Subject: Whole grain flour and bread - When, How and Why did we lose it?

From: [email-masked] (Mitchell E. Timin)
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 19:22:23 GMT

Does anyone know anything about when, how, and why our society converted
from whole grain bread to white bread?  I would like to learn about that,
or about refererences.

I think, but I am not sure, that bread played a larger role in our diets
a few hundred years ago than it does today.  This bread must have been whole
grain bread, since I think, again I am not sure, that manufacturing white
flour began after the industrial revolution was well under way, i.e. some
time in the 1800's.  Who knows anything about this subject?

Mitchell Timin

[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked]
Date: 17 Oct 93 20:22:42 -0500

> from whole grain bread to white bread?  I would like to learn about that,

There's a nice section on this in Richard Klein's _This Green World_. (Harper
& Row 1987, a nice, chatty economic botany text with wonderful stories).
Essentially, yes, the shift to white bread depended on changes of milling
techniques (milling through fairly widely spaced stones first to remove
bran and germ) then sifting through fine silk bolting cloths.  If memory
serves (and it often doesn't... I was reading just before going to sleep!),
the technique came from France to the US, where the first fine flour mill
was started in Minneapolis/St Paul (St Anthony Falls, perhaps???), but
later moved to Niagara Falls because of the greater hydropower available
there.

And yes, bread was the mainstay of diet in most of Europe for many centuries.

Kay Klier  Biology Dept  UNI

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From: [email-masked]
Date: 20 Oct 93 11:57:07 -0500

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] writes:
re: milling white flour:
 I was reading just before going to sleep!),
> later moved to Niagara Falls because of the greater hydropower available

Ah, had a chance to re-read.  The critical technological development in
making *really* white flour was the shift from stone millstones to steel.
(The stone chips tore heck out of the bolting cloth used for sieving the
flour).  The technique of steel milling was developed in France, then
the Swiss switched to one steel and one porcelain roller, with even 
better results.  The Hungarians, though, took the technology and became
the premier millers of Europe -- virtually a monopoly on white flour.
The first governor of Minnesota invited a few Hungarians over to bring
the technology... 

Scott, I know San Franciscans are bread-crazy, but Iowans are almost as
bad.  There is a strong preference for white bread here, probably reflecting
the predominantly northern European ancestry, but I can easily obtain
croissants, a variety of whole wheat and rye breads, many of the basic 
and not so basic Italian breads, and an occasional Challah...  ;-)
Cedar Rapids, with its strong Bohemian influence is a great place to
find kolache... and I sure can't imagine whole wheat kolache any more
than I can imagine whole wheat kringla!

Why was there a strong historical preference for white flour over whole
wheat?  Well, if you've ever had bread made from 100% whole wheat, you
know it's pretty dense stuff.  In fact, I take it camping with me because
of its almost indestructible nature. ;-)  The bran, when present in great
quantities is a great intestinal irritant... in fact a diet too rich in
bran can actually cause malabsorption of food, due to increased intestinal
motility.  Then, of course, there's the millstone grit...  And finally,
whole wheat flour goes rancid much more quickly than white, reflecting the
oxidation of the fats in the embryo (germ).

Me?  I glory in the variety of breads I have available... and wish I still
had time to bake my own regularly.  And now that I made myself hungry,
I think I'll go have a bagel and my muenster and limpa sandwich...  8-)

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From: [email-masked] (David Friedman)
Date: 20 Oct 1993 22:52:40 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Scott Fisher)
wrote:

> For the definitive answer, of course, see the Larousse Gastronomique, ...

Have you found the Larousse Gastronomique to be a reliable source on
historical questions? My impression was the opposite.

David Friedman
[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Jacques Guy)
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 02:16:39 GMT

>historical questions? My impression was the opposite.

Same here. May I sneak in a plug for Brillat-Savarin's "Physiology of
Taste"? All the more so that you, jammy, jammy fellows in the States
can buy it dirt cheap: it's on the Dover list.

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From: [email-masked] (Robert H Tosh)
Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 04:30:20 GMT

>can buy it dirt cheap: it's on the Dover list.

Yes, "plug" all you want re Brillat-Savarin!  The translation by Fisher 
is a treasure, and an oft-read book by me, in a version that <wasn't> 
dirt-cheap, but affordable.

And quibble all you want about M.F.K. Fisher qua food historian: she 
wasn't one.  She was a clever and talented writer who used the pretext of 
the subject of food to jump off into wonderful realms.  In some respects, 
her "translation" of Brillat-Savarin may not have been keenly accurate, 
but it <was> very informative and rich.

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From: [email-masked] (John Trimble)
Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993 18:46:53 GMT

My favorite reference on the subject of bread is volume one of 
Fernand Braudel's Civilization and Capitalism.  The volume is titled (in the 
English translation, The Structures of Everyday Life.  The Chapter is 
Daily Bread.  The discussion ranges over agrarian practices in various regions
of the world in the 15th to 18th centuries which governed what was grown and
how it was grown, the commercial practices that channeled the distribution of 
the harvest both geographically and class-wise (as in only the "rich" ate 
white bread), to a lesser extent, the health and diet beliefs that accompanied
these practices.  In short, it's who ate what, when and where, and what they
thought they were eating.  For what it's worth, I believe it's the most beautiful chapter of a history book I've ever read, so much so that reading it feels 
a lot like viewing good art or eating good food.  In my experience, it is a  rare thing for reading history to pass the ultimate test of worthwhile human experience, which is, does it feel as good as a good meal in good company?
Bon apetit.
[email-masked]