Why does Irish bread go grey instead of hard?

SwissK

Hi,

I have been living in Ireland for 10 years (grew up in Switzerland).
One thing that I haven;t figured out is, why the heck does the bread here in Ireland go off? Regular sliced bread goes off within 3 days if it's not in the fridge.

A a few weeks back, friends from work (Spanish, French, Italian, German) were asking the same question. It seems that in mainland Europe, bread just goes hard, but never ever grey. (only if it's kept inside a sealed bag with no air for weeks.)
Also the idea to put bread in the fridge is for most foreigners ridiculous.

So what makes it go all moldy? The humidity? Different way of baking it (different yeast or flour)?

It's just strange as this seems to only affect UK and Ireland, but not mainland Europe. Here, regular sliced bread, burger/hot dog buns, even soda bread... all grows blue mold after just 72 hours.

Flint Fredstone

Bread in Spain goes off before you get the butter on :pac: Don't get me started on the milk.

umop apisdn

SwissK wrote: »

Hi,

I have been living in Ireland for 10 years (grew up in Switzerland).
One thing that I haven;t figured out is, why the heck does the bread here in Ireland go off? Regular sliced bread goes off within 3 days if it's not in the fridge.

A a few weeks back, friends from work (Spanish, French, Italian, German) were asking the same question. It seems that in mainland Europe, bread just goes hard, but never ever grey. (only if it's kept inside a sealed bag with no air for weeks.)
Also the idea to put bread in the fridge is for most foreigners ridiculous.

So what makes it go all moldy? The humidity? Different way of baking it (different yeast or flour)?

It's just strange as this seems to only affect UK and Ireland, but not mainland Europe. Here, regular sliced bread, burger/hot dog buns, even soda bread... all grows blue mold after just 72 hours.

I've never seen anyone in Ireland put bread in the fridge, and the muck the supermarkets provide now are so packed full of chemicals, it goes off in weeks rather than days.

conorh91

Maybe it's something to do with the ingredients (milk/ butter?).

They love UHT.

Continentals very rarely consume fresh dairy products in the way we do.

I assume their bread is made with similar longevity in mind.

DoYouEvenLift

I don't know but what I do know is that milk on the mainland seems absolutely shocking in general. The after taste that some of them leave...

uch

Because your eating the wrong bread, told you already

uch

Where's abouttobebanned when you need him

starWave

In France, the bakeries are not allowed by law to put preservatives in the bread, so its usually gone rock hard by the evening.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

SwissK wrote: »

Hi,

I have been living in Ireland for 10 years (grew up in Switzerland).
One thing that I haven;t figured out is, why the heck does the bread here in Ireland go off? Regular sliced bread goes off within 3 days if it's not in the fridge.

A a few weeks back, friends from work (Spanish, French, Italian, German) were asking the same question. It seems that in mainland Europe, bread just goes hard, but never ever grey. (only if it's kept inside a sealed bag with no air for weeks.)
Also the idea to put bread in the fridge is for most foreigners ridiculous.

So what makes it go all moldy? The humidity? Different way of baking it (different yeast or flour)?

It's just strange as this seems to only affect UK and Ireland, but not mainland Europe. Here, regular sliced bread, burger/hot dog buns, even soda bread... all grows blue mold after just 72 hours.

I have never had bread go grey or hard in 3 days and would never keep bread in a fridge. What bread are you buying?

kneemos

Years ago bread used to as you described,go hard after a few days and grow mould.
It's packed full of preservatives these days so it never goes off.
Haven't bought a sliced pan in years,disgusting crap.

Speedsie

Are you buying that stuff masquerading as bread? Made using the Chorleywood process? Rank it is. Buy some decent bread, or make your own. Be grand.

I've never put bread in the fridge... Seems an odds thing to do.

theteal

My folks put bread in the fridge, it is weird. Plus it's white sliced sh!te so that probably doesn't help to start with.

We don't buy much bread here so I can't really contribute to the OP's actual enquiry

Speedsie

[qouote="theteal;96720717"]My folks put bread in the fridge, it is weird. Plus it's white sliced sh!te so that probably doesn't help to start with.

We don't buy much bread here so I can't really contribute to the OP's actual enquiry[/quote]

Sliced white bread is pure junk, buy a bread knife, decent unsliced bread & slice as needed. And keep it in a bread bin.

pickarooney

Would putting bread in the fridge not increase the likelihood of it going mouldy?

Strange concept.

Akrasia

Ya gotta love the old AH food snobbery

There's nothing wrong with the sliced pan. It's a miracle of modern industrial process that millions of the things can be produced and distributed every day before most people get out of bed.

Bread either goes hard or mouldy depending on the humidity where it's being stored.

If you leave a piece of bread out in the air, it goes hard, if you leave it in a plastic wrapper it will go mouldy

Why would you put bread in the fridge
that's mad
Put it in an airtight container. Or if you go through it too slowly, freeze some of it

Mine definitely goes hard. iykwim
Not "grey"

ted1

SwissK wrote: »

Hi,

I have been living in Ireland for 10 years (grew up in Switzerland).
One thing that I haven;t figured out is, why the heck does the bread here in Ireland go off? Regular sliced bread goes off within 3 days if it's not in the fridge.

A a few weeks back, friends from work (Spanish, French, Italian, German) were asking the same question. It seems that in mainland Europe, bread just goes hard, but never ever grey. (only if it's kept inside a sealed bag with no air for weeks.)
Also the idea to put bread in the fridge is for most foreigners ridiculous.

So what makes it go all moldy? The humidity? Different way of baking it (different yeast or flour)?

It's just strange as this seems to only affect UK and Ireland, but not mainland Europe. Here, regular sliced bread, burger/hot dog buns, even soda bread... all grows blue mold after just 72 hours.

You don't keep bread in the fridge.

MarkY91

I've heard. Of people putting bread in the fridge but never done it myself.

I have to agree with other posters, milk in the mainland is horrendous so much that I avoid it Wether I'm there for a weekend or 2 weeks.

Banjo String

Flint Fredstone wrote: »

Bread in Spain goes off before you get the butter on :pac: Don't get me started on the milk.

We have fridges and air conditioning these days though Fred.

Ps, tell Wilma I said hi.

Dr Linda Gordon with Safefood explained that mould, the appearance of which generally mean the bread will be chucked in the bin, appears on foods like bread that have a low moisture content when they are exposed to a damp environment.
This is likely to occur in the plastic bag that bread is kept it, but would occur at a slower rate due to the reduced temperature in the fridge.
However, she noted that keeping bread in the fridge will make it go stale quicker than if it is kept in a bread bin.
This is due to the crystalline structure of starch changing at low temperatures.
“Storing in a bread bin is fine,” she told TheJournal.ie, “as long as it is not damp , and it’s probably best to store it in paper rather than plastic.”
However, Gordon suggested the best thing to do with bread is to freeze it, and to take out as much as you need each day, meaning that the bread is kept fresh but also that waste is minimised.

http://www.thejournal.ie/bread-press-cupboard-bin-fridge-freezer-kept-1492871-Jun2014/

murpho999

Akrasia wrote: »

Ya gotta love the old AH food snobbery

There's nothing wrong with the sliced pan. It's a miracle of modern industrial process that millions of the things can be produced and distributed every day before most people get out of bed.

Bread either goes hard or mouldy depending on the humidity where it's being stored.

If you leave a piece of bread out in the air, it goes hard, if you leave it in a plastic wrapper it will go mouldy

It's not food snobbery. Standard of bread in Ireland is poor but improving. Buying any pre packed is a bad idea. Especially the Brennan's white pan type. Truly awful stuff. Bread should not still soft after 3 days.

Fortunately the choices in fresh and wholemeal breads are increasing. Agree with other posters about milk. Much better in Ireland.

daisybelle2008

pickarooney wrote: »

Would putting bread in the fridge not increase the likelihood of it going mouldy?

Strange concept.

Very common in America to keep bread in the fridge, The sliced bread there never seems to go off. It tastes very sweet too.

pawrick

Depends on the humidity, I've bought fresh baked bread here from one shop and sometimes it goes hard instead of mouldy or vice versa so it's not the ingredients making the difference.

strelok

daisybelle2008 wrote: »

Very common in America to keep bread in the fridge, The sliced bread there never seems to go off. It tastes very sweet too.

american bread is destroyed in sugar. a slice can have almost double the calories of your typical irish bread too, it's insane

_Kaiser_

I don't eat much bread anyway but I find the only way to have it - standard white Brennan's sliced pan - last more than 2/3 days is to stick it in the fridge

Avatar MIA

MarkY91 wrote: »

I've heard. Of people putting bread in the fridge but never done it myself.

I've heard of people putting people's heads in the fridge. Haven't done that myself either.

Akrasia

murpho999 wrote: »

It's not food snobbery. Standard of bread in Ireland is poor but improving. Buying any pre packed is a bad idea. Especially the Brennan's white pan type. Truly awful stuff. Bread should not still soft after 3 days.

Why not?
Calcium propanoate is the main preservative in bread, It's naturally formed during fermentation and it has helped to eliminate mould contamination in bakeries which was a serious health risk only a few decades ago

Calcium propanoate is one of the safest additives in the food industry.
(of course, if you google any ingredient, you'll get the usual fruity websites telling you it's lethally toxic)

Some people might be sensitive to this ingredient and might report headaches or other feelings of discomfort, but for the vast majority of people this preservative is perfectly safe as part of a balanced diet.

It's better to have food last longer. Humans have been preserving food since the stone age by curing it or smoking it

Fortunately the choices in fresh and wholemeal breads are increasing. Agree with other posters about milk. Much better in Ireland.[/QUOTE]

kylith

Keeping it in the fridge will stop it going mouldy, but will make it stale quicker. Personally I don't care too much about it getting stale since I generally toast it anyway.

I think it's the general Irish dampness that makes bread mouldy rather than stale.

Akrasia

kylith wrote: »

Keeping it in the fridge will stop it going mouldy, but will make it stale quicker. Personally I don't care too much about it getting stale since I generally toast it anyway.

I think it's the general Irish dampness that makes bread mouldy rather than stale.

Also, the Irish desire to store bread in a bread bin which is essentially a mould nursery

TheChizler

Back home we'd usually put sliced pan in the fridge if it was a particularly hot summer, lasts a bit longer than the bread bin at the cost of getting a bit dry They've all got into their hipster farmer's market bread now (:P) which good stale before they get half way through.

I've never heard of bread going grey though OP.

CiniO

SwissK wrote: »

One thing that I haven;t figured out is, why the heck does the bread here in Ireland go off? Regular sliced bread goes off within 3 days if it's not in the fridge.

.

You must be talking about mass production sliced pans which are made in big factories and are generally a disgrace of a bread.
Hard to understand why so many people accept it as bread and eat it.
They indeed go mouldy after few days.
If you purchase proper fresh bread from good bakery, it's going to taste much better and just go dry after a day or two instead of mouldy.

Massimo Cassagrande

murpho999 wrote: »

It's not food snobbery. Standard of bread in Ireland is poor but improving. Buying any pre packed is a bad idea. Especially the Brennan's white pan type. Truly awful stuff. Bread should not still soft after 3 days.

Fortunately the choices in fresh and wholemeal breads are increasing. Agree with other posters about milk. Much better in Ireland.

Ah stop - I just finished a big bacon sangwidge - Two slices of fresh Brennans, lashings of Kerrygold butter and a leathering of crispy streaky rashers hot out of the pan. Gorgeous.

Most food on the "mainland" is utter muck - you'd starve out there unless you lowered your standards to pigs entrails, liver and cows ears. They appear to subsist on offal and odd rye bread with UHT milk and crap tea. They must send all the good cuts of meat to here and the UK and survive on the leftovers. Irish bread and food is brilliant - otherwise why would we have such a thriving food-export sector.

kylith

Massimo Cassagrande wrote: »

Ah stop - I just finished a big bacon sangwidge - Two slices of fresh Brennans, lashings of Kerrygold butter and a leathering of crispy streaky rashers hot out of the pan. Gorgeous.

Most food on the "mainland" is utter muck - you'd starve out there unless you lowered your standards to pigs entrails, liver and cows ears. They appear to subsist on offal and odd rye bread with UHT milk and crap tea. They must send all the good cuts of meat to here and the UK and survive on the leftovers. Irish bread and food is brilliant - otherwise why would we have such a thriving food-export sector.

Don't knock the offal! A bit of kidney is lovely.

Massimo Cassagrande

kylith wrote: »

Don't knock the offal! A bit of kidney is lovely.

If God wanted us to eat that muck, he wouldn't have invented steak.

Yamanoto

As an aside OP, it's worth noting it's a Swiss company with Irish roots who are responsible for the stodgiest & most joyless bread available on the Irish market today - Aryzta own the Cuisine de France brand.

Were I François Hollande, I'd be ordering air-strikes on a factory that besmirches a nations culinary reputation to such an egregious extent.

Akrasia

Yamanoto wrote: »

As an aside OP, it's worth noting it's a Swiss company with Irish roots who are responsible for the stodgiest & most joyless bread available on the Irish market today - Aryzta own the Cuisine de France brand.

Were I François Hollande, I'd be ordering air-strikes on a factory that besmirches a nations culinary reputation to such an egregious extent.

the nth law of progress is that the sick will reject the cure as witchcraft

PucaMama

whats the best type of bread bin?

ArtSmart

PucaMama wrote: »

whats the best type of bread bin?

lol.

anyway, re OP; damp and preservatives.

Get thee proper delicatessen/ bakery brown bread.

White bread in Ireland*? Tis for sinners.


(*The land of dampness)

smurgen

Massimo Cassagrande wrote: »

Ah stop - I just finished a big bacon sangwidge - Two slices of fresh Brennans, lashings of Kerrygold butter and a leathering of crispy streaky rashers hot out of the pan. Gorgeous.

Most food on the "mainland" is utter muck - you'd starve out there unless you lowered your standards to pigs entrails, liver and cows ears. They appear to subsist on offal and odd rye bread with UHT milk and crap tea. They must send all the good cuts of meat to here and the UK and survive on the leftovers. Irish bread and food is brilliant - otherwise why would we have such a thriving food-export sector.

Bang on.i lived i Switzerland for a few years and France and the average food available is a way lower quality than Ireland.this idea that french bread is the bees knees is for the most part not true either.their sliced pans are surgery and disgusting,like American bread.the baguettes are pretty much the same as what you get here.when it comes to dairy and meat products we blow them out of the water too.and I include cheese in that.

Jesus Wept

umop apisdn wrote: »

I've never seen anyone in Ireland put bread in the fridge, and the muck the supermarkets provide now are so packed full of chemicals, it goes off in weeks rather than days.

I put it in the fridge. Keeps longer. Bread bins are a farce, it's just a cupboard for bread.

Cee-Jay-Cee

I've never seen bread go grey! It goes hard after a week or so but if you close/seal the packaging after use each time it will stay fresh for almost a week. Once it starts to go off, blue mould forms but I have never seen bread go grey. Maybe your eyes need testing....

threebagsfull

smurgen wrote: »

Bang on.i lived i Switzerland for a few years and France and the average food available is a way lower quality than Ireland.this idea that french bread is the bees knees is for the most part not true either.their sliced pans are surgery and disgusting,like American bread.the baguettes are pretty much the same as what you get here.when it comes to dairy and meat products we blow them out of the water too.and I include cheese in that.

In fairness people aren't raving about French sliced pans! I lived there for a few years and I don't even remember seeing any. Their bakery bread is good, but it's more just something to put the cheese / terrine / cold meats with, and I have to disagree with you there. The cheese selection is brilliant even if you're not going to a fromagerie, and the cold meats and terrines you'd get at the market are really good. I've never been able to find anything decent here to compare.
If you're looking for Brennans and Easi Singles, yes you'll be disappointed.

Son Of A Vidic

SwissK wrote: »

Why does Irish bread go grey instead of hard?

Probably because of Sellafield.