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Bread is Broken

nytimes.com

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Re: Bread is Broken

#41

Post by Animats »

Chlorus wrote: post #22
blacksmith_tb wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only the Times had someone (like, say, an editor?) to make similar points. Nearly all the criticisms of 'mainstream' wheat in their article amount to subjective praise of the magical goodness of obscure local strains. I'm sure they're delicious, but I would like to see some real research on just how bowdlerized typical wheat has become. Not to mention that while I like to bake my own bread, and I have the time to…

Ditto, people seem to say the same things about bread that people said about wine & high-end audio equipment. Some actual empirical research would be nice...

Right. A Trader Joe's outlet has 20 to 30 types of bread. It's not like there's a lack of options.

Re: Bread is Broken

#42

Post by sampo »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #38
bad_user wrote: post #9

Ironically, sliced bread is the worst. Normal bread can get stale, dry and hard. But packaged sliced bread is much less perishable. I've seen sliced bread having the same texture and taste after a whole week of lying on a kitchen countertop. And when you read the ingredients on its packaging, you begin to understand why, as sliced bread is subject to the techniques of processed foods such as the addition of preservat…

> In addition sliced bread is subject to every health-related fad in existence. Low carb bread? Sure. How could you have "low carb bread"? Bread is a big bundle of carbohydrate. It'd be like low sugar caramel.

There are some high protein breads, one example I looked has 13g carbs and 17g protein per 100g. Whereas white bread might have carbs 45g, protein 7g.

(They probably have different water contents, so just comparing per 100g is a bit problematic.)

Re: Bread is Broken

#43

Post by fweespeech »

venomsnake wrote: post #27
GFischer wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time(convenience) and money? I love freshly baked bread, but I can't buy a loaf on a regular basis due to the strict schedule at work, and even if I do, I won't eat it all and it'll go stale very quickly.

Do you have an oven - making a boule is very easy and has only 5 minutes of on hand time?

Recipe? :D

Re: Bread is Broken

#44

Post by nemo »

gahahaha wrote: post #33
Dirlewanger wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, maybe modern processed bread that has sugar in it. Questionable otherwise, unless you have a source.

Agriculture was terrible for our health - even before sugar became a part of our diet. http://discovermagazine.com/1987/may/02-the-worst-mistake-in...

While agriculture has had health-effects, Jared Diamond is a quack who writes shallow fluff-anthropology and seems to take the approach of deciding on a conclusion, then go finding research to justify it.

Re: Bread is Broken

#45

Post by fweespeech »

thrownaway2424 wrote: post #28

I appreciate all the do-it-yourself fervor on this thread but baking seems like a decent application of the principle of economic specialization. I, for one, enjoy visiting my local bakery every few days, and they do a better job than I will ever do even if I quit my job and practice baking full-time, which I'm not planning to do.

> I appreciate all the do-it-yourself fervor on this thread but baking seems like a decent application of the principle of economic specialization

Not really. The cost for me to bake bread is cheaper [and while I did ask for the guy with 5-min hands on time's recipe largely because bread takes ~15 min of effort with the recipe I use], I can make it and a main course in ~45 min of actual work.

> I, for one, enjoy visiting my local bakery every few days, and they do a better job than I will ever do even if I quit my job and practice baking full-time, which I'm not planning to do.

It takes me ~40 minutes round trip to go to the bakery. Its one of those tasks that, frankly, cost me more time than the 30min I spend baking bread twice a week.

Re: Bread is Broken

#46

Post by venomsnake »

fweespeech wrote: post #43
venomsnake wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have an oven - making a boule is very easy and has only 5 minutes of on hand time?

Recipe? :D

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/06/better-no-knead-b...

You can search on no knead breads. They are long recipes. But require almost no hands on time. You mix, you wait, you wait, you wait, you wait, you shape, you throw into preheated dutch oven and eat :)

Re: Bread is Broken

#47

Post by matthewmcg »

bad_user wrote: post #9

Ironically, sliced bread is the worst. Normal bread can get stale, dry and hard. But packaged sliced bread is much less perishable. I've seen sliced bread having the same texture and taste after a whole week of lying on a kitchen countertop. And when you read the ingredients on its packaging, you begin to understand why, as sliced bread is subject to the techniques of processed foods such as the addition of preservat…

There's an excellent 99% Invisible podcast about this: http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/good-bread/

Re: Bread is Broken

#49

Post by fweespeech »

venomsnake wrote: post #46
fweespeech wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recipe? :D

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/06/better-no-knead-b... You can search on no knead breads. They are long recipes. But require almost no hands on time. You mix, you wait, you wait, you wait, you wait, you shape, you throw into preheated dutch oven and eat :)

I took you literally on those 5 minutes. ;) That one says 15.

I was mainly hoping for the 2/3rd reduction in labor because I'm a lazy sob.

Re: Bread is Broken

#50

Post by rudolf0 »

jobu wrote: post #31
bad_user wrote: post #9

Ironically, sliced bread is the worst. Normal bread can get stale, dry and hard. But packaged sliced bread is much less perishable. I've seen sliced bread having the same texture and taste after a whole week of lying on a kitchen countertop. And when you read the ingredients on its packaging, you begin to understand why, as sliced bread is subject to the techniques of processed foods such as the addition of preservat…

There's a bakery near us that makes some amazing Bavarian sunflower wheat bread. They sell it pre-sliced in a few local grocery stores as well, but it definitely doesn't keep very long. Most store-bought bread is shelf-stable for weeks, and this stuff is only a few days. We've found that freezing it and then using a toaster to thaw it works great - almost as good as fresh.

I've found great-tasting bread always goes stale within about 2 days. No way around it really. Any longer than that and it must have some preservatives, in which case taste and texture will suffer.
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