Please take my question at its face value

I really dont know why 'cuz I am a city guy and dont see the need or purpose. However, touring a number of sites, from cooking forums to camping or preparedness forums it seems like a popular thing.

Thinking within myself I could guess a few reasons like :

1 - You save meny baking your bread instead of buying it just like you save meoney cooking your meals instead of buying it from a fast foos chain

2 - You taste and enjoy FRESH home-baked or self-baked bread better than a commercially produced bread.

3 - You can 'play' a little with the recipe and every time you can make your own bread that tastes to extactly the way you want it.

4 - There are traditional or local types of bread that you can't get from commercial bakeries , so you make them at home.


I dont know if any of these reasons are true or that any others are there.

Can someone guide me to WHY people bake their own bread. I have been trying to play with a few meal recipes, but never thought of making bread and began thinking if I should try making bread too.

BTW, my taste or character is very simple. I am not into fancy foods or fancy anything. That counts in the way I look at things.

Done right, it just tastes great.

Yup, plus home-baked bread will last a lot longer, taste a lot better and it's good karma, wholesome food unlike the crappy bread bought at the supermarket. Besides, it's pretty easy to do and doesn't even take a lot of time. Only about 20-30 mins actual work at most for a loaf of bread if you know what you're doing.

My reasons for baking my own bread are:
1.) The quality of the industrial product decreased over time. The price is hard to beat but I don´t enjoy eating it. Other people noticed that too. Baking your own bread helps to maintain a good quality.
1a.) Homemade bread just tastes better than the store bought stuff.
2.) Baking bread gives you a better understanding of your food. Not all types of bread taste best when fresh.
3.) You can have variations to your taste. You can have types of bread that are not available in the store at all.
4.) Baking bread is fun and fills your home with a pleasant smell.
5.) Eating your own bread and sharing it with friends is good for the soul.
6.) Kneading the doe with your hands is a good workout.

Baking bread is not as much work as many people think. If you do the kneading with a machine, the actual work is less than 15 min. Most of the time the doe is just rising. I started baking bread about 10 years ago and I think it´s worth it.

They're all very true, and here is another, some bread is engineered to be addictive.
The worst offender, bread rolls from foodmax, they're so fluffy and sweet w/hint of tanginess, you just can't stop eating them.
The taste sticks to the tongue, and smell sticks in the nose.
Wash your mouth out with soap, bakingsoda, coffegrounds, and you'll still crave them.
You can be stuffed, belly bloated, and you'll still want more.
You simply can't get satisfaction from eating them, you'll always want more, its worse than cigarettes.
I don't buy them anymore, they're simply too sickening.

Then there is the smell, sorry, but I don't want my bread smelling like dessert, or formaldehyde, I want it to smell like bread.

Then there's the "exotic" ingredients like L-Cysteine, made from hair, feathers, bristles ... sometimes even human hair.

Then there is the density, most bread is too fluffy, so fluffy you can't bite into it or chew it (or slice loafs). And the sliced bread sticks to your teeth, its only edible stale or toasted.

And if you want whole wheat bread, it tastes like cardboard or extra sweet (on top of chemical smell or desert smell).

Thanks for sharing the recipe. The linked site seem to worth exploring. I´ll definitely try it.

PS: Maybe it doesn´t add a new meaning. This may be were "break bread together" came from in the first place.

A hot slice of homemade bread, fresh out of the oven, with raspberry jam and melting butter. It just doesn't get any better than that.

I really prefer fried bread.
Nice thick scones fried in salty bacon fat with honey or maple surple on them.

Bannock, deep fried dough buoys, dough knots, fritters...yum yum yum.

Addressing the preparedness aspect of your question, many people, when stockpiling food, prefer to store grain instead of flour. I gather that grain will hold up better in storage and, when needed, it can be ground into flour and used to make bread and other goodies.

In addition to all of the aforementioned reasons, just knowing how to and knowing you can is great.

I've made bread a number of times. I've made my own sourdough starter. If I have nothing but a packet of yeast, flour and water, I'm not going hungry.

I also really take a lot of pleasure in eating something that I create and giving some of that to others.