[Going Forward]

Does anyone agree that the quality of many sliced pans has decreased in the last few years?

Its nearly all mush now IMO.

I usually get the Aldi 800g brown sliced pan, which I like, but recently got the Tesco equivalent- not as nice.

The modern mass produced "baking" process has been covered in detail elsewhere, eg;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorleywood_bread_process


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/fo...p-iceberg.html

Anyone recommend a good supermarket own brand bread or otherwise affordable alternative?

[dudara]

Moved to Food & Drink

dudara

[Gordon]

I just bought a breadmaker and I'm really happy with it. Not only can you make bread in the style you want, you can chuck flour & stuff into it and just leave it to make pizza dough. It'd probably be a long time until it saved you money, but the fact that you know exactly what goes into it, and the smell of fresh bread is great.

[markfla]

count yourself lucky you're not in the states, been in Phoenix the last two months and the bread is worse than anything you can get in Ireland. Bread that stays soft for a couple of weeks you'd have to be suspicious of!

[blatantrereg]

just get better quality bread. Some soda bread is just flour, buttermilk, soda really.

[brick tamland]

Id be interested to know whats the best comercial bread to be buying too. I like the idea of making my own bread but its not an option for me unfortunatly.

[blatantrereg]

oops sorry I missed the question in my last post.
McCambridges is decent and widely avaialable. Ingredients:
Fresh Buttermilk, Wholemeal Flour, Wheatflour, Bicarbonate of Soda, Salt, Wheatgerm.

Nothing else.

Some of the "Seán's Bread" or whatever it is called are even better - some of them only use wholegrain. But it might not be in the supermarket.

[emeraldstar]

Originally Posted by markfla

count yourself lucky you're not in the states, been in Phoenix the last two months and the bread is worse than anything you can get in Ireland. Bread that stays soft for a couple of weeks you'd have to be suspicious of!

And it tastes sweet, there's so much sugar and crap in it.

[Alun]

Originally Posted by emeraldstar

And it tastes sweet, there's so much sugar and crap in it.

That's good ol' corn syrup, which I think is also why their bread always has a slight yellowish tinge to it. Disgusting horrible stuff indeed.

[Cardinal Richelieu]

Originally Posted by Gordon

I just bought a breadmaker and I'm really happy with it. Not only can you make bread in the style you want, you can chuck flour & stuff into it and just leave it to make pizza dough. It'd probably be a long time until it saved you money, but the fact that you know exactly what goes into it, and the smell of fresh bread is great.

Let us know in 6 months if your still using it, IMHO its one of those gadgets people rave about for 2 months then becomes an over sized paperweight in the kitchen.

[Alun]

Originally Posted by Cardinal Richelieu

Let us know in 6 months if your still using it, IMHO its one of those gadgets people rave about for 2 months then becomes an over sized paperweight in the kitchen.

I've had mine (a Panasonic SD-253) for nearly six years now and it gets used every week at least.

[ElleEm]

I'm considering getting a bread maker. My mother has one and uses it a couple of times a week for plain white and flavoured bread. Yum!

[vibe666]

i read something recently that was saying that the wheat used to make bread these days has been modified so much since (approx.) the last 50 years or so with selective breeding and then genetic manipulation that there is a bigger difference (genetically) between the wheat of 50 years ago and the GM crops of today than there is between humans and apes.

[Cardinal Richelieu]

Originally Posted by vibe666

i read something recently that was saying that the wheat used to make bread these days has been modified so much since (approx.) the last 50 years or so with selective breeding and then genetic manipulation that there is a bigger difference (genetically) between the wheat of 50 years ago and the GM crops of today than there is between humans and apes.

Evolution, most food crops have been modified by selective breeding plus now look at the wide variation of food DNA that we consume compared to are ancestors. If you want original bread try spelt flour.

[Dizzyblonde]

Originally Posted by Cardinal Richelieu

Let us know in 6 months if your still using it, IMHO its one of those gadgets people rave about for 2 months then becomes an over sized paperweight in the kitchen.

I have my Panasonic years and I use it 3-4 times a week. It's the one gadget that I couldn't live without. The bread is amazing, I make mostly granary bread and a French bread that's fluffy and crusty just like a vienna roll - it's delicious.