Why do we tolerate sub-par bread?

[Scarpozzi]

There are 2 basic kinds of breads....quick breads and yeast breads. Quick breads use baking powder/baking soda as leaveners. These are typically heavier breads like biscuits, banana bread, cakes, etc... The really good breads that most people appreciate are leavened with yeast.

Now, the problem with yeast is that most bakers in the US use basic yeast strains from a jar....or they are simply taking frozen blocks of mass-produced dough and thawing them out before baking them. The process only takes a few hours...grease a pan toss a brick of dough in the pan and wait...not labor intensive and you get a uniform product without having to hire skilled labor. Most legitimate bakeries actually maintain a yeast starter that they may use for specific products they sell. I've actually heard of master bakers and pastry chefs travelling to Europe to family businesses, dropping a straw into a yeast starter there...crimping both sides...then flying back to the states and smuggling the yeast strains through customs to bring back starters that have been kept alive for decades or longer.

Equipment: The key to crusty bread is a steam oven. You can try to replicate this, by placing a pan of water in the bottom of an oven ,but it takes extreme heat and steam to get that crust that everyone seems to expect in a loaf of good bread. I've found that most good bagel shops here have the equipment required to make good italian or french baguettes.

As far as rye breads and other kinds, that's going to vary from bakery to bakery. Most of the good stuff is really in Jersey or NYC because of the large number of family businesses from immigrants of the early 1900s that are still making old school bread. Otherwise, you have to seek out tourist towns that have skilled bakers in the top tier restaurants. I've spent hundreds of dollars for a meal that had extremely rare ingredients and been blown away by the brioche...so much so that I had to have a second piece...I was full already and had 4 courses to go...I still ate it, and ate it slow.

 

[K1052]

Then it's the ignorance of the consumer. Something we all said. If people don't know better, how are you going to change it? You have to educate the public but maybe they don't want to learn?

Probably the biggest barrier is a lack of exposure. Lots of people never leave their town/county/state/region here let alone see any part of Europe or Asia. Assuming a vast and inexhaustible sum of money fell in my lap I'd sponsor semester/year abroad programs for HS/college covering middle and low income students.

 

[Yakk]

Yep. My fiance has a brother in Luxemburg and every morning they get fresh bread at a local bakery. "Cant start the new day without fresh bread" they always say. Ive noticed that in Europe bakeries are everywhere, perhaps as plentiful as fast food in the states. Even small towns will have a bakery within walking distance

Yup, it's just normal and not any more expensive. I don't get why not, but everyone is different.

This.

We are losing are artisan bakers as well as artisans in many industries. About ten years ago I toured the Jelly Belly factory and learned that they've had to discontinue making some of their more complex handmade sweets because they can't find a master candymaker to hire. I'm sure it's the same in many industries.

When was the last time you heard a young person say they wanted to study and put in the years it takes to be a master *anything* and then spend a career doing something like making bread or candy by hand? In Europe they still respect the artisans who dedicate their lives to keeping the traditional skills alive.

I've been in a few industries like this. Artisan shoulda are not passed on as people retire. More than a few companies I've worked with have to spend a small fortune to find top quality artisans from all over the world to finance &

 

[Scarpozzi]

Yup, it's just normal and not any more expensive. I don't get why not, but everyone is different.

At least where I live, the problem comes from income distribution, population density (or lack of), and convenience. In an urban or population-dense environment where people make bank, they're more willing to pay extra for artisan breads. Breads, along with fresh fish, and more expensive organic produce are all specialty items with relatively short shelf lives. Around here, it's more common to see someone reach for a box of pop tarts or that standard loaf of pre-sliced mass-produced bread than to buy fresh baked goods (because of convenience and cost). Grocery stores don't typically sell a top-notch product and there are only a handful of bakeries....but most here specialize in cakes and bagels and don't mess with the other stuff because of too much waste. (because of lower population density...not enough customer base)

I used to live a block away from a Great Harvest Bread Company store: https://www.greatharvest.com/home They would bake these round loaves daily...most of the breads were dense multi-grain loaves that typically were heavier quick breads, but had some yeast breads. It was nice being able to walk down the block and spend $4 for a loaf of fresh bread to go with a meal.

 

[Eug]

Probably the biggest barrier is a lack of exposure. Lots of people never leave their town/county/state/region here let alone see any part of Europe or Asia. Assuming a vast and inexhaustible sum of money fell in my lap I'd sponsor semester/year abroad programs for HS/college covering middle and low income students.

At least where I live, the problem comes from income distribution, population density (or lack of), and convenience. In an urban or population-dense environment where people make bank, they're more willing to pay extra for artisan breads. Breads, along with fresh fish, and more expensive organic produce are all specialty items with relatively short shelf lives. Around here, it's more common to see someone reach for a box of pop tarts or that standard loaf of pre-sliced mass-produced bread than to buy fresh baked goods (because of convenience and cost). Grocery stores don't typically sell a top-notch product and there are only a handful of bakeries....but most here specialize in cakes and bagels and don't mess with the other stuff because of too much waste. (because of lower population density...not enough customer base)

I used to live a block away from a Great Harvest Bread Company store: https://www.greatharvest.com/home They would bake these round loaves daily...most of the breads were dense multi-grain loaves that typically were heavier quick breads, but had some yeast breads. It was nice being able to walk down the block and spend $4 for a loaf of fresh bread to go with a meal.

A bit of both. I remember a friend of mine moved from Toronto in a middle class/upper middle class area to Calgary in an upper middle class area. His comment was that in Toronto he'd go into a grocery store and they'd have 8 different types of tomatoes. In Calgary (at the time) they'd have these huge grocery stores with huge displays of tomatoes several times the space of what he saw locally in Toronto, but all the tomatoes would be the same two or three varieties.

Different culture, and different history. Toronto was old money, with a long history of rich people, some of whom had significant ties to Europe. Calgary was new oil money, with a history of a more agricultural based economy before that. Furthermore, Toronto had a more of a mix of ethnic groups historically, whereas Calgary not so much. Obviously that's a vast oversimplification of things and if you looked hard enough, you could find that stuff in Calgary, but nonetheless differences in history and culture sometimes does make a difference in as basic stuff as buying tomatoes.

 

[zinfamous]

Do you mean the prepackaged generic sliced bread? Most grocery stores have a bakery too that have fancier breads. Just have to find a good store.

those "fancy breads" are rarely good, and they are marked up by about 9000% to what real bread should actually cost. I think it's the US culture to go "supermarket" shopping and stock up, rather than shop for each meal. Real bread doesn't exactly work in that model.

I also blame the Baptists.

 

[zinfamous]

I think people in the US just don't know better or only want the lowest price. Bread, cheese, and deli meats are better in Europe. But you pay for it. Just like seafood is better in Asia. Until people demand it, it's not going to change. But it's slowly changing as it's gotten easier to find places with good bread, cheese, and deli meats.

I just look at this way. What do I want? Slightly better bread or way cheaper meats? I'll take the way cheaper meats we have in the US over better European bread. I look at $40-50 slab of beef I grill/smoke and think this same piece of meat would easily cost $200-300 in Europe.

Not bread. real, fresh bread over there is like 1/20th the cost of the shit bread that you get "baked fresh" at the supermarket "bakery." Not to mention the actual bakeries, where you have to go well out of your way to get real bread, and pay something like $5-7 per loaf.

I miss my neighborhood bakery in Florence, where I could pop by each evening and get a giant, daily loaf for about $0.90. Granted, I was still using Lire at the time, but the cost difference then was still quite staggering.

 

[Platypus]

this thread makes me sad, longing for European bread. I always eat so much more bread when I am living in Europe than here.