Tuscan bread

Bread is the most ancient food of mankind, made during centuries with different kind of grain. The first cereals used to make bread was millet and acorns, than thank to a new process of grinding with a double cilinder millstone is possible to cut out the scums.

In our century, bread has been improved by using a mixture of different kind of flours to enhance the nutritional value, but the modern manufacturing process, even if assure the hygiene, it flatten the flavours and let us regret the old fragrance that is possible to find in special manufacturing.

By the way the ingredients are always the same: flour, water, leaven and a little bit of sault. In Italy the most used cereal to make bread is the wheatmeal, but in the world are used at least hundred of plants to make flour like acorns, chestnuts, rye and rice.

It exists more than 200 kinds of bread that included the different shapes we count 1.500 kinds. Tuscany is famous for its bread production, the Tuscan bread is without salt with an ancient flavour and traditional shape (the most common are rounded called "bozza" or long called "filone" and flatten called "ciabatta".

The appearance of the tuscan bread is with a crunchy crust and soft crumb that requires a long rising an baking. The Tuscan bread should require - since the ingredients wants to enhance the genuine flavours - a baking in a wood-burning oven like in Montaione where still today you can buy a fragrant Tuscan bread.

Tuscan bread is without salt since an ancient tradition set in the poverty of the peasant families when the salt was expensive and people used to prepared savoury food well-matched with a tasteless bread.

In Tuscany, the importance of the bread is concluded since the tuscan farmhouse where there always a wood-burning oven, and a "madia" a special cupboard used to prepare and store the bread.

Montaione boasts one of the oldiest traditions for the bread, and still today the bread is baked in wood-burning oven. For that reason Montaione is part of the Association "Città del Pane" whereby is committed to safeguard the quality and organize events like the festival of "Pane e Olio" in the end of November in Montaione.