Why is the white bread in Ireland so dire?

jetsonx

Of all the countries in Europe. Ireland (save for the UK) must have the worst white bread in Europe.

Go to even a tiny mountain top village in Portugal, Spain or Italy - you will be able to find a tiny little bakery which makes rollicking good white loaves and rolls.

Go to a German or Austrian backeri - you will also have the pleasure of freshly made bread.

Go to France - you will find flavoursome baguettes that can be eaten almost plain.

Go to Ireland - Well your main option is supermarket bread - which has all the taste of eating A4 paper. Or, you could buy an equally tasteless "Cuisine de France" brand baguette in a convenience store. (Although top marks for SuperValu and Dunnes for making bread that actually has some taste)

Anyone explain this - why is fresh and tasty white bread almost impossible to find in Ireland?

Luna84

I think it's your taste buds.

SuperBowserWorld

Because we are not willing to pay people enough to make a living baking that kind of bread.

And we are all so super busy and important now that we value people who can make fart videos on tiktok higher than those who can bake bread.

ednwireland

French baker in my town. Gorgeous bread every day except Monday.

Gatling

Stopped buying it from stores here just bake a few loafs ourselves every week

xhomelezz

After living here for 18 years, I wasn't brave enough to start the thread like this one OP 😁

Most of the time I make my own bread. Might not be the healthiest, but taste much better than anything from supermarkets here.

whisky_galore

Every puff of wind and there's a rush on Brennan's, the blandest, most tasteless industrial bread going. Many people here have never graduated beyond the bland bread their Mammies bought.

"Cuisine De France"(sic.) frozen industrial bread is an insult to proper French bread.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058333930/why-is-the-white-bread-in-ireland-so-dire

You're not exactly making a fair comparison. If you go to a supermarket in France e.g. E. Leclerc, the bread in general is crap when you compare it to what you'll get in a small boulangerie. Same with a lot of supermarket bread around Europe. What you're doing is complaining about mass-produced stuff made here and comparing it to true artisan stuff made elsewhere.

Jim_Hodge

French and Italian supermarket bread's even worse than here. And, believe it or not, there are bakery shops here too that sell decent White bread.

blade1

Can't beat an oul grinder.

Gatling

In saying ours is bad has anyone tried the American equivalent sliced breads that after a month sitting in a press is still edible

Lewis_Benson

I think yiu are are gong to the wrong shops....

phormium

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121696629#Comment_121696629

Very true! I visited US for first time nearly 40 yrs ago, the same sliced pan was still 'fresh' in the relatives house when we were leaving 2 weeks later, I used to call it the everlasting bread!

Plenty of good bread here if you buy from a good bakery, supermarket stuff is cheap for a reason and unfortunately most people can't or won't pay for dearer stuff. Buy a second hand breadmaker and off you go! It's considerably more expensive than buying supermarket bread but cheaper than good bakery bread.

John_Rambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058333930/why-is-the-white-bread-in-ireland-so-dire

Where are you based Jetsonx? There's loads of good bakeries popping up all over Dublin, Russell Street bakery is the best I've tried so far. Bread 41 is good and so is Bread Naturally.

cnocbui

If you read the list of ingredients on, say, a lot of white pans, you could be forgiven for thinking all the bakeries are just using the same industrial scale bread mix. All this sh!te has bloody soy in it!.

Allinall

You can buy a sliced pan in Spain and it will still be as “fresh” after a week.

elperello

There are still some independent bakeries around the country making the traditional white pan.

Get one of those fresh and make a "hang sandwich" with it or cut a slice and put jam on it.

Greyfox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058333930/why-is-the-white-bread-in-ireland-so-dire

Tasty white bread is very easy to find in Ireland and anybody who says otherwise is talking out of there ars*.

JVince

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121696668#Comment_121696668

I think Lidl did a version here. It didn't sell

They still do the same "brand" as burger buns. Usually 2-3 weeks of shelf life.

In Spain, a sliced pan would have few uses, hence it needs 2 weeks shelf life (preservatives).

Allinall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058333930/why-is-the-white-bread-in-ireland-so-dire

Why do you think your main option here is supermarket bread?

Gatling

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121696645#Comment_121696645

Wonder bread!

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058333930/why-is-the-white-bread-in-ireland-so-dire

The self loathing of some Irish people on here is staggering.

Spanish Eyes

Wrong shops OP. As pp said a supermarket with a bakery is a good shout. SV, M+S, and Lidl are very good. There are some artisan bakeries around but not widely. I'm not a bread snob and love a doorstep of Batch loaf with ham, cheese and brown sauce just like the rest of them.

We make white and brown soda bread, and that has to be eaten quick or it goes like a rock, but it's gorgeous just out of the oven with real butter. We do buy mass produced stuff too. Faves are from Aldi, their Brown Bloomer is good for toast and for sandwiches, nice and thick bread. We have to live a little!

In Spain I did notice that the bread would last you through a siege, but it's ok. The crustless sliced pans there are great. Often wondered why we never see crustless bread here, they are great for la di da POSH sambos cut into triangles, therefore - sigh... I have to cut the bloody crusts off for Afternoon Tea cucumber sandwiches. It's a hard life.

xhomelezz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121696747#Comment_121696747

Not really, but I guess it depends what we grew up on.

Any sliced bread here I tried is disaster imo, but again as other poster pointed out, it depends on taste buds we have.

Gatling

arán artisan bakery in Kilkenny city has some of the best bread I've had here

touts

The likes of Brennan's and Pat the Baker came in with their cheap rubbish that stayed "fresh" for days and undercut the real bakers every town and village had. By the time we had money to afford real bread again all we were left with was the manufactured rubbish. Some local bakeries are making a small comeback but in general the bread business has been destroyed.

Murt2024

There’s plenty of places where you can good quality freshly baked bread. Maybe do a bit of research OP. No one is forcing you to buy Brennans. The bread in the states is horrific. You can taste the chemicals keeping it fresh in mass produced bread there.

Sam Russell

In the 1950s or thereabout, the UK had to develop a bread that could be made with soft British flour because they were bust and could not afford Canadian hard wheat needed for decent bread. So they got the British Baking Industries Research Association based in Chorleywood to develop a bread that could be made to be cheap and that used the soft wheat.

Well, they produced the very loaf that the OP despises. It is made with loads of yeast and is massively pounded making it get hot. Anyway, it is disgusting - it goes mouldy before it gets stale - but it is cheap to make because it uses cheap ingredients.

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

Edit: Typos fixed.

NSAman

If you think bread is bad here (imho it isn’t) try American bread….holy crap!

doesn’t go off after two weeks!

John_Rambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121696790#Comment_121696790

He said the bread is dire, not the people, read the thread title and the posts.

nachouser

Thunders batch or turnover is shaking its head at your thread.

Alun

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121696834#Comment_121696834

It's also a weird yellow colour from the corn syrup in it that makes it taste strangely sweet. Nasty stuff.

Mister Vain

It is definitely better in other European countries alright. The only decent white bread I've tried here is Staffords. It's not amazing but its a lot better than Brennan's and Pat The Baker.

peter4918

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121696679#Comment_121696679

What’s a hang sandwich?

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121696848#Comment_121696848

I did, it's the typical moany self loathing 'everything Ireland is shite' rubbish.

No better summed up than picking something innocuous like bread and going off on one.

jippo nolan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121697030#Comment_121697030

And McCluskey’s baked in Drogheda!

Fallout2022

Keep the dire people occupied with dire bread and dire circuses.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121697032#Comment_121697032

Otherwise known as a hang sangwich.

You might know it as a ham sandwich 🥪 but this is the real deal.

The recipe is -

1 take two slices of traditional white pan cut thick with a bread knife from today's bake.

2 spread both slices thickly with real butter.

3 pile up as much as suits you of the best sliced cooked ham you can get on one slice and stick the other slice on top.

Spanish Eyes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121697165#Comment_121697165

That's very complicated.

jippo nolan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121697032#Comment_121697032

Something like a tracker mortgage!

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121697195#Comment_121697195

But like the old ad used to say -

"it's a quare name but great stuff" 🙂

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121697096#Comment_121697096

Now you're talking.

I never leave Drogheda without a loaf.

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121697030#Comment_121697030

So far I think comparisons have been made ranking Irish bread below Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Austria and Germany. And on a par with the UK. That is a very small selection of other European countries.

Spanish Eyes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121697218#Comment_121697218

Was that Cheno Unction or something? Maybe I'm raving and it's the chemicals in the bread.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121697230#Comment_121697230

Nothing wrong with your memory, go to the head of your class.

No chemicals in McCluskey's bread.

accensi0n

You counter your own complaint in the same post?...

"Although top marks for SuperValu and Dunnes for making bread that actually has some taste"

2 of the main chain supermarkets in Ireland.. 😅

Javi_Dub

Sorry, but this is indeed very true. I'm from Spain, and the bread available in general Irish supermarkets (and local shops/Spars) is far from satisfactory (and quite expensive too). Only a few local bakeries offer decent bread, albeit at a minimum of 4€ per loaf or baguette, which feels like a rip-off. Having said that, I must confess that grocery prices in Spain or France have risen to the point where the final bill is comparable to what we pay here. This is particularly shocking considering that regular salaries are much lower in southern Europe.

ejmaztec

Why doesn't Brennan's bread go green when it goes off, wtf do they put in it to make it go a sh1tty orangey colour?

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121696831#Comment_121696831

True.

The nadir of our daily bread was in the nineties.

We have turned the corner in the last ten years or so.

You can get decent enough bread now in most places if you seek it out.

Xander10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121697348#Comment_121697348

It about 80% sugar

jippo nolan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121697165#Comment_121697165

None of that see through ham from Denny’s