Graham bread

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Graham bread
Graham6.jpg
Type Bread
Place of origin United States
Main ingredients Whole-wheat flour

Graham bread is a name for whole wheat bread that was inspired by the teachings of health reformer Sylvester Graham. [1] [2] The ingredients for Graham bread include Graham flour, milk, molasses, yeast, and salt. [1]

Contents

History

Sylvester Graham was a 19th-century health reformer who argued that a vegetarian diet, anchored by bread that was baked at home from a coarsely ground whole-wheat flour, was part of a healthful lifestyle that could prevent disease. [3] [4] :21,29

In 1837, Graham published the popular book Treatise on Bread and Bread-Making, which included a history of bread and described how to make Graham bread, though the passage is absent of any exact measurements and instead calls upon the baker's "good judgment." It was reprinted in 2012 by Andrews McMeel Publishing, as a selection of its American Antiquarian Cookbook Collection.

Like Graham crackers, Graham bread was high in fiber and made from graham flour free from the chemical additives that were common in white bread at that time [5] such as alum and chlorine. He argued that these chemical additives were unwholesome. [4] :25–26

See also

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Graham flour is a type of coarse-ground flour of whole wheat named after Sylvester Graham. It is similar to conventional whole-wheat flour in that both are made from the whole grain, but graham flour is ground more coarsely. It is not sifted ("bolted") with a flour dresser after milling. A report from 1913 claimed that bread made from graham flour had a protein content of 12.1% – only slightly less than white wheat flour and essentially the same as whole wheat flour.

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References

  1. 1 2 "Graham Bread | Traditional Bread From United States of America | TasteAtlas". www.tasteatlas.com. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  2. "Graham Bread, Temperance Reformers, and America's First Fad Diet". blogs.lib.umich.edu. 2020-05-26. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  3. "The History, Natural History, and Biogeography of Graham Bread". ALABAMA HERITAGE. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
  4. 1 2 Iacobbo, Karen; Iacobbo, Michael (2004). Vegetarian America : a history . Westport, Conn.: Praeger. ISBN   978-0275975197.
  5. "GRAHAM BREAD or BROWN BREAD" (PDF). Cooking Up History | National Museum of American History. Retrieved May 25, 2014.