Brown bread, in contrast to white bread, is bread made with significant amounts of whole grain flours, usually wheat sometimes with corn and or rye flours. In some countries Brown breads often get their characteristic dark color from ingredients such as molasses or coffee. In Canada, the UK, Ireland and
/ref>, within the US areas of New England and the Maritimes, brown bread is bread sweetened with molasses.
History
In Ireland, during the Famine, prior to 1848, brown bread was handed out to the poor.
In England, brown bread was made from brown meal.
Around and prior to the year 1845, brown meal was considered a less desirable grain product, and was priced accordingly. However, by 1865, due to recently discovered health benefits of bran, brown meal's London price had increased to a point often greater than that of fine flour.
Flour milling
Historically, brown meal was what remained after about 90% of the coarse, outer
bran and 74% of pure
endosperm or fine flour was removed from the whole grain.
Using slightly different
flour extraction numbers, brown meal, representing 20% of the whole grain, was itself composed of about 15% fine bran and 85% white flour.
In 1848 it was asserted grain millers knew only of bran and endosperm,
but by 1912 it was more widely known that brown meal included the
Cereal germ.
Color
The brown color of whole grain breads is caused by
cerealine, a discovery attributed to Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès of France.
Cerealine, considered by Mouriès an active principal or ferment similar in action to
diastase,
came from the
cereal layer of rectangular cells that millers considered a part of bran: later it was alternatively called the
Aleurone.
In a statement attributed to Mouriès, if the cerealine is neutralized, white bread can be made from bran-containing flour.
Varieties
Irish
Irish wheaten bread is a form of
Soda bread made with whole-wheat flour.
Borodinsky
Borodinsky bread is a slightly sweet
sourdough rye bread of Russian origin, usually flavoured by
caraway seed and
and sweetened with
molasses, which augments its already quite dark colour coming from the rye flour. It is named after the Battle of Borodino, and the legend says that it was invented by the widow of one of the Russian generals who died in that battle, though in reality it was probably created much later, at the end of the 19th century.
Boston
New England or Boston brown bread is a type of dark, slightly sweet
Multigrain bread steamed bread, usually sweetened with
molasses, popular in
New England. The moist bread is dark in colour and traditionally served with
baked beans and
Hot dog.
Boston brown bread's colour comes from a mixture of flours, usually a mix of several of the following: cornmeal, rye, whole wheat, graham flour, and from the addition of sweeteners like molasses and maple syrup. are sometimes added. The batter is poured into a can, and steamed in a kettle.
Loaf volume
Whole wheat flours that contain raw
Cereal germ, instead of toasted germ, have higher levels of
glutathione, and thus result in lower loaf volumes.
Gallery
File:Brown bread crust.jpg|Crust of a loaf of brown bread
File:Zeppelinwurst mit Brot EVA 8814.jpg|Frankfurter with brown bread
File:Buttered walnut and raisin bread.jpg|Butter walnut and raisin brown bread
File:Pan, queso y embutido ibérico - Mumumío.jpg|Brown bread served with cheese and sausage
See also
External links
