Wednesday, June 01, 2022

Bread in a time of wheat shortage

Hopefully, with the current problems in the world, you won't need to use the recipes. That said, I was interested in his remark at the beginning of the video that, in the old-timey days, white bread was much preferred to darker bread. White bread was what affluent people ate, while poorer people had to settle for the cheaper, darker bread.

I've got a story about that. My maternal Grandmother immigrated to the States from Slovakia when she was in her teens. She ended up working for a very wealthy family as a maid (virtually everybody reading this post would recognize the very large company they owned). Eventually she became the companion to the matriarch of that family. In fact, even after she resigned, she would still routinely visit the matriarch to chat and drink tea.

One day while drinking their tea they were watching some workers who broke for lunch and took out their white bread sandwiches. The matriarch tsk-tsked that's that why the workers were poor. They didn't know how to manage their money and so they splurged on expensive white bread. 

My Grandmother just rolled her eyes when she told the story. At the time white bread was actually cheaper than darker breads. As my Grandmother told the story, the point of it was how out of touch this wealthy woman was with the lives of common people. That she, as insolated as she was in her mansion, could not comprehend the reality regular people navigated. 

I'll end the post by saying I hope you won't be reduced to eating potato bread -- but if you are, the Lords of the Manor will not be likewise inconvenienced. Sadly, those same Lords of the Manor will be deciding what's good for us plebes.  

 

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