Great Uncle Fred? Bread seems to be very important to just about everybody but it is not very easy to make. How did anyone work out how to make it in the first place? How was bread discovered? (Marie, Autumn 2008)

Most things of any importance are discovered by accident and bread is surely no exception. But we can never know for sure. Early people, though, they must have been great experimenters, triers out of new plants, interested to see what would happen if you bashed this object with a rock or added water to that one. Once they had got going on exploring the environment, it would not have taken them long to discover a wild form of wheat, domesticate it, grind it into flour, add water to it, cook it and - hey presto! - the first (unleavened)bread was made. Then, one day, the mixture was left out in the warmth, a yeast formed and when the bread was cooked, it rose! The first leavened bread! The first evidence of the use of yeast comes from Egypt but most historians of bread reckon that the ancient peoples would have been making bread with yeast well before the Egyptians got round to it. I think that is roughly how the miracle of bread was hit upon, probably by countless different groups of experimenters at roughly the same time. I hope that answers your question. Enjoy that sandwich! It`s come a long way!

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