SC - four and twenty blackbirds

[Decker, Terry D.]

> Now, I don't know whether roasted flour (or the glutein and glutenin
> therein) is affected in its capacity to form gluten strands by the heat
> of cooking, but no gluten per se should be developed: there is little
> moisture and no kneading involved in what Cindy did.
> 
> Adamantius
> 
Toasting the wheat berries or the flour cooks the proteins and stops them
from forming gluten strands.  Theoretically because of this, sourdough
appears relatively late in the history of baking.  The first evidence of
baking bread appears about 25,000 BCE.  The first provable sourdough appears
about 3,000 BCE (although there is opinion it actually began about 10,000
BCE).  The gap can be explained by toasted grain.

Archeological evidence suggests that Neolithic peoples commonly toasted
their grains on the stalk.  Toasting loosens the kernels and makes it easier
to separate them from the husks and the straw.  The flail and improved
threshing techniques made it possible to gather the grain faster without
toasting, which in turn led to the possibility of leavened bread.

All of this is academic speculation on the part of the archeologists, but it
hangs together reasonably well, until someone finds earlier evidence of
leavened bread.

Bear 
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