Homemade Bread Day

Today is Homemade Bread Day, a time to look at breads from around the world. Not surprisingly, something that's been consumed by humans for so very long in so very many places goes by a variety of names. The Latin word for bread, panis, gave English both the noun paneity, meaning "the quality or state of being bread" and the adjective panary meaning "of or related to bread or breadmaking."

Now let's look at five varieties of bread. The flat Italian bread typically seasoned with herbs and olive oil is called foccacia(i practically can eat this and only this forever) after the Latin word for hearth.

Pan dulce entered English from American Spanish (where it literally means "sweet bread"). But the Americanized pan dulce names not the edible organs of an animal but such sweetened breads as raisin buns.

Then there's pumpernickel, whose German ancestors translate roughly as "goblin who breaks wind" and which may have gotten its name from its indigestible.

If that's too coarse for you, try some Sally Lunn, slightly sweetened raised bread baked as a thin loaf or muffins and eaten hot with butter. The original Sally Lunn was an 18th century baker.

Finally, there's naan, flat leavened bread associated with the Indian subcontinent. The word naan comes from the Persian, Hindi and Urdu word for bread.