Historically bread has played an important role in nearly every
major European culture. In the Bible the word "bread" is
synonymous with "nourishment." The English word "lord" is
derived from the old English "hlaford", meaning "keeper of the
bread." The role of challah and matzoh in Judaism and the
communion wafer in Christianity are, of course, well known. The
word "companion" is derived from the Latin "companio", meaning
"one who shares bread." And in our society, think about what the
use of the slang terms "dough" and "bread" for money says about
our 20th-century priorities. The origins of raised bread date
back to ancient Egypt, sometime around 4000 BC. Previously only
flat breads, along the lines of tortillas or Chinese pancakes,
were known. Early wild strains of wheat needed to be toasted
before they could be threshed, and the heat prevented the gluten
development essential to bread making. The Egyptians developed a
strain of wheat that could be threshed without heating, and 6000
years of bread baking t