5,079
edits
Changes
[[File:Ponti, Carlo (ca. 1823-1893) - Venditore.jpg|thumb|left|upright=.5|A boy peddling ''ciambelle'' in 19th-century Italy]]
Great, but what's the deal with the ring shape in the first place? Why not a ball or a disc, but a torus, which takes a great a lot more skill to form? Well, this shape has two advantages. First, a holey bread has only a slightly smaller volume with a much larger surface than a whole bread of comparable size (I'm leaving the proof by calculating the surface areas and volumes of a torus and an ellipsoid is left as an exercise for the Reader). And a larger surface area allows the heat to spread more evenly inside the dough during the thermal treatment (boiling or baking). Secondly, a holey bread is easier to transport, especially for a street vendor who can just put his (somehow it's usually been men) ''taralli'' on a string or a stick and peddle them in the street. And the customers could even wear their ''tarallo'' like a bracelet, if they didn't eat it right away.
Dry ''taralli'' were used in a similar way as the ancient ''buccellata'' in that they could be stored for up to half a year and then eaten after being dunked in wine for softening. Were these toroidal ''taralli'' inspired by the Arab ''ka'ak'', brought by Levantine sailors to the port of Puglia? Quite possibly, but we don't know that for sure. Whatever the case, soon after the ''taralli'' had appeared in southern Italy, similar breads were being made in the north. They bore a plethora of regional names, including ''"bricuocoli", "ciaramilie", "pane del marinaio", "mescuotte", "ciambelle", "ciambelloni", "braciatelle", "brazzatelle"'' and ''"brasadèle"''<ref>{{Cyt