How does making bread work?

Bread is a technology for turning hard kernels into a soft foodstuff. Learn more about bread and yeast in this HowStuffWorks podcast.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to brain Stuff from how stuffworks dot com where
smart happens Hi Marshall Brain. Most people eat bread every
single day, but have you ever thought about how bread works.

(00:20):
Bread is a technology for turning hard wheat kernels into
something soft, airy, and delicious. One thing you need for
a good loaf of bread is yeast. Yeast is a
fungus that each sugar and produces carbon dioxide and alcohol.
In bread, you want to trap the carbon dioxide bubbles.
The wheat and bread contains something called gluten, which is

(00:43):
a stretchy substance a little like bubblegum. The reason why
you need bread dough is to develop the gluten and
link the molecules together. Once the yeast starts producing bubbles,
the dough catches the bubbles in little gluten balloons and
starts to rise. Gluten is approach. When you cook bread,
the protein heats up and set it firms up like

(01:04):
an egg does when you cook it. Be sure to
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