# Why is generic white bread so soft and mushy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 23, 2014, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-generic-white-bread-so-soft-and-mushy/696287 "2014-08-23T12:36:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2014, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-generic-white-bread-so-soft-and-mushy/696287/21 "2014-08-24T02:16:58Z")
> [@PorchePine](#): > > As a kid, I’d tear the crusts off a slice of white bread, then squish the whole thing into a doughball to nibble on while watching TV. Brother!!! I still do the same thing with wheat bread that I dip into my soup, stew, or chili! > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > It will during the hot, muggy Arkansas Summer. And God forbid you leave your loaf of bread in the car where the sun can hit it for any length of time. You’ll wonder how that puddle of water formed in your unopened loaf of bread. > [@JuliaSqueezer](#): > > My mother, who’s in her 90’s, talks about when she was growing up, particularly during the Depression, Wonder-type white bread was something she and her brothers craved. It’s amazing how things change over the years. When I was a kid I would reluctantly eat wheat bread only when white wasn’t available. A few years back I was visiting my in-laws and I tried to use some Wonderbread to make a sandwich and I just couldn’t scarf it down. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2014, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-generic-white-bread-so-soft-and-mushy/696287/22 "2014-08-24T16:01:35Z")
Because we like it that way. ---
**Author:** ![Saturn\_Dreams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Saturn\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saturn_Dreams)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-generic-white-bread-so-soft-and-mushy/696287/23 "2014-08-26T01:47:14Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > refridgerators are damp places. I don’t think so. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-generic-white-bread-so-soft-and-mushy/696287/24 "2014-08-27T19:23:02Z")
I once worked in a bakery (early 1980’s). Although it was a very hip artisanal bakery (long before anybody thought up that descriptive) we still subscribed to the industry journal. It had a name like Bakery Today, a Vogue-sized periodical thick with ads for things like stabilizers, volumizers, puffers, lifters, softeners, browners and other surprising ingredients that we didn’t use. None were, you know, food. Commercial US white bread shares little with homemade bread except the name. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-generic-white-bread-so-soft-and-mushy/696287/25 "2014-08-27T19:55:59Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Commercial US white bread shares little with homemade bread except the name. Beats the hell out of matzoh. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-generic-white-bread-so-soft-and-mushy/696287/26 "2014-08-27T20:00:31Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Beats the hell out of matzoh. > 🙂 No, matzoh is crunchy, hence, edible. Also, you can build things with matzoh. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-generic-white-bread-so-soft-and-mushy/696287/27 "2014-08-27T20:13:10Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Also, you can build things with matzoh. Yeah, like driveways. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-generic-white-bread-so-soft-and-mushy/696287/28 "2014-08-27T21:41:32Z")
[QUOTE=PorchePine] As a kid, I’d tear the crusts off a slice of white bread, then squish the whole thing into a doughball to nibble on while watching TV. Now I’m fairly sure that real food doesn’t do that. [/QUOTE] Another “real food doesn’t do that” thing is that your plumber may use Wonder-type bread now and then when soldering water pipe joints. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-generic-white-bread-so-soft-and-mushy/696287/29 "2014-08-27T21:51:15Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > Another “real food doesn’t do that” thing is that your plumber may use Wonder-type bread now and then when soldering water pipe joints. For what? ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-generic-white-bread-so-soft-and-mushy/696287/30 "2014-08-28T18:33:57Z")
If there’s a dribble of water in the pipe, it won’t get hot enough to melt the solder, so they take some bread, wad it up and stuff it in the pipe to make a temporary dam. Now they can solder the joint - the heat from the torch toasts the bread in the pipe, and when the water is turned back on, the crumbs are washed away. It’s got to be cheap white bread. Fancy bread won’t wad up the way you need to plug the pipe and it also might not wash away cleanly when you’re done. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-generic-white-bread-so-soft-and-mushy/696287/31 "2014-08-28T22:41:44Z")
Is it the chorleywood process? [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13670278](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13670278) ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-generic-white-bread-so-soft-and-mushy/696287/32 "2014-09-02T04:17:41Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > wrapping bread in plastic traps moisture which will accelerate mold. sliced bread like Wonderbread is wrapped instantly. > > when home bread making was more popular people would store the bread in breadboxes which had a small amount of ventilation. > > refridgerators are damp places. Wait. Are you suggesting that refrigerating bread encourages mold? Because that’s false. Refrigerating can hasten staleness of home made-style bread. Refrigeration is fine and retards molding for Wonderbread and similar packaged bread. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-generic-white-bread-so-soft-and-mushy/696287/33 "2014-09-02T04:44:48Z")
A lot of these answers are wrong. The standard wonderbread style loaf wasn’t actually created by private industry, but by government scientists at the USDA in the 1950s after exhaustive market testing to determine the most desirable bread for the average consumer at the time. Time after time in market testing, even with tasters who claimed to not prefer soft bread, people consistently bought the softest loaves, leading to the extreme airiness of the modern American loaf. Another strong factor was in making the most affordable bread possible and, in the bread world, that meant making the fastest bread possible. Modern American white bread rises in as little as 12 minutes compared to the multi hour or overnight rises that give traditional European Breads their complex flavors. [Believer](http://www.believermag.com/issues/201202/?read=article_bobrow-strain) had an excellent article on the modern American loaf a few years ago that’s well worth reading. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-generic-white-bread-so-soft-and-mushy/696287/34 "2014-09-02T06:40:37Z")
Food tastes change. Soft white mushy generic bread was popular because you couldn’t make it yourself. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-generic-white-bread-so-soft-and-mushy/696287.md?page=1)