Best thing since sliced bread.
>> Monday, February 28, 2011
Before recently, I had no idea when someone came up with the idea of selling pre-sliced loaves of bread (1928) and I didn't have much comment on how that radically changed peoples' lives either (sliced bread was marketed as "the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped." and was apparently so radical that it was even banned for a period during WWII!). I am not sure I really cared either! For me, sliced bread has always been completely normal, a given even. But the "invention" of sliced bread was in fact a milestone since it spurred the birth of the American idiom: the greatest thing since sliced bread!
While sliced bread was a norm in my life in the U.S., things are different over here in Norway. Not because sliced bread is not found in stores; it is. But people tend to buy unsliced loaves. Most breads in stores here are not pre-sliced and most Norwegian families even pass on the rad bread slicing machines available for use in stores.
I bought my very first load of Norwegian sliced bread a couple of days ago and only because the pickings were poor on regular loaves.
I have no good reason as to why I typically buy unsliced bread here, other than ... well, it's kinda just what people do. I guess I do it because Lars does it, and he probably does it because his mom does it. Or maybe there's something inherently Norwegian about slicing your own bread? ;) Maybe it feels more like homemade bread if you have to slice it yourself? Haha, I have no clue.
Honestly, I have no significant cultural observations on this topic. I just had to share this random slice of my Norwegian life.
9 comments:
When I lived in Minnesota the bread there shocked me, not that it was sliced, but the fact that 1 month after buying it it tasted the same and had the same texture. That made me very skeptical as to what it contained.
In general the types of bread I like don't come pre-sliced, and I don't eat enough bread to use the machine (it dries out in a day or two, maybe not enough to make it inedible, but lowers the quality, that's for sure)
When i was recently in Norway i noticed the same thing! I also noticed they had bags made especially to store bread!
Cool post :)
It took me weeks to build up the nerve to use those slicing machines (of course, I had to wait for someone to show me how to use them), and they still terrify me to this day.
I think like Anon said, it mostly has to do with preservatives, but I'm not entirely sure. We don't eat a ton of bread, so when I buy a loaf I generally slice it in the store and then store it in the fridge or half the loaf in the freezer. All of this is considered TABOO by Sverre, who thinks bread should never be cooled and be eaten within a day or two to ensure maximum freshness. And then I ask him who's going to eat all this bread every day and he has no answer... :)
Duh preservatives of course...breads that come pre-sliced most likely contains more preservatives to hinder the drying out... I could have figured this out, great point :)
So true! We, too, are just buying non-sliced bread. . . and it's worlds better than what we could find in the States. We do find ourselves buying a loaf every other day or so, because we're eating so much more yummy bread than ever before.
Fun little post.
If I bought unsliced bread, I am sure our grocery bill would increase dramatically because Justin would slice 2 inch pieces for sandwiches!
At home in Germany, we never bought sliced bread but we did have bread slicer at home. We also bought heartier breads. Breads that typically are hard to come by stateside if you don't bake them yourself.
There's a great little German bakery in downtown Portland I frequent that makes a tasty little farm bread I pick up when I'm needing a taste of home. Otherwise I get the most grain packed sliced bread I can find at the store.
HAH! :) so true! glad i found your blog today!
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