The Chorleywood Experiment (2023)

"It is indeed true to say that the Chorleywood Bread Process revolutionised the bread making industry, as in 2009, it was determined that approximately 80% of all the bread made in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and India, used the process. In addition, the CBD has been adopted in more than 30 other countries across the globe."

Only 80%? I'm in the UK now and it seems all but impossible to buy bread not made this way. It's as though bread here is made for people without teeth.

Re: The Chorleywood Experiment (2023)

#5

Post by noir_lord » Fri, Jul 19, 2024, 7:22 AM UTC

kwhitefoot wrote: post #4

"It is indeed true to say that the Chorleywood Bread Process revolutionised the bread making industry, as in 2009, it was determined that approximately 80% of all the bread made in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and India, used the process. In addition, the CBD has been adopted in more than 30 other countries across the globe." Only 80%? I'm in the UK now and it seems all but impossible to buy bread not made this wa…

We must live in different parts of the UK then because where I am in the north the bread choice has never been better - what you said was more true a couple of decades ago but my local small co-op has a huge range of bread fresh baked on premises including stuff like ancient grain sourdough.

All the lidl's within 20 miles have in store bakeries and do the same and you can order that stuff from all the major supermarkets.

Re: The Chorleywood Experiment (2023)

#6

Post by tialaramex » Fri, Jul 19, 2024, 7:31 AM UTC

kwhitefoot wrote: post #4

"It is indeed true to say that the Chorleywood Bread Process revolutionised the bread making industry, as in 2009, it was determined that approximately 80% of all the bread made in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and India, used the process. In addition, the CBD has been adopted in more than 30 other countries across the globe." Only 80%? I'm in the UK now and it seems all but impossible to buy bread not made this wa…

There are a lot of types of bread. For a whole bunch of those this process is irrelevant. Pita for example. So a specialist "foreign foods" place will have lots of options. But also if you have either an actual bakery or a large supermarket they will have options to make "traditional" English bread by the conventional more expensive process and charge you for that.

If you want to pay 40p for a loaf of bread, Chorleywood is the way that happens. If you don't mind paying £2.50 for an artisan loaf that you can't figure out how to slice that's cool too.

Dippy soldiers probably don't benefit from using the slow expensive process. A ham sandwich probably does.

Re: The Chorleywood Experiment (2023)

#7

Post by YeGoblynQueenne » Fri, Jul 19, 2024, 9:03 AM UTC

kwhitefoot wrote: post #4

"It is indeed true to say that the Chorleywood Bread Process revolutionised the bread making industry, as in 2009, it was determined that approximately 80% of all the bread made in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and India, used the process. In addition, the CBD has been adopted in more than 30 other countries across the globe." Only 80%? I'm in the UK now and it seems all but impossible to buy bread not made this wa…

Have you tried somewhere else than a supermarket or franchise bakeries?

I have to say though it isn't easy. It's hard to find good bread in the UK. I had a salmon sandwich on a good wholmeal sourdough at a shop in the Canary Wharf tube station in 2015 and I still remember it.

The only way I've found to have a decent loaf of bread in the UK is to make it myself. I kinda recommend it. I don't really care about breadmaking, like I'm not seriously into it, but the bread I make at home is just decent bread and it's tough to find that in the shops.

And don't buy flour from the supermarket, either. I once tried the wholewheal flour from the Waitrose, after I got fed up with their wholemeal loaf tasting like cardboard. Well, the bread I made with their flour tasted exactly the same as their bread. There's something wrong not only with breadmaking, but also with flour sold in this country. But you can get good bread flour (hard white, wholemeal, spelt, rye, barley, anything you want) if you look around online a bit.

Re: The Chorleywood Experiment (2023)

#8

Post by DonaldFisk » Fri, Jul 19, 2024, 9:12 AM UTC

The shocking truth about bread: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/feat...

There's a real bread campaign: https://www.sustainweb.org/realbread/

Re: The Chorleywood Experiment (2023)

#9

Post by rsecora » Fri, Jul 19, 2024, 9:38 AM UTC

TLDR;

The Chorleywood bread process is a method of dough production to make yeasted bread quickly, producing a soft loaf. It allows the dough to be made with lower-protein wheat and it uses more yeast, added fats, chemicals.

80% of all the bread made in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and India, use the process.

Re: The Chorleywood Experiment (2023)

#10

Post by CaptainMarvel » Fri, Jul 19, 2024, 9:39 AM UTC

noir_lord wrote: post #5

kwhitefoot wrote: post #4

"It is indeed true to say that the Chorleywood Bread Process revolutionised the bread making industry, as in 2009, it was determined that approximately 80% of all the bread made in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and India, used the process. In addition, the CBD has been adopted in more than 30 other countries across the globe." Only 80%? I'm in the UK now and it seems all but impossible to buy bread not made this wa…

We must live in different parts of the UK then because where I am in the north the bread choice has never been better - what you said was more true a couple of decades ago but my local small co-op has a huge range of bread fresh baked on premises including stuff like ancient grain sourdough. All the lidl's within 20 miles have in store bakeries and do the same and you can order that stuff from all the major supermark…

It's funny that you mention co-op and lidl.. neither of them actually have "bread fresh baked on premises including stuff like ancient grain sourdough" [0].

kwhitefoot is correct and the vast majority of bread in the UK is not what you think it is.

The bread in these two stores is mostly baked in a factory and then delivered to the store where it may be heated for a golden crust (at most). The ancient grain sourdough is (likely) just mostly wheat bread [1].

In my personal experience, I was always suspicious of the "fresh sourdough bread" at Tesco. It was far too soft to be real sourdough bread and now I think it was a straight-up lie- sorry just a marketing label.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/jun/11/fou...

[1] https://www.sustainweb.org/news/dec23-lidl-sourdough-sourfau...