Growing up in the 70’s Wonder Bread and Ideal Bread or some other white bread brand was all that was available in the grocery. I can remember why Roman Meal Bread was introduced with great fanfare. Mom started buying it when I was in high school and I bought too in college.
It was the 90’s before there were many specialty bread choices. I buy Nature’s Own Honey Wheat and Oroweat Whole Grain Oatnut Bread. Once in awhile I get Ideal for Nostalgia when I want a peanut butter & banana sandwich. A taste from my childhood.
I love raisin bread and have tried all the brands. By far Nature’s Own Cinnamon Raisin is my favorite. I got frustrated with Pepperidge Farms paper thin slices. Other brands the bread is gummy.
You still buying white bread? Specialty Bread? Or even bread from a local bakery?
We didn’t have the same wide selection of whole grain breads in the the last quarter of the last century, but we certainly had decent mass produced bread.
The early '60’s were the desperate waste land between high quality and high status breads.
Forgot to mention Ideal Bread was sponsored by our local Bozo show. Lots and lots of nostalgia when I make a P&J or P and banana with it. I only treat myself once every month or two.
I get my bread from the bakery, but a lot of it is a convenience issue for me - I walk right by a fantastic bakery daily, it’s at the end of my street on my way to the subway. The grocery store is farther out of my way, so buying bread on my way home from work means one fewer thing to carry home from grocery shopping at the supermarket.
I even buy a lot of white bread there – it’s good quality but it’s essentially regular old white bread with a chewier crust, and I like that I slice it myself to make thicker slices for things like French toast and garlic bread.
I included all the whole wheat, multi grains as specialty or premium breads. White bread is the mass produced family cheap option.
I’d buy white bread if I had 5 kids. No way am I buying premium priced bread for kids that eat half their sandwich and leave the rest on the table or floor.
Really? I don’t think I’ve ever seen white bread on a store shelf without 70% whole wheat and 100% whole wheat next to it, made in the same mass produced fashion.
I am one of the bread bakers. It is cheap, and fairly quick and easy after you have done it for a while. The best part is that you can choose your grains. For me, though, making bread is just a side bonus from having the stuff to make bagels. Good bread can generally be found if you look; good bagels, on the other hand, are a rare commodity if you do not live in the right place.
There are some cheap brown breads that are basically the same as white bread without the bleached flour. We used to buy that for our girls when they were still at home. It might be a tiny bit more healthy. But, it’s still a lot of over processed flour, sugars etc.
I’m not sure but didn’t the white bread makers add some extra nutrients in the 80’s? I don’t think todays Wonder Bread is the same empty loaf that was sold in the 50’s and 60’s. But, I really don’t know for sure.
Panera bakes bread daily and sells whole loves at a really good price.
I think baguettes and sourdough boules are like $3.00 and the quality is quite good. I rarely eat there but I buy bread from them at least once a week.
We rarely buy white bread unless it is for French Toast or some specific reason.
One interesting tidbit I have noticed at Walmart, of all places:
About a year ago, a local bread company started making seven grain bread that was quite good, and about a dollar cheaper than most of the other breads. They started off with about ten loafs wide on the shelf, and three shelves.
Apparently, when good, healthy bread is sold for a fair price, people start buying it. Now that brand of bread is about twenty five loafs wide on the shelf, and five shelves high!
I see people making a beeline for that brand of whole grain, fairly healthy bread and am somewhat impressed they are not buying the cheapo white bread loafs.
That may have been true at one time, but at my local stores there are more whole wheat options than white these days, so there’s “plain wheat bread” and it’s priced comparably to the white. And by “wheat” I am referring to 100% whole wheat or whole grain.