An Uprising: How Handmade Bread Can End Capitalist Alienation

Melissa Bright

Advanced Composition

3 December 2007

Melissa is a Senior English Major and former baker. She learned everything she knows about bread baking from Jamie and John Wrestler of Scratch Foodworks, 100 S. Roan Street, Johnson City, TN.

For many people, food is something that comes from boxes, cans, and paper bags and made hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of miles away by enormous machines controlled by computers. The neatly packaged boxes of food in the grocery store are often produced without ever knowing the touch of the human hand –until, of course, it reaches the mouth of the consumer.

Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, companies have developed precise methods of food production, making the consumption of food more convenient and resulting in less private control of the production process. At the same time industrial food production took off, philosopher Karl Marx developed a concept called alienation, a condition under capitalism whereby elements that should have a natural unity become separated and isolated from one another. Alienation describes the current relationship between humans and their food. Food is not simply substances that satisfy hunger. Digestion causes food’s properties to become part of an organism’s biological fabric, but alienation has severed humanity's naturally close relationship with food. The solution lies in the people taking matter into their own two hands.

Our Daily Bread

While we still make some food for ourselves, the most basic of foods is almost never made in the home anymore. I am talking, of course, about bread. Once the cornerstone of human nourishment with its whole grains and ability to fill the stomach when little food was available, bread is now known more as a brand name –something white, or slightly brown, and shaped perfectly in a plastic bag. Instead of smelling like baked bread, store bread has the distinct smell of the children’s toy, play-dough; instead of producing crumbs, store bread stretches with amazing elasticity; and, loaves of store bread, like bottles of shampoo or aspirin, create a monotonous line of identical shapes and colors in the grocery aisle. No one pines over each bag of bread in order to pick the best one. We grab the brand we like, knowing that each one is exactly (robotically) the same, and chuck it into the basket without a second thought.

Store bread has a paragraph of ingredients, which tells a story of production that begins simply enough but ends with an unexpected twist. I examined a loaf of bread I bought recently whose story goes like this: Once upon a time in a factory far, far away, a smiley baker stood in a sterile control room and told a computer to drop enriched flour, water, whole-wheat flour, yeast and gluten into a large mixer. A young girl visiting the factory blocked the loud rumble of the mixer from reaching her ears with her hands and said to the smiley baker, “Hmm. Enriched flour sounds pretty healthy.” The smiley baker chuckled, patted her on the shoulder, and said, “Well, that’s what you’d think. But the flour we use has to be enriched or it would literally have no nutritional value at all.”

He then explained that all flour begins life as whole grain, usually wheat. “The grain consists of three parts: bran (the outermost part), germ (the reproductive part), and endosperm (the innermost part). The two most nutritious parts of the grain are the bran and germ, but they are removed to make white flour. The white flour is then enriched with reduced amounts of malted barley, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, and folic acid to appease a government agency called the Food and Drug Administration.”

After the computer beeped, the smiley baker knew it was time to add the rest of the ingredients. Instead of pushing a different button for each ingredient, he merely pressed a button that read, “STEP 2,” which released dextrose, enzymes, calcium stearofyl lactylate, caramel color, potassium iodate, ascorbic acid, l-cysteine (a naturally occurring amino acid that encourages fermentation), and azodicarbonamide. The young girl asked the smiley baker to explain the function and properties of the unpronounceable ingredients. He laughed again and said, “I don’t know but the computer does.” The young girl asked, “Well, don’t you want to know?” The smiley baker stopped smiling and said, “No…the computer knows everything!”

After the loaf travels from the factory to the grocery story, it is priced at about three dollars. If you want to buy bread without a scary story, a specialty bakery sells a loaf for about four dollars. A loaf a week adds up to 16 dollars a month and almost 200 dollars a year. And, while some people can justify the price, I feel that four dollars is a bit steep for something that is basically just water (0$/loaf), yeast (20 cents/loaf), and flour (40 cents/loaf). One could also save sixteen dollars a month, bypass the bakery, and invest in a stand-alone mixer. However, a question looms over the numbers listed above: is fresh bread really worth all the trouble? In order to answer the question, we must look at the origins of bread.

People have been making bread for thousands of years, and the first signs of baking date back to the Neolithic period. Thousands of variations have developed in every corner of the world, and the machinery used was as simple as a large bowl, a spoon, and a bit of muscle. It’s hard to imagine the Neolithic people, staring hungrily out of their mud-brick windows, waiting for the gods to send them a package from Kitchenaid Appliances. In the following section, I will return to a simpler time and illustrate the ease with which we can regain control of the production of our food –starting with the old mother-nourisher, bread.

Tools

1 Wooden Spoon

1 Large Bowl

1 Measuring Cup

1 Oven (preheat to 350-400)

1 Loaf Pan (already coated in nonstick spray)

Ingredients

All-purpose, Unbleached, Unenriched, Unbromated Flour: 6 Cups

Water: About 3 Cups (see Key Concepts: Hydration, page 4)

Yeast: 1 Tablespoon (see Key Concepts: Yeast, page 5)

Salt: About 1 Tablespoon

Sugar: About ½ Cup

Vegetable Oil: 1 Tablespoon

Method

Key Concepts: Hydration

The most important aspect of dough is its hydration. Dough can be very wet or slightly less wet. A saying that helps me remember is “wet and wetter.” However, the dough cannot be so wet that it appears soupy or has no elasticity. I mention hydration first only because my method challenges the traditional maxim that baking requires an exact formula. As I start the measuring process, exactness matters very little if I achieve the appropriate level of hydration.

Step 1: Creating the Well

Text Box: Fig.2: Step 1
Creating the well, allows me to slowly incorporate flour. Measure six cups of flour and pour them into a large bowl. Then, using a wooden spoon, create a well or hollow space in the middle of the flour. The purpose of the well will be to ensure that the water is distributed evenly and does not create large clumps of flour.

Key Concepts: Yeast

Text Box: Fig.3: Step 2
These bubbles indicate that the yeast is still active. Yeast is bread’s most important ingredient and belongs to the fungus kingdom. Baking yeast, also known as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, was first collected from the skins of grapes. Yeast eats the naturally occurring sugars in the grain and releases carbon dioxide, creating air bubbles in the dough and causing it to rise. However, yeast spores are everywhere and any dough will eventually become leavened by yeast in the air over time. Bakers call bread made with the natural yeast in the air sourdough due to the sour taste caused by long fermentation. Sourdoughs will have a different taste depending on the location in which they are made.

Step 2: Proofing the Yeast

Microwave two cups of water in a microwave, until the water is lukewarm. I think of Goldilocks: “not too hot and not too cold. Just right.” Yeast is a living organism, and water that is too hot or too cold will kill it. Then I “proof” the yeast, or prove that I haven’t killed it, by adding about a tablespoon of yeast to the lukewarm water and stirring. Live yeast will form foam and bubbles at the surface of the water.

Step 3: Mixing the Yeast Liquid and the Flour

Text Box: Fig.4: Step 3
When I notice clumps like these forming, I add more liquid. Pour a small amount of the yeast mixture into the well. Using the spoon, begin stirring the liquid in the same way you would beat an egg –quickly and steadily. The yeast mixture will reach the consistency of gravy as flour is slowly incorporated from the edges. When large clumps of flour begin forming, I add more water to break the clumps into smaller pieces. While large clumps of flour will ruin the consistency of the dough, do not risk overworking the dough to remove them. Most clumps will disappear during the rising process. During this stage, I add the sugar, salt, and oil, because they dissolve easily into the warm liquid in the center. As the dough thickens, incorporating ingredients becomes an increasingly sweaty task.

As I continue stirring and incorporating more flour, the dough will change its texture, becoming harder to stir with the spoon. As long as the dough is turning over on itself, then I continue using the spoon. However, I find it easier to mix with my hands for two reasons. The first reason is that my hands can mix the dough faster than the spoon can, and the second reason is that I can monitor the dough’s texture. When the dough resists my hands and can be molded into a ball, then I know that it is ready Text Box: Fig.5: Step 3
Notice the flour at the bottom of the bowl. As I mix with my hands, I try to incorporate more flour until I achieve the right hydration. to rest. I leave the dough in the mixing bowl, cover it with a lid, and allow it to rise. Note: Each batch of dough will rise at a different rate.

Step 4: Shaping the Risen Dough

When the dough has doubled its original size, I lightly flour my work surface and my hands. I remove the bread from the mixing bowl, lie it flat on the surface, and remove any hard clumps of flour that have formed. Then I begin to knead the dough by folding it over onto itself to remove the air bubbles. Note: Everyone will have a different kneading method and style. I lift a corner of the dough with the side of my hand, mash the corner into the center with my palm, and repeat the motion in a circle until the dough appears bulbous and smooth. Then I pinch the pieces together to create a seam. When I turn the dough over, the surface appears bulbous and round. I spray my loaf pan with a non-stick spray before placing the dough inside, cover the dough with a moist towel, and allow it to rise, or double its size.

Fig.8: Step 4

Pinching the corners to create the seam

Fig.6: Step 4

Lifting the corner

Fig.7: Step 4

Mashing the corner into the center

Step 5: Baking

Fig.9: Step 5

The finished product is ready to enjoy.

The last step is placing the dough in the oven for about an hour, or until the top is golden brown. Another good determiner is a hollow sound made when you pat the bread on its bottom side. I then remove the bread from the loaf pan and allow it to cool.