Food & Cooking · Unit 5
Grains and Bread
The crops that feed the world and the loaves they become
Three grasses - wheat, rice and maize - supply most of the calories humanity eats. Grains are the foundation of settled civilisation and of most cuisines that followed.
The unit covers the major grains, milling and flour types, yeast and the science of rising, breads around the world, and rice and pasta.
This unit breaks down into 20 short steps and 119 questions, starting at difficulty 2 and building to 3. Below you can see exactly what it covers, how the path is structured, and worked examples with explanations.
- Steps
- 20
- Questions
- 119
- Difficulty
- 2-3
What this unit covers
- Milling and Flour
- Breads of the World
- Rice and Pasta
- Yeast and Rising
- The Great Grains
Where this fits
Follows In the Kitchen. Baking and Pastry and Food Science both build on it.
Where people slip
Bread rises because yeast produces carbon dioxide and gluten traps it. Both halves are required - which is why gluten-free bread needs a different structure entirely.
How the unit is structured
Grains and Bread runs as 20 short steps that unlock in order. 15 are practice rounds and 5 are challenge rounds that pull together everything before them. Questions start at difficulty 2 and climb to 3 as you progress.
Challenge rounds
Example questions
30 real questions from this unit, with the answer and the reason behind it, grouped by what they practise. There are 119 in the unit altogether.
Breads of the World
- Build the sentenceLevel 2
1. Build a sentence about bread.
Answer: Yeast makes bread dough rise before baking
Yeast makes bread dough rise before baking.
- Choose all that applyLevel 2
2. Which are flat breads? Pick all that apply.
- Pittacorrect
- Tortillacorrect
- Chapaticorrect
- Tall sandwich loaf
Pitta, tortilla and chapati are all flat breads.
- Multiple choiceLevel 2
3. Which flat bread is often used to scoop up food in South Asia?
- Naancorrect
- Croissant
- Bagel
- Pretzel
Naan and chapati are eaten with curries and stews.
- Odd one outLevel 2
4. Which of these is NOT a bread?
- Risottocorrect
- Baguette
- Pitta
- Bagel
Risotto is a rice dish, not a bread.
- Fact or fibLevel 3
5. Bread goes stale mainly because it dries out.
Answer: False
False. Staling is mostly starch retrogradation, which is why refrigeration speeds it up.
- Put in orderLevel 3
6. Put these events in a baking loaf in order.
Answer: Gases expand and the loaf springs -> Starch gelatinises -> Proteins set the structure -> The crust browns
Gas expands, starch gelatinises, protein sets, crust browns.
Milling and Flour
- Choose all that applyLevel 2
7. Which are made from flour? Pick all that apply.
- Breadcorrect
- Pastacorrect
- Cakecorrect
- Cheese
Bread, pasta and cake all start with flour.
- Fill the blankLevel 2
8. The stretchy protein network in bread dough is called ____.
- glutencorrect
- starch
- sugar
- yeast
Gluten traps the gas from fermentation.
- Match the pairsLevel 2
9. Match each grain to a food made from it.
Answer: Wheat = Bread; Rice = Sushi; Maize = Popcorn; Oats = Porridge
Different grains suit different foods.
- Multiple choiceLevel 2
10. What is flour made by doing to grain?
- Grinding it into powdercorrect
- Boiling it
- Freezing it
- Drying it whole
Grinding or milling crushes grain into a fine powder.
- True or falseLevel 2
11. Wholemeal flour keeps more of the whole grain than white flour.
Answer: True
True. White flour has the bran and germ removed.
- Sort into groupsLevel 3
12. Sort each change by whether it happens during baking or during staling.
Answer: Starch gelatinisation = During baking; Maillard browning = During baking; Starch retrogradation = During staling; Crumb firming = During staling
Different processes dominate at different times.
Rice and Pasta
- Build the sentenceLevel 2
13. Build a sentence about pasta.
Answer: Pasta is made from wheat flour and water
Pasta is made from wheat flour and water.
- Choose all that applyLevel 2
14. Which are rice dishes? Pick all that apply.
- Risottocorrect
- Paellacorrect
- Sushicorrect
- Lasagne
Risotto, paella and sushi are all built on rice.
- Fill the blankLevel 2
15. Pasta cooked so it still has a slight bite is called ____.
- al dentecorrect
- well done
- raw
- crispy
Al dente means firm to the bite.
- Multiple choiceLevel 2
16. How is rice usually cooked?
- Simmered or steamed in watercorrect
- Fried dry with no liquid
- Baked in an oven only
- Eaten raw
Rice is simmered or steamed in water until it absorbs it.
- True or falseLevel 2
17. Spaghetti, penne and fusilli are all shapes of pasta.
Answer: True
True. Different shapes hold sauce differently.
- Type the answerLevel 2
18. Which long thin pasta shape is the most famous of all?
Answer: spaghetti
Spaghetti is long, round and thin.
The Great Grains
- Choose all that applyLevel 2
19. Which of these are grains? Pick all that apply.
- Wheatcorrect
- Ricecorrect
- Oatscorrect
- Carrot
Wheat, rice and oats are all cereal grains.
- Multiple choiceLevel 2
20. Which grain is used to make most bread?
- Wheatcorrect
- Rice
- Barley
- Millet
Wheat contains the proteins that make stretchy bread dough.
- Picture questionLevel 2
21. 🍞 Which food is made mostly from wheat flour?
- Breadcorrect
- Cheese
- Fish
- Milk
Bread is baked from wheat flour, water, salt and yeast.
- Sort into groupsLevel 2
22. Sort each food by the grain it comes from.
Answer: Bread = Wheat; Pasta = Wheat; Sushi = Rice; Risotto = Rice
Each grain has its own familiar foods.
- True or falseLevel 2
23. Rice feeds more people than any other single crop.
Answer: True
True. It is the staple food for a large share of the world.
- Fact or fibLevel 3
24. Higher yielding crop varieties always reduce environmental impact.
Answer: False
False. Higher yields can reduce land use but often depend on more fertiliser and water.
Yeast and Rising
- Choose all that applyLevel 2
25. What does bread dough need? Pick all that apply.
- Flourcorrect
- Watercorrect
- Yeastcorrect
- Sand
Flour, water, yeast and salt make basic bread.
- Fact or fibLevel 2
26. Yeast is a living thing.
Answer: True
True. It is a single-celled fungus that feeds and grows.
- Multiple choiceLevel 2
27. What does yeast do in bread dough?
- It makes bubbles that make dough risecorrect
- It adds colour
- It makes dough hard
- It cools the dough
Yeast makes gas bubbles that puff up the dough.
- Put in orderLevel 2
28. Put these bread-making steps in order.
Answer: Mix the ingredients -> Knead the dough -> Let it rise -> Bake in the oven
Mix, knead, rise, bake.
- True or falseLevel 2
29. Yeast needs warmth to work well.
Answer: True
True. Cold slows yeast down and very high heat kills it.
- Build the sentenceLevel 3
30. Build a sentence about fermentation.
Answer: Yeast ferments sugars producing carbon dioxide and alcohol
Yeast ferments sugars producing carbon dioxide and alcohol.
Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.
How you practise
This unit mixes 12 different question formats, so you are recalling and applying rather than recognising the same layout every time.
- Build the sentence
- Choose all that apply
- Fact or fib
- Fill the blank
- Match the pairs
- Multiple choice
- Odd one out
- Picture question
- Put in order
- Sort into groups
- True or false
- Type the answer
Practise Grains and Bread
119 questions across 20 steps. Start with step one and crawl at your own pace.
Play this unitRead about Grains and Bread
Explainers from our blog on what this unit covers. Each one ends with real questions from the bank.
- Why Does Bread Go Stale?Why does bread go stale? It is not simply drying out. Here is what starch retrogradation does, and why the fridge makes bread stale faster.August 28, 2026 · 5 min read
- Why Does Bread Rise?How yeast, gluten and trapped gas turn a dense lump of dough into a light loaf, explained step by step.August 28, 2026 · 6 min read
- What Is Gluten and Why Does Dough Stretch?Gluten is a network of two wheat proteins that forms when flour meets water. How kneading builds it, why it traps gas, and when to hold it back.September 14, 2026 · 4 min read
- How Is Pasta Made? Durum, Dies and Why the Shape MattersDried pasta is two ingredients, hard wheat and water, pressed through a die and dried slowly; fresh pasta adds egg. Why durum, and what the shapes are for.September 15, 2026 · 5 min read
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