Why gluten matters: from early breadmaking to the future of food science
Wheat gluten is deeply intertwined with the history of human food. Gliadins and glutenins, the two protein classes involved in gluten formation, are rich in proline and glutamine, a characteristic feature of wheat proteins (which accounts for their alternative name, prolamines), and together account for about 80% of the proteins in the wheat kernel.
Gliadins are monomeric proteins, whereas glutenins are polymeric structures whose subunits are held together by covalent bonds. When water is added and mechanical energy is applied during dough mixing, these proteins form the gluten network: a complex structure exhibiting both viscosity and elasticity, which contributes to improved palatability and technological performance in leavened baked goods and to the cooking quality of pasta (providing greater resistance to overcooking).
The “activation of gluten,” as this process is commonly called, was probably experienced by humans from the very beginning of agriculture. In the Fertile Crescent, alongside the domestication of cereals and the introduction of early stone mills, people began mixing milled grains with water.
Archaeological evidence indicates that even earlier, during the Natufian period around 14,000 years ago, remains of a primitive bread made from ground cereals, mixed with water and baked, were found at the site of Shubayqa in northern Jordan.
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