Fresh commercial white bread

[Stephen Tashiro]

I miss the experience of having fresh commercial white bread. I'm trying to figure out why it doesn't happen.

In my childhood, the family ate Sunbeam bread and, with the correct timing, you could shop for bread on the day of its weekly delivery to the store. It was fresh.

Several things have changed. Perhaps, in my current location, I'm not near a commercial bakery.

Pehaps it's due to the change in bread recipes. Modern Sunbeam white bread has a coarser texture than the Sunbeam bread of my childhood.

Perhaps its due to the local custom of locating the bread aisle across from refrigerated cases. There is often condensation inside the bags. (I notice many local households keep their bread in the refrigerator, so they wouldn't know what fresh bread tasted like anyway.)

[Van Huskey]

Not sure if it is part of the cause of what you are seeing but the mineral content of the water used to bake any bread has a huge impact on the texture and taste.

[Jim Becker]

Your market's in-store bakery can help with this...

[Robert Engel]

Sorry to have to say this, but white bread isn't real bread. Its what's left after all the nutrition is bleached out.

Stop eating it immediately. :-D

[Alan Rutherford]

If you can live with unconventional loaf shapes, having to slice your own bread and a complete lack of preservatives, get a bread machine. I've been using one for over 25 years. Saved thousands of dollars and had bread that was healthier and tasted better whenever I wanted it. We are never more than about an hour and a half from a fresh warm loaf of white bread. Our current favorite is about half white and half white whole wheat (yes, there is such a thing) but that takes longer. You can use the timer on the machine and have bread ready in the morning.

Our Panasonic SD-YD250 is about 6 years old and replaced a similar model which wore out after many years and hundreds of loaves. You can get fancy with it but we seldom do. I make pizza dough with it. If you get one, you will wonder why you ever missed commercial bread.

BTW, you can freeze it but don't keep it in the refrigerator. It gets stale in the refrigerator, not in the freezer.

[roger wiegand]

Modern commercial breads have been engineered to have a shelf life of a month or more. Your bread may be coming from a bakery 1000 miles away. Find a local baker to support, or make your own. There are recipes online for DIY WonderBread if that's what you'd like to achieve.

(When I first learned about tortillas I was taught that 24 hours was about the maximum age that was acceptable, that an hour or two was better (true). I was horrified to find a package of tortilla-shaped objects in the grocery store that had a "best by" date nearly six months in the future!)

[Shawn Pixley]

Your market's in-store bakery can help with this...

I so agree. Though I don't eat white bread, our local Von's (Safeway Corp) bakes bread every day. If you go in between 5-6 PM it is still warm and you can watch them package it. Hard to beat that freshness short of making it yourself (which is the best way). My family likes the italian loaf. I go for a rustica of some sort.

[Stephen Tashiro]

Your market's in-store bakery can help with this...

No, the markets in-store bakery sells a completely different product! I'm familiar with baking bread and I have often done it. However, I would also enjoy having the old fashioned commercial bread. If the the nutrition is "bleached-out", so much the better. I don't need more nutrition.

[Malcolm McLeod]

Modern commercial breads have been engineered to have a shelf life of a month or more. Your bread may be coming from a bakery 1000 miles away. Find a local baker to support, or make your own. There are recipes online for DIY WonderBread if that's what you'd like to achieve.

(When I first learned about tortillas I was taught that 24 hours was about the maximum age that was acceptable, that an hour or two was better (true). I was horrified to find a package of tortilla-shaped objects in the grocery store that had a "best by" date nearly six months in the future!)

Giggle 'calcium propionate'. Big name bakeries use it to inhibit mold growth - - and depending on the bread product's moisture content, you can usually get a month or so before it gets grey and fuzzy. Leave it out and you get a shelf life of 2-3 days if you're lucky. Same if you bake your own, unless you regularly irradiate the kitchen to sterilize.

Don't like chemicals in your food? Breads will probably double in price. Take your pick, 'poison' or poverty.

OK, OK. You can blame me a little. I have helped automate the mass production of CalPro.

[Bert Kemp]

I can't for the life of me figure why people eat white bread. Its so bland and with all the different breads out there to try. White bread yuc

[Mark Blatter]

I bake too, about 90% whole wheat using hard white winter wheat. I grind my own of course. (Sorry my snobbishness is showing through). I do buy sliced bread and am always amazed at how long it lasts today. It goes stale way before mold starts to grow. I presumed it was being irradiated, but now I know it has more 'additives' that keep it 'fresh'.

I bake four loaves at a time, use one immediately and freeze the other three. Pulled from the freezer, it is almost as good as fresh from the oven.

[Mike Null]

After spending so much time in Germany we"re spoiled. There just aren't good breads here. But----German bread, delicious as it is, is very expensive and like most French breads, has a one day shelf life. But man, is it good!

We do buy baguettes and ciabatta once in a while. For my pb&j I use oat bran.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Fifty years ago, had Fridays off. Would go by the bakery, and have lady running outlet store go get us a couple loaves that hadn't been wrapped yet. We would sit in car and eat them right there. Only thing that could have made it better was some butter for our still hot fresh baked bread.

[John T Barker]

Sorry to have to say this, but white bread isn't real bread. Its what's left after all the nutrition is bleached out.

Stop eating it immediately. :-D

Try European "white" bread...that's worth eating.

[Rich Riddle]

I can't for the life of me figure why people eat white bread. Its so bland and with all the different breads out there to try. White bread yuc

It makes good toast.