Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum. Here. The French baguette is a type of
Speaker 1: bread so iconic that it has its own emoji, So
Speaker 1: it stands to reason. The United Nations Cultural Agency UNESCO
Speaker 1: placed the baguette, along with the artisanal know how and
Speaker 1: culture of baguette bread, on its twenty twenty two representative
Speaker 1: List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. UNESCO's list of
Speaker 1: Intangible Cultural Heritage entries already includes about six hundred traditions
Speaker 1: from more than one hundred and thirty countries. Inclusion in
Speaker 1: the list means recognizing a country's heritage and its importance
Speaker 1: in maintaining cultural diversity in the face of increasing globalization.
Speaker 1: In this case, France is being recognized for its baguette.
Speaker 1: The French baguette was part of a long list of
Speaker 1: new inscriptions for twenty twenty two, which includes everything from
Speaker 1: beekeeping and slevie and weaving practices in Kuwait to Japanese
Speaker 1: dance rituals okay. So why the baguette? It is the
Speaker 1: most popular form of bread produced in France. Each day,
Speaker 1: bakers there produce more than sixteen million bagats, adding up
Speaker 1: to nearly six billion a year. You've probably run across one,
Speaker 1: or at least something like it. A long loaf, the
Speaker 1: name comes from the word baton or wand in French.
Speaker 1: With a crisp, golden brown exterior. The interior is chewy
Speaker 1: but airy, with large, irregularly shaped air pockets. France itself
Speaker 1: already ensconced the integrity of the baguette in nineteen ninety three,
Speaker 1: when it set out strict rules by which baguetts must
Speaker 1: be made, following baking traditions that go back to at
Speaker 1: least the nineteen twenties. According to this French law, traditional
Speaker 1: baguettes can only contain four ingredients flower, salt, water and yeast.
Speaker 1: They must be between twenty one and twenty five inches
Speaker 1: that's fifty five and sixty five centimeters in length and
Speaker 1: about two to three inches or five to six centimeters
Speaker 1: in diameter. They can also only proof, that is rest
Speaker 1: and rise on the site where they are baked. In
Speaker 1: each traditional bakery called a boulangerie. Each baker uses their
Speaker 1: own learned knowledge to mix, need and rest or proof
Speaker 1: the dough and to make the distinctive cuts on top
Speaker 1: of their baguettes before baking, so while there are standards,
Speaker 1: every baggette is different. Baggetts and the bakeries that bake
Speaker 1: them have a rich social history. In France, bakeries are
Speaker 1: neighborhood gathering places, and proximity to bakeries is a top
Speaker 1: selling point for many home buyers. Babies and toddlers are
Speaker 1: often given the heel of the loaf to chew on
Speaker 1: while their teething and young children are sometimes entrusted with
Speaker 1: a couple euros to walk to the boulangerie and purchase
Speaker 1: baguettes or other baked goods. Despite the bagett's popularity, France
Speaker 1: has lost an estimated four hundred artisanal bakeries a year
Speaker 1: since nineteen seventy as supermarkets have taken over baking duties
Speaker 1: from the traditional blancherie, especially in rural areas. In nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy there were fifty five thousand artisanal bakeries in France.
Speaker 1: Today it's closer to thirty five thousand. Both the UNESCO
Speaker 1: and the National Federation of French Bakeries and Patisseries hope
Speaker 1: the recognition for baguettes will spark a revival in quality
Speaker 1: artisanal baking. The French government plans to create a holiday
Speaker 1: called Open Bakehouse Day for citizens to better connect with
Speaker 1: this delicious part of their heritage, and perhaps if more
Speaker 1: people appreciate the beloved baguette, it will load the loss
Speaker 1: of the local blangerie. Today's episode is based on the
Speaker 1: article the French Baguette receives UNESCO World Heritage Status on
Speaker 1: houstofworks dot com, written by Patti Resmussen. To learn more
Speaker 1: about baguette science and history, check out the episode of
Speaker 1: my other show SAB called the Krusty Baggett episode. A
Speaker 1: brainstuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with houstuffworks dot
Speaker 1: com and it is produced by Tyler klang A. Four
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