Flatbread

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Type of bread

title: "Flatbread" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["unleavened-breads", "ancient-dishes", "flatbreads"] description: "Type of bread" topic_path: "general/unleavened-breads" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatbread" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Type of bread ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox food"]

FieldValue
nameFlatbread
imageRye and Potato rieska - 1.JPG
image_size250px
captionHomemade flatbread
typeBread
main_ingredientFlour, water, salt
::

| name = Flatbread | image = Rye and Potato rieska - 1.JPG | image_size = 250px | caption = Homemade flatbread | country = | region = | creator = | course = | type = Bread | served = | main_ingredient = Flour, water, salt | variations = | calories = | other =

A flatbread is bread made usually with flour; water, milk, yogurt, or other liquid; and salt, and then thoroughly rolled into flattened dough. Many flatbreads are unleavened, although some are leavened, such as pita.

Flatbreads range from below one millimeter to a few centimeters thick so that they can be easily eaten without being sliced. They can be baked in an oven, fried in hot oil, grilled over hot coals, cooked on a hot pan, tava, comal, or metal griddle, and eaten fresh or packaged and frozen for later use.

History

Flatbreads were amongst the earliest processed foods, and evidence of their production has been found at ancient sites in Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, and the Indus civilization. The origin of all flatbread baking systems are said to be from the Fertile Crescent in West Asia, where they would subsequently spread to other regions of the world.

In 2018, charred bread crumbs were found at a Natufian site called Shubayqa 1 in Jordan (in Harrat ash Shaam, the Black Desert) dating to 12,400 BC, some 4,000 years before the start of agriculture in the region. Analysis showed that they were probably from flatbread containing wild barley, einkorn wheat, oats, and Bolboschoenus glaucus tubers (a kind of rush).

Primitive clay ovens (tandir) used to bake unleavened flatbread were common in Anatolia during the Seljuk and Ottoman eras, and have been found at archaeological sites distributed across the Middle East. The word tandır comes from the Akkadian tinuru, which becomes tannur in Hebrew and Arabic, tandır in Turkish, and tandur in Urdu/Hindi. Of the hundreds of bread varieties known from cuneiform sources, unleavened tinuru bread was made by adhering bread to the side walls of a heated cylindrical oven. This type of bread is still central to rural food culture in this part of the world, reflected by the local folklore, where a young man and woman sharing fresh tandır bread is a symbol of young love, however, the culture of traditional bread baking is changing with younger generations, especially with those who reside in towns showing preference for modern conveniences.

List of flatbreads

Europe

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Pane_carasau.jpg" caption="Sardinia"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Lagana_(λαγάνα)_(cropped).jpg" caption="Lagana]] from [[Greece"] ::

Middle East and Africa

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Lavash.jpg" caption="Georgian]] [[tonis puri"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/PileofpitaS.jpg" caption="Mahane Yehuda]] marketplace, [[Jerusalem"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/LahohS.jpg" caption="Yemeni]] [[lahoh"] ::

Central Asia

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Taj_Lepeshki.jpg" caption="non]] ([[naan]])"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Afghan_bread.jpg" caption="Afghan]] bread"] ::

East Asia

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Cooking_Jingzhou_style_guokui.jpg" caption="Taking [[Jingzhou]]-style ''[[guokui]]'' out of the oven"] ::

China

Korea

Japan

South Asia

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Butter_Naan_With_Paneer_Butter_Masala.jpg" caption="paneer butter masala"] ::

Southeast Asia

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Piaya_flatbread_(Philippines)_01.jpg" caption="ube]]'' (purple yam) and [[muscovado]] sugar"] ::

Americas

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Balboa_20_bg_120603.jpg" caption="Preparing [[tortilla]]s"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/At_New_York_City_2024_119.jpg" caption="A tomato and pesto flatbread in New York"] ::

Australia

References

References

  1. (March 2018). "Traditional flat breads spread from the Fertile Crescent: Production process and history of baking systems". Journal of Ethnic Foods.
  2. (21 July 2018). "Stone Age bread predates farming". New Scientist.
  3. (16 July 2018). "Archaeobotanical evidence reveals the origins of bread 14,400 years ago in northeastern Jordan". [[PNAS]].
  4. (2011). "Bread Ovens, Social Networks and Gendered Space: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Tandir Ovens in Southeastern Anatolia". American Antiquity.
  5. Takaoğlu, T. (2004). Ethnoarchaeological investigations in rural Anatolia. Cihangir, İstanbul: Ege Yayınları. (p7)
  6. (7 May 2018). "What is Pinsa? - PMQ Pizza Magazine".
  7. (11 September 2017). "The Roman Pinsa Is the New Pizza".
  8. Distefano, Natalia. (10 March 2025). "La pinsa di Corrado Di Marco, un’idea diventata business: nata nel 2001, oggi viene esportata in 70 Paesi". [[Corriere della Sera]].
  9. J. Cohen, Alexei. (2021). "Moon Rome, Florence and Venice". [[Hachette Livre.
  10. Rodolfo Toe. (3 May 2013). "Sarajevo Bakery Braces for Ramadan Bonanza". Balkan Insight.
  11. Celjo, Farah. (27 March 2018). "Serbian crepes are just one reason to try Fabrika by Madera: SBS Food". Sbs.com.au.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

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