America...your bread sucks.

[Darnell 8,478]

Complain all you want about the bread at the store. IMO, yer not looking in the right places.

Bakery shops abound, and the cooks take special requests. It's up to YOU to actually make contact, have a conversation.

Everything you need is in the USA - so quit yer whining, and go find it !

(Sure, this will probably mean that yer honing yer search skills, but that's a good thing ! )

[Aklem 0]

I've only been here a year and a half.. I gave up on good bread within a few months and started making my own. I am a Pastry chef though so making a few loaves of bread at home doesn't bother me. Even the little bakery I work at puts so much salt and sugar in the bread it's ridiculous and just plain unnecessary! I'm trying to convert my husband now, he's slowly learning to appreciate bread without all that nonsense in it, and realising how sweet the American bread is!

If anyone wants a couple of good bread recipes I can pass some along.

I would be one of those ppl who would love to have a good bread recipe!

[Aklem 0]

I would be one of those ppl who would love to have a good bread recipe!

noticed later on in the thread there was recipes posted! cant wait to try them out, thanks guys

[lgg 2]

Okay lady... and everyone else... now that I'm here, I have found NO issues with the bread... we buy organic stuff and so far the best one... Nature's Promise 100% whole grain. No HFCS and all natural and delicious. But you are right though SO much stuff has HFCS and ####### that i find myself reading a lot more labels and we buy mainly organic stuff.

But that's my pull for bread it's really good.

[Tech-MoLeidy 1]

Complain all you want about the bread at the store. IMO, yer not looking in the right places.

Bakery shops abound, and the cooks take special requests. It's up to YOU to actually make contact, have a conversation.

Everything you need is in the USA - so quit yer whining, and go find it !

(Sure, this will probably mean that yer honing yer search skills, but that's a good thing ! )

I'm glad you said it so I don't have to...................

As for bread recipes.......open google and type "best bread recipes from ___________"<-------enter whatever country you're from and click search. It's amazing! It's almost like it searches the whole internet for recipies.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1I7GPEA_en&ei=u7qdS7ekD82vtgf4w8CGBg&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&ved=0CAUQBSgA&q=best+bread+recipes+from+scotland&spell=1

Results 1 - 10 of about 110,000 for best bread recipes from scotland. (0.13 seconds)

[Gemmie 142]

There's a Wholefoods about 40 minutes away that I might cave into.

I've also found yogurt with not much HFCS in, YoCrunch (advertised as 'less than 1%!!'), so I'm happy about that. For a while, everything I ate tasted too sweet (soup, bread, yogurt, pasta sauce, even milk), and after reading labels, it became clear why.

Also, my MIL seems to get offended whenever I complain about the chemicals in the food. She kinda just goes quiet with a pissy look on her face, so I've had to stop. Whenever I'm offered something with a high HFCS content, I just decline.

Edited March 16, 2010 by Gemmie

[Badgerella 5]

Uh.

That is all I can say about bread, as well as many other foods.

And then also - lack of real cottage cheese (fresh cheese, without any salt, sour cream or guar gum). Lack of real yogurt, a.k.a. yogurt that is made of fermented milk (other than Dannon Plain). Fruit yogurt should not be eaten here. ALL of them contain no fat at all, or are low fat. Which means there is sugar/HFCS added to make up for the lack of taste. Thank you, but I do not want it.

Flour in Croatia has different type labels. Here, it all seems to be the same powder. I don't even want to think about this bleached flour thing. All I know is that I do not buy it.

There is no real bacon here either. Bacon you can eat without cooking the life out of it (think pancetta..). There is no real prosciutto.

There is no real pizza. Pizza with good tomato sauce, sprinkled with oregano. Instead, you get some flatbread with tons of olive oil and garlic.

Meat doesn't even stink of meat. It has no smell to it, to be honest. Fish is all bland, it's hard to tell any difference in taste. Ground beef contains no fat. Or not enough fat.

Everything is low fat or no fat. But full of sugar.

Shrimp taste of nothing.

Nobody puts any beshamel sauce on their lasagna.

Everyone thinks I'm weird and special because I cook every single day. And, well, I have to. Other than a few restaurants in our area, nothing/nobody else serves things I want to put in me.

[TracyTN 237]

We know we can bake bread that's better than store bought - but it'd still be nice to just walk into the store and have something like the quality of Kingsmill or what not. Should it be that hard? LOL

[jojo_gee 8]

We know we can bake bread that's better than store bought - but it'd still be nice to just walk into the store and have something like the quality of Kingsmill or what not. Should it be that hard? LOL

Exactly. We don't all have bread makers! I just find it disgusting that the bread aisle has no alternative to the norm. I started buying Alvadaro St bread which is widely available here and kinda ok. Anyway, I just watched Food Inc. and I'm seriously re-evaluating everything I ever thought about food. If you haven't seen it, I suggest you all watch it. It streams for free on Netflix.

[Badgerella 5]

Food Inc. is great. I'd recommend reading all Michael Pollan's books, too. (He appears in the movie as well.)

[moelarrycheese 0]

You think the bread sucks.. just wait until you try the beer!!!

[woki1986 1]

I can very much understand.

I was brought up with fresh bread. I usually would buy local baked bread unsliced so you can make it as thick or thin as you like. My Nana would always have Warbingtons Toastie (the orange one) and her toast is the best.

I sometimes would buy Tesco Irish Soda bread and have it with soup or they also did a Mediterranean bread that was amazing. I have managed to find one ok crunchy bread at Walmart, but it's not the same.

If anybody from the UK is looking for Red Leicester cheese, Costco sell it under a brand called Kerry Gold. Very nice indeed.

They even managed to ruin Cadburys, very thin and not the same as in the UK. Dove is the same as Galaxy if anyone misses that.

Ahh well, I think I am going to start making my own bread as nothing beads home made.

Luke

Yes! Red Leicester! THANK YOU! I was wondering how I was going to survive without it. Cheese on toast with cheddar? No! It's not the same. It needs red leicester every time. I can't believe how much we grow to like the little things and in some cases the things that make us English/British/Scottish/Irish/Welsh (to cover everyone whichever way you refer to yourself) . It's only when you have to give them up that you realise how much you miss things.

I hope to God they have a costco in Washington.

Mm. I'm going to miss cadburys and Galaxy. I tried Dove but it's still a bit different. (I've also just gotten into Cookie Crumble Galaxy... why do i do these things to myself?)

To me, Dove will always be just a body wash

I might try making my own bread but I've only tried once or twice quite a few years ago. Fiance will be better at it, she used to be a baker

[MonkeyJuice 3]

I have found a local bakery that sells a decent wheat loaf that isn't too sugary but it's so light. When I toast it & put butter on it it crumbles like a cracker! :-(

I crave french bread too. There seems to be a lack of crusty bead. Back in UK I used to buy those half baked crusty buns, bake them & serve them up warm with lots of anchor butter! yum..my mouth's watering.

I've also found myself obsessively reading the sugar content of food. I love yoghurts but one I picked up had 33grams of sugar in it! WTH!! Orange juice is another, I have to dilute it with 50% water.

[K and L 27]

If you know the flour offerings are ####### at the megamart's baking area, check out the bulk foods and "health food" area -- they tend to have better flours anyway, but for a price. If they don't have any decent ones at the health food area, use the internet to look for quality brands available in the US. If they won't order it for you and you're unwilling to buy it online, find a new store. Look at co-ops and "health food stores". At my local health co-op, I can buy all sorts of flours INCLUDING the high percentage protein, unbleached, fine mesh wheat flour that is standard in most of the world and manioc/cassava flour.

If you know the produce at your grocery store sucks, look for the farmer's market - there will usually be at least one within an hour's drive, maybe several. Look for a CSA. Make a container garden, if you've got a little outdoor space. (Even if you have the room for an actual garden, I find container gardens - even ones that are just big ol raised beds properly set up - tend to give better results than the ground alone.)

If your grocery store doesn't have a butcher counter and only sells prepackaged meats, for the love of god, find a real butcher and/or fishmonger. Use your yellow pages, yelp, your neighbors. You'll spend more, but it's an invaluable resource. My mom has been shopping with the same butcher since she found him in 2002, and he's just great -- and will save us the parts nobody wants to buy and practically gives them away because otherwise, nobody buys 'em. Twice a month, she makes a huge pot of stock with these unwanted bones and offal and cans it in pint and quart sized jars and it's enough for the month (unless she has lots of soups, and then she'll make it more often). By the way, a REAL butcher will get you the bacon you're used to, be it a streaky/belly slab or back slab. (Though Badgella's pancetta and prosciutto may be harder to find because our meat curers and sausage makers just don't tend to do it that often.)

If the sausages suck, go do some research - find out what goes in the sausages you liked at home. If, after hitting the pavement, you haven't found someone who makes great sausages and cured meats... You can easily do fresh sausage at home, smoked sausage if you're willing to learn how to properly smoke (hot/cold as appropriate). Salted/cured/dried sausages are harder to DIY (especially in an apartment), but you can buy a cheap used fridge and mod it to do cold smoking and curing.

Is it more effort? Yes. Is it more money? Quite probably (especially if you're ordering your fresh and cured meats online and having to pay express shipping). Is it worth it to cook with quality ingredients and minimize your exposure to HFCS and other preservatives and sweeteners? Definitely. But that's the dark side capitalism in America. We have a ton of options. Some good, some bad, some convenient, some not, some cheap, some pricey, some local, some only available through mail order or the interwebs. And it's YOUR job to sort through it to find what you need at a price you can afford.

Yes, you can live off of the megamart, but they go for the lowest common denominator (busy people who don't have the time or inclination to cook) and the stores value shelf stability and ease of transportability over what's good for you. You probably will only find a handful of things worth buying there if you have an eye for quality and health.

Mm. I'm going to miss cadburys and Galaxy. I tried Dove but it's still a bit different. (I've also just gotten into Cookie Crumble Galaxy... why do i do these things to myself?)

There is Cadbury's here, but a limited selection. It's not got HFCS on the label, and it's a little more expensive than "check out aisle" chocolates (here, they're either in specialty shops or with premium chocolates) -- maybe $1.50-2.50 for a bar.

[JamalNTam 1]

Yes - HFCS in everything .. I swear that foods are fattier here than the UK because even though I think I'm eating healthier over here, I'm gaining more weight!! When I head home I start loosing it within a few days!! It's really weird!

World Market has Cadbury's (real English stuff) and I agree with how the hersheys made ones taste wrong!