{"id":149,"date":"2018-02-22T13:36:18","date_gmt":"2018-02-22T12:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/?p=149"},"modified":"2018-02-22T13:42:26","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T12:42:26","slug":"lets-talk-realbread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/slider\/lets-talk-realbread\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s Talk #realbread"},"content":{"rendered":"

Artisan bread, real bread, proper bread, these terms are sprinkled about like a flour shaker with little attention to what they mean, or why we\u2019re using them.<\/p>\n

At one time people made bread at home, or bought bread from a baker \u2013 someone who actually made fresh bread on their premises.\u00a0 These days most bread is made in factories by the \u2018Chorleywood method\u2019 – a quickly produced standard loaf that uses commercial yeast and various dubious \u2018additives\u2019.\u00a0 Flour in the UK has to be fortified by law because the bread that most people have access to in supermarkets is nutritionally poor.\u00a0 It\u2019s a sad state of affairs for a basic commodity which many people rely on.\u00a0 All bread should contain, apart from flavouring ingredients, is flour, salt and water; time and love are the only additional ingredients needed to make a decent loaf.\u00a0 The rise of the so called artisan baker has come about as a result of people wanting real bread.\u00a0 Bread as it used to be.\u00a0 Not \u2018worthy\u2019 wholemeal loaves, necessarily, but exciting breads both continental and home grown, that use interesting flours, maybe seeds; breads that are made slowly with ferments and starters; sourdoughs and the like, where only time will allow them to develop their characteristic flavour.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a bit of furore in the bread making community at the moment because there are no legal definitions for things like sourdough loaves.\u00a0 Supermarkets are getting on the bandwagon.\u00a0 They want in on the demand for \u2018proper\u2019 bread.\u00a0 What they supply to fill this demand should be regarded with suspicion.\u00a0 Look at the ingredients for a start.\u00a0 The fewest number of ingredients I counted were 6.\u00a0 However, \u2018processing aids\u2019 are not currently legally required to be declared on labelling.\u00a0 This is the definition of such additives:<\/p>\n

\u2018Any substance not consumed as a food by itself, intentionally used in the processing of raw materials, foods or their ingredients, to fulfil a certain technological purpose during treatment or processing, and which\u00a0may result in the unintentional but technically unavoidable presence of residues of the substance or its derivatives in the final product, provided that these residues do not present any health risk and do not have any technological effect on the finished product.\u2019<\/p>\n

There are six or seven such \u2018aids\u2019 which can be included, without being labelled, and they include such things as fungal and animal enzymes.\u00a0 Yum!<\/p>\n

Quite apart from having non-food items in your sourdough loaf, you may also not technically have any sourdough in it either.\u00a0 It is extremely unlikely that your local supermarket has a sourdough starter, which has been lovingly fed for years; it is also unlikely that they are going to spend three days making a loaf of bread.\u00a0 So how do they get away with calling it sourdough?\u00a0 Because there is no legal definition as to what a sourdough loaf must constitute.\u00a0 My sourdoughs have a rye or wheat starter, both lovingly curated over months and years.\u00a0 The loaves take three days of processing by hand.\u00a0 Time is what makes a sourdough loaf of bread.\u00a0 Time and the starter.\u00a0 Without these two ingredients, in my view, and the view of many of my fellow artisan bakers, a loaf should not be called a sourdough. The proof is in the eating.\u00a0 You may be able to buy a so-called sourdough from the supermarket for under \u00a32, but it won\u2019t taste like sourdough; it won\u2019t have the texture of a sourdough, and the likelihood is, it won\u2019t technically be a sourdough!\u00a0 Artisan bread is more expensive.\u00a0 It takes time and experience to make. And physical hard work. \u00a0\u00a0I think it\u2019s worth the extra.\u00a0 Try it.\u00a0 I think you will too.<\/p>\n

So, as Real Bread Week approaches this weekend, seek out the real bread makers in your community and support them. The money you spend will benefit your community directly and you\u2019ll be getting tasty #realbread into the bargain.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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#realbread week 2018 is 24th<\/sup> February to 4th March<\/p>\n

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*Chorleywood Method<\/p>\n

Bread is processed in high speed mixers with commercial yeast and often additives.\u00a0 Loaves are made speedily without allowing time for the ingredients to work together.\u00a0 Andrew Whitley believes this is what has lead to the increasingly indigestibility of industrial loaves.\u00a0 For more information see his article here:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/lifeandstyle\/2008\/apr\/16\/recipes.foodanddrink<\/a><\/p>\n

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For details of #realbread makers in your community, see here:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.sustainweb.org\/realbread\/bakery_finder\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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To find out more about #realbread or find out how you can support the campaign for #realbread see here:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.sustainweb.org\/realbread\/#<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Artisan bread, real bread, proper bread, these terms are sprinkled about like a flour shaker with little attention to what they mean, or why we\u2019re using them. At one time people made bread at home, or bought bread from a baker \u2013 someone who actually […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22,5],"tags":[84,87,85,88,86,89],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions\/152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highlandhomecook.co.uk\/scrapingthebowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}