As Alexander extended his empire east, he exposed Greeks to new foods and cooking techniques. These weren’t always welcome. The writer Antiphanes protested: "What have things come to? Bread, garlic, cheese, maza–these are the healthy foods."

Bread has been a staple of the Greek diet since the Bronze Age. Indeed, in ancient Greece, bread was known as sitos, or grain, which is also the word used for food in general. The Mycenaeans featured barley cakes in their diet, an early form of flat bread that was likely a thick porridge “baked” on flat stones. Although there’s little archaeological evidence of Bronze Age ovens, tablet inscriptions do contain references to artopoiqoi, or the baker’s trade. In later periods, Greek techniques for making bread, from wheat or barley, are depicted on vases and other ceramics. These include a gorgeous sixth-century B.C. black-figure lekythos from Boeotia, which depicts the entire process, from crushing the grains with a mortar to kneading dough and shaping loaves and a rather whimsical fifth-century-B.C. clay figure of a woman seated in front of an oven, currently in the collection of the Berlin Museum.

In Daily Life in Greece at the Time of Pericles, Robert Flaceliere notes that the average Athenian ate simply. Breakfast, or akratisma, was a piece of barley bread dipped in undiluted wine. This was sometimes accompanied by olives or figs or a bowl of kykeona (boiled barely flavored with mint or thyme). Lunch, or ariston, was bread and goat cheese eaten with olives or figs. Dinner was the main meal, and again bread was a staple. Other items included barley porridge and occasionally vegetables and some type of fowl. Bread also figured in the diet of the wealthy, who also dined on cereals, along with some fish or sausages, cheese and radishes.

On the islands and remote areas, locals devised various ways of conserving bread so it could be consumed year-round. The most common form was the rusk, once reviled by foreign travelers like Edward Lear but now revered in gourmet circles. Greece’s culinary tradition also includes a number of dishes based on stale bread. An example: psomomakarona. This mock recipe mimics the traditional way of preparing pasta in Greece and is popular on the Dodecanese island of Rhodes. Stale bread is boiled for a few minutes in salted water, drained, then placed on a platter with grated dry mizithra sprinkled on top. For a final flourish, olive oil is heated to smoking and poured over the cheese.

White bread, a sign of prosperity, was reserved for holidays and special feasts, including weddings. White bread was made by pushing the flour through a thin sieve to remove any traces of the bran and was not truly “white” although it was noticeably lighter in color in than flour used for other breads.

Knead to know
Making bread was a weekly or fortnightly activity in Greek households, and while most Greeks now buy bread from the local fournos, it’s still customary to bake the special breads, especially the Easter tsoureki, at home. Every housewife had her own techniques for making bread. Today, food processors and bread machines take some of the toil out of the process, although making bread this way is less soul-satisfying than kneading it by hand.

The process for kneading is the same whether by hand or by mixer, although if you do use a mixer, use it on the slowest speed. By hand, there’s really nothing to worry about since the quantities used in the recipes are small and even when doubled it is still easy to knead. Begin the kneading in a large plastic bowl and when it turns into dough continue on a flat surface for ease of comfort. In this instance slightly oil the surface before you place the dough on it. The advantage of kneading by hand is that you are always checking the dough. If using a mixer, food processor, or other appliance, you’ll have to stop once in a while to feel the dough.

In the first stage of kneading, the dough is mud-like and will stick to the hands and the bowl’s sides. Kneading releases the glutens in the flour, making the dough soft, flexible and elastic. To check whether the dough is ready, dip fingers in warm water and press into the dough; the drops from the fingertips turn milky when the dough is ready.

If the recipe calls for almonds, walnuts, raisins, dried fruit, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, poppy seeds or similar ingredients, add at this stage and knead dough until smooth again. When adding ingredients, it’s best that they’re slightly warm or at room temperature rather than cold as this inhibits the rising process.

When done kneading, you need to let the dough rest for at least 30 or 40 minutes. Heavier dough from rye or with many nuts and dried fruit need to rest longer.

Issue: March/April 2007

By Gourmed.gr