Overview

A monumental journey through human history told through the universal language of bread. For the first time, a single volume brings together 30 chapters, hundreds of global traditions, and deeply researched anthropological, historical, and scientific insights to reveal how baking shaped the world - and how the world, in turn, shaped baking. From Paleolithic hearths and Ancient Egyptian ovens to Japanese shokupan, Ethiopian injera, Persian sangak, North American sourdough, and modernist 3D-printed pastries, this encyclopedia illuminates the story of humanity through the loaves, grains, rituals, and ovens that sustained it. Written in an unforgettable signature style - scholarly yet poetic, richly human, full of narrative warmth and cultural depth - Dr Bhaskar Bora guides readers across continents and millennia with the grace of a historian and the curiosity of a traveller. Each chapter blends archaeology, anthropology, culinary science, religious symbolism, migration studies, and technological evolution into a sweeping, immersive experience. Whether you are a baker, chef, culinary scholar, food historian, cultural anthropologist, or simply a lover of stories and traditions, this book offers a profound understanding of how bread became the backbone of civilisation - and why it remains a symbol of resilience, identity, and belonging today. Inside this groundbreaking encyclopedia: - The origins of fire, grain, and early proto-breads - Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Indus Valley, Persian, Greek & Roman baking worlds - African millet and sorghum cultures, Berber furns, Ethiopian teff traditions - Flatbread lineages of the Levant and Arab world - European classics: French boulangeries, Italian panettone, Nordic sourdough - East Asian baking evolutions: Japan, China, Korea - South Asian tandoor civilisations and festival sweets - Indigenous American nixtamalisation, cacao rituals, and maize cosmologies - Pacific Island, Aboriginal Australian, and Central Asian bread traditions - The science of baking: heat, fermentation, starch, gluten, sugar, fat - Future baking technologies: climate-resilient grains, robotics, AI, 3D printing - Plus 12 beautifully illustrated vintage-style plates created exclusively for this volume A book of knowledge, heart, and humanityBeyond recipes and techniques, this encyclopedia celebrates people: the bakers, farmers, migrants, mothers, travellers, artisans, and ancestors who shaped our world one loaf at a time. A work of immense scope and emotional depth, it reminds us that baking is not merely food - it is memory, identity, community, ritual, science, survival, and love. Keywords: world baking history, bread traditions, global breads, ancient ovens, culinary anthropology, baking encyclopedia, bread rituals, sourdough history, flatbread traditions, grain domestication, world food culture, ancient grains, teff injera, tandoor history, Persian baking, Egyptian baking, Roman bakeries, Nordic rye breads, festival breads, indigenous baking traditions, nixtamalization, maize history, culinary archaeology, fermentation history, traditional ovens, baking science, world culinary heritage, food anthropology, global culinary history, bread symbolism, ritual foods, community baking, Mediterranean baking, African baking traditions, Asian baking traditions, European breads, Latin American baking, Oceania food traditions, Aboriginal food culture, Silk Road baking, ancient hearths, grain evolution, bread technology, artisanal baking, modernist baking science, climate-resilient grains, baking culture book, culinary reference book, food history encyclopedia.

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