Bread, loaves & artisan bakers

In 1861, the celebrated English cookery and domestic writer Isabella Beeton, published her book, Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, a compendium of Victorian cookery and household management. She was clear on her explanation of bread: “…bread has become an article of food of the first necessity; and properly so, for it constitutes of itself a complete life-sustainer, the gluten, starch, and sugar which it contains representing azotised and hydro-carbonated nutrients, and combining the sustaining powers of the animal and vegetable kingdoms in one product”.