman Methods of Bread-Making | [53] |
| A Baker’s Shop (from Pompeii) | [54] |
| Chinese Method of Husking Grain | [59] |
| Early Scandinavian Bakeries | [70]-71 |
| A Mediæval Bakery | [79] |
| The Arms of the White Bakers | [86] |
| The Arms of the Brown Bakers | [87] |
| An Early Bakery | [91] |
| A Post Mill | [104] |
| A Water-Wheel Mill | [105] |
| The Grinding Surface of a Millstone | [107] |
| ‘Hot Gingerbread, Smoking Hot’ | [152] |
| Hogarth’s Picture of Ford | [154] |
| The Biddenden Maids | [160] |