View source for Brown bread

{{Short description|Whole grain bread}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Infobox prepared food
| name             = Brown bread
| image            = Kommissbrot.jpg
| image_size       = 250px
| caption          = 
| alternate_name   = 
| country          = 
| region           = 
| creator          = 
| course           = 
| type             = [[Bread]]
| served           = 
| main_ingredient  = [[Whole grain]] [[flour]] (usually [[rye]] or [[wheat]]) or [[molasses]] or [[coffee]]
| variations       = 
| calories         = 260

| other            = 
}}

'''Brown bread''' is [[bread]] made with significant amounts of [[whole grain]] [[flours]], usually [[wheat]] sometimes with corn and or rye flours.  Brown breads often get their characteristic  dark color from ingredients such as [[molasses]] or [[coffee]]. In [[Canada]], [[United_Kingdom|the UK]], [[Ireland]] and [[South Africa]], it is [[whole wheat bread]]; in [[New England]] and [[the Maritimes]], it is bread sweetened with molasses.

Brown bread contrasts with [[white bread]].

==History==
In Ireland, during the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Famine]], prior to 1848, brown bread was handed out to the poor.<ref>{{cite book |editor=John Saunders |title=The People's journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s1QAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA200 |volume=IV |year=1848 |publisher=The People's Journal Office |location=London |page=200 |access-date=April 15, 2011 |quote=I passed along and beheld a dense mass of wretched starving people,---men, women, and children, gathered in front of a shed, from which rations of brown bread and stirabout were served out to the poor.}}</ref>  In England, brown bread was made from brown meal.<ref name="percy.p14.processes.flour.manufacture">{{cite book |author=Percy A. Amos |title=Processes of flour manufacture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KXLzrbmw8u0C&pg=PA14 |year=1912 |publisher=Longman, Green, and Co. |location=New York, Bombay, and Calcutta |page=14 |access-date=April 12, 2011 |quote=By allowing the germ and all but the outer, coarser layers of broad bran to mix in with the flour, we get the sweet-tasting brown meal producing the brown bread so much in favour amongst sections of the community.}}</ref> Around and prior to the year 1845, brown meal was considered a less desirable grain product, and was priced accordingly. However, by 1865, due to recently discovered health benefits of bran, brown meal's London price had increased to a point often greater than that of fine flour.<ref>{{cite book |author=Edward Smith |title=Practical dietary for families, schools, and the laboring classes |url=https://archive.org/details/practicaldietar00smitgoog |year=1865 |publisher=Walton and Maberly |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/practicaldietar00smitgoog/page/n56 36] |access-date=April 15, 2011 }}</ref> 

===Flour milling===
{{main|Wheat flour#Milling}}
Historically, brown meal was what remained after about 90% of the coarse, outer [[bran]] and 74% of pure [[endosperm]] or fine flour was removed from the whole grain.<ref name="youmans.pg277.handbook.household.science">{{cite book |author=Edward Livingston Youmans |title=The hand-book of household science |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NQhHAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA277 |year=1859 |publisher=D. Appleton and Company |location=New York |page=277 |access-date=April 15, 2011 |quote=He grinds wheat so as to separate it into about 74 per cent. of fine flour, 16 of brown meal, and 10 of bran.}}</ref> Using slightly different [[flour extraction|extraction]] numbers, brown meal, representing 20% of the whole grain, was itself composed of about 15% fine bran and 85% white flour.<ref>{{cite book |editor=Jacob Bell |title=The Pharmaceutical journal and Transactions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kO0KAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA277 |volume=XVII |date=1857–1858 |publisher=John Churchill |location=London |pages=276–277 | access-date= |quote=The Parisian white bread is prepared with the finest flour (1re marque), which does not contain any bran. If 100 parts wheat yield 70 parts of this flour, the remainder will consist of ten parts bran and 20 parts coarse brown meal, this latter consisting of three parts fine bran and 17 parts white flour.}}</ref> In 1848 it was asserted grain millers knew only of bran and endosperm,<ref>{{cite book |editor=John Saunders |title=The People's journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s1QAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA42-IA1 |volume=IV |year=1848 |publisher=The People's Journal Office |location=London |page=42(IA1) |access-date=April 15, 2011 |quote=Professor Johnston remarks that—'The grain of wheat consists of two parts, with which the miller is familiar—the inner grain and the skin that covers it.  The inner grain gives the pure wheat flour; the skin when separated, forms the bran.'}}</ref> but by 1912 it was more widely known that brown meal included the [[Cereal germ|germ]].<ref name="percy.p14.processes.flour.manufacture" />

===Color===

The brown color of whole grain breads is caused by [[cerealine]], a discovery attributed to [[Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès]] of France.<ref name="youmans.pg277.handbook.household.science" /><ref name="watt.the.chemist.monthly.journal.pgs488.539">{{cite book |editor=John and Charles Watt |volume=IV |title=The Chemist: a monthly journal of Chemical and Physical Science |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QhM4AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA488|year=1857 |publisher=Alexander Watt |location=London |pages=488–539 |quote=... cerealine... }}</ref> Cerealine, considered by Mouriès an active principal or ferment similar in action to [[diastase]],<ref name="watt.the.chemist.monthly.journal.pgs488.539" /> came from the ''cereal'' layer of rectangular cells that millers considered a part of bran: later it was alternatively called the [[Aleurone|''aleurone'' layer]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Helen Woodard Atwater |title=Bread and the principles of bread making |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924003581638|year=1900 |publisher=Government Printing Office |location=Washington |page=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924003581638/page/n2 9] }}</ref> In a statement attributed to Mouriès, if the cerealine is neutralized, white bread can be made from bran-containing flour.<ref name="youmans.pg277.handbook.household.science" />

==Varieties==
===Irish===
[[File:Irish brown soda bread.JPG|thumb|[[Baking|Homemade]] [[Soda bread#Ireland|Irish soda bread]]]]
Irish wheaten bread is a form of [[Soda bread|Irish soda bread]] made with [[whole-wheat flour]].{{Cn|date=March 2025}}

===Borodinsky===
[[File:Chocolate-coloured sourdough bread.jpeg|thumb|Chocolate-coloured [[sourdough]] bread]]
[[Borodinsky bread]] is a slightly sweet [[sourdough]] [[rye bread]] of Russian origin, usually flavoured by [[caraway seed|caraway]] and [[coriander seed]]s and sweetened with [[molasses]], which augments its already quite dark colour coming from the rye flour. It is named after the [[Battle of Borodino]], and the legend says that it was invented by the widow of one of the Russian generals who died in that battle, though in reality it was probably created much later, at the end of the 19th century.{{Cn|date=March 2025}}

===Boston===

New England or Boston brown bread is a type of dark, slightly sweet [[Multigrain bread|multigrain]] [[steamed bread]], usually sweetened with [[molasses]], popular in [[New England]]. The moist bread is dark in colour and traditionally served with [[baked beans]] and [[Hot dog|hot dogs]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Traditional Boston Brown Bread |url=https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/traditional-boston-brown-bread-recipe}}</ref>

Boston brown bread's colour comes from a mixture of flours, usually a mix of several of the following: [[cornmeal]], rye, whole wheat, [[graham flour]], and from the addition of sweeteners like molasses and [[maple syrup]]. [[Raisin]]s are sometimes added. The batter is poured into a can, and steamed in a kettle.{{Cn|date=March 2025}}

== Loaf volume ==
Whole wheat flours that contain raw [[Cereal germ|wheat germ]], instead of toasted germ, have higher levels of [[glutathione]], and thus result in lower loaf volumes.<ref>{{cite book |author=Paula I. Figoni |title=How Baking Works: Exploring the Fundamentals of Baking Science |publisher=Wiley |location=New York |year=2010 |pages=147–150 |isbn=978-0-470-39267-6 |access-date=April 17, 2011 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XqKF7PqV02cC&pg=PA147 |quote=Glutathione is also found in whole wheat flour, in particular in the wheat germ. ... Toasted wheat germ will not have the same high glutathione activity as raw wheat germ, since glutathione is inactivated by heat. ... If glutathione is not first destroyed, bread dough softens and becomes slack, and oven spring decreases.  The result is lower loaf volume and coarser texture.}}</ref>

== Gallery ==
<gallery mode="nolines" heights="200" widths="300">
File:Brown bread crust.jpg|[[Bread#Crust|Crust]] of a [[loaf]] of brown bread
File:Zeppelinwurst mit Brot EVA 8814.jpg|Frankfurter {{Interlanguage link|Zeppelinwurst|de|WD=}} with brown bread
File:Buttered walnut and raisin bread.jpg|[[Butter|Buttered]] [[walnut]] and [[raisin]] brown bread
File:Pan, queso y embutido ibérico - Mumumío.jpg|Brown bread served with [[cheese]] and [[sausage]]
</gallery>{{Gallery}}

==See also==
{{portal|Food}}
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Anadama bread]], a yeast bread of New England made with wheat, cornmeal, molasses, tan to brown in colour
* [[List of breads]]
* [[Malt loaf]]
* [[Pumpernickel]], a dark brown bread of Germany
* [[White bread]]
* [[Whole wheat bread]]
* [[Graham bread]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
* {{cite book |author=Robert Wells |title=The new system of making bread |chapter=Brown Bread Made Quick by Process of Sponging |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=weMqAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA134|year=1903 |publisher=Abel Heywood & Son |location=Manchester |pages=134–5}}
* [http://www.thegutsygourmet.net/stbrnbrd.html Recipe for brown bread]
* [http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/109216 Epicurious recipe for Irish brown bread]

{{Bread}}
{{Irish cuisine}}
{{Irish bread}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown Bread}}
[[Category:Irish breads]]
[[Category:Quick breads]]
[[Category:New England cuisine]]
[[Category:Vermont cuisine]]
[[Category:Wheat breads]]