Flatbread Explained

Flatbread
Type:Bread
Main Ingredient:Flour, water, salt

A flatbread is bread made usually with flour; water, milk, yogurt, or other liquid; and salt, and then thoroughly rolled into flattened dough. Many flatbreads are unleavened, although some are leavened, such as pita bread.

Flatbreads range from below one millimeter to a few centimeters thick so that they can be easily eaten without being sliced. They can be baked in an oven, fried in hot oil, grilled over hot coals, cooked on a hot pan, tava, comal, or metal griddle, and eaten fresh or packaged and frozen for later use.

History

Flatbreads were amongst the earliest processed foods, and evidence of their production has been found at ancient sites in Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, and the Indus civilization. The origin of all flatbread baking systems are said to be from the Fertile Crescent in West Asia, where they would subsequently spread to other regions of the world.[1]

In 2018, charred bread crumbs were found at a Natufian site called Shubayqa 1 in Jordan (in Harrat ash Shaam, the Black Desert) dating to 12,400 BC, some 4,000 years before the start of agriculture in the region. Analysis showed that they were probably from flatbread containing wild barley, einkorn wheat, oats, and Bolboschoenus glaucus tubers (a kind of rush).[2] [3]

Primitive clay ovens (tandir) used to bake unleavened flatbread were common in Anatolia during the Seljuk and Ottoman eras, and have been found at archaeological sites distributed across the Middle East. The word tandır comes from the Akkadian tinuru, which becomes tannur in Hebrew and Arabic, tandır in Turkish, and tandur in Urdu/Hindi. Of the hundreds of bread varieties known from cuneiform sources, unleavened tinuru bread was made by adhering bread to the side walls of a heated cylindrical oven. This type of bread is still central to rural food culture in this part of the world, reflected by the local folklore, where a young man and woman sharing fresh tandır bread is a symbol of young love, however, the culture of traditional bread baking is changing with younger generations, especially with those who reside in towns showing preference for modern conveniences.[4] [5]

List of flatbreads

Europe

Middle East and Africa

Central Asia

East Asia

South Asia

Southeast Asia

Americas

Australia

See also

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Pasqualone . Antonella . Traditional flat breads spread from the Fertile Crescent: Production process and history of baking systems . Journal of Ethnic Foods . March 2018 . 5 . 1 . 10–19 . 10.1016/j.jef.2018.02.002 . free . 11586/217814 . free .
  2. Colin Barras . Stone Age bread predates farming . New Scientist . 239 . 3187 . 6 . 21 July 2018 . 2018NewSc.239....6B . 10.1016/S0262-4079(18)31274-0 .
  3. Amaia Arranz-Otaegui. etal . Archaeobotanical evidence reveals the origins of bread 14,400 years ago in northeastern Jordan . . 115 . 31 . 7925–7930 . 16 July 2018 . 10.1073/pnas.1801071115. 30012614 . 6077754 . 2018PNAS..115.7925A . free .
  4. Parker . Bradley J. . Bread Ovens, Social Networks and Gendered Space: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Tandir Ovens in Southeastern Anatolia . American Antiquity . 2011 . 76 . 4 . 603–627 . 10.7183/0002-7316.76.4.603 . 41331914 . 163470937 .
  5. Takaoğlu, T. (2004). Ethnoarchaeological investigations in rural Anatolia. Cihangir, İstanbul: Ege Yayınları. (p7)
  6. Web site: What is Pinsa? - PMQ Pizza Magazine . www.pmq.com . 20 January 2021.
  7. Web site: McCart . Melissa . The Roman Pinsa Is the New Pizza . Eater NY . 20 January 2021 . en . 11 September 2017.
  8. Web site: Rodolfo Toe . Sarajevo Bakery Braces for Ramadan Bonanza . Balkan Insight . 3 May 2013 . 5 September 2018.
  9. Web site: Celjo . Farah . Serbian crepes are just one reason to try Fabrika by Madera: SBS Food . Sbs.com.au . 27 March 2018 . 5 September 2018.

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