How on Earth did humans manage to start baking? The brief response would be "by experimenting," yet what drove them to turn wheat grains into flour initially? Then again, why combine it with water and yeast before cooking it? Ellie Westcombe, London
Send new questions to nq@ .
Readers reply
This is merely a tiny fragment of my vast, continuous inquiry into how on earth humans managed to figure out survival tactics. Consuming the liver of fugu (puffer fish), for example. I mean, why? How ? How many individuals passed away before they figured out what part needed to be rejected? People can really be strange, I must say. Weird . EBGB
In part because consuming that particular item might lead to our demise; however, abstaining from eating altogether would undoubtedly result in certain death as well. It's plausible that bread emerged when people began crushing seeds that were too difficult for some individuals—possibly elders—to chew, mixing them with water to improve their texture. With consistent access to fire, it isn't far-fetched to envision someone accidentally discovering—or curiously experimenting—that one can create something akin to a flatbread on a heated rock. In times of scarce provisions, such fortuitous mishaps become sustenance. Furthermore, leaving damp crushed grain unattended could cause fermentation over time. One probably wouldn't discard an altered substance if it still seemed somewhat edible post-cooking on a stone surface. These tales sound fanciful, yet within extensive periods, they appear quite conceivable. MattB13
Related: How baking played a crucial role in saving my life
Learning how to bake is straightforward. You don’t need a teacher, you just knead a bit of dough to get started. EddieChorepost
The earliest evidence of grinding grain and bread-making is from about 14,000 years ago in Jordan . It was wild varieties of wheats and barleys, mixed with starchy tubers. That’s long before any cereals were cultivated and before pottery was developed; an age with flint tools only. No yeast was needed, but they had fires and had been roasting meat for thousands of years, so the idea of cooking food to make it easier to digest was familiar. The great advantage of grains (along with nuts and any other collectable seeds) over fresh fruits is they can be stored for months between growing seasons when there might be little available to hunt and nothing fresh to gather. leadballoon
More interesting still – how did nomadic hunter-gatherers learn to stay in one place long enough to grow a wheat to make bread? Farming must be the single most socially disruptive invention ever – and there have been plenty of competitors. Randomusername222
Ask Yuval Noah Harari. He writes in Sapiens that wheat domesticated humans, not the other way round. WaveletFRA
Gruel, a porridge or barley or wheat or both, in the climate of ancient Egypt, would ferment with wild yeasts and then make a very thick rising dough if left to dry in the heat of the midday sun. This could be transported, whereas gruel can’t. Thus deliberate baking was a refinement – evolution, not revolution. Bread from ancient Egyptian tombs has the density of something like rye bread; pretty solid. Evidently, the process was still being learned. Gruel left over in the UK’s climate doesn’t ferment, it just goes mouldy. But bread was created in the hot countries of the fertile crescent , where nature lends a hand. Socialismnow