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The Invention of Sliced Bread

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21–30 of 33 posts

Re: The Invention of Sliced Bread

#21

"Trusting the great potential in his hypothetical invention, he immediately set out to conduct some market research. He put together a brief questionnaire “for the purpose of determining a thickness of slice which would be most nearly universal in acceptance,” and placed it as an ad in several large newspapers. Over the course of a few months, he managed to cull responses from 30,000 housewives. Armed with this knowl…

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Re: The Invention of Sliced Bread

#22
post #16
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

French here, sliced bread is like "the worst thing ever".And dont get me started on industrial bread.If your bread isnt like less than 30 min fresh,hot from the oven, you shouldnt eat it.And by the way,we call sliced bread "english bread".

Dutch-near-German-border here. I think your opinion stems from the quality of industrial bread in France. If you look in the Netherlands you'll find a wide variety of very tasty pre-sliced industrial bread, always fresh baked in the morning. That being said, I always buy unsliced artisan German bread from my local baker who imports it from across the border. And for fun, let's fan the flames a bit. You can't compare…

As a Frenchman who has lived 7 years in France, I can't agree with you.

Is the Dutch industrial sliced-bread better than the French sliced-bread ? Yeah, mostly because it's "freshly" baked every morning.

But it is still industrial bread, which can't be beaten by bread fresh from the bakery.

As for german bread, they do have a wide variety, I give you that, but once again, it's more and more industrial.

My parents in law, who are germans, complain that more and more bakery only bake pre-made bread and don't do their own anymore.

So yeah, if you have the chance to have a "real" baker nearby, it can be quite gorgeous, but in the general case, not so much.

Re: The Invention of Sliced Bread

#23
As someone being born in Spain, form me sliced bread means: "The worse thing ever". An industrialized type of food that also requires to use the kind of ugly plastic that ends in the stomachs of turtles, dolphins and whales.

Now the crustless bread is even worse as they need lost of additives for it to stay fresh.

In China and Japan good bread was in the top list of things I missed, so I bought my own bread machine. But getting good flour was not easy.

In the US I could get it but it was expensive.

People from China, Japan or the US loved to come over my house to eat. Most of them have not tasted good bread ever, but they believe they do because of sliced bread.

Re: The Invention of Sliced Bread

#24

As someone being born in Spain, form me sliced bread means: "The worse thing ever". An industrialized type of food that also requires to use the kind of ugly plastic that ends in the stomachs of turtles, dolphins and whales. Now the crustless bread is even worse as they need lost of additives for it to stay fresh. In China and Japan good bread was in the top list of things I missed, so I bought my own bread machine.…

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Re: The Invention of Sliced Bread

#25

Just to add some perspective from the outside world (I.e. Not America). In Italy sliced bread never really took over common bread. Yes we make toasts, and yes, we have sliced bread, but that's usually some industrial, over-processed bread loaf that you'll never find fresh at a bakery. Here in Germany, were I live now, it's a mix. Common bread everywhere, but you can slice your own loaf at the supermarket with a terri…

Belgian perspective: every bakery has their own cutting machine, and when you buy a bread, it is cut just before it is wrapped. If you tell the baker beforehand that you prefer it uncut, you'll get it uncut. 15 years ago, it used to be the other way round: the baker would ask you if you wanted it cut, and would only cut it if you said 'yes'.

Bread in supermarkets can be pre-cut and pre-packaged (industrial, cheaper, and of inferior taste), but often supermarkets also offer freshly baked, uncut bread and have a cutting machine for you to use when you pack up your bread.

Re: The Invention of Sliced Bread

#26
post #19
post #13

I've become a convert to home baking with a bread machine, and the loss of easy slicing is one if the biggest downsides. The purchase of a slicing guide and electric knife has offset this somewhat, but it's still easy to get wrong. What I'd like is a compact home bread slicing machine.

You might consider just getting a nice long, sharp bread knife. There's something fun about a great knife.

Absolutely agreed on the great knife bit. As for the bread... I think ditching the expectation of perfectly even slices is a good start. Cut a piece and cut it in half; there, half a sandwich (assuming your bread maker spits out loaves with a square cross section). Want another half? It may not be the same thickness as the first one, but as long as you're a little bit careful, your pieces should at least be consistent with themselves, so there you go.

Re: The Invention of Sliced Bread

#27
post #16
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

French here, sliced bread is like "the worst thing ever".And dont get me started on industrial bread.If your bread isnt like less than 30 min fresh,hot from the oven, you shouldnt eat it.And by the way,we call sliced bread "english bread".

Dutch-near-German-border here. I think your opinion stems from the quality of industrial bread in France. If you look in the Netherlands you'll find a wide variety of very tasty pre-sliced industrial bread, always fresh baked in the morning. That being said, I always buy unsliced artisan German bread from my local baker who imports it from across the border. And for fun, let's fan the flames a bit. You can't compare…

American here. Several years ago, our son was working in the Netherlands (west), and met us for a few days in Paris. He took back a fair bit of bread, not liking the Dutch product. To be sure, I have had good locally baked bread in Lower Saxony.

In my childhood in northern Ohio, there was a local bakery that had its own slicer and would slice the bread on request. I remember the product as quite good (I preferred the rye), but growing boys will eat pretty much anything.

Re: The Invention of Sliced Bread

#28
related to me by a drunk baker some evening many moons ago -

'sliced bread has more surface area, so goes stale faster; companies loved it because their bean counters found out that people ended up buying more bread for the perceived convenience. By the time they started crazy additives for longer life, people were convinced that sliced bread is better. Throughout, people were eating less and less bread ... as a slice with your meal so its usage has changed quite a bit as well.' As the evening wore on, he probably had a point, but I missed it.

Now I do not know the veracity of the above ... what is clear to me is that (like many things in the western world) bread is no longer bread (that strange sliced white loaf is probably full of sugar, etc) ... having lived in countries for 20 years where I slice my bread I've not noticed the incredibly time consuming act of slicing bread.

Re: The Invention of Sliced Bread

#29
post #22
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dutch-near-German-border here. I think your opinion stems from the quality of industrial bread in France. If you look in the Netherlands you'll find a wide variety of very tasty pre-sliced industrial bread, always fresh baked in the morning. That being said, I always buy unsliced artisan German bread from my local baker who imports it from across the border. And for fun, let's fan the flames a bit. You can't compare…

As a Frenchman who has lived 7 years in France, I can't agree with you. Is the Dutch industrial sliced-bread better than the French sliced-bread ? Yeah, mostly because it's "freshly" baked every morning. But it is still industrial bread, which can't be beaten by bread fresh from the bakery. As for german bread, they do have a wide variety, I give you that, but once again, it's more and more industrial. My parents in…

Dutch industrial bread is nice in its own way, but it's not really bread like a baguette is. White Dutch bread has a cake-y character to it, which goes very well together with more 'delicate' toppings like butter & hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles), jam, a young dutch cheese or boiled ham, which are common in the Netherlands. Whole wheat sourdough bread, no matter how great, just doesn't mesh with delicate toppings like strawberry jam. That said, a baguette or artisan bread is a far superior base for a good old cheese, Serrano ham or other 'strong' toppings. This is why brown dutch bread is never worth buying IMO -- it's kind of a weird thing like cake made with whole wheat flour that reminds me of antroposophic foods: it's slightly less unhealthy but it tastes like crap. If you're gonna eat something unhealthy it better taste good.

Re: The Invention of Sliced Bread

#30

Just to add some perspective from the outside world (I.e. Not America). In Italy sliced bread never really took over common bread. Yes we make toasts, and yes, we have sliced bread, but that's usually some industrial, over-processed bread loaf that you'll never find fresh at a bakery. Here in Germany, were I live now, it's a mix. Common bread everywhere, but you can slice your own loaf at the supermarket with a terri…

> you can slice your own loaf at the supermarket with a terrific automated spring-loaded circular saw machine that's very cool to operate sigh... You cannot throw a statement like that without a Youtube link! For those interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JSvmCAwQEE

The first time I encountered one of those machines was in our local Lidl in Ireland. I could easily have stayed all day slicing bread, hugely satisfying to watch.

Of course, the engineer inside me wondered how well the safety lockouts were designed such that there would be no risk of accidentally having ones forearms turned into neat evenly sliced pieces.

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