Most of us simply pick up a bag of wheat flour to make a delicious and filling recipe. It’s an ubiquitous, cheap ingredient that can be stored for long periods of time. It is used in the manufacture of sweets, pastries and many other items. Have you thought about the history of flour and how that white flour became an integral part of everyday life in the world?
Flour in antiquity
Despite the discovery of the oldest oven in the world in Croatia, which dates back to 6500 years ago, humans knew bread long before that, as the people of Iraq and the Levant before 9600 BC were collecting wild herbs and soaking them in water and then beating them with stones to make a rough paste, and pouring it after This is on the rocks that are heated by the heat of the sun and left for a while to cook and turn into a kind of bread.
But the ancient Egyptians were the first to make flour from grains such as wheat and barley. They would grind the grains to become as soft as possible in pots resembling “hon”, then bakers knead them with water and shape them into loaves, and they were cooked in open ovens.
Sometimes bakers sweetened bread with honey or fruit juice for the wealthy, and the Egyptians were the first to use wild yeasts to ferment bread. Egyptian bakers also made cakes in the shape of animals for use in temple offerings.
The bread trade was of great importance in ancient Rome, and bakers made specially decorated baked goods for celebrations and festivals. The Greeks also made the first flour mill in the fifth century BC, and it was simple, but its effectiveness was greater than simply crushing grains with rocks.
As for the Romans, they made the first rotating conical mill, driven by horses, donkeys, and mules, and then they established water mills that grinded large quantities of wheat. This method soon spread throughout the Roman Empire and the milling of wheat and the manufacture of flour became commonplace.
Luxurious pastries
Then the following centuries saw the emergence of windmills throughout Europe, and farmers were bringing grain to the mill to turn into flour, while small communities continued to use manual mills known as boilers, but with the increased demand for flour, flour milling turned into a large and vital industry, and taxes were imposed on the mills. grand.
The ancient flour differed from the flour we know today because the wheat kernel was completely milled without removing the outer “bran” crust, so the flour was dark and the loaves of bread were dense and dark, not like the loaves made of current white flour.
But the strange thing is that at the present time there is a global trend to return to the use of whole flour without change; Due to the discovery of its multiple nutritional benefits that exceed white flour.
The fine pastry industry spread and became an important art in Europe. In 1635, Dutch painter Rembrandt painted his famous “Pancake Saleswoman”, which depicts a woman selling pancakes, surrounded by children waiting for their pancakes, which until today are a favorite in the streets of Holland.
Later, the flour baking process went through various transformations and experiments, and the results yielded what are now called cakes or cakes, which have become one of the most important aspects of celebration in the entire world, whether on birthdays or wedding feasts, and suitable and baked cakes were created specifically for each occasion.
Arab world sweets
Cake production was not limited to Europe only; Rather, he also moved to the Arab world, and began making so-called “oriental sweets” such as Kunafa, Umm Ali and Lokmat Al-Qadi.
Kunafa was made for the first time during the era of Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, the first caliph of the Umayyad dynasty, when he asked his private cook for a dessert to eat during Ramadan Suhoor, so he made Kunafa for him. But historians of Islamic history have another version that says that kunafa appeared in the Fatimid era in Egypt during the reign of the Fatimid Caliph Al-Muizz Li-Din Allah and then moved to the Levant.
Among the famous sweets in the East is also “Umm Ali”, which also appeared for the first time in Egypt when the wife of Izz al-Din Aybak made it to celebrate the killing of his second wife, “Shajar al-Durr” and the inauguration of her son, “Ali” as crown prince. At the time, she ordered the making of sweets of flour, sugar and nuts to be distributed to the people for the celebration, hence the name Umm Ali.
Ancient Egypt and cake
According to the description of the late Egyptologist Dr. Abdel Halim Nour El-Din, there were many forms of baked goods that resembled cakes in ancient Egypt, for example, what was known as “cake inscription” was present in ancient Egypt, according to Nour El-Din’s study, and it was in the form of circular loaves showing fingerprints. Fingers on the edge.
While the historian Hassan Hafez, a researcher in Islamic history, believes that the ancient Egyptians made baked goods similar to cakes, but without evidence of their inheritance.
Hafez also believes that the tradition of making Eid cakes began in the era of Ahmed bin Tulun, that is, since the era of the Abbasid state, and it was baked and distributed on religious occasions, especially Eid al-Fitr.
While the idea of Eid cakes crystallized in the Fatimid era, like many aspects of celebration that the Fatimids were interested in, who were accustomed to different manifestations of extravagance and celebration; For example, the Caliph wears a white cloak dedicated to the celebration of Eid al-Fitr and red on Eid al-Adha, in reference to the color of the blood of the sacrifice. The custom of making cakes continued after the demise of the Fatimid state, and the Ayyubid era witnessed its transformation from a custom belonging to the ruler’s palace only, to a general custom for the people that extended and continued into the modern era.
