| Graham bread | |
| Country: | United States |
| Type: | Bread |
| Main Ingredient: | Whole-wheat flour |
Graham bread is a name for whole wheat bread that was inspired by the teachings of health reformer Sylvester Graham.[1] [2] The ingredients for Graham bread include Graham flour, milk, molasses, yeast, and salt.
Sylvester Graham was a 19th-century health reformer who argued that a vegetarian diet, anchored by bread that was baked at home from a coarsely ground whole-wheat flour, was part of a healthful lifestyle that could prevent disease.[3] [4]
In 1837, Graham published the popular book Treatise on Bread and Bread-Making, which included a history of bread and described how to make Graham bread, though the passage is absent of any exact measurements and instead calls upon the baker's "good judgment." It was reprinted in 2012 by Andrews McMeel Publishing, as a selection of its American Antiquarian Cookbook Collection.
Like Graham crackers, Graham bread was high in fiber and made from graham flour free from the chemical additives that were common in white bread at that time[5] such as alum and chlorine. He argued that these chemical additives were unwholesome.[4]