Bread in Spain
Since time immemorial, bread (pan in Spanish)[n. 1] has been a staple food that accompanies all daily meals, year round.
One of the hallmarks of the Spanish bakery is the candeal, bregado or sobado bread, which has a long tradition in Castile, Andalusia, Leon, Extremadura, Araba, Valencia or Zaragoza.
Similar hard dough breads can be also found in Portugal (pão sovado, regueifa),[6] France (pain brié), Italy (coppia ferrarese, barilino, coccoi a pitzus, pane gramolato) and Croatia (ragusano or u pani ri casa).
Unlike brown breads made in northern Europe, white flour is preferred in the South, as it provides a more spongy and light texture—though less nutritional value.
Throughout its history (and especially during the Franco regime), rye, barley, buckwheat, or whole wheat breads were considered "food for the poor".
Bread is an ingredient in a wide variety of Spanish recipes, such as ajoblanco, preñaos, migas, pa amb tomàquet, salmorejo, and torrijas.
[12] The institution of bakeries as an establishment for sale to the public is due to the Greeks,[13] and the Romans introduced significant improvements in structures such as the mill or the oven.
[15] In Rome, the fermentation was done by reusing dough that was left over from previous days (sourdough), however in Hispania, the natives had the custom of using beer foam as yeast, which resulted in lighter and fluffier breads.
[16] The writer and soldier Pliny the Elder, a Roman originally from northern Italy, served as a procurator for a while in the Iberian Peninsula and commented: "Hispania's bread is very light and very pleasing to the palate even for a refined man from Rome".
[18] On the Christian side of the border, the baker's trade was established as a profession, becoming a relevant, prominent and respected figure in medieval society.
[21] The egg is tied to the bread with two intertwined strips of dough in the shape of a cross, definitively linking a pagan custom to Christian mythology.
In addition, in some Catalan towns, at the meal after the funeral, a bread with a cross in the middle is served, called pa de memòria, which was dedicated with a prayer to the deceased.
The relevance of bread at the Christian table is reflected in the marks that are stamped on the loaves: Viva el Pan Bendito ("Long live the blessed bread"), Soy el Principal de la mesa ("I am the main one at the table"), Mírame atento, Soy tu alimento ("Look at me attentively, I am your food"), etc.
Although recent, this movement has already given rise to names such as Beatriz Echeverría from El Horno de Babette in Madrid, which has one of the YouTube channels on baking with the most subscriptions (in Spanish) and is author of the book The Elements of Bread, or also the Turris bakery chain in Barcelona, run by Xavier Barriga, author of several bakery books.
It arrived in French Normandy through the Kingdom of Navarre in the times of Charles II 'the Bad', married to Joan of France.
Instead, what in Italy is called pan di Spagna ("Spanish bread") refers to the sponge cake, which according to Italian tradition was made by a baker in Spain.
Today the Hispanic bakery is spread throughout the Americas, and bread is a common food, with different variants depending on the country and region.
They originally had a monopoly on bread production due to the necessity of importing wheat flour from China and Japan.
But baking eventually spread to private households among the local aristocracy (the principalia) and finally to bakeries for the common people.
