Bread - why you can't improve on the greatest invention of all time

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# Making Bread **WHY YOU CAN'T BEAT THE EXISTING RECIPES**
I don't think anyone knows who invented bread, and I don't think we can ever know. It's one of those things that go back in to antiquity. Many of the foods that we eat were *invented* accidentally while trying to figure out how to preserve fresh produce, or while laying there in the dark corner of the cave pantry, out in the sun under a tree from whence it fell, or immersed in stream water. Bacteria fermented and spoiled foods; sauerkraut, pickles, [banku](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banku), sour milk, cheese, etc. Sun, salt or smoke dried foods; [crayfish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crayfish), [stockfish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockfish), raisons, dates, prunes, parma ham, etc. Some of the delicacies occurred after the invention of fire; roasted tubers, meat, fish and vegetables. Further along the line, the invention of the oven sometime in ancient times brought us what is probably the greatest invention of all time - ***"bread"***.

In many parts of the world, the word "bread" is synonymous to "food". It's referred to as "daily bread" aptly as it is consumed daily, at times it's the only thing consumed. There's a great variety in what is called bread. There are leavened and unleavened types of bread for example. They come in different shapes and sizes with a host of different ingredients. Depending on which part of the world, bread has been perfected and fine-tuned to suit the local palate. From the [Injera](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injera) bread from the Horn of Africa to the Central American [Tortilla](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortilla) (*not to be confused with the Spanish omelette of same name*) to the South Asian [Roti](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roti), flat breads probably predate raised ones, and probably share a common pre-historic ancestor. Who knows. What is clear is, bread is the most fine-tuned food in the world. It's the one that has been most experimented with until perfection emerged in different forms around the world. The French baguette is pure perfection. The Czech [chléb](https://www.196flavors.com/czech-republic-cesky-chleb/) is poetry in the mouth. The [Peshwari naan](https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/user/3631821/recipe/peshwari-naan) is one of the best things I've ever had the pleasure of eating. [Agege bread](https://www.nigerianfoodtv.com/nigerian-agege-bread-agege-bread) regularly induces tears of joy on the streets of Nigeria especially when paired with some good [*"Ewa Agoyin"*](https://www.myactivekitchen.com/ewa-aganyin-7/). Unfortunately, bread has become a victim of its own success. First of all, we have become addicted to it - primarily due to the drastic change in the the ingredients used to make bread. There's a lot more refined sugar that gets put into bread now, it might as well be cake. There are also many chemicals; preservatives, artificial flavourings and colourants for instance, that have made their way into bread to help keep them in storage for longer. This is mainly to decrease waste, hence increase profit, for the mass producers of bread. Since we don't make our own bread anymore, and many don't buy from local same-day bakers, there is a need to make them last longer so they can be transported and sold in distant lands many months after they're made. There's also the issue of gluten allergy and coeliac disease. Over the decades the variety of wheat has dwindled to just a few - there used to be thousands! Genetic engineering and large-scale agriculture has unnaturally selected wheat in a way that is detrimental to our bodies. That deserves a whole post on its own.

Bread is now seen as a "bad" thing. Along with potatoes, white rice and sugar, it's to be "given up" if you want to be healthy. It's on the axe list of most new year resolutions and "summer body" aspirants. It was on my list this year, along with other refined sugar and high carb foods, but I decided to do something different this time. Rather than give up bread, I decided to change the bread. The attempt was to go back to the old ways since before the excessive gluten, refined sugars and chemicals. I saw so many recipes under different names; "Keto bread", "Paleo bread", "Ancestral style bread", and so on. It turns out that, as usual, I wasn't the first person to think of this idea :). What I also quickly realised is that when it comes to bread, there's nothing new under the sun. **Everything has been tried**. People have been experimenting with different ingredients for tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of years! Which is exactly why I could not get anywhere close to the ***taste*** and ***texture*** of bread I was after without using some of the conventional ingredients. A lot of it is just Chemistry sadly.

One of the only good parts of the pandemic is the time it created to try stuff like this. I did experiment with a few recipes and tweaks of mine own, resulting mostly in culinary disaster. I have, however, arrived at a good place. This one is as close as I can get to 'bread' while keeping it 'keto' and gluten-free. One great sign of 'good' bread is its ability to just get out of the way of the food you're eating it with. This one almost achieves that, so I'm happy. As for the recipe for this bread bun, well, that's classified :) Peace & Love, *Adé*

Originally posted here: https://hive.blog/hive-120586/@adetorrent/bread-why-you-cant-improve-on-the-greatest-invention-of-all-time