A Discussion of Breads

Our new ingredients are stored in the pantry. We have talked about three new cooking techniques and our latest kitchen tradition, the sand clay pot, and we have added to our storehouse of basic recipes. Once again, we move on to cooking— actually, to bread making. Most people do not associate bread with Chinese cooking. Yet there is a long history of breads—baked, steamed, and fried—in China that extends back more than two thousand years. Just as rice was the staple in the south, other grains such as wheat, millet, and barley were plentiful in the north, which made wheat-based breads especially dominant.