When I was a kid, Grandma Gliatti’s house was where the sun
and moon rose and never fell. And top on the list was her
homemade bread! With a braided loaf of
Italian bread on the table that you could literally tear into, heaven was
there, on the old kitchen table and you didn’t have to die to get there! Thus
began my love of bread and butter that has haunted me for years as in I can’t
walk away from it! Why ever go out to eat, ever with a cook like her
in the house, and on visits to Toledo to see her, we didn't!
It was interesting to learn the origins of bread. 8,000 B.C.
in Egypt the first grinding stone was used to crush the first grain. The
grinding stone they invented was called a “quern” and the bread was made along the Nile River Valley. There is an
entire evolution to be studied on the development of bread where it grew from those
early stages to where it is today and all the various options taken for granted
to today’s consumers everything from flatbread, cornbread, whole wheat bread,
sesame bread, potato bread and on and on.
I thought, for years, I was alone besides my Italian family
in my love of bread until I began working at Berman Printing in Cincinnati,
Ohio. That job’s side benefit will always be a wonderful memory.Instead of doughnut runs in the morning,
Friday pizza days, this place was my kind of operation! They opted for “bread days’! Yep, they found
a fabulous bread shop in downtown where all breads were homemade.
Everyone had to take turns making the runs with the pooled
money in the pot. When it was your turn, you drove there and picked up an
assortment of bread loaves and butter sticks and voila! Every Friday we munched on breads and
butter! My word, was it heavenly, we
devoured that bread. Friday mornings had the best attendance!
After leaving Berman, any other place I worked at, when I
mentioned bread and butter runs, everyone thought I was talking about the bank.
When I explained what I meant, I was met with odd stares. So, back to reality, only Italians and
apparently folks in the print world are nuts over bread.
The bread industrial revolution took place in the beginning
of the twentieth century. Prior to that time-frame, the majority of bread was
sold in local mom and pop’s bakeries. After the revolution too place, grocery
stores got into the game and took over the sales of breads and bakeries took a
back seat. With it, bread making become a lost art form since it was so often
now mass-produced. Sad too because too often, those of us that experienced the
taste of homemade, and remember it know the chain grocery store bread's taste does not remotely compare to the bread of the past.
And yet bread is still contagious even if not as tasty. Healthy
or not, I am eating it. Who cares if carbs are bad, so is drinking anything but
water. Grandma lived a long time on her
bread and I am banking on the fact I will too. So eat your bread and butter too if you love it and don't listen to the neigh-sayers. We all have our obsessions and yours just happens to be one that has been around since 8,000 B.C.; it's stood the test of time and so will you!
