The history of bread making dates back 30,000 years. But it wasn’t until 20,000 years later that it became a staple food. It will not come as a surprise that the history of modern automatic bread makers does not go that far. In ancient times, the kneading of the dough was obviously done by hand and coal or wood ovens were used for the backing. This went on for thousands of years.
It was not until 1849 that the first automatic bread maker was invented. It all started when African-American inventor Joseph Lee invented the bread crumber. During those days, bread could only be kept for 1 day. At the end of the day, all the leftovers had to be thrown away. Lee found this to be a waste of food and with the cooking experience he had, he knew that his crumbs could be very useful in meal preparation. He invented the bread crumber. On June 4, 1895 he successfully patented the machine. He eventually sold the patent to the Royal Worcester Bread Crumb Company of Boston and soon many restaurants around the world owned one of Joseph’s bread crumbers. His next invention was the bread maker; this machine was mainly concerned with kneading the dough. Lee’s invention increased productivity by 500 percent; one person could now do the same amount of work that five or six people used to do. For those who are interested; Jerome T Peoples has written a book on Lee, it’s worth checking out; Lee’s Bread Machines: The Father of Automated Baking.
It wasn’t until 1986 that Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (now Panasonic) invented the first model of the fully automatic bread machines we know today. The latest machines combine kneading, lifting, and backing in one machine without the need for human intervention. It still took up to 10 years for Panasonic’s invention to gain popularity in the US, Australia and the UK. Since Panasonic’s first bread machine, we’ve seen a huge increase in functionality. The best bread maker has pre-programmed bread making cycles for all different types of bread, for example, whole wheat, white bread, sourdough, pizza dough kneading, etc. Many different gangs have also ventured into the automated baking business; Oster bakery, West Bend bakery and Breville bakery. But so far, Panasonic is still the number one best producer of bread makers.
