I was in the grocery biz for 33 years . In the 1940s - 1990s a market's cheapest line of bread was called " balloon bread " in the baking industry . It was a small ball of dough pumped up with air. This gave the illusion of a big loaf for a small price , caramel coloring was added along with the label " wheat " bread, which meant nothing in reality . When I started in 1969 the ball of dough cost the company 4 cents , the loaf sold for 29 cents .... Looking at the ingredients today I see some cheap bread makers are using "palm oil " , a super saturated , but legally termed " vegetable " oil . It's the cheapest oil they can buy , and in the U.S. they get away with not having to designate whether it is palm " fruit " oil or the more artery destroying palm " kernel " oil . 90% of the time you are getting the cheaper " kernel " oil . Even worse, they have developed a chemical powder called " XPANDO " to keep the air bubbles trapped inside the loaf . This powder, combined with chemical spoilage retardants equates to a very long shelf life . The bread can be a month old yet feel like it was just out of the oven .... Not to be confused with " X - PANDO " . I'm glad I bought a bread machine many years ago !
HOW DO THEY KEEP LONG TERM SHELF LIFE BREAD FLUFFY ??
- Thread starter malocchio
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It is horrible what we put in bread and other foods today, in the name of preservation. We have not bought a loaf of bread from the store for years now. My dear wife is an excellent baker. We grind the wheat berries directly to make the bread. Bread is one of the things that should have VERY few ingredients. Actually you technically only need three ingredients to make a wonderful bread: water, flour, salt this is of course if you make sourdough bread.
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- #3
100% !!
'76 vintage Twinkees are the gold standard.
www.cbsnews.com
43-Year-Old Twinkie Still Intact At Maine School
It was part of a 1976 experiment about food preservatives.
www.cbsnews.com
1976? Pffffft!'76 vintage Twinkees are the gold standard.
43-Year-Old Twinkie Still Intact At Maine School
It was part of a 1976 experiment about food preservatives.
One of my students did several internships, one of which was with Canadian Defence Forces. Somehow Canada gets MREs just like the Americans. She brought me a souvenir MRE pack, which I kept in my office for a couple of years until one day I got curious. Turkey tetrazzini flavour -- what we called "Gray Snot" when it came in the old Meal, Combat, Individual. (There were several flavours of "snot" -- red [ham], brown [beef] and gray [either it was old or it was poultry].)
Anyway, to the point: There was an actual roll in there. Packaged in a plastic pouch and labeled as being preserved with some sort of industrial gas (ethylene? can't remember). Nasty smelling thing; stank up my office. If I ate that I'd want to do violence to somebody.
O.H.
Anyway, to the point: There was an actual roll in there. Packaged in a plastic pouch and labeled as being preserved with some sort of industrial gas (ethylene? can't remember). Nasty smelling thing; stank up my office. If I ate that I'd want to do violence to somebody.
O.H.
Flour water salt and yeast guarantees that the bread will stale within a couple of days. Now, add to that mixture chemicals whose names one cannot pronounce, therein lies the actual preservatives. I've baked my own bread for almost twenty years and when I recently purchased a loaf of "store bought" bread, it tasted like rubber. 'Nuff said. Bake your own.
I was a baker for 18 years. In the bagel making operation, we used what is called a dough conditioner. I think it was called S-400.
We'd put an ounce or two into a 100# batch of dough. It did an awesome job of controlling the proofing of the dough during the production process and made the dough run through the machine much easier with less jams and easier clean up. Especially when it was hot and humid. It made picture perfect bagels, every single one of them.
This was the early 1990's.
We'd put an ounce or two into a 100# batch of dough. It did an awesome job of controlling the proofing of the dough during the production process and made the dough run through the machine much easier with less jams and easier clean up. Especially when it was hot and humid. It made picture perfect bagels, every single one of them.
This was the early 1990's.
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- #10
My first bread machine was a Zojirushi ...lasted 18 years, poweful motor , perfect bread. I had to dump it when the teflon started to flake off . New Zojirushi machines are up around $400usd now . My newest machine , a Moosoo , has worked fine the last 6 years and no teflon flaking, in fact it may be ceramic coating now .
I'm always amused reading the back of the Rogers flour bags. They make a big deal out of "The Lemon Juice Secret" which is just adding a little acid to the dough as a "conditioner" to help the gluten develop. Sheesh.
I do long fermentation and cold retards, often also sourdough. This, along with the stretch-and-fold technique, develops plenty of gluten.
The point others have made is valid. Most commercial operations are predicated on the principle of finding out how many corners they can cut (or standardizations can be made) before you'll quit paying for it. Maximum price for minimum effort. That's not to say bakers are lazy! Far from it, in fact, with maximum respect to anyone who does that work for money. But if you can crank out twice as many loaves in the same time, you can make more money. Bottom line wins, as they say.
I just pulled a bake of a sourdough hearth boule with oat groat inclusions. Hearty, tasty, stick-to-your-ribs kind of bread. I don't even want to do the math to figure out what I'd need to sell that thing for just to break even; started refreshing the starter and soaking the grains on Friday night, mixed the dough and did the bulk fermentation on Saturday, cold retard Saturday night, baked it this morning. I do it because I love it, and I get "paid" in good bread and the satisfaction of making something myself.
O.H.
I do long fermentation and cold retards, often also sourdough. This, along with the stretch-and-fold technique, develops plenty of gluten.
The point others have made is valid. Most commercial operations are predicated on the principle of finding out how many corners they can cut (or standardizations can be made) before you'll quit paying for it. Maximum price for minimum effort. That's not to say bakers are lazy! Far from it, in fact, with maximum respect to anyone who does that work for money. But if you can crank out twice as many loaves in the same time, you can make more money. Bottom line wins, as they say.
I just pulled a bake of a sourdough hearth boule with oat groat inclusions. Hearty, tasty, stick-to-your-ribs kind of bread. I don't even want to do the math to figure out what I'd need to sell that thing for just to break even; started refreshing the starter and soaking the grains on Friday night, mixed the dough and did the bulk fermentation on Saturday, cold retard Saturday night, baked it this morning. I do it because I love it, and I get "paid" in good bread and the satisfaction of making something myself.
O.H.
Sounds like you are making some great bread! Yes bakers are not lazy people at all! Being up in the middle of the night to start the dough going for the next day is a lot of hard work. I have utmost respect for them. I think that most independent bakers are very good and do honest work.
I think where the problem comes in is in the large commercial bakers where they try to, like you said, cut corners to either increase the productivity or make the bread last a bit longer or use some lower grade ingredient that saves some cost. I understand that everyone is trying to increase their sales and margins, but at what cost? I am not referring to cost as in money now, but cost as in our health. We are straying further and further away from the farm so to speak. Further and further away from the base ingredients and to some modified and potentially tainted things that long term is harmful to our bodies. Do we really know what all those unpronounceable ingredients do to us long term? I think not! This is everywhere in our food industry today. Almost everything has things in it that you cannot pronounce. Sorry for my rant, but it is near and dear to my heart.
It's my retirement project.
Mrs. Hippie finally said the bread I've been making for 20 years is good, but entirely too familiar to her. So I've been ranging farther afield making hearth sourdough breads. Not really all that adventurous, but I've got the boule down pretty well. Aside from white and white/wheat breads, I've made some fruit and nut breads. I think the next one, which I'll start tonight, will be a "Gran Duro" or durum/white bread. I have Karyn Newman's Sourdough By Science which I like but initially didn't really think I'd make much from. Addictive, though. I'll have to return to Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice because there are some bakes in there I'd like to try. And let's not forget pizza!You're preaching and I'm the choir.
Some years ago I discovered that many people who say they're "gluten intolerant" also find they can eat artisanal, slow fermented bread. There's a reason for that! Long slow fermentations break down some of the gluten in the dough. Commercial yeasts bred for fast hot fermentations go so fast they don't have time to slow down and work on the gluten.I'm not gluten sensitive, thankfully, but I really like the bread that's coming out of my ovens. Yeah, plural. Got more than one razor, too.
I was just thinking that I like the rythym that bread imposes on my life right now. Keeps me sane, which is no small feat.O.H.
Ron R
I survived a lathey foreman
I usually freeze my fresh bread and in the morning if I want toast I knife apart a piece or 2 and microwave for 14 seconds and let sit for 10-30 seconds and then make a sandwich. Some bread my wife eats can sit on the counter for 1 week and still be fresh, they must be using some kind of preservative to prevent mold from forming.
That sounds fantastic! It sounds like a great retirement project to me. I am no baker that is for sure, but my wife is a master at it. Yes I have heard the same thing about those who have gluten sensitivity that they can handle sourdough breads much better.It's my retirement project.
You're preaching and I'm the choir.
I'm not gluten sensitive, thankfully, but I really like the bread that's coming out of my ovens. Yeah, plural. Got more than one razor, too.
O.H.
Now if you have not tried bread from fresh milled wheat, you need to. It is a completely other level. All our bread is from fresh milled flour and don't get me started on pancakes made with fresh milled flour. So good. Another thing with fresh milled flour is the nutrition. Fresh milled flour starts loosing it's nutrients after 48 hours so you only want to mill what you will use.
Tidbit of information regarding flour and how they preserve it. It is the center of the wheat kernel that becomes the white flour. It is called the endosperm. Endosperm has pretty much indefinite shelf life, but it lacks most nutrients. BTW this is the reason why they enrich AP flour with vitamins. The problem comes in when you want whole wheat flour. The germ and the bran, the other parts of the kernel, contain oils and will go rancid unless preserved. So they separate the germ and the bran from the endosperm, preserve it, and then mix it back together.
-Boris
