Humanity learned long ago that bread is the best plant-based food. People began growing and processing wild grains, and scientists believe the first attempts date back to around 13,000 BC. Of course, cooking methods at the time were not very diverse. The first “bread” was ground grains mixed with water — something like porridge, which, by chance, spilled over the edge of a vessel and baked on its walls, turning into a firm, flat bread. In general, the ways ancient people consumed grains evolved like this: first came liquid porridge and liquid, unbaked bread; then unleavened baked bread; and later, bread made with yeast.
Bread is one of the main symbols associated with traditional Ukrainian culture. In our worldview, the word “bread” stands alongside concepts such as “home,” “mother,” and “life.” For our people it represents prosperity, wealth, goodwill, and hospitality.
Growing grain and making bread were the main economic activities of Ukrainians since ancient times. Archaeologists say that farming on the territory of present-day Ukraine began in the Neolithic era — between the 6th and 4th millennia BC. These lands were fortunate to have fertile soils and a temperate climate with sufficient summer rainfall, so agriculture spread quickly. About 68% of the farmland used in Ukrainian agriculture consists of chornozem (black soil), which has long been ideal for growing cereals: wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and buckwheat. Bread has been — and remains — one of the fundamental and constant foods in our diet.
For Ukrainians and Slavs in general, bread was not just — and not even primarily — food, but an attribute used in rituals. Since our ancestors ate bread every day, they developed an attitude toward it as divine blessing. People believed that bread was given by God and should be consumed as sacred food.
Bread is a cultural symbol. The method of preparing any dough-based food embodies an analogy: raw dough contrasts with baked dough the same way wild nature contrasts with culture; what exists on its own contrasts with what is created by human hands; untamed land contrasts with cultivated soil. Beyond being food and, as Ukrainians believed, bringing life, health, fertility, and well-being, bread absorbed over thousands of years all our ideas about the universe, gods, society, trade, daily life, morality, and beauty.
Ukrainians, like other Slavs, perceived bread-making as an analogy to the human life cycle: dissolving the dough — conception; baking — pregnancy; removing bread from the oven — birth; eating — death. This comparison emerged because our ancestors could not observe or explain how grain, flour, and raw dough transformed into bread — just as they could not explain how a person is born from a seed. They believed that only living beings had the ability to grow.
Daily consumption of bread was essential for survival. Its importance as a vital and nourishing food explains the many beliefs, prohibitions, customs, and rituals surrounding every step of its preparation.
What and How We Ate Every Day
Ukrainians ate bread daily. For many centuries, it was the core of the diet. Peasant families were usually large, and most meals were made from flour, so bread dishes were prepared almost as often as the house was swept. According to research, 100–150 years ago one peasant consumed nearly a kilogram of bread a day.
Bread was not just a product — it embodied everything considered edible and nourishing. In our ancestors’ view, people who ate a lot of bread were either hardworking or wealthy, so bread was seen both as a symbol of abundance and as a sacred object.
Traditionally, we have eaten two kinds of bread: unleavened and leavened. Each entered our diet differently and has its own preparation method.
Unleavened bread became part of the Slavic and broader European diet in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. It was likely the earliest baked bread known to humanity. Leavened dough, by contrast, began to appear around the 5th–7th centuries AD. At that time, hand-powered millstones were widespread, allowing people to grind high-quality flour. Sour dough was made from rye and hulled wheat, which Slavs started growing around the same time.
However, sourdough bread itself began to be baked much later — only in the 12th–13th centuries — when the round clay oven became common. This innovation coincided with the rise of rye and hulled wheat cultivation. Before this, Ukrainian territories primarily grew hulled cereals whose flour lacks high-quality gluten: it crumbles or spreads, making it unsuitable for leavened bread. High-gluten flour, on the other hand, makes dough elastic and able to hold gas bubbles formed during yeast fermentation.
The type of flour was crucial: its fineness and purity determined the bread’s quality. From the late 19th century, Ukrainians baked everyday bread mostly from rye flour — either coarse (called “razove”) or fine (“pytlovane”). Sometimes it was mixed with wheat flour, and less often made from pure wheat.
Despite advances in farming, Ukrainians continued to eat mostly unleavened bread until the mid-20th century — especially in regions not suitable for wheat cultivation, such as the Carpathians.
In folk culture, unleavened bread had many names: oshchypok, shchypok, osukh, korzh, malai, palenia, pidpalok, and others. It was made from oat, barley, rye, wheat, or corn flour. In contrast, leavened bread was labor-intensive and time-consuming to prepare. By the late 19th century, Ukrainians baked sourdough bread once or twice a week, occasionally more often.
Traditional sourdough bread was made in two stages (“oparnyi” method): first a fermented starter was prepared; then flour was added to make dough. The starter often included remnants of the previous batch. The amount of old dough had to be proportional to the new. Remains were kept in a dough trough, sometimes stored in a cool pantry.
In the 1930s, housewives began using factory-made yeast, at first only when their sourdough spoiled, and by the 1950s much more widely.
A key aspect of leavened bread is that the dough must rise before baking. This happens thanks not only to yeast but also to gluten. The more gluten in the flour, the more elastic the dough and the more porous the bread.
Dough was usually prepared in the evening and kneaded in the morning. If the starter rose and then deflated, it was ready. Flour was added — from half to three-quarters of its volume, depending on consistency. Kneading took from one to several hours, requiring great physical effort, so younger and stronger women usually did it.
Technological progress throughout the 20th century introduced new tools and improved conditions for bread-making. This allowed more frequent baking of bread from fine flour, shifting from rye to mixed rye-wheat, and eventually to pure wheat flour.
In a traditional Ukrainian home, one loaf was always kept on the table — a symbolic and literal sign that the household had bread. When new bread was baked, the old loaf was replaced. It was believed that bread should never be placed on a bare table, so it was always set on a cloth, wrapped in a special towel, or covered with part of the tablecloth.
Bread is still surrounded by numerous customs and taboos — a sign that for us, it remains sacred. Ukrainians have long honored it as a symbol of the labor invested throughout an entire year: sowing, growing, harvesting, processing, preparing, and baking.
An excerpt from the book “The History of Ukrainian Bread.”
This book explores the role bread plays in the history, culture, art, and worldview of Ukrainians. It tells the story of how bread entered our diet and how, over thousands of years, it became not only a staple food but also a lens through which we perceive the world.
The author, Liudmyla Herus, is a Doctor of Historical Sciences, Head of the Folk Art Department at the Institute of Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and a longtime researcher of the subject of bread. In this edition, you will discover the most fascinating facts about bread and understand why it is sacred to Ukrainians. It is meant for everyone interested in questions of our culture and identity.
You can purchase the book on the website or listen to the audiobook via the links provided.
