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Do you still remember the excellent taste of the bread that was produced back in the days of socialism?
Few children could bring a whole loaf home from the shop because it was so good.
At home the cleverest tried to eat it with jam and milk without their parents seeing.
In times when only a little jam was at hand, some would dip a slice of bread in water and then sprinkle it with sugar. At the thought of bread dipped in egg with vanilla sugar our mouths start watering uncontrollably.
Unfortunately, today’s children can no longer experience that excellent flavor known to many grandfathers and mothers.
The reason is a change in the recipe and thorough preparation.
Production process
In the past every bread was produced according to strictly defined standards, from which there was no slightest possibility to deviate. The main technological step is preparing the bread on a sourdough starter. First a dough is made from the larger portion of the flour (about 60% of the required amount), yeast and water.
Then followed a long fermentation process (approximately 4 hours).
When the dough has risen, add the remaining flour, margarine and sugar to it.
Then another phase of fermentation follows (about 1.5 hours). It’s hard to imagine, but the preparation of a single loaf took approximately 7 hours!
Today’s producers no longer spend that much time preparing this baked good. The loaf is often produced using an accelerated technology that reduces the preparation time to 3 hours.
The quality of the bread was affected by the fact that many producers stopped using margarine for the sake of higher profits and cheaper production. Because of this the bread lost its more pronounced milky taste.
In addition, it mattered in which oven the bread was prepared; previously it was baked in gas ovens, which preserved a delicate crust and a finely porous crumb.
Today most ovens for baking loaves are electric, which also affects the bread itself, because its crust remains dried out.
How bread was packaged under socialism
It also wasn’t wrapped by anyone, because everyone knew that storage time must not exceed 24 hours.
Today bread is packaged and sits on store shelves for up to 120 hours.
Do you remember the taste of properly baked bread?
