[HN Gopher] Show HN: I made a website to search for half loaves ...
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Show HN: I made a website to search for half loaves of bread
Author : prashantb
Score : 180 points
Date : 2022-04-13 11:15 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (halfloafnear.me)
(TXT) w3m dump (halfloafnear.me)
| vishnugupta wrote:
| This is super awesome; pleasantly surprised to see this is
| relevant for my home town :-D
|
| Also, funnily this is how they are sourcing the data. Ingenious!!
|
| "The search is only available in select big cities in India
| because it uses Dunzo as the data source. No affiliation with
| Dunzo.
|
| The API used to call Dunzo is open but undocumented. So if
| someone from Dunzo is reading this, don't be sending take-down
| notices. This is a very niche and tiny thing and is unlikely to
| put any strain on your servers."
| freeCandy wrote:
| What I love about this is the way half loaves are found, simple
| but really clever.
|
| Search for "bread" with the correct category, and then filter
| out all results that are greater than 300 grams. It works out
| because all the artisanal bread are excluded with a regex.
|
| https://github.com/prashantbaid/halfloaf/blob/master/lambda/...
| vishnugupta wrote:
| Thanks :-D. So we now have an (albeit Lambda) API over an
| API!! This keeps getting better.
|
| https://brc5og74x0.execute-api.ap-
| south-1.amazonaws.com/prod...
| faangiq wrote:
| How long till Google buys this and shuts it down?
| georgehill wrote:
| > The API used to call Dunzo is open but undocumented. So if
| someone from Dunzo is reading this, don't be sending take-down
| notices. This is a very niche and tiny thing and is unlikely to
| put any strain on your servers.
|
| I see this as a free promo for Dunzo and hope it hasn't caused
| them too much trouble.
| orangepanda wrote:
| Big Bread will want it taken down
| dash2 wrote:
| In Scotland, "half a loaf" means a loaf. That is, "half a loaf"
| means an entire loaf; a whole loaf. I once had this explained to
| me at greatly repetitive length by a drunk man with an
| incomprehensible Glasgow accent, so you can be sure it is true.
| [deleted]
| cjhveal wrote:
| Was curious about the etymology so looked it up. Seems like
| half-loaf referred to the fact that it weighed 2 pounds, half
| the standard "quartern" 4lb round loaf which was typically sold
| in quarters.
|
| https://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/half
| tunesmith wrote:
| The quartern is twice the size of the half, got it.
| Jamie9912 wrote:
| in india*
| wartijn_ wrote:
| I was expecting a US-only site, since I wouldn't expect
| something like this to be available globally available and
| usually no mention of the location means it's targeted towards
| the US.
|
| Kinda refreshing to see an India-only service on the front page
| of HN.
| Gaita wrote:
| This product is so hyper focused! I love it.
| sgt wrote:
| And there's still room for spin-offs specializing in types of
| bread!
| Gaita wrote:
| You know this is exactly how multi-billion companies are
| started. Such niches that seem so hyper focused that no one
| bothers to pay attention and before you know it. Boom! You
| are everywhere.
| flyinghamster wrote:
| Could we get one for half-dozens of eggs (or four-packs)? Nothing
| like a recipe calling for one egg when you don't normally eat
| them as a main dish.
| mrwnmonm wrote:
| I love the design.
| cinntaile wrote:
| This is oddly specific, I like it. Why is a half loaf of bread
| important enough to you that you made a website for it?
| ryannevius wrote:
| It's stated on the about page:
|
| > I love bread but I don't want to be eating 20 slices in 3
| days. It shouldn't be so hard to find half-loaves of bread.
| They should be available more abundantly.
| DragonsBeHere wrote:
| paulcole wrote:
| Based on this:
|
| > *Available in: Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad,
| Mumbai, New Delhi, and Pune
|
| I'd begin by guessing that half loaves of bread are much more
| common in India than the US.
| dmurray wrote:
| Can't be that common, though, or there would be no need for
| the website.
| paulcole wrote:
| You think every website is created because there is a
| pressing need for it?
| thejosh wrote:
| They've become more popular in Australia recently as well,
| I've noticed.
|
| They had a two for one sale of half breads at one point, I
| was like "what is the point.."
| drchickensalad wrote:
| Well market forces for half loaves can leave them with an
| oversupply, and it's a quickly deteriorating product, and a
| sale speeds up getting rid of that inventory. The only
| alternative is to perfectly predict the future.
| bluedino wrote:
| I usually only buy bread when I make soup or stew and it's rare
| that the whole loaf doesn't get eaten. And that's usually one of
| those La Brea or whatever 'artisanal' par-baked brand the grocery
| store carries.
| bmmayer1 wrote:
| Mel Brooks joke: a man in a deli notices that there's nothing but
| salt on every shelf. He asks the shopkeeper if he sells a lot of
| salt. The shopkeeper says "If I sell a bag of salt a week I'm
| lucky. But the guy who sells me salt, boy, can he sell salt!"
|
| This is a great idea that "doesn't scale" and could one day be a
| $1B business. Well done!
| LegitShady wrote:
| I don't really understand how this could ever be a $1b
| business, or how that relates to the salt joke.
| bmmayer1 wrote:
| Could be...think about this: a niche search engine that tells
| you which individual products are in stock, and where they
| are, could be very valuable indeed. How many times have you
| thought, "I need to buy an X right now, but I don't know
| which store(s) carry it?"
| LegitShady wrote:
| but similar sites already exist, and 99% of the time this
| question can be answered by putting the product X into
| google with your city name/country name if you're willing
| to have it shipped.
|
| It could become some niche search engine but I don't see
| any money at all involved. Nobody is earning commission on
| half a loaf of bread. There's no money there. There are
| already store stock tracking websites for many profitable
| products (like photography equipment) and general search.
| The half a loaf of bread niche is a guarantee that there's
| no money in this particular site.
| bmmayer1 wrote:
| For in person shopping I don't believe this exists. But
| look I said it "could" be a $billion company. This sort
| of project looks a lot like early versions of what
| eventually become $BBB companies. No one can predict the
| future.
| LegitShady wrote:
| as long as you can scrape their stock from the website,
| it exists. If you can't, then this site can't solve it.
|
| For example, I look for photography equipment prices (in
| canada) using photoprice.ca, which scrapes canadian
| camera stores that have their stock online like henry's
| or broadway camera, as well as comparing against
| amazon.ca, amazon.com, and US stores that ship to canada
| like Adorama and B&H.
|
| The issue is just 'is the data available'. None of that
| makes it profitable if it's just loaves of bread.
| moralestapia wrote:
| Sorry but, I don't get the analogy, could you elaborate?
| dubcanada wrote:
| He sucks at selling, however the guy who he buys the salt
| from is excellent at selling. Therefore capable of getting
| the shop owner to buy excessive amounts of salt.
| thruway516 wrote:
| Go on ... How does this relate to websites for half loaves
| of bread?
| dubcanada wrote:
| I have no idea... I am just answering the question.
| gompertz wrote:
| Because big business is great at selling us more than we
| really need (can consume). We are buying full loaves and
| rarely using them up. This is likely by design too...
| Margins are probably higher for the seller this way. So
| the website helps you pass off your excess.
| bin_bash wrote:
| We put the bar a lot lower on half loaf of bread news
| than we do for nuclear fusion news.
| pixiemaster wrote:
| .
| dheera wrote:
| I see a new dating app in the making ... match people who want
| half loaves with others who want half loaves and send them out
| to buy a full loaf together.
| InCityDreams wrote:
| There are two halves to every half loaf, as well as the
| various quantities in beween. Matching karen who has eaten
| the first half, with Darren who has 9 (of the original 29
| slices) left with BillyJoeJimBob who has eaten 'every other
| slice' sounds ike a nightmare....but so much like real
| loaf....i mean life.
| sAbakumoff wrote:
| pvorb wrote:
| I don't get it. If there are stores that sell half loaves of
| bread, can't you go to any of them and just buy half a loaf? Even
| if they don't have half ones, they will cut one into two halves,
| won't they? Otherwise, I don't see how they'd sell halves.
| xoxxala wrote:
| Around here, they are called "bachelor loafs". Since my family
| doesn't like wheat bread, I buy a bachelor loaf a week. Saves
| about a buck, but much less spoilage. I don't eat enough bread
| for a full loaf a week and am too lazy to deal with frozen bread.
| jacquesm wrote:
| In NL _every_ supermarket, baker or other place where you can buy
| bread will be more than happy to sell you half loaves, to the
| point that plenty of them have them pre-sliced and packaged ready
| to go.
| Markoff wrote:
| In Czechia as well, all supermarkets carry (500-600g) half
| loaves, only difference being that some are cut and packaged
| already directly from 3rd party bakery and some they cut in
| shop, usually if they have their own bakery like Tesco or
| Albert (Ahold). And of course ALL convenience stores carry 1/2
| loaves, many even 1/4 loaves.
| ce4 wrote:
| Yep, i also don't quite understand what needs to be solved
| here.
|
| I just ask the cashier in the bakery for a half or quarter
| loaf. Or grab a pre-cut half/quarter one in the supermarket.
| There are plenty of options (types of bread, sourdough or not,
| based on different grains, etc) over here in germany.
| dessant wrote:
| The experiences of others could be vastly different than
| yours. A possible answer: the developer has been throwing
| away bread, and couldn't easily find their favourite bread in
| smaller quantities in a city in India.
| ce4 wrote:
| Yes, I guess so. It looks very niche and more like an
| excuse to build something though :) Nothing wrong with
| that, however I'd just cut it at home and freeze the rest
| for later consumption.
| wartijn_ wrote:
| This is what the about page of the site says:
|
| > This website is of course a non-useful, silly little
| thing. But I hope that it can get people to start thinking
| about why more stores don't sell half loaves when it seems
| like a more practical thing to do.
| cpach wrote:
| Maybe the bakeries in India don't offer this service/product
| for some reason? If so, a website like this could put some
| pressure on them to introduce half-loaves.
| gniv wrote:
| Here in New Jersey my local Whole Foods doesn't sell half-
| loaves anymore. I like some of their breads but I'm not
| willing to spend $6 for a loaf that I won't be able to
| finish.
| [deleted]
| moralestapia wrote:
| The world is much larger than "Germany". So, plenty of people
| may have a need for this, even if you don't.
| rhplus wrote:
| In the US, producers just apply shrink-flation to sell us half-
| sized products at stable full-sized prized.
| Xeoncross wrote:
| I thought this was a spoof on the "i just need butter" internet
| drama (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGQSRjpU4F8)
| saltmeister wrote:
| curiousfab wrote:
| Realizing that you can put bread in the freezer changed my life -
| well, at least my bread buying habits ;-)
| trgn wrote:
| We'd always eat frozen bread at my grandma's. She'd buy a new
| loaf, pull an old one out of the freezer, and put the new one
| in. I don't think we ever had a fresh slice of bread there. I
| love this memory for some reason.
| c0wb0yc0d3r wrote:
| It really is a game changer. Even just putting it in the fridge
| prolongs its shelf life. Just make sure to keep the bag sealed
| with a twist tie, to keep the bread from drying out. I also
| save the heels until last, as well. They make good end caps
| while you're finishing the rest of the loaf.
| nonstickcoating wrote:
| My flatmate, who is a baker by trade, violently disagrees
| with putting bread in the fridge. He argues that the
| condensation in the bag/box you store it in increases the
| chance of mold and interferes with the bread's structural
| integrity. He recommends to store bread in a paper bag in a
| bread bin somewhere on your counter top, but a clay baker or
| something similiar will also do the trick. I'll add, that
| it's perfectly legit to store bread in the fridge if it would
| go bad otherwise. Just one of the usual nitpicks tradespeople
| have regarding their line of work.
| vuln wrote:
| Does anyone actually eat the heels?
| crgwbr wrote:
| Yes. And due to the rest of my family, sometimes one
| sandwich made from two heels.
| sillyquiet wrote:
| Yep, I do. If not ergonomically perfect for sandwiches,
| they are great for toasting for soup or oatmeal or ramen
| noodles. They also make an excellent meal when broiled with
| some chives and melty cheese on top. Heels are under-rated.
|
| My wife disdains bread heels too. She grew up upper middle-
| class, while I grew up in a working poor family.
|
| My theory is that one's estimation of heels is in inverse
| proportion to how well-to-do your family was growing up.
| eequah9L wrote:
| Heels are the best! At least speaking of European bread.
| astura wrote:
| They are fine for croutons or breadcrumbs. I don't like
| them in any other application (like a sandwich).
| nonamenoslogan wrote:
| I do, I just turn them inside out and make grilled cheese
| and pastrami with them.
| luxurytent wrote:
| Yup. I've been making my own bread for ~4 years, mainly due to
| family. When I know I have a busy week ahead or travelling, I
| make two loaves that weekend and freeze one. Family gets good
| sourdough bread, and the toast from frozen is in no way
| noticeably different.
| pcl wrote:
| You might want to try par-baking and freezing, instead of
| just freezing the cooked loaves. At the peak of my sourdough-
| ratholing last year, I scaled up my recipe size so that I was
| making four loaves (batards weighing in at around 650-700
| grams), and then par-baking and freezing three of them for
| use over the next week or two.
|
| My method:
|
| 1. Do whatever it is that you do before baking a loaf of
| bread
|
| 2. Bake the loaf for around 2/3rds the target time. In my
| case, this is about a half hour. I bake these loaves at
| 200degC, on a baking stone and covered with a huge aluminum
| salad bowl to sorta emulate a steam oven. At the end of the
| half hour, the crust is still white due to the bowl, and just
| starting to go brown on the tips of whatever cuts I added.
|
| 3. Take the loaf out and let it cool for a couple hours
|
| 4. Seal it in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer
|
| 5. Proceed with life for a time
|
| 6. When in need of more bread, take a par-baked loaf out of
| the freezer and put it on the counter, and pre-heat the oven
| to 200degC
|
| 7. Once pre-heated (~20 mins later, let's say), put the
| still-frozen loaf (sans plastic!!) into the oven uncovered,
| and cook for another 15 mins
|
| 8. Take it out to let it cool and enjoy
|
| IMO a par-baked and then frozen loaf is noticeably _better_
| than a single-baked loaf, at least when using a home oven. I
| speculate that this is because a home oven needs a longer
| total baking time than a (hotter, steam-injected) commercial
| oven to fully bake + get the right crust, and that extra time
| turns into a drier crumb. But I further speculate that the
| par-bake-and-freeze technique preserves the crumb, since the
| crumb is really pretty much done by the time the 30-min par-
| bake is over, and the crumb ends up spending a good chunk of
| the 15-min finishing bake just de-thawing rather than drying
| out.
| astura wrote:
| Freezer bread is only the same as never-frozen bread if you
| toast it. Otherwise it tastes odd and there's really no good
| way to defrost it quickly. I don't always want toast.
|
| Rolls are especially poor in the freezer as they have to first
| be half defrosted then cut then toasted and even then the top
| has a slightly odd taste, probably due to the thickness. Of
| course, I'll still stick them in there rather than wasting
| them, I'll just be miffed about it.
| Booandbescared wrote:
| > put bread in the freezer
|
| Except frozen bread tastes bloody awful.
| Saint_Genet wrote:
| You have to thaw it before you eat it.
| hnlmorg wrote:
| Freezing bread alters it. I can't recall off hand what it does
| but I don't much like the taste. I'm not particularly a fan of
| bread at the best of times though, so I might be more
| susceptible to the change taste of frozen bread than most. In
| fact it's pretty much only freshly baked bread that I enjoy.
| [deleted]
| jason_zig wrote:
| Have you tried toasting it when you take it out of the
| freezer?
| maxerickson wrote:
| Toast isn't fresh bread.
|
| (I like both, they aren't the same thing)
| tetraca wrote:
| You don't toast it _all the way_. Heat it up a modest
| amount, just enough for the ice crystals to melt, and it
| will spring to life as if it were a practically fresh
| slice of bread (until it is freezer burnt, at which point
| it will be a little bad).
|
| The method I was taught was to wrap the slice of bread in
| a paper towel and microwave for 5-10 seconds.
| toss1 wrote:
| We have delivered batches of 7 loaves from a local bakery
| every 2-3 weeks, and of course freeze them. The trick is to,
| as soon as I can after receiving them, put the loaves with
| their original bag inside also a large freezer bag, so they
| are double-bagged, and right into the freezer. When taking it
| out, toast it as needed, either so lightly that it just
| thaws, or as toasty as you like if you want toast.
|
| While nothing is like a chunk or slice of bread still warm
| from the oven, this is more than good enough and often not
| distinguishable from the bread as received. One note is that
| this is pretty high-density bread, so it might not work as
| well with 'fluffier' breads. In any case, the double bagging
| does work for me to eliminate that ucky freezer burn taste,
| or at least put it off so that it takes 2+months in the
| freezer for it to appear.
|
| I've also found for cakes and pastries that wrapping in cling
| wrap, then aluminum foil tightly sealed by rolling the edges
| together, then a freezer bag works well for many months.
| Xylakant wrote:
| The change in consistency happens most quickly at
| temperatures in the single digits, that's also why bread in
| the fridge gets stale faster. But toasting the bread reverts
| the process. So the trick is to defrost in the microwave and
| pop it in the oven (if still in a loaf) or toaster (if
| sliced). Put some water on the crust to prevent it from
| baking too much. Works wonders on yesterday's rolls too.
| jihadjihad wrote:
| I do the same with bagels / english muffins / etc., it's crazy
| to waste perfectly good bread if you just didn't get around to
| eating it before it spoiled. If it's a baguette or country loaf
| that's about to go bad I usually just make croutons /
| breadcrumbs out of it.
| Markoff wrote:
| Pff, wait til you discover you can freeze also sausages and
| butter without losing any quality, which sadly can't be said
| about bread, defrosted bread tastes pretty bad, which is why I
| don't freeze it. I mean if I would be that desperate or lazy
| that I wouldn't want to go to small convenience store right
| under my building to buy half loaf, I have always at home
| enough flour and it would make more sense to keep dry yeast in
| stock to prepare own bread.
| ceejayoz wrote:
| Crusty sourdough freezes just fine. I wouldn't want to freeze
| Wonderbread style soft sandwich loaves, though.
| toyg wrote:
| Depends on the sausage I guess, and on the defrosting
| process. Personally, I don't like to freeze any meat -
| chances are that it had been frozen already, and refreezing
| it will ruin it.
|
| My mom freezes everything to save money, and there is an
| element of emancipation for me to be able to _not_ do that,
| but generally speaking I just find it a destructive practice
| from a flavour perspective.
| Markoff wrote:
| it's not (only/mostly) about money, but (mostly)
| convenience
| Brybry wrote:
| I eat defrosted bread quite often and I can't notice a flavor
| difference, at least for sandwiches.
|
| And stale or moldy bread, my alternative, is very easy to
| notice.
| freedomben wrote:
| I would have agreed with you completely until I got married
| and discovered that it's not the freezing that does it, but
| the thawing. It's all in how you thaw.
|
| Now I pull the loaf out a few hours before it's needed and
| let it thaw at room temperature in the pantry. Definitely
| leave it sealed.
|
| I laugh now thinking about how as kids we put the bread in
| the microwave on defrost. That makes some damn nasty bread
| :-D
| Markoff wrote:
| nah, I know that, I defrost everything at room temperature,
| defrosting anything in MW is insanity
|
| some people recommend sprinkle a bit water and put
| defrosted bread into oven for short time, but haven't tried
| it, I prefer fresh bread
| flr03 wrote:
| I'm eating loads of bread, good bread is not easy to come by in
| London, at least to my taste. There is this one place I like,
| they do big loafs that reminds me of the bread my grand parents
| were buying in France. Problem is that they won't sell me
| halves and my partner doesn't eat much so I freeze it from time
| to time. Frozen bread from a decent bakery always beat any kind
| of "fresh" supermarket bread.
| dreen wrote:
| Yeah, I wish there were more local bakeries in UK, I mostly
| gave up on trying to find good inexpensive bread.
|
| Dunns Bakery in Crouch End is decent if youre close.
| alias_neo wrote:
| My wife does this.
|
| The only complaint I have is that when there isn't space, she
| forces it in anyway and then you end up with mangled, frozen
| slices that don't fit in the toaster.
| eatonphil wrote:
| Maybe keep a toaster facing out in the freezer she can put
| the bread into? Will never be out of shape.
| alias_neo wrote:
| Genius idea. We'd need more toasters though or we'll only
| be able to hold 2-4 slices!
| eatonphil wrote:
| If you ever want to go into business together with the
| family-sized freezer-toaster let me know.
| honkdaddy wrote:
| If you have the space, a second deep freeze is a game
| changer. You can often find them for cheap or even free, the
| ones from the 90s seem to last forever.
| willismichael wrote:
| I ordered a chest freezer months ago and it still hasn't
| been delivered. Every time I follow up, the retailer keeps
| blaming supply chain.
| alias_neo wrote:
| I just _know_ she'd love to have a chest freezer (runs in
| her family I think); alas, we live in a London apartment,
| space is one thing we don't have.
|
| On a side note, with energy prices (which are typically
| high in the UK compared to some other places) I'd be loath
| to use an "old" freezer. We once rented a place, and I
| found their circa 80s freezer user more electricity than we
| did for the rest of the flat.
|
| I've always been one to prefer newer, more energy efficient
| devices even at a higher initial cost (it's somewhat of a
| hobby of mine to see how energy efficient I can make things
| in my home), it's times like these where I feel it's
| actually paying off.
| chubot wrote:
| Why would you want a half loaf of bread?
|
| Maybe if you don't have a freezer or toaster? Because bread
| freezes very well, and if you buy a full loaf it's cheaper per
| serving.
|
| I might be taking this too seriously, but I just started freezing
| bread in my 40's LOL (artisan bread). All you need is a bread
| knife and zip loc bags.
|
| Big quality of life improvement. After you toast it, it's better
| than fresh. There is some science behind this that I don't
| remember.
| ccbccccbbcccbb wrote:
| Half-loaf is too coarse a unit - how do I find exactly 23
| breadcrumbs I need for my breakfast?
| adrielyong wrote:
| actually such a useful thing to focus on. Have had my entire loaf
| of bread go stale so many times before
| asiachick wrote:
| Pretty much every convenience and supermarket in Japan sells half
| loafs (well, if a "standard" loaf is L=2, W=1, H=1 and a half
| loaf is L=1, W=1, H=1.)
|
| The 1x1x1 "half" loaf is the standard size in Japan
|
| https://prtimes.jp/i/36645/189/origin/d36645-189-bc3e74b4250...
|
| Further, it's also common to be able to buy bread in 3 and even
| just 2 slices.
|
| https://www.panstory.jp/img/images_np/fujipan/2015/06/01.jpg
|
| For me, I crave bread, meaning if I buy the half loaf then I'd
| likely eat the entire thing in 1-2 days so I like being able to
| buy 2 slices and avoid the temptation to eat the 6 or so I would
| have had if I'd bought the half loaf
|
| Also, it's common in Japan to be able to buy a loaf as to comes
| out of the oven. Bakeries all over Japan advertise at what times
| bread will be freshly backed.
|
| Note: the fact that this size is ubiquitous in Japan also means
| the site is no really succeeding there. For example here's 7/11's
| bread
|
| https://www.sej.co.jp/products/a/bread/
|
| There are over 21k 7/11 stores in Japan and that's just one of
| several big chains that carry half loafs
| timvdalen wrote:
| Stores don't sell half loaves of bread near you?
| dvh wrote:
| I was once scolded by my uncle for improperly cutting half loaf
| of bread. I started cutting the bread and when I was in the
| middle of bread I stopped and cut perpendicularly, thus releasing
| my half loaf.
|
| Apparently correct way is cutting at angle so that loaf became
| thin in the center of bread. This way whoever cut bread after me
| can decide if they want full or half. In my method there is a
| sudden step which forced you to first cut the leftover half.
|
| This applies for long breads, not round one.
| boplicity wrote:
| Fascinating just to see the prices of bread in another country.
| In the Mumbai area, it looks like a half loaf costs between 17
| and 75 INR -- with most around 22 INR, or 30 cents US. Here in
| Toronto, we often pay $4 to $5 (USD) for a decent loaf of
| sandwich bread. The difference is pretty striking.
| soniman wrote:
| Wheat is often subsidized for the poor.
| joelwilliamson wrote:
| I suspect that's mostly because Indian labour is much cheaper.
| Making a loaf of home-made bread uses about $0.30 CAD of flour,
| and yeast, salt and water don't add much to the cost.
|
| (Edit:) Also of course anti-competitive behaviour by the bakery
| cartel drives up prices in Canada.
| mushyhammer wrote:
| I've seen the bread in most Asian countries. You get what you
| pay for. Only premium bread _may_ be worth it, and still not on
| pair with cheap basic European bread.
| tyingq wrote:
| Do you mean for baguette/loaf type breads? I lived in Turkey,
| and things like gevrek, simit, and pidesi were dirt cheap but
| clearly worth as much as any bread I've had elsewhere, and
| delicious.
| [deleted]
| ascar wrote:
| As a German the cultural differences around bread are really
| interesting. Already the cartoon picture of the half loaf of
| bread is so fundamentally different to what I am expecting it to
| look like. Also people in the comments saying they rarely not
| finish a loaf of bread.
|
| This [1] is how it looks like here and when bought at a bakery
| it's usually so big that we buy it in quarters and even that
| lasts a couple of days. It also tastes very different from what
| the rest of the world considers bread. It's much stronger in
| flavor.
|
| [1] https://www.sonachgefuehl.de/rustikales-bauernbrot/
| InCityDreams wrote:
| My friends and I once (as in, one day...) went stealng bread
| from doorsteps in Germany, until we tasted one that was so
| ...different _... to what we considered to be 'bread', we never
| did it again. Black bread? _'Different', meaning 'absolutely
| disgusting' to [our] tastes, at that time.
| CaptArmchair wrote:
| That's a sourdough bread, right? Now, there's a rabbit hole to
| dive into. It uses a different type of levain / yeast culture
| compared to bread based on dried yeast.
|
| Long story short, sourdough was / is how bread was made
| throughout history. Fermentation takes a very long time due to
| the nature of the levain. At some point, bakers noticed how the
| leftovers from brewers yeasts drastically shorten fermentation.
| That and industrialization led to modern day bread you find in
| the supermarket.
|
| Jon from Proof Bread on YT does a much better job at
| explaining. [1]
|
| Another great watch is Michael Pollan's "Cooked" series. In the
| 3rd episode, he explores bread, it's history and makes the case
| about modern industrialization affecting the quality and the
| nutritional value of modern bread. [2]
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-0p0p0zqVE [2]
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epMAq5WYJk4
| ascar wrote:
| > That's a sourdough bread, right?
|
| Yes, the one I linked is made out of sourdough, which is a
| sign of quality here. Though, we do also have the same style
| of bread without sourdough.
| mirker wrote:
| There is "artisan" bread, made by hand, which is the round
| kind. Then there is "sandwich bread", which is the
| rectangular kind.
|
| Ingredients: Artisan bread is usually just flour, water,
| salt, yeast (sourdough is just flour and water, too).
| Sandwich bread can include milk or other fats to make it
| softer and is more of a "cake". In industrial settings,
| there are a lot of preservatives included in the sandwich
| bread.
|
| Mixing: Artisan bread is mixed by hand. Sandwich bread is
| mixed in a mixer. The former thus has less worked gluten.
|
| Shaping: Artisan bread is made into a ball (similar to
| "spinning" pizza dough). Sandwich bread is poured into a
| tin and requires no shaping.
|
| Bake: Artisan bread is baked at high heat, around 500F, in
| steam. Sandwich bread is baked in a specific tin at lower
| heat, like a cake.
|
| As you can see, the sandwich bread is easily scalable and,
| being essentially a cake, is preferred by many. A loaf of
| sandwich bread is around $1-$2 where an artisan bread is
| like 4x more.
|
| Also, there are flours, like rye, which have to be made
| with sandwich-type methods. These flours don't have enough
| gluten to hold shape on their own.
| djrogers wrote:
| > Sandwich bread is poured into a tin and requires no
| shaping. > being essentially a cake
|
| I don't think either of those are true - at least not an
| any bakery I've ever been to.
|
| Cakes are a very specific type of baked good, made with a
| batter not a dough, which do not use yeast for leavening.
| Cakes also do not rely on gluten, and in fact limit it's
| formation by utilizing low protein flour.
|
| Also, bread dough will never 'pour' unless you've gone
| horribly wrong.
| mirker wrote:
| Tin is normal (and also the reason the loaf is
| rectangular with a mushroom top rather than round):
| https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/classic-
| sandwich-br...
|
| For batter vs. dough: yes, they are not the same, but
| adding any fat to dough inhibits glutten (e.g.,
| https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/36267/how-
| does-f...), which is why sandwich bread is soft and
| spongy. It may not pour, but neither does muffin batter
| or brownies, for example. My point is there is a whole
| spectrum for gluten formation.
|
| Compare the cake recipe
| https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/classic-
| birthday-ca... to the bread recipe above. The main
| difference is that butter is added along with eggs, and
| the leavening is different. Artisan bread only has the 4
| ingredients, sandwich bread adds sugar, milk, and oil,
| and cake changes leavening and adds eggs/butter. As you
| go up the spectrum, you are intentionally avoiding strong
| gluten development, resulting in smaller holes and softer
| texture. See challah bread for another data point of
| bread with eggs+oil
| https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/classic-challah-
| rec.... You can also make the gluten weak by using
| something like 100% rye, which has to be baked in the
| same tin (though that would have a harder crust).
| treeman79 wrote:
| Started baking bread with kids recently. They love it.
| But next day the leftover bread is stale. I explained
| that it isn't full of preservatives.
|
| After a moment, they look at me and ask where we can get
| some.
| mirker wrote:
| If you make artisan bread with sourdough, it can easily
| last 3-4 days. Mine don't grow mold until 7-9 days.
| Spivak wrote:
| This is one of the funniest things when introducing
| people to some of the ingredients and methods used in
| commercial food production -- stuff like Xanthan gum as a
| thickener, soy lechtin as an emulsifier, or calcium
| propanate as a preservative. Once people know what they
| do and how it works they stop being "scary chemicals"
| corporations are putting in our food. I think it's a
| branding issue, sodium bicarbonate is a scary chemical
| but baking soda is a household ingredient, MSG is super
| scary but seaweed salt sounds delicious.
| Tarq0n wrote:
| It shouldn't go stale in a day if you keep it somewhere
| somewhat airtight.
| perlgeek wrote:
| If you keep it airtight, the crust will dampen from the
| moisture that comes from the inside.
|
| Which storing bread that has a crust worth preserving, I
| tend to make sure it gets a little air (covering it with
| linen cloths, for example), and accept the small amount
| of drying out that comes with this form of storage.
| pessimizer wrote:
| There are tactics other than preservatives to make bread
| last, such as covering it, freezing it, and tangzhong: ht
| tps://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2018/03/26/introducti
| o...
|
| I tend to bake two loaves (always with tangzhong if the
| particular recipe can tolerate it), wrap both,
| immediately freeze one, and the other one lasts somewhere
| short of a week.
| chubot wrote:
| You definitely need to slice and freeze it!
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31015602
|
| No preservatives necessary. You just need a freezer and a
| toaster.
| monetus wrote:
| Adds inconvenience though when a kid just wants a pb&j
| right this moment. But yes, freezing is the way.
| malermeister wrote:
| > Also, there are flours, like rye, which have to be made
| with sandwich-type methods. These flours don't have
| enough gluten to hold shape on their own.
|
| The bread parent linked (and most German breads for that
| matter) is a rye bread!
| perlgeek wrote:
| > Mixing: Artisan bread is mixed by hand.
|
| Do you really mean mixing, or rather kneading?
|
| Kneading bread is very hard work; occasionally I do it
| for a single loaf, but it really doesn't scale above 1 or
| 2 loaves. Even artisinal bakeries have machines for it.
| electroly wrote:
| I wonder if this is an example of emojis taking over public
| consciousness. The bread picture on this site is clearly the
| bread emoji, even though this is a picture and it could have
| been any bread shape.
| vidarh wrote:
| Having eaten bread many places in Germany over the years, I
| certainly is aware of the shape of bread you show, but I've
| also had plenty of loaves of bread similar to the image in the
| linked site in Germany.
| ascar wrote:
| Well, we Germans are known for our baked goods and at a
| bakery you will find a wide variety including French
| croissants, baguette or Italian ciabatta. But at least in
| Bavaria "bread" is the one I linked and you refer to
| everything else by name. Whole grain bread usually comes in
| that form and of course toast. It's just not what comes to my
| mind especially in the context of a loaf.
| djur wrote:
| You don't have anything like French pain de mie in Germany?
| vidarh wrote:
| Yes, they, do. A wide variety of it.
| RajT88 wrote:
| Differences in expectations around baked goods found its way
| into the episode of the 90's show, "The Tick" in "The Tick vs.
| Europe"
|
| https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0723382/
|
| I've seen it as a throwaway gag in a few movies too - also
| usually with French speaking characters for some reason -
| observing how terrible baked goods (or sometimes bread
| specifically) are in the US.
| timeon wrote:
| I'm not German but from CEE but I also do not consider
| 'sandwich bread' as 'bread' or at least not as default option
| for 'bread'.
| theobeers wrote:
| Keep in mind, this service appears to be focused on India,
| where the kind of loaf bread pictured is also not the most
| traditional. (When I lived in Afghanistan and would
| occasionally buy loaves of sandwich bread at groceries catering
| to expats, my Indian colleagues referred to it as "double roti"
| --a term I found delightful. I wonder how common that usage is
| in India these days.)
| fho wrote:
| Indian cuisine also has a pretty wide selection of different
| "breads" (dough patties? DeepL does not even know a word for
| "Teigfladen" (de)). Naan and Roti are probably the most
| known, but there are several others including very fatty
| ones.
|
| (somebody from India please chime in, I don't know the names
| :-) )
|
| (Not from India but had an Indian roommate once and attended
| his wedding in India thereafter (obviously :-))
| webmobdev wrote:
| - 20 different types of roti to try out if you thought all
| Indian breads are the same:
| https://www.innfinity.in/food/types-of-roti/
|
| - 15 Best Indian Bread Recipes:
| https://food.ndtv.com/lists/10-best-indian-bread-
| recipes-146...
| sundarurfriend wrote:
| > this service appears to be focused on India, where the kind
| of loaf bread pictured is also not the most traditional.
|
| While that's technically true, when we use the word "bread"
| we generally mean this (Western?) kind of bread. For the
| Indian kinds of bread we normally use roti. In everyday
| contexts, if someone says bread, it almost always refers to
| the kind of bread pictured there.
| Symbiote wrote:
| I don't think it's fair to accuse all the West of
| preferring this type of bread.
|
| It's British or American, depending how much sugar was
| added.
| FredPret wrote:
| My favourite bread is Wonder Bread, fight me
| chubot wrote:
| FWIW in the US this is called "artisan bread", as opposed to
| supermarket bread. You can get it in bakeries in every major
| city, and at farmer's markets, but not most supermarkets,
| especially not outside the city. It's really popular in San
| Francisco for example.
|
| I found this out because I brought some bread from back to the
| suburbs to my parents, and they thought it was awesome, and had
| never had it before ... ! I haven't lived in the suburbs for
| ~20 years so I forgot that the availability of food is
| different.
| djrogers wrote:
| > but not most supermarkets, especially not outside the city.
|
| Not sure what part of the country you live in, but this kind
| of bread is available at even the smallest out-of-the-way
| grocery store anywhere in California, and on most of the west
| coast that I've been to. I know because my family is hooked
| on it...
| kmeisthax wrote:
| cors-fls wrote:
| I thought it was an app to match people that want an half loaf so
| they can share a full loaf of bread. That would be innovative.
|
| But no, it only searches store inventories for half-loaves for
| sale.
|
| I love the laser focus on half-loaves anyway.
| netsharc wrote:
| Food sharing in general should be encouraged (as a fickle
| single man I end up throwing away a lot of food, after e.g.
| opening a jar of tomato sauce and consuming half of it and
| leaving the other half in the fridge to use "soon"), but that's
| odd if it only looks in stores.
| ht_th wrote:
| I am also fickle with my food, and a vegan to boot. I solved
| this problem of leftovers for _my_ situation by making soup.
| With leftovers, like your tomato sauce, you can always make a
| soup. Making soup is easy. You can do that in parallel with
| making dinner, or quickly before breakfast or lunch. You can
| store and carry it in a thermos flask, or in a simple jar and
| heat it in a microwave at work. You can also use it as a
| starter for tomorrow 's dinner. Or freeze it for later
| consumption. Soup, it's great!
| mynameisash wrote:
| Before covid, I used to bake a batch of three baguettes
| probably 3x/week, bringing them to work to share. I also
| brought in growlers of homebrew to share after work. People
| asked me if, on account of being at home the last two years,
| I'd been doing a lot more of it. In fact, I've baked and
| brewed significantly less in that time, and I miss both the
| sharing and the social time that came about because of those
| things.
| gigaflop wrote:
| I recently got into using tomato powder, have you ever tried
| it? It would mean more work, but much more shelf-life and
| granularity of how much tomato you actually want.
| criddell wrote:
| I must be more fickle than you. There's no way I would trust
| a half jar of tomato sauce that I found on Craigslist.
| navbaker wrote:
| I'm going to make billions providing an escrow service for
| food splitting where I guarantee the provenance of items
| like this. I'll make sure to find a use for blockchain so I
| can really up my profits.
| lostcolony wrote:
| Don't sell the food; sell an NFT of the food. That'll
| -really- up your profits. Plus, NFTs never spoil!...until
| you add that feature. Once you have spoiling half cans of
| tomato sauce in the metaverse you'll be rich!
| jaywalk wrote:
| NFTs with expiration dates! Thanks for making me a
| billionaire.
| rglullis wrote:
| You joke, but that's exactly what domain names are.
| recursive wrote:
| Domain names come from central authorities. Transfers are
| reported to the registrar.
| rglullis wrote:
| Regardless, they are non-fungible tokens with expiration
| date.
|
| But if you really want to be extra pedantic: the Ethereum
| Name System is a domain system running on the blockchain,
| and each domain is a _NFT with an expiration date_.
| royletron wrote:
| Tomato sauce, wine, soups, and other liquid foodstuffs are
| excellent contenders for ice cube trays. A housemate in
| university introduced me to 'red wine cubes' from the freezer
| for chucking into beef Ragu and it turned my world right side
| up. We now have bags of all sorts in our freezer.
| swiftcoder wrote:
| Coffee cubes are life-changing if you've ever picked up the
| East coast iced coffee habit...
| Booandbescared wrote:
| smoe wrote:
| The ice cube trays trick also changed my life after my
| sister showed me. I even ended buying different sizes of
| molds to use depending on what I'm freezing.
|
| During the lockdowns I also started with some more
| traditional preservation techniques like oils and vinegars.
| Not for long term storage (not enough space) but just for a
| couple days or weeks at a time. E.g. buying a bag of
| average quality olives then chuck them in a jar with good
| olive oil, fresh herbs, garlic, optionally things like
| chili and an orange rind. Yields both great olives as well
| as flavored oil for dressings.
| cjrp wrote:
| I bet white wine cubes go great in a glass of white wine
| too!
| Freak_NL wrote:
| I wouldn't consider myself a wine snob, but I'm not
| really looking forward to being served a nice Pinot
| Grigio from Trentino (DOC) with cubes of frozen
| Liebfraumilch. The logistics of keeping matching iced
| versions of wine sound overwhelmingly complex.
| HWR_14 wrote:
| If you only buy one type of white wine, boom solved.
| LukeBMM wrote:
| The only problem in this scenario is being the type of
| person who always drinks the same wine.
| HWR_14 wrote:
| In fairness, you'd be the type of person who always
| drinks the same white wine at a time. Presumably every 4
| or so bottles you would run out of ice cubes and could
| switch. You also could have a variety of red wines
| available.
| rtourn wrote:
| Same. It's weird that my misunderstanding of someone's idea
| often better than the idea they were actually proposing.
| mbg721 wrote:
| When a store has a buy-one-get-one-free deal, it would be nice
| to have an app that would match me up with somebody else in the
| store who also wants only one of that thing; then one of us
| could buy them and we could split the cost. I can't be the only
| one who doesn't have room in the freezer for a second bone-in
| pork roast.
| stepbeek wrote:
| The grocery store near me has a food bank donation that you
| can put items in before you exit.
| tuukkah wrote:
| I've been thinking it would be a win-win-win situation if I
| had the choice to donate the other half as money instead of
| as an item: I get one item cheaper, someone gets a useful,
| extra donation from me, and the store gets to sell the
| other item again.
| boomboomsubban wrote:
| It's only a win for the store if they would sell out of
| the product if you purchased two, as they would only make
| the profit off of selling one item to you rather than
| two. That's why those food bank donations annoy me, they
| supermarket effectively takes a cut of all the donations.
| bbarnett wrote:
| Not completely true!
|
| For emergency preparedness, I keep a few hundred cans of
| food around. I live in a rural area, and this is prudent.
|
| I never eat them all best-before, and as this is canned
| food, best-before is _not_ an expiry /safety date, even
| remotely.
|
| It is a flavour date.
|
| So I donate my stuff, before purchasing new. And before
| anyone gets all weird about it, I eat from the same stock
| I donate, even the day of donation.
|
| This means people get good quality food, I get to renew
| my stocks, and the grocery store with the donation bin,
| may or may not have been where I bought the food.
|
| If more people did this, we'd all be better able to
| handle disasters, and those in need would be better fed.
| A real win-win.
| giraffe_lady wrote:
| I have had all three possible experiences with food banks
| (used them, volunteered at them, employee of one) and I
| would be really surprised if that gets used, or benefits
| the food bank if it does.
|
| Food banks have grocery store-like buying power and
| relationships with wholesalers and local producers, and
| in my experience nearly all of the food they distribute
| comes from those sources.
|
| The can drives around the holidays are mostly just for
| awareness. At the ones I worked at checking, sorting and
| packing those was very costly in labor both paid and
| volunteered.
|
| We always accepted direct food donations because
| americans are super fucking weird about donating money to
| the immiserated, but will also get very mad if you turn
| away their useless donations. Which is bad for PR, so
| against the goals of the org. We always accepted them but
| "how can we not" was a constant question.
| sgerenser wrote:
| Have you talked to the food bank about their policy on
| past-date canned food? I know at least one food bank
| where they told people not to donate any food past the
| date as it will get tossed (plus additional staff and
| volunteer labor to sort through the stuff). I assume this
| is common for liability reasons at least.
| hcknwscommenter wrote:
| Sounds like someone at the "at least one food bank"
| doesn't understand that there literally is no liability
| for past-date canned food. I am pretty sure dates on
| canned food wasn't a thing when I was growing up. It's
| just another way of prodding the customer to consume.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| > It's just another way of prodding the customer to
| consume.
|
| Not really; expiration dates are printed on food
| (including canned food) because customers want them.
| Manufacturers are responding to, not attempting to drive,
| customer demand.
| gus_massa wrote:
| Some cans have a long time until expiration date, like 3
| years. If the GP keeps the cans for 2.5 years and then
| donate them when they still have 6 month left until the
| expiration date, is that enough time for the food bank to
| use them?
| sodality2 wrote:
| When I volunteered at my local food bank turnaround was
| relatively quick. I remember sorting through paper-
| covered cans just three weeks after we collected the
| Canstructure donations to the food pantry centers.
| However, I don't know how soon they were handed out to
| people; probably pretty quickly (<1 week) because there
| wasn't much stock in the building.
|
| It probably depends on location and population.
| rhino369 wrote:
| Don't free too bad. Grocery store margins are atrocious.
| sdenton4 wrote:
| Yeaaaaah, but do you really want to put a bone-in pork
| roast in the donation bin? Sounds unsanitary.
| notwhereyouare wrote:
| Some stores allow for buy one get one as buy one for 1/2 off.
| Some stores don't. They make you buy both to get the deal
| hnlmorg wrote:
| I remember that after I moved house I needed to buy 5 new
| energy saving light bulbs. The store near me had an offer:
|
| > PS1 each or 4 for PS5
|
| I checked with the floor manager if that was accurate and
| how could I buy 5. Turns out I had to do it in two
| different transactions.
|
| Moral of this story is: store promotions often don't make
| much sense.
| bee_rider wrote:
| Did you decide to pay PS5 or PS6?
| bombcar wrote:
| In most of the US that'd be illegal (unless the four pack
| was itself a separate product instead of four individual
| ones). And "two for $5" and "buy one at $5 get one free"
| are considered different - the first almost always has to
| work out to $2.50 each unless they get very explicit with
| a "save $1 when you buy two" wording. Most stores don't
| bother.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| > In most of the US that'd be illegal (unless the four
| pack was itself a separate product instead of four
| individual ones).
|
| Really? Because KFC does this all the time with a la
| carte biscuits. The per-item rate is higher if you buy
| four (as advertised on the menu) than if you were to buy
| one four times in a row.
| bombcar wrote:
| If it's part of some combo it can fly, but if it's
| literally "order 4 and get charged more than ordering 1
| four times" you can probably report them to the Commerce
| Department.
| runnerup wrote:
| It varies state-to-state. Texas allows "2-for-$2" and
| "1-for-$1.50" in the same store at the same time.
| djrogers wrote:
| That's the opposite of GP's example - it was _higher_
| cost to buy 4 together than 4 individually.
| nonamenoslogan wrote:
| This is pretty common in Idaho too, 2 for $2.22 or a
| single for $1.79 is the 20oz soda deal in just about
| every convenience store.
| dwringer wrote:
| Whoa, 2 for $2.22 is something I haven't seen for 15
| years here in northern WV. Usually like 2.19 for one, and
| two is pushing $3.75 now (maybe $3.50 if you're a rewards
| member).
|
| I suppose we have excise taxes to thank for that.
|
| They do seem quite at liberty to put signs that say
| 2/3.50 and then have the individual price listed higher
| beside it.
| bombcar wrote:
| Yeah, the key is they have to be explicit about both
| prices ($1.79 for one) - if they just say 2 for $2.22
| they have to sell one for $1.11.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| I was just talking with a friend in China who told me that
| the item sizes at Costco are too large (yes, obviously).
|
| The solution is apparently to organize WeChat groups around
| buying -- and subsequently dividing -- the oversized items.
| joshxyz wrote:
| Tinder, but for breads
| postsantum wrote:
| Nip Alert, but for bread
| krossitalk wrote:
| > don't be sending take-down notices. This is a very niche and
| tiny thing and is unlikely to put any strain on your servers.
|
| I smell a HN hug of death incoming
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