Why bake bread ?

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.

For me it's partly the convenience. I use a bread-making machine so it's no effort, and I keep a stockpile of ingredients on hand because they last much longer than the cooked bread. Then I can get some fresh bread without leaving the house.

I do think I save money, but that's not why I do it. I also think the quality of home-made bread is better than the cheaper shop-bought stuff, and is at least a known quantity because I know what I put in it.

There is also an element of "survival" to it. A few years ago we had a fuel strike, and after a week the supermarkets had run out of bread, and it was nice not to be affected by that. It will matter more in a more serious crisis. (I also have some rice and pasta stockpiled, but variety is good.)

Basically, once I got the machine, I quickly got into the habit of buying flour etc instead of buying bread. And then it's easier to make bread then make another trip to the shops. It's not like, eg, the traditional toasted sandwich-maker where there's nothing driving you to use it so it ends up not getting used. I've been using the break-maker for about 9 years now.

Nothing like fresh made warm bread or biscuits with homemade sweet butter or jam for a weekend morning breakfast.

One of the arguments in support of hunting is the philosophical connection with our most ancient means of acquiring food.
Baking bread, leavened or unleavened, is the connection with our next moves to an agrarian and animal husbandry based culture.
I took a associate degree in ag science, both to use up my G.I. Bill and better understand how my chicken,pork,beef and even oranges came to my plate.
I was walking a local archaeological site complex rich in Chumash artifacts. the ethnobotonist couldn't understand why so much exotic rhygrass was growing among the grinding stations under oak trees.
I had to tell him rhy was planted heavilly in WW1 for Europe.
This doctorate who could invision ancient botanical landscapes didn't even know waht happened here during his grandparent's youth!
If you can do the basics, people can't pass trefe on you at the market.

I must have misunderstood the question when I posted earlier.
Flour is for more than just bread.
By learning the basics of using it for everything from biscuits to bread to pancakes you will save yourself a lot of money over the long term.
It is basic foodstuff.
When you add a supply of raisins or other dried fruit it gets even better.

I also have a problem with the idea of just piling up a hoard of stuff that never gets used.
I buy flour in 10kg (20 pound) bags and use about a bag every 2 months. I keep one bag that I am using and one ready to replace that one when my flour canisters go empty.

If I had to rely on my pantry for a month I would have enough flour for at least one month on hand and likely enough for three months.

Anyway, flour is a lot easier to store than frozen or canned bread.

(Also, have you ever tried carrying eggs or bread in a pack sack? They seldom survive in a useful form.)

edit:
I also would point out that most bakeries have a two day delivery schedule, and stores only stock that much bread. If the power goes out bread bakeries shut and stores run out of bread fast.

I think Chris is the only one that touched on the fact that baking/cooking is a skill that everyone should have. It's basic personal preparedness. For a city guy like yourself, you should be able to store a decent amount of basic provisions to make many different baked items (i.e. pastries, breads, cakes, brownies, etc. ), starches (i.e. rice, vegetables) and bean-type stuff. There is another thread going on about growing your own vegetables. Fruits are a little hard because most of them grow on trees. However, you can get dried fruit at most health food stores (expensive...). The canned stuff usually has tons of sugar. If you have that, you should have a pretty balanced diet.

I'm not vegetarian, but learning to eat "vegetarian" can be a good survival skill for a big city. If you are able to grow vegetables, have fruit, have beans, and be able to put them all together, you'll be able to survive whatever your current situation is.

Why do a lot of women think a man who can cook is awesome? Hmm...

There is the old real estate sales trick. When having an open house or showing it to potential buyers, bake some bread. That particular smell is welcoming and relaxing to visitors and you are more likely to have a favourable response.

Hey, even if not selling your house, I think the aroma is just great. There is nothing that says "home" like smelling mom's baking fresh from the oven!

Basically, 'cuz it is way yummy!!! My DW makes a killer honey-whole wheat. The first loaf is always gone within an hour after baking. We have to let it rest first, of course, before we slather the butter and more honey (at least I do) on it.

Good point about saving money. Once you start baking your own you eventually realize the bread bought at the supermarket is way overpriced for what you get.

A friend of mine works at a bakery. I've had the opportunity to visit him at work many times. They run a relatively small-scale, user-friendly business and their products are way above average as far as the quality is concerned. Still, it always surprises me just how many additives they put in their bread and pastry. Everything from vitamins and preservatives to artificial sweeteners, some of which they're legally required to add in the prescribed quantity. Even with all that crap, their bread is inedible after 3 days. The bread I bake stays fresh for up to a week! So what exactly are those preservatives good for after all?

Also, I'm not exactly into New Age pseudophilosophy but no machine-made bread can compare to the real homemade, handmade stuff. It's for that reason why I avoid bread-making machines. They may save you some time and effort but the end product just isn't the same. Don't know why but there must be something about kneading the dough with your own hands that gives off good vibes.

Good homemade sourdough bread should stay fresh for 2 or 3 weeks without any problem. I had sourdough loafs that were still good after 4 weeks. Pumpernickel can last for several months.
The main problem with baking machines is the way they heat the doe. The slow heating to baking temperature allows a lot of the liquid to evaporate. Baking in a preheated oven quickly creates a crust that seals the moisture in the loaf. The machines also do not let the doe rise long enough. I think that most of the machine fail to knead long enough. That does not allow the glue proteins to develop a proper structure in the bread. These are details but in the end you´ll taste the difference.

The question “Why bake bread?” leads to a larger question, “Why cook at all or even learn to cook?”

Years ago during another economic crisis, employees of a large corporation I worked for donated many tons of food, for the hard pressed. These foods included large bags of beans, rice, potatoes, flour, onions, raw vegetables, and boxes of bulk cereal, powdered milk, cheese, canned goods including meats and fish, etc. The staples we had grown up with. One weekend we loaded up our private rigs and delivered it all. Within a week, we heard that many of the families we had delivered to were crying out for food again. We were confused because that food should have lasted for a long time. I was assigned with a few others to find out what was wrong. It turned out that young families did not know how to cook and were starving next to stacks of food we had delivered. They had been spoon fed via fast food franchises since childhood and expected fast food deliveries daily. One older, mid- forties, single parent did not know how to operate the oven in her long-time home. She said her mother had come over for years until her recent death to cook all the meals. The older families and first and second generation immigrant families were more than pleased with the food and knew how to stretch what they had for at least a month or more. I know food banks do not have a problem with this now because current families buy food in grocery stores that cater to eating microwave, instant, and frozen meals. This is how most families eat. This is what stores donate to food banks. Some people think this is extreme, but I know that some kids will not eat food unless it has a wrapper with their favorite fast food logo on it.

Why bake bread? Your well being may depend on it. Knowing how to cook and bake, and how to improvise, may influence your future. I would hate to see someone starve surrounded by food, but it has happened before. Check the history on some of our northern explorers.

Store bought bread is now a foreign concept for us. For the last 4 years, we have been baking all our own bread with and without help from a bread machine. We find that the convenience of using a bread machine with the timer function works great. We can have freshly baked bread ready at 4:00 am when we get up for work or have it baked and ready at 2:30pm when I get home from work or from a weekend day out. We have it down to such a routine that a new loaf can be ready to start within 5 minutes.

We found that it took many experimental loafs to test and find what ratio of ingredients works best for us and now have a spiral bound book with about 20 different recipes of which we use 7-8 of them on a regular basis. We also use the machine to make pizza dough which we double the recipe and freeze 1/2 of the dough for future use.

The cost for the machine was nothing as it was given to us for free. In the long run, we know exactly what goes into the bread and it is one less thing to have buy at the store.

On the odd ocassion, we still make bread the old school way...by hand and baked in the oven which does make a nicer loaf but a little more time consuming and not as flexible for our schedules as mentioned above.

Either method, our cost for a loaf of bread (we only make wholewheat, rye or multigrain) ranges from .40 cents to .90 cents per 1-1/2 lb loaf...the price difference depends on the ingredients used. It should be noted that in our AO, a loaf of 7 multigrain bread is now $2.99 so there is significant cost benefits for home baked bread.

Yeast bread can also be made very easily without any pans and over an open campfire when out multi-day hiking or camping. No time to post the methods tonight, I'll try at some later date though.

Really awsome conributions. There are things I have never thought about like the 'survival' part of it.

My DW makes cakes and cookies but we never tried bread. That's going to change now.

About the vegetarian part. I am not vegetarian either, but seem to be leaning towards it. I wrote before that I have a problem killing and processing game (even the pigeons all over our house), and these days I am eating less and less meat. Beans and other protein sources are taking the place of meat. So, baking my own bread with my favourite ingredients will be a bonus to make my diet closely fitting to my needs.

Thanks guys.

My dad used to bake bread all the time. Well, we had his recipe that he would use, but he always seemed to modify it slightly.

Well, after he passed, no one was able to make it quite the way he did. I finally got the recipe he used and I tried making it. I used to help him when he made it and he would taste the dough before he was finished. I had that taste stored back in my mind.

Sure enough, I hit upon what he did and was able to replicate it.

So, for me, there is certainly a connection there everytime a bake a loaf... Plus, there is nothing like the smell or taste of freshly baked bread. My wife often asks me to bake some for her.

well my DW has an opposite view. When I told her I want to start baking bread she said: Oh, so now you dont need me anyomre? She thinks I am invading her territory.



OK , here is a related question

Some posters mentioned bread makers or bread making machines

Are they any different from the normal oven ? What are the advantages of a dedicated bread maker over an oven ?

Thankx

I originally learned how to bake bread the old way... Kneeding by hand, baking in the oven...

Now I use a bread machine and I love it. Mind you, the techniques you learned baking bread traditionally also can apply to the bread machine... Some machines are better than others... You still need to make sure you have the right texture of the dough before it bakes. You are also limited to one, or in some models, two loaves of bread.

Some people think you can set it and forget it, but that isn't true. Not if you want a good loaf. If you take the time and have the right machine, it is tough to determine any difference from the bread made by hand using the same recipe.

One trick I did learn was to remove the paddle before the bread bakes... Keeps from having that huge hole in the bottom of the loaf.

A bread machine is a compromise to the law of averages. Baking bread can be as much about art as about the science. If you accept some limitations about the creativeness of the work, you can generate a decent enough loaf just on the science of it all. Manipulation of the dough is a key to the quality of the crumb, so to speak, and bread machines are built around what an average loaf recipe takes to make an average dough, then baking it for an average cooking time. To the degree that the baker physically manipulates the preset conditions of the bread machine, they are defeating the intended purpose of the machine, which is to automate as much as possible the process.

A typical bread machine is not going to make artisan loaves like what you get at a Panera or such. However good the finished loaf will be, it will not replace bakery quality. It is suitable for most needs around the house, usually in the form of old fashioned sandwich loaf.

I don't mind using a bread machine as a convenience for making my house smell like fresh baked bread (bread machines are good for that too) and for keeping my bread pantry stocked. When I want to make something to be proud of, I get out the kithcenaid, my dough board, and spend an afternoon cranking out a few good home made, hand kneaded loaves of bread.

All good bakers have a process they follow as part of an overall recipe, and all good bakers have ways of evaluating their product through the various stages and adjusting the recipe as needed to yield as close to the perfect loaf as their ability will allow. Things like pre-ferment, steaming, and forming are not an option with a bread machine, unless as I stated before you interrupt the automated process and revert to the hand made method.

I have yet to have a truly good sourdough recipe work out in any bread machine without implementing at least some part of a manual method.

A bread machine is a good compromise for the standard daily loaf, I don't have the time to keep cranking out hand made on a regular basis.

Bread machine's are the Ron Popeil principle for me. You add the ingredients, set it, and forget it. I can do a lot better than a bread machine if I do it myself.

once again too many replys to wade thru but heres my take.
sourdough--Google that and you will find places that give away old--read 1800's--starters..if it is survival and just not homesteading you will run out of yeast before long..
Bannock--making bread takes up a lot of time,energy and fuel in a survival situation. bannock may not meet your need for slice of toast and jam but it will fill you up.
i make bread in a machine mostly in the winter when a hot slab of bread and butter is almost survival food.

One thing to keep in mind about sourdoughs; they are very territorial. A San Francisco strain of sourdough (a combination of both the yeast and the lactobaccillus strains native to that region) will not remain pure in a different region once it is exposed to the air. Eventually it will be colonized by the local yeast and bacteria and will take on the character of that native strain combination as it become dominant. Even commercial yeast starters don't remain pure in perpetuity. Some native sourdough strains do not produce a good sourdough bread. I was never able to get a decent native sourdough loaf in eastern Washington, and had to start new store bought San Francisco starters regularly to get the desired yield. Some sourdough strains are fragile, such as the San Francisco strain, which doesn't like temperature extremes or tap water one whit, others, like some of the Russian rye strains, really don't mind if the temp drops, and can tolerate a more saline environment than other varieties.

Yeasted bread need not be that difficult. Many old miners and cow camp cooks from the mid-late 1800s did quite well making and keeping their sourdough starters and breads without much fuss. Once it gets started, a good native starter is usually fairly durable. As with most things, practice is what makes the difference.

It's like making sausage. The first few atttempts might be a real pain, and the outcome may not be that good, but with practice you learn what to look for, and you get familiar with a process. A hundred years ago folks had a lot less convenience than is available to us nowadays, and they managed to do quite well with what they had. The difference was knowledge; they knew from lots of experience what they were doing.