Flatbread

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Flatbread
Rye and Potato rieska - 1.JPG
Homemade flatbread
Type Bread
Main ingredients Flour, water, salt

A flatbread is bread made usually with flour; water, milk, yogurt, or other liquid; and salt, and then thoroughly rolled into flattened dough. Many flatbreads are unleavened, although some are leavened, such as pita bread.

Contents

Flatbreads range from below one millimeter to a few centimeters thick so that they can be easily eaten without being sliced. They can be baked in an oven, fried in hot oil, grilled over hot coals, cooked on a hot pan, tava, comal, or metal griddle, and eaten fresh or packaged and frozen for later use.

History

Flatbreads were amongst the earliest processed foods, and evidence of their production has been found at ancient sites in Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, and the Indus civilization. The origin of all flatbread baking systems are said to be from the Fertile Crescent in West Asia, where they would subsequently spread to other regions of the world. [1]

In 2018, charred bread crumbs were found at a Natufian site called Shubayqa 1 in Jordan (in Harrat ash Shaam, the Black Desert) dating to 12,400 BC, some 4,000 years before the start of agriculture in the region. Analysis showed that they were probably from flatbread containing wild barley, einkorn wheat, oats, and Bolboschoenus glaucus tubers (a kind of rush). [2] [3]

Primitive clay ovens (tandir) used to bake unleavened flatbread were common in Anatolia during the Seljuk and Ottoman eras, and have been found at archaeological sites distributed across the Middle East. The word tandır comes from the Akkadian tinuru, which becomes tannur in Hebrew and Arabic, tandır in Turkish, and tandur in Urdu/Hindi. Of the hundreds of bread varieties known from cuneiform sources, unleavened tinuru bread was made by adhering bread to the side walls of a heated cylindrical oven. This type of bread is still central to rural food culture in this part of the world, reflected by the local folklore, where a young man and woman sharing fresh tandır bread is a symbol of young love, however, the culture of traditional bread baking is changing with younger generations, especially with those who reside in towns showing preference for modern conveniences. [4] [5]

List of flatbreads

Europe

Pane carasau from Sardinia Pane carasau.jpg
Pane carasau from Sardinia
Lagana from Greece Lagana (lagana) (cropped).jpg
Lagana from Greece

Middle East and Africa

Georgian tonis puri Lavash.jpg
Georgian tonis puri
Different types of pita, Mahane Yehuda marketplace, Jerusalem PileofpitaS.jpg
Different types of pita, Mahane Yehuda marketplace, Jerusalem
Yemeni lahoh LahohS.jpg
Yemeni lahoh

Central Asia

A selection of Tajik non (naan) Taj Lepeshki.jpg
A selection of Tajik non (naan)
Afghan bread Afghan bread.jpg
Afghan bread

East Asia

Taking Jingzhou-style guokui out of the oven Cooking Jingzhou style guokui.jpg
Taking Jingzhou-style guokui out of the oven

South Asia

Southeast Asia

Piaya flavored with ube (purple yam) and muscovado sugar Piaya flatbread (Philippines) 01.jpg
Piaya flavored with ube (purple yam) and muscovado sugar

Americas

Preparing tortillas Balboa 20 bg 120603.jpg
Preparing tortillas
A tomato and pesto flatbread in New York At New York City 2024 119.jpg
A tomato and pesto flatbread in New York

Australia

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pita</span> Yeast leavened flatbread baked from wheat flour

Pita or pitta is a family of yeast-leavened round flatbreads baked from wheat flour, common in the Mediterranean, Levant, and neighboring areas. It includes the widely known version with an interior pocket, also known as Arabic bread. In the United Kingdom, Greek bread is used for pocket versions such as the Greek pita, and are used for barbecues as a souvlaki wrap. The Western name pita may sometimes be used to refer to various other types of flatbreads that have different names in their local languages, such as numerous styles of Arab khubz (bread).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corn tortilla</span> Unleavened flatbread made from nixtamalized maize

In North America, a corn tortilla or just tortilla is a type of thin, unleavened flatbread, made from hominy, that is the whole kernels of maize treated with alkali to improve their nutrition in a process called nixtamalization. A simple dough made of ground hominy, salt and water is then formed into flat discs and cooked on a very hot surface, generally an iron griddle called a comal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chapati</span> Unleavened wheat flatbread most commonly eaten in South Asia and East Africa

Chapati, also known as roti, rooti, rotee, rotli, rotta, safati, shabaati, phulka, chapo, sada roti, poli, and roshi, is an unleavened flatbread originating from the Indian subcontinent and is a staple in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka, the Arabian Peninsula, East Africa, and the Caribbean. Chapatis are made of whole-wheat flour known as atta, mixed into dough with water, oil (optional), and salt (optional) in a mixing utensil called a parat, and are cooked on a tava.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naan</span> Asian flatbread

Naan is a leavened, oven-baked or tawa-fried flatbread, that can also be baked in a tandoor. It is characterized by a light and fluffy texture and golden-brown spots from the baking process. Naan is found in the cuisines of Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roti</span> South Asian flatbread

Roti is a round flatbread originating from the Indian subcontinent. It is commonly consumed in many South Asian, Southeast Asian, Caribbean, and Southeast African countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Punjabi cuisine</span> Regional cuisine from the Punjab region of India and Pakistan

Punjabi cuisine is a culinary style originating in the Punjab, a region in the northern part of South Asia, which is now divided in an Indian part to the east and a Pakistani part to the west. This cuisine has a rich tradition of many distinct and local ways of cooking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unleavened bread</span> Wide variety of breads which are not prepared with raising agents such as yeast

Unleavened bread is any of a wide variety of breads which are prepared without using rising agents such as yeast or sodium bicarbonate. The preparation of bread-like non-leavened cooked grain foods appeared in prehistoric times.

<i>Markook</i> (bread) Unleavened bread eaten in the Middle East

Markook bread, also known as khubz ruqaq, shrak, khubz rqeeq, mashrooh, and saj bread, is a kind of Middle Eastern unleavened flatbread common in the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula. It is baked on a convex metal griddle or in a tannour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian bread</span> Wide variety of flatbreads and crêpes which are an integral part of Indian cuisine

Indian breads are a wide variety of flatbreads and crêpes which are an integral part of Indian cuisine. Their variation reflects the diversity of Indian culture and food habits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atta (flour)</span> Type of wheat flour

Atta is a type of wheat flour, originated from the Indian subcontinent, used to make local flatbreads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bing (bread)</span> Chinese flatbread

Bing is a wheat flour-based Chinese bread with a flattened or disk-like shape. These foods may resemble the flatbreads, pancakes, pies and unleavened dough foods of non-Chinese cuisines. Many of them are similar to the Indian roti, French crêpes, Salvadoran pupusa, or Mexican tortilla, while others are more similar to cakes and cookies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flour tortilla</span> Soft, thin flatbread made from wheat flour

A flour tortilla or wheat tortilla is a type of soft, thin flatbread made from finely ground wheat flour. Made with flour- and water-based dough, it is pressed and cooked, similar to corn tortillas. The simplest recipes use only flour, water, fat, and salt, but commercially-made flour tortillas generally contain chemical leavening agents such as baking powder, and other ingredients.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tandoor bread</span> A flatbread

Tandoor bread refers to a bread baked in a clay oven called a tandoor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tandoor</span> Cylindrical clay oven used in South Asian cooking

A tandoor is a large vase-shaped oven, usually made of clay. Since antiquity, tandoors have been used to bake unleavened flatbreads, such as roti and naan, as well as to roast meat. The tandoor is predominantly used in Western Asian, Central Asian, South Asian, and Horn of African cuisines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paratha</span> Flatbread from Indian subcontinent

Paratha is a flatbread native to the Indian subcontinent, with earliest reference mentioned in early medieval Sanskrit, India; prevalent throughout the modern-day nations of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Mauritius, Fiji, Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago where wheat is the traditional staple. It is one of the most popular flatbreads in the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East. Paratha is an amalgamation of the words parat and atta, which literally means layers of cooked dough. Alternative spellings and names include parantha, parauntha, prontha, parontay, paronthi (Punjabi), porota, paratha, palata, porotha, forota, farata, prata, paratha, buss-up shut, oil roti and roti canai in Malaysia and Indonesia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bread in culture</span> Aspect of culture

Bread has a significance beyond mere nutrition in many cultures in the Western world and Asia because of its history and contemporary importance. Bread is also significant in Christianity as one of the elements of the Eucharist; see sacramental bread. The word companion comes from Latin com- "with" + panis "bread".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arab Indonesian cuisine</span> Cuisine of the people of Arab Indonesians

Arab Indonesian cuisine is characterized by the mixture of Middle Eastern cuisine with local Indonesian-style cuisine. Arab Indonesians brought their legacy of Arab cuisine—originally from Hadhramaut, Hejaz, Sudan and Egypt—and modified some of the dishes with the addition of Indonesian ingredients. The Arabs arrived in the Nusantara archipelago to trade and spread Islam. In Java, since the 18th century AD, most of Arab traders settled on the north coast and diffuse with indigenous, thus affecting the local cuisine culture, especially in the use of goat and mutton meat as well as ghee in cooking.

References

  1. Pasqualone, Antonella (March 2018). "Traditional flat breads spread from the Fertile Crescent: Production process and history of baking systems". Journal of Ethnic Foods. 5 (1): 10–19. doi: 10.1016/j.jef.2018.02.002 . hdl: 11586/217814 .
  2. Colin Barras (21 July 2018). "Stone Age bread predates farming". New Scientist. 239 (3187): 6. Bibcode:2018NewSc.239....6B. doi:10.1016/S0262-4079(18)31274-0.
  3. Amaia Arranz-Otaegui; et al. (16 July 2018). "Archaeobotanical evidence reveals the origins of bread 14,400 years ago in northeastern Jordan". PNAS . 115 (31): 7925–7930. Bibcode:2018PNAS..115.7925A. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1801071115 . PMC   6077754 . PMID   30012614.
  4. Parker, Bradley J. (2011). "Bread Ovens, Social Networks and Gendered Space: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Tandir Ovens in Southeastern Anatolia". American Antiquity. 76 (4): 603–627. doi:10.7183/0002-7316.76.4.603. JSTOR   41331914. S2CID   163470937.
  5. Takaoğlu, T. (2004). Ethnoarchaeological investigations in rural Anatolia. Cihangir, İstanbul: Ege Yayınları. (p7)
  6. "What is Pinsa? - PMQ Pizza Magazine". www.pmq.com. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
  7. McCart, Melissa (11 September 2017). "The Roman Pinsa Is the New Pizza". Eater NY. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
  8. Rodolfo Toe (3 May 2013). "Sarajevo Bakery Braces for Ramadan Bonanza". Balkan Insight. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  9. Celjo, Farah (27 March 2018). "Serbian crepes are just one reason to try Fabrika by Madera: SBS Food". Sbs.com.au. Retrieved 5 September 2018.

Further reading