What is a Bread made of?
What is a Bread made of?
Flour, water, yeast and salt — plus, in most factory loaves, enzymes, emulsifiers and a mould inhibitor.
The difference between a bakery loaf and a supermarket one is mostly time. The Chorleywood process, developed in Britain in 1961, replaces the long fermentation that develops gluten with intense high-energy mixing plus oxidising agents, cutting bread-making to a few hours and allowing weaker home-grown wheat to be used. It made bread cheap and consistent and is now used for the large majority of packaged bread in the UK. Staling is not drying out: it is starch retrogradation, the recrystallisation of gelatinised starch, which is why a stale loaf freshens briefly in the oven and why bread stales faster in the fridge than on the counter.
Component by component
| Part | Material | Why that material |
|---|---|---|
| flour | wheat flour, with glutenin and gliadin proteins | Those two proteins combine with water into gluten, an elastic network that traps gas; no other common grain forms it. |
| leavening | baker's yeast, or a sourdough culture of wild yeast and lactobacilli | Yeast produces the carbon dioxide that inflates the gluten network; sourdough bacteria add acid, which slows staling and adds flavour. |
| salt | sodium chloride, around 1.5-2% of flour weight | It tightens the gluten and moderates the yeast; bread made without it rises too fast and tastes flat and papery. |
| improvers (factory bread) | ascorbic acid, fungal amylase and xylanase, emulsifiers such as DATEM or SSL | They let a loaf be mixed, proved and baked in about three hours instead of overnight, and keep the crumb soft for a week. |
| preservative | calcium propionate or vinegar | It suppresses mould rather than bacteria, which is the failure mode of a wrapped loaf at room temperature. |
Other food and drink objects
- Marshmallow Sugar syrup whipped full of air and held there by gelatin, which comes from animal collagen.
- Chewing gum A base of synthetic rubber, wax and resin that you never swallow, carrying sweetener and flavour that you do.
- Chocolate Ground cocoa solids and cocoa butter with sugar, plus a trace of lecithin — the fat does the rest.
- Gelatin Collagen from animal skin and bone, broken down with acid or alkali and dried. There is no plant version.
- Cheese Milk protein clotted by an enzyme, drained of whey and salted — four ingredients and a lot of time.
- Potato chips (crisps) Thin potato slices fried in vegetable oil, seasoned with a maltodextrin-carried flavour powder, packed in nitrogen.
- Tofu Soy milk curdled with a mineral salt and pressed — cheese-making, with soybeans instead of milk.
Common questions
- What is a Bread made of?
- Flour, water, yeast and salt — plus, in most factory loaves, enzymes, emulsifiers and a mould inhibitor.
- What is the flour of a Bread made of?
- Wheat flour, with glutenin and gliadin proteins. Those two proteins combine with water into gluten, an elastic network that traps gas; no other common grain forms it.
- What is the leavening of a Bread made of?
- Baker's yeast, or a sourdough culture of wild yeast and lactobacilli. Yeast produces the carbon dioxide that inflates the gluten network; sourdough bacteria add acid, which slows staling and adds flavour.
Related pages
- Marshmallow Sugar syrup whipped full of air and held there by gelatin, which comes from animal collagen.
- Chewing gum A base of synthetic rubber, wax and resin that you never swallow, carrying sweetener and flavour that you do.
- Chocolate Ground cocoa solids and cocoa butter with sugar, plus a trace of lecithin — the fat does the rest.
- Gelatin Collagen from animal skin and bone, broken down with acid or alkali and dried. There is no plant version.
- Cheese Milk protein clotted by an enzyme, drained of whey and salted — four ingredients and a lot of time.
- Potato chips (crisps) Thin potato slices fried in vegetable oil, seasoned with a maltodextrin-carried flavour powder, packed in nitrogen.
- Tofu Soy milk curdled with a mineral salt and pressed — cheese-making, with soybeans instead of milk.
- Pencil Stationery and paper
- Tennis ball Sport and games
- Banknote Around the house
- Golf ball Sport and games
- Paper Stationery and paper
- Glass Building materials
Sources
- Official vendor product documentation — At One Place