The Culture of Bread

Our oven broke.  This is annoying because not only did the piece break that we just replaced, but because I went from making bread that looked like this:

To this:

Christophe gasps when I pulled the bread machine out.  It’s gotten us out of jams in the past, but it just doesn’t cut it when you can make a bread that comes out of the oven looking like it just came from a bakery.  Unlike any other bread I’ve made before, this bread comes out with a crust made to impress, and you can hear it crackle on the cooling rack. Christophe is known to break a piece off it right out of the oven; he calls it an emotion.  When anyone comes to visit, one loaf disappears at lunch and I always need to have a backup ready.  I’ve won his family over with it – and they’re French!  I’ve made it for his Provençal grandmother when we visit, and she proclaims it to be the best homemade bread she’s ever eaten.

This might not seem like a big deal, but this is a huge feather in my cap.  France is the culture of bread.  People do stroll down the street with a baguette under their arm, and it wasn’t long ago when every French person ate 1 kilogram of bread each day.  That’s over 2 pounds – everyday!

Bread is more than just a stereotype in France.  It’s a symbol, a right, a history, and at one point, a big part of everyday life.  It used to influence how houses and villages were built.  Many villages still have an enormous communal bread oven that turns night and day and acts as a local gathering place.  Our house, like many in the region, has a wood burning bread oven.  It might not work anymore, but bread continues to be made in the same kitchen where it has been made for over 600 years.

I can’t take credit for the bread; it’s a Cook’s Illustrated recipe.  It could be called just a bread, but I see it as something more than a thing we eat; I see it as something that nourishes a culture and brings me closer to a rich gastronomy steeped in history.