America...your bread sucks.

[Ontarkie 14,286]

Yes I agree as well. Now granted, the King Arthur is a 4g of protein and is definitely superior to the basic junk off the shelf (90 percent of that ####### is 3g and some are even 2). But we found that in the breadmaker, it wound up way too crumbly even on the lightest crust setting, and couldn't hold anything inside a couple of slices for a sandwich. If one were to use it only for toast or croutons, however....it seemed to be adequate (so to speak).

(Then again I am at elevation here as well......almost 6 thousand feet...so please take my words with a grain of salt).

It also makes a massive difference which setting one uses on the machine too. The basic/Quickbake/Expressbake settings make a different loaf than if it's set on French/Sourdough/European/Whole Wheat etc. They all worked differently straight across the board with each flour, and some of them had their pros and cons depending on the settings.

Yes I have gone psycho with this and have an actual journal marking down all the flours we have tried on each setting in the machine lol. Once one gets into the higher quality flours though (5g and higher), I think it's just a matter of preference from there on what type of loaf one is looking for. And it's certainly comforting to know that we have at least one thing here that doesn't have that flippin' corn syrup in it

After a couple other tries, our preference here is still the Prairie Gold flour out of Montana (6g protein and no GMO's).

To be continued.....

I will have to look and see if our Walmart has Prairie Gold flour. Are you using the Bread Flour with a protein content of 6g, and do you use it for all your baking? At the moment I have been using Gold medal bread flour for all my baking. I pretty much use it like all purpose flour it is way better then the all purpose flour they have here. It does the job but I still find a bit of a difference the back home, at least I can bake though all my goodies that I love because I would go nuts with the junk they sell in stores here.

Edited July 16, 2012 by Ontarkie

[Love of My Life 2]

I will have to look and see if our Walmart has Prairie Gold flour. Are you using the Bread Flour with a protein content of 6g, and do you use it for all your baking? At the moment I have been using Gold medal bread flour for all my baking. I pretty much use it like all purpose flour it is way better then the all purpose flour they have here. It does the job but I still find a bit of a difference the back home, at least I can bake though all my goodies that I love because I would go nuts with the junk they sell in stores here.

Yeah the Wheat Montana company has a few different flours in their lineup, and the one we have found favor with thus far is the "Prairie Gold" one. It is a 100% whole wheat flour, and they also have a white unbleached if I'm not mistaken, though we haven't tried it.

So far it's only been for bread, I shudder to think that we might need something else for pies, cinnamon buns etc lol.

[Pompey Boy! 0]

I agree! I've found 'Irish Bacon' at Whole Foods (It's the same as English/Scottish Bacon - not the cardboard sticks they call bacon here) and have HP brought over by family and friends (plus it's in some of the local supermarkets)but the bread is dreadful. Best is the 'Arnolds' Italian White Loaf and Walmart actually do a reasonable French Stick. I've started making my own which is nice but ver time consuming and certainly not a daily activity.

[Peter_Pan 661]

I agree, it is wayyy too sweet, I am making my own, it is pretty easy and one doesn't even need a bread machine.

[LlamaInvasion 76]

I'll need to try to track down some of that Prairie flour. Making my own is no problem. Bread makers won't solve the issue. The breads just don't rise the same way as back home, and come out too dense and heavy. I have been told multiple times that this is due to the protein (and gluten), but this is the first time I've actually seen anyone mention brands of flour with actual protein values/content mentioned.

[awkwardsoul 20]

I thought american brown bread would taste better than white bread... nope. Its overly squishy (magic of preservatives?) despite being sitting a few days on the counter in a bag. I toast it and it tastes like overly sweet sawdust.

*barf*

[Love of My Life 2]

Just an update for yas

The Wheat Montana company has now expanded their little deal into roughly 10 more states across the nation in the Walmart stores, I'm not sure how many states this makes now....but it's a pretty cool little expansion here for those who didn't have access to this flour until now.

On a secondary note....the wife and I are now trying out some flours from our local health food store.....and a couple of these flours are 13 and 15g of protein according to the label there. So who knows, these suckers might break the darn machine being this much higher than what we've found to date lol.

Happy bread making folks...this is turning out to be a life long adventure in this regard...and a whole lot of fun to boot as well

Edited September 7, 2012 by Love of My Life

[paws057 9]

Why America, why? Your bread tastes like cake and lasts a ridiculously long time in my cupboard without going green. Lots of my food time is spent dreaming of white bread cheese sandwiches or white bread bacon butties with butter and HP sauce. Warburtons blue packet usually. I spend wasteful dollars on all these different kinds hoping one will taste normal. I don't fall for your 12/8/6 grain, wholewheat, bran nonsense anymore because I know they all taste of sugar and ruin my toast and sandwich experience. The list of ingredients are enough to send the health board into a spin.

It's not normal and it hurts.

JoJo - a bread lover from the UK.

Gotta admit you are right!! Bread here tastes like sawdust and nothing like the bread in Russia which is great!!) You might want to try a local bread store or invest in a good bread baking book!

[tanithw 5]

I tried making bread & spotted ####### during my last visit.... went over very well with the americans but I could taste an odd sort of alkaline aftertaste to everything... Just the flour I was using or does all flour taste like that?

[ryna 132]

Let's be clear... CORPORATE American bread sucks. MY American bread kicks ####. Naturally leavened, slow-risen, whole grain and stone baked with not one speck of sugar or sugar-like substances - flour, water, salt, and the sourdough starter derived from the naturally occurring yeasts. Yep, kicks ####. Think I'll go prep a loaf right now for baking tomorrow evening.

[NikLR 13,228]

I miss Canadian foods when I visit... I think it'll be my second biggest withdrawal when I eventually move.

[JustJ 0]

Totally agree with you, and I was born and raised here!

If you aren't near a bakery, just start making it yourself. It's easy, and you can freeze the dough in batches for later use. If you want recipes, PM me.

[pddp 240]

The entire food system here is broken and detrimental to both humans and animals. Between the ubiquitous HFCS, pesticide-ridden produce, antibiotics and synthetic hormone -laced meat and poultry (banned in the EU, China, Russia and others, by the way, because proven to disrupt the endocrine system and linked to cancer and reproductive disorders), GMOs, MSG and what have you, my husband and I shop exclusively at a local natural foods co-op or Whole Foods. 98% of what we eat is organic and home-cooked.

Ignorance is NOT bliss when it comes to food... Here's a link to some very good documentaries about food:

http://thegoodhuman.com/2012/04/17/top-10-food-documentaries/

And yes, the bread is decidedly horrid... My USC husband remembers being completely grossed out several years ago when he discovered that real fresh bread actually starts to go bad after about a day, that it's not meant to sit on the shelf for weeks and weeks and not change... How creepy is it that that's the American "bread experience"?

Edited December 18, 2012 by pddp

[Snorlux 58]

Why America, why? Your bread tastes like cake and lasts a ridiculously long time in my cupboard without going green. Lots of my food time is spent dreaming of white bread cheese sandwiches or white bread bacon butties with butter and HP sauce. Warburtons blue packet usually. I spend wasteful dollars on all these different kinds hoping one will taste normal. I don't fall for your 12/8/6 grain, wholewheat, bran nonsense anymore because I know they all taste of sugar and ruin my toast and sandwich experience. The list of ingredients are enough to send the health board into a spin.

It's not normal and it hurts.

JoJo - a bread lover from the UK.

AHAHAHA omg I was googling "why is USA bread so sweet?" and came up to this post. I'm from Cyprus and have been living in Scotland for the last 4 years. Never noticed any difference between cypriot and scottish bread, but American bread.. oh my freaken god. I was eating bread like crazy in Europe and now I can't even have a freaken toast with butter

I am currently trying Rye bread and tastes kind of better (no sugar)... all other breads are plain sugar loafs :/ Glad I'm not the only one having the bread problem lol

[TBoneTX 45,570]

Old thread with arguably inflammatory title closed. Feel free to continue in the new thread:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/521254-bread-in-the-us-versus-bread-in-other-countries/