Ingredients

At its core, bread is made of four ingredients: flour, water, salt and some sort of leavening. It’s possible to make bread without salt, though saltless bread, to most palates, tastes a lot like cardboard. There are even those who eliminate leavening, though at this point, the loaf doesn't really taste like what most of us would expect from a loaf of bread.

One can add all sorts of other ingredients, of course, from sweeteners, to nuts, fruits and fats – but the essence of any bread comes down to these basic four.