a short history of focaccia bread

7/18/2019 A Short History of Focaccia Bread

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A Short History of Focaccia Bread

Focaccia is a popular style of bread made in Italy and spreading around the world in Italian

communities. The bread is fairly flat, plain from inside, topped with herbs and olive oil and

sometimes with finely sliced olives. A range of focaccia varieties exist and in the 21st century

new varieties have been created due to the versatility of the basic recipe.

ost historians believe that Focaccia originated with either the !truscans of "orth #entral Italy

prior to the $oman !mpire or in Ancient %reece at the beginning of the first millennium &#.

Although flat unleavened bread has been made throughout the iddle !ast extending to 'ersia for

this long as well and identifying a specific culture behind the first focaccia loaves is almost

impossible. Focaccia bread is slightly different because the loaf rises slightly so it(s not traditionally

unleavened bread and the focaccia recipe is mostly un)nown in the iddle !ast, yet it has a historyof being prepared in Tur)ey, Italy, %reece, *pain and France.

Focaccia was historically unleavened, the recipe rises naturally in the right climate which gives afurther clue to its origins, the further inland one goes the less dense the air becomes and considering

so much of the inland editerranean is +uite mountainous. e can speculate that it was inland

people who first created the focaccia bread. #ontrast to this with 'hoenician people who originated

in what is now coastal -ebanon and coastal *yria and then spread throughout the editerranean by

11 &# were not )nown to eat bread with the same properties as focaccia. In coastal areas a small

amount of yeast is needed to ma)e the bread rise otherwise traditional flat bread would be the result.

Its )nown that the name /Focaccia( is derived from the $oman words 0panis focacius. 'anis simply

means bread and shouldn(t be confused with the modern !nglish word pan, while used for ba)ing

bread is actually derived from the -atin word /patina( meaning dish. Focacius is the -atin word for

center or fireplace. -inguists conceive that since the fireplace was in the center of the house that the



word could be used interchangeably. Focaccia in $oman times was coo)ed in the ashes of fire

rather than on a tray above the fire so the translation seems right.

$omans used to mix up a simple recipe of rough flour, salt, olive oil, water, a very small +uantity of

yeast and may have been seasoned with other herbs but in most cases was probably +uite plain, this

was then ba)ed in the /focacius(. In $oman times focaccia was used as dipping bread, usually being

torn apart by hand and dipped into salty soups made +uite simply from water, vinegar and possibly

olive oil. Today, this doesn(t sound very appetiing but it provided nourishment and was a cheap

and filling meal for people doing long hours of physical labor.

3uring the $oman ceremony of *aturnalia, a pig was sacrificed to please the $oman gods. In the

later years of the $oman !mpire a -ord of isrule was chosen instead who would be feted upon

while all the time wearing the costume of a pig. The -ord of isrule was always a young man who

was expected to act the part of a clown. A focaccia bread would be ba)ed that included a fava bean

and the luc)y man to find the bean in his piece of bread became lord for the ceremony.

The basic recipe of focaccia spread with the $omans to France and *pain where it became a popular

bread to ba)e initially in less well off areas. In fact focaccia style breads were used widely to feed

slaves in the $oman !mpire and a shame still exists today in some countries. In *pain, pan de

hogaa, the peasant(s bread which is made in a similar way to $oman panis focacius is also )nown

as pan rustica, a homemade bread typically made in the countryside among the very poor.

Focaccia style recipes in France such as fouaisse or foisse hat made in maroon are considered a

daily bread by a significant part of the population and in ba)eries is still one of the most popular

selling breads. *imilarly in the regions of 'rovence and -anguedoc fogassa as it is )nown, focaccia

breads are still very popular with ba)eries and supermar)ets all selling more fogassa than theFrench baguette which is a typical considered bread for France.

In modern times since the medieval ages, the #atholic #hurch used focaccia +uite widely duringreligious festivities, most often during the !ucharist and the unleavened recipe of focaccia is most

commonly used. It was primarily owing to #hrist(s use of unleavened bread during The -ast



*upper. The tradition was derived from the ready availability of focaccia bread. The method is

simple and some say pure recipe untainted with foreign ingredients thus representing #hrist(s flesh

which is of course considered entirely pure and free from sin.

Italian immigrants to the 4nited *tates in the 2th century brought recipes with them for pia,

bruschetta, grissini and of course focaccia. Arguably focaccia is no longer strictly the preserve of

Italian communities, nowadays it can be found in almost all ba)eries and supermar)ets. ide

variety of seasonings are available and focaccia bread ma)es very tasty sandwich bread fre+uently

served with fillings of cheese and ham.

a short history of focaccia bread

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