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Paltenburg t1_ixlzps3 wrote

Isn't the big reveal that they already ate bread?

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koebelin t1_ixm2s6n wrote

I too am very surprised. They mashed up seeds and made a bread? I guess when your only tech is fire you eventually cook everything and find out what works.

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TheGreat_War_Machine t1_ixm6b2l wrote

Bread is such a basic item that you'd be surprised by how little you actually need to make it. Sure, you may not get a product that's like what you'd find on the store shelf, but it offers the same benefits for paleolithic peoples.

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ensalys t1_ixmf01h wrote

Yeah, crush up the seeds of certain kinds of grasses, mix it well with some water, add some heat, and you have the simplest kind of bread. Of course, it won't be a nice fluffy (you'll need fungi farts for that) bread with a crispy crust, but it's bread.

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madarbrab t1_ixmjoic wrote

Just leave the mash out for a few days, it'll pick up some wild yeast

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Bladelink t1_ixn3dah wrote

It probably wouldn't take long to go from some yeasty bread to a sourdough, where you realize you can just keep using the same dough.

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rich1051414 t1_ixmh0yt wrote

Grass is the most successful plant on the planet. Grass has seeds. Those seeds can be crushed and mixed with water and cooked for cheap and easy food.

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jungles_fury t1_ixos445 wrote

I thought that had already been established? That and traces of starchy vegetables have been found at multiple sites

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Paltenburg t1_ixpmc7v wrote

Maybe I was confused with the oldest forms of cultivated grain.

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dumnezero t1_iy03uy2 wrote

Domestication of grains required existing use and knowledge of grains. You can't assume that there were government funded research projects on plant breeding to direct a long-term plan for making grains bigger and better.

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