10/16/2024
Happy World Bread Day!! 🍞 🥐🥯🥖🥨🥪🥧
World Bread Day is an international observance celebrated on October 16 every year.
Bread is one of the oldest prepared foods. It is possible that people used starch extract from the roots of plants to cook a primitive form of flatbread as early as 30,000 years ago. Grains became the mainstay of making bread with the dawn of Neolithic age. The ancient Egyptians are believed to be the first to use yeast to leaven the dough.
It is usually made from wheat, but bread can be also made from other grains, including rye, barley, oats, maize, rice, millet, and sorghum. If you can turn it into a powder you can make it into a flour! Nuts, banana, cassava, soybeans, acorns, coconut, chickpea, beans, potato, fruit, etc. In many cuisines, there are traditional bread recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation.
For just about every occasion Ukrainians have a special bread. Since Ancient times, Ukraine was an agricultural community known in recent times as the ‘Breadbasket of Europe’. Bread was considered a gift from the gods, a symbol of life. If a piece fell on the ground, it was never thrown away, any crumbs were given to the animals. The ancient symbols on decorated ritual breads signify prosperity, eternity, peace, and hospitality. Since 988, when Ukraine became a Christian nation, some of the bread symbols have taken on a Christian meaning.
Each region of Ukraine has its traditions and names for these ritual breads. In some cases, special songs were sung, or specific words spoken depending on the occasion. Ukrainians bake bread for the beginning of life, holidays like Easter and Christmas, Saint Days, Weddings, Housewarmings, Harvests, and Funerals. Homemade bread recipes and traditions were handed down from mother to daughter. There are many sayings about bread. One common one is, “Where bread and water, there is no hunger.”
Here are just a few names of Ukrainian Breads: Babka, Kolach, P***a, Shyshky, Holubky, Knysh, Pyrizhky, Zhaivoronky, Palanytsia, Pampushky, Kalyta, Balabushky, Pomana and of course Korovai!
This week was a quadruple Korovai baking week. Pick your favorite! 1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣4️⃣