Bread Machines

[NickD 203]

One of the worst jobs I ever had as kid was working for a Hungarian baker, no spoons or other labor saving devices, you worked with your hands, but that guy knew how to make a loaf of bread. And in the span of an hour, had to make over 300 loafs.

Got involved with commercial bread making automation machinery, while a couple of hundred bucks may seem like a lot of money for a bread maker, still in the toy class.

Will give the Zojirushi credit for first baking a loaf horizontally, most bake vertically, and using two instead of one dough hooks, but still Mickey Mouse, and apparently those hooks are baked into the bread, isn't that kind of dumb? For the same price of this machine, can buy a good Kitchen Aid dough mixer.

Grandma and an aunt would have loved one of these, they don't make women like that any more, secret was to let the dough rise and smash it down three times to get a really fine textured bread, aunt was a farm wife, even used a wood fired stove, now that takes unimaginable skill to bake a perfect loaf of bread plus a bunch of other things. They did all of their mixing by hand.

See nothing wrong with using a power mixer and a digital oven, though I have a low opinion of these fanned conviction ovens in an attempt to save time, can actually burn the top of the loaf while the dough in the bottom is raw. And you can mix other stuff in that Kitchen Aid as well, not just bread.

Trying to put all this automated stuff in one little box leads to compromises, like baking your dough hooks in the bread and trying to get an even heat without burning put those cheap plastic parts. And your oven can be used for other things as well as is not the situation with dedicated cookware.

Another key is finding the recipe for what you want to bake and even modify it to your liking. Gee, I also left off a rice maker and a tea maker as other dedicated devices to consume your counter space. Grandma and aunt had a maple board for their mixing, and their hands with baking and pots and pans, can't beat an old fashion seasoned cast iron frying pan, and really don't need a kitchen with over a hundred feet of counter space.

Most of these so called labor saving devices are garbage giving you more labor to cleaning them up than what labor you save. Feel the same with all these junk power tools, if they don't have more power than me, they are worthless.

[Amby 490]

I second the Kitchen Aid! Best ever for making bread with little effort!

[Krikit 1,165]

I'm not a big fan of the breadmakers. Gave mine away. I prefer to make bread the old-fashioned way. So much better.