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Bread is Broken

nytimes.com

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Re: Bread is Broken

#81

Post by shirro »

nsxwolf wrote: post #23
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…

I don't know. My entire life's experience with grocery bought sliced bread is that it gets mouldy very quickly.

I think it probably differs a lot around the world. Some places are far less prone to use preservatives than others.

Re: Bread is Broken

#82

Post by buu700 »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #72
buu700 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This one is fantastic, and only 1g carbohydrate per serving because it's primarily fiber and protein: http://www.holdthecarbs.com/low-carb-fresh-baked/low-carb-wh... (The company has some sort of patented flour substitute that they make by stripping digestible starches from wheat flour and replacing them with flax and resistant starch.) But yeah, as bad_user points out this kind of thing raises questions about the se…

Fiber is still, by definition, carbohydrates. Not saying fiber is bad though.

Actually, that's an interesting challenge that the company that makes that bread (LC Foods) has run into with their nutritional labelling. Because fiber is technically carbohydrate (just not digestible by humans), there isn't really a consensus among regulatory bodies on how to treat it — specifically, Europe counts them as calorically empty while the US considers them equivalent to any other carbohydrates.

Normally, with the amount of fiber stuff actually contains, this doesn't make a practical difference, but in the case of LC Foods it means that their products' calorie counts are basically completely wrong (at least in the US; they may change them when they distribute internationally).

Re: Bread is Broken

#83

Post by angdis »

GFischer wrote: post #24
angdis wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand most cities have at least some "real" bakeries where you can get a nice loaf of bread with proper crumb and flavor. Most supermarket bread is virtually inedible to folks that have a taste for good bread. Aside from the insane ingredient list, the sickly softness of it and the lack of any decent crust and crumb makes me wonder what market forces influenced industrial bread makers. How can anyone that…

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.

I buy one big loaf of "pain au levain" (French style sourdough) once a week. As much as no-knead bread has convenience, it just can't measure up in flavor and consistency to something made with a starter, kneaded, risen, and backed to perfection by a pro.

Re: Bread is Broken

#84

Post by bavcyc »

stevesearer wrote: post #10
coldcode wrote: post #4

I used to get bread from a old school French baker in downtown Dallas of all places. I don't know where he gets his wheat (he mills it himself) but the bread was like nothing I've ever eaten. One time I ate half a loaf for dinner with nothing on it at all, it's so tasty.

Not to discount what you're saying as I'm sure the bread was very good, but I've been thinking about whether knowing a bit more about the process and story behind food products helps enhance the experience. So in this case, knowing that he mills it himself and that he seems to use old school methods, in addition to just baking great bread is a recipe for a better bread experience than that of simply eating great brea…

The processing that wheat goes through to become flour is interesting. Stuff is removed and then stuff is added. Different batches of wheat are blended to obtain a consistent product.

By grinding the grain in the bakery, it avoids the processing. The baker has to adjust recipes on the fly to adjust for the different gluten/protein levels since that will vary.

That might account for taste difference. Double blind trial would be interesting with different flours.

Re: Bread is Broken

#85

Post by [deleted] »

GFischer wrote: post #24
angdis wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand most cities have at least some "real" bakeries where you can get a nice loaf of bread with proper crumb and flavor. Most supermarket bread is virtually inedible to folks that have a taste for good bread. Aside from the insane ingredient list, the sickly softness of it and the lack of any decent crust and crumb makes me wonder what market forces influenced industrial bread makers. How can anyone that…

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.

[deleted]

Re: Bread is Broken

#86

Post by thaumasiotes »

bad_user wrote: post #63
thaumasiotes wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Usually this is done by replacing grains in part or in whole with something else. Much like low-fat milk. Low fat milk is made by just removing fat from whole milk; the milk changes consistency and possibly color because of this. Fat is not a huge component of milk. There are milk products that replace the fat with some fat-like substitute; for example, a store near me sells something called "fat-free half and half…

You don't just remove fat from milk. For one because it loses taste and texture, they have to compensate by adding things like powder milk, sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup and colorants amongst others. Of course the list of ingredients vary, depending on the country and on what's being banned or not. But the more interesting fact is that when stripping the fat from milk you can't just strip out 1.5% or 2%. Oh no,…

With all due respect, you have no idea what you're talking about.

http://stage.rosiediscovers.com/wp-content/uploads/blogger/-...

http://stage.rosiediscovers.com/wp-content/uploads/blogger/-...

http://ij.org/press-release/florida-skim-milk-release-11-20-...

The milk in my fridge right now (not Lucerne -- Clover) claims the following ingredients: milk (or "low-fat milk"), nonfat milk, vitamin A palmitate, and vitamin D3. The whipping cream, which would be a place to add nonmilk fats if there was any such place, claims cream, nonfat milk solids, carrageenan, polysorbate 80, and mono- and diglycerides. There's corn syrup in the eggnog, but that's supposed to be sweet.

So, to sum up:

Skim milk is made by taking raw milk and removing the fat. It loses taste and texture this way, which is why I hate skim milk. It also loses appearance, becoming a sort of sickly nearly-translucent blueish-white color.

Low-fat milk is made by mixing whole milk and skim milk in the appropriate proportions.

Sugar is not a milk additive, nor is nonmilk fat. There is definitely not pork fat in the milk we're drinking.

There is natural variation in the amount of fat present in milk. This is allowed, particularly for "whole milk".

Powder milk really is used to make eggnog and whipping cream. However, it's hard to argue that adding powder milk adulterates milk.

Vitamin A and/or D3 are almost always added to US milk. That's not for any cosmetic purpose; it is a public health measure.

Re: Bread is Broken

#87

Post by HelloMcFly »

hugh4 wrote: post #37
jandrese wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, homemade bread ends up being a lot tastier than store bought if your only store bought options are big mass produced soft breads. The crust especially suffers on packaged breads. You don't even need fancypants flour. Just an oven and a few minutes to prepare it (plus rise time and bake time of course). I prefer to do a half and half mix of wheat and bread flour, but everybody is free to do what they lik…

How much can they really charge that makes it worth spending ten minutes kneading, ten minutes washing your hands and the next two days pulling out arm hairs with caked on dough? That's my experience with bread making anyway. No matter what bread I buy, bread isn't a major part of my weekly budget.

I have a stand mixer with a dough hook. I've done no hand-kneading and no additional hand-washing with any of my bread baking, and I make about 1.5 loaves per week. Outside of rising and baking time, making a standard loaf takes me all of six minutes.

Re: Bread is Broken

#88

Post by ChristinaM »

rudolf0 wrote: post #50
jobu wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Cut up and bake for a bit coated with oil and maybe spices for amazing croutons. A little chewy in the middle is great.

Re: Bread is Broken

#89

Post by fweespeech »

venomsnake wrote: post #52
fweespeech wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Quadruple the dough and use it on 4 consecutive days. It will average pretty close to 5 minutes then. Also cut the dough and do not tear it.

Fair enough, but cooking for myself, I just don't have that kind of scale to work with. It'd go bad before I could eat it. xD

Re: Bread is Broken

#90

Post by nsxwolf »

shirro wrote: post #81
nsxwolf wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know. My entire life's experience with grocery bought sliced bread is that it gets mouldy very quickly.

I think it probably differs a lot around the world. Some places are far less prone to use preservatives than others.

Maybe humidity too.
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