Invented by Napoleon’s bakers, imported from Vienna or popularized by the chief engineer of the Paris Metro… The origins of the French baguette are the subject of several hypotheses.
Ammunition bread under Napoleon
The oldest hypothesis is that the baguette was produced by Napoleon’s army bakers. Less cumbersome than the traditional loaf, the elongated shape of the baguette would have allowed for faster cooking in the ephemeral masonry ovens hastily erected during military campaigns.
Nerve of war, bread is one of Napoleon’s main concerns. During the Russian campaign, the emperor went “every day to visit the ovens, taste the bread and ensure the regularity of all distributions”, says the historian Philippe de Ségur in “Histoire de Napoléon et de la grande armée in 1812 “. He also had portable mills sent to Moscow. But the reverses suffered in Russia do not allow him to generalize this practice.
On the advice of his faithful aide-de-camp, General Drouot, also the son of a baker, the emperor re-established the guild of bakers in 1813.
Invented by a Viennese
Another hypothesis suggests that the wand was gradually shaped by August Zang. This Austrian, inventor of the percussion rifle, opened a Viennese bakery at 92 rue de Richelieu in Paris in 1838 or 1839.
Its loaves are oval in shape as was done in Austria at the time. He would then have extended them even further to facilitate deliveries made by bread carriers, anticipates the Company of bakers and pastry chefs.
Popular with the Paris Metro
For the Universal Exhibition of 1900, Paris buys the subway. In the construction site, which began in 1896 under the leadership of Fulgence Bienvenüe, clashes broke out between Bretons, Auvergnes and other workers from all over France. At the time the laborers always carried a knife with them to slice the large round loaves. The engineer would have had the idea of ordering from a baker some elongated loaves that could be broken without a knife, explains the site historian Herodotus. The elongated shape of this new type of bread has made it possible to comply with the regulatory weight.
Cooked after 4 in the morning
In 1919 a law opposed the hard work of bakers and forbade work from 10pm to 4am. Result: The bakers don’t have time to make the traditional sourdough ball. We need to find a solution to be able to serve fresh bread every morning. We then invented the “flauta” or the “piccola”, a slender bread that rises quickly thanks to the yeast and bakes in less than half an hour.
It was around this time that the baguette became widespread in Paris, says the Paris Tourist Office. 80 cm long and weighing 250 g, its price was fixed until 1986 by prefectural decree.
Initially reserved for wealthy citizens, the baguette became the emblem of all French people after the Second World War.
Balladur’s “bread decree”.
In the 1970s, supermarkets invented the cheap baguette. In 1976, recalls the Herodote website, a baker launched the baguette at 1 franc, well below the price then charged. Professionals cry out against unfair competition. The industrial baguette contains chemical additives and tasteless flours, selected for a quick dough, they say.
In the face of this anger, Prime Minister Edouard Balladur promulgated the “bread decree” on 13 September 1993.
From now on, the “French tradition” baguette must be made exclusively with wheat flour, water, salt and yeast or sourdough. Only three additives are allowed: 2% bean flour, 0.5% soy flour, 0.3% wheat malt flour.
In 1998 the term “bakery” was framed: it is a place where the baker has to knead his dough, ferment it, shape it, cook it and sell it.
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