Here’s a trivia question for you: what did humans domesticate first?

Before any bird, before anything with hooves, before crops, even long before the dog.

The answer is a fungus. That’s right, anthropologists now believe that early humans fermented fruit as much as 100,000 years ago—and through that process domesticated yeast.

Of course, we didn’t know we were doing it.

Even when ancient Sumerians and Egyptians started making beer and bread, they had no idea that yeast did the fermentation.

They just put some of the old fermented stuff in the new stuff, and it kept on fermenting.

It wasn’t until the 1600’s that scientists recognized yeast was responsible. And 200 years later that we understood yeast is a single-celled fungus.

Scientists believe yeast evolved naturally to consume sugar and excrete alcohol as a self-defense mechanism. Yeast is able to withstand concentrations of 12 percent alcohol or more, where other microbes die at just 5 percent concentration.

Brewers and vintners carefully monitor their yeast’s sugar consumption and alcohol production when making different beers and wines.

Bakers value yeast’s CO2 production, which makes dough rise and gives bread its light texture.

Today, yeast is carefully cultivated for the flavor it imparts to many of our foods and remains a vital and healthy part of our food system.