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Show HN: I made a website to search for half loaves of bread

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Re: Show HN: I made a website to search for half loaves of bread

#191

Post by FredPret »

Symbiote wrote: post #157
sundarurfriend wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> this service appears to be focused on India, where the kind of loaf bread pictured is also not the most traditional. While that's technically true, when we use the word "bread" we generally mean this (Western?) kind of bread. For the Indian kinds of bread we normally use roti. In everyday contexts, if someone says bread, it almost always refers to the kind of bread pictured there.

I don't think it's fair to accuse all the West of preferring this type of bread. It's British or American, depending how much sugar was added.

My favourite bread is Wonder Bread, fight me

Re: Show HN: I made a website to search for half loaves of bread

#192

Post by joshxyz »

cors-fls wrote: post #6

I thought it was an app to match people that want an half loaf so they can share a full loaf of bread. That would be innovative. But no, it only searches store inventories for half-loaves for sale. I love the laser focus on half-loaves anyway.

Tinder, but for breads

Re: Show HN: I made a website to search for half loaves of bread

#193

Post by chubot »

djrogers wrote: post #142
chubot wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW in the US this is called "artisan bread", as opposed to supermarket bread. You can get it in bakeries in every major city, and at farmer's markets, but not most supermarkets, especially not outside the city. It's really popular in San Francisco for example. I found this out because I brought some bread from back to the suburbs to my parents, and they thought it was awesome, and had never had it before ... ! I ha…

> but not most supermarkets, especially not outside the city. Not sure what part of the country you live in, but this kind of bread is available at even the smallest out-of-the-way grocery store anywhere in California, and on most of the west coast that I've been to. I know because my family is hooked on it...

It's probably more available in California, but I'd also say that there's a lot of bread of that shape that isn't "artisan bread".

If it's baked by a local, skilled person (an artiasan!) and delivered early in the morning, I'd call that artisan bread.

But I think a lot of supermarket bread is basically baked in a big facility mostly by machines. I don't know the details but I think they have to make the ingredients more homogeneous for this to work. And if it's not delivered the same day, they will need to put preservatives in it.

IMO the difference is like night and day. My dad is the kind of person who swears by everything Costco, but even he likes the fresh artisan bread.

Re: Show HN: I made a website to search for half loaves of bread

#194

Post by djur »

mirker wrote: post #153
djrogers wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sandwich bread is poured into a tin and requires no shaping. > being essentially a cake I don't think either of those are true - at least not an any bakery I've ever been to. Cakes are a very specific type of baked good, made with a batter not a dough, which do not use yeast for leavening. Cakes also do not rely on gluten, and in fact limit it's formation by utilizing low protein flour. Also, bread dough will never…

Tin is normal (and also the reason the loaf is rectangular with a mushroom top rather than round): https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/classic-sandwich-br... For batter vs. dough: yes, they are not the same, but adding any fat to dough inhibits glutten (e.g., https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/36267/how-does-f... ), which is why sandwich bread is soft and spongy. It may not pour, but neither does muffin…

I have made that exact King Arthur sandwich bread recipe and it doesn't do anything like "pour". Loaf pans are used for sandwich bread to get more lift and a more sandwich-friendly shape, but there is far more gluten development than any cake batter. You can use that same recipe to make rolls, for instance, and they bake up just fine.

The cake recipe has a 2:3 ratio of flour to sugar, while the bread recipe has a 14:1 ratio. It also has a 2:1 ratio of flour to fat, with the bread being 6:1. The cake also has a much higher hydration ratio, more milk, eggs, and a completely different mixing process.

Really not "essentially" the same thing at all.

Re: Show HN: I made a website to search for half loaves of bread

#195

Post by sva_ »

ascar wrote: post #61

As a German the cultural differences around bread are really interesting. Already the cartoon picture of the half loaf of bread is so fundamentally different to what I am expecting it to look like. Also people in the comments saying they rarely not finish a loaf of bread. This [1] is how it looks like here and when bought at a bakery it's usually so big that we buy it in quarters and even that lasts a couple of days.…

That's a really low hydration level for a sourdough imho.

Re: Show HN: I made a website to search for half loaves of bread

#196

Post by pempem »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #135
hcknwscommenter wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like someone at the "at least one food bank" doesn't understand that there literally is no liability for past-date canned food. I am pretty sure dates on canned food wasn't a thing when I was growing up. It's just another way of prodding the customer to consume.

> It's just another way of prodding the customer to consume. Not really; expiration dates are printed on food (including canned food) because customers want them. Manufacturers are responding to, not attempting to drive, customer demand.

Not sure that's true: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1rZAT2GtmI

Re: Show HN: I made a website to search for half loaves of bread

#197

Post by sva_ »

CaptArmchair wrote: post #76
ascar wrote: post #61

As a German the cultural differences around bread are really interesting. Already the cartoon picture of the half loaf of bread is so fundamentally different to what I am expecting it to look like. Also people in the comments saying they rarely not finish a loaf of bread. This [1] is how it looks like here and when bought at a bakery it's usually so big that we buy it in quarters and even that lasts a couple of days.…

That's a sourdough bread, right? Now, there's a rabbit hole to dive into. It uses a different type of levain / yeast culture compared to bread based on dried yeast. Long story short, sourdough was / is how bread was made throughout history. Fermentation takes a very long time due to the nature of the levain. At some point, bakers noticed how the leftovers from brewers yeasts drastically shorten fermentation. That and…

I think if you have an active starter, it can be pretty much as quick as bakers yeast. The slow fermentation is just to give it more flavor.

I think the benefits of bakers yeast are reliability and predictability.

Re: Show HN: I made a website to search for half loaves of bread

#198

Post by rSi »

ascar wrote: post #61

As a German the cultural differences around bread are really interesting. Already the cartoon picture of the half loaf of bread is so fundamentally different to what I am expecting it to look like. Also people in the comments saying they rarely not finish a loaf of bread. This [1] is how it looks like here and when bought at a bakery it's usually so big that we buy it in quarters and even that lasts a couple of days.…

As an Austrian I can fully agree. we buy bread in full, halves or quarters and I eat it for a week without toasting. bread that is getting too dry to eat can be toasted or cut up in cubes to be used as croutons in soups and salads or used as a base for dumplings.

Re: Show HN: I made a website to search for half loaves of bread

#199

Post by lookalike74 »

sgerenser wrote: post #73
b112 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not completely true! For emergency preparedness, I keep a few hundred cans of food around. I live in a rural area, and this is prudent. I never eat them all best-before, and as this is canned food, best-before is not an expiry/safety date, even remotely. It is a flavour date. So I donate my stuff, before purchasing new. And before anyone gets all weird about it, I eat from the same stock I donate, even the day of don…

Have you talked to the food bank about their policy on past-date canned food? I know at least one food bank where they told people not to donate any food past the date as it will get tossed (plus additional staff and volunteer labor to sort through the stuff). I assume this is common for liability reasons at least.

Most food banks in the U.S. use tolerances that go months beyond the dates on packaged and canned foods and also take into account the integrity of the cans/packages. Fresh prepared foods like bakery items are repackaged for quick redistribution. Fruits/veggies (which are a very small portion of what food banks get) are distributed according to their condition but otherwise spoil the same there as anywhere else. And larger foodbank systems distribute things to the agencies - where people who need food actually go - using these guidelines and sometimes have the same food storage methods as grocery distribution centers might. Liability is a concern, but more in the sense of distributing healthy, useful food vs lawsuits.
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