FAQ for alt.bread.recipes

What is bread?

According to Webster's Second New International Dictionary, bread is an "article of food made from flour or meal by moistening, kneading, and baking.…" (The omitted portion of the definition consists of a lexicographer's understanding of the breadmaking process, which is similar in quality to a baker's understanding of lexicography.)

In practice, nearly all breads include flour made from wheat or rye, water, salt, and either yeast or another living starter culture of some sort. Additional ingredients help give different breads their distinctive characteristics.

Quickbreads, such as banana bread or zucchini bread, are made with chemical leavening and they are not kneaded. They are more closely related to muffins and cakes than to bread, and they are not discussed in this FAQ.

Some people cannot eat foods containing wheat. Others are sensitive to wheat, rye, and corn. Others cannot tolerate yeast in any form. For such people bread, as defined here, is not an appropriate food. Various bread substitutes have been developed, some of which are quite palatable. (While many gluten-free bread do use yeast for leavening, they are not kneaded, either.) More information can be found at the sites of organizations concerned with specific physiological conditions, such as the Celiac Sprue Association (http://www.csaceliacs.org/) and at sites that offer gluten-free recipes, such as http://www.ellenskitchen.com/faqs/glutfree.html and http://www.redstaryeast.com/collection.html. Another approach for families of such individuals is to investigate types of cuisine that are not so dependent on grains as is the typical North American or European diet. Such explorations are beyond the scope of a.b.r, however; and this FAQ has no additional information on bread substitutes and analogs.