Side question: Why do people buy baguettes? Do they make sandwiches with them? How do you even make a sandwich from them? How are you meant to beat a baguette???

  • jdr@lemmy.ml
    88·
    4 天前

    Because the dough was a different shape before baking.

    You can beat a baguette with a golf club, a truncheon, or even another baguette.

  • Etterra@discuss.onlineEnglish
    13·
    3 天前

    Not pictured: baguette

    How are you meant to beat a baguette???

    Just punch it dude, it’s bread.

  • Allero@lemmy.today
    44·
    4 天前

    ELI5: dough can take any shape you give it.

    You can load the dough into a metallic shape and close it with a lid, and you’ll get picture 1.

    Or you can make a ball out of it and leave it be on a flat surface, and it will naturally expand to look like picture 2.

    Side question: narrow shape makes baguette have a more crispy texture, which many people like. It’s also usually produced using a special kind of sourdough, which makes it have unique and rich taste. People eat it as is (just biting it from one end to another) or make small open sandwiches by cutting it in slices and putting all sorts of toppings on top of them.

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
      11·
      4 天前

      I saw someone just cut it down the middle and make a long skinny sandwich with one. I didn’t even know that was legal.

      • Allero@lemmy.today
        22·
        4 天前

        Lol, yes, it can be done, but it needs to be packed or cut from one side only, otherwise it will likely fall apart.

        (Also it’s an ungodly abomination and there are certainly better options to do this with)

    • blarghly@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      4 天前

      Why would you want to bake in a container vs a flat surface? Why are some types of bread one shape, and others another? Is it just tradition, or is there some practical aspect?

      • Allero@lemmy.today
        5·
        4 天前

        Baking in a rectangular shape allows you to make a space efficient bread that you can easily stack and transport. Also, it is very predictable, can fit neatly into your toaster, and can be cut in triangles.

        Making bread on a flat surface allows you to minimize costs of entry (not only don’t you need the forms which are relatively cheap, you can go with simpler/cheaper ovens), and this kind of bread has a more pronounced crust, which many people like.

        Also, rectangular bread is harder to leaven for a long period of time as it comes with numerous technological complications down the production line. This affects the aroma composition, making rectangular bread less attractive for those who want the traditional “bread” taste.

        Baguette, as I already mentioned, has a unique crust and crumb texture defined by the shape and baking conditions. Many people like it that way.

        • exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          1·
          3 天前

          Making bread on a flat surface allows you to minimize costs of entry (not only don’t you need the forms which are relatively cheap, you can go with simpler/cheaper ovens), and this kind of bread has a more pronounced crust, which many people like.

          Crusts like this generally require a lot of steam in the oven, and steam ovens are usually much more expensive than non-steam ovens.

          If you want a homemade loaf that can actually produce the type of bubbly crust you expect in certain types of European style breads, you’ll have to trap a lot of steam where you’re baking it, often by containing it in a Dutch oven.

          And shaping/forming a loaf that stays tall when being baked on a flat surface takes skill, lots of practice and experience.

          • Allero@lemmy.today
            1·
            3 天前

            Crusts like this generally require a lot of steam in the oven

            Fair enough!

            And shaping/forming a loaf that stays tall when being baked on a flat surface takes skill, lots of practice and experience.

            Or a fairly inexpensive machine that will do it for you. Of course though, there’s a special pleasure in making a truly artisan bread with your own hands. But hey, it’s not that hard if you know what you’re doing. Best to see it in action.

            But then again, I speak from the side of low-scale industrial baking. For a home baker, all this machinery will be an overkill.

            • exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              2·
              3 天前

              Whoops, didn’t realize you were talking about industrial scale. I guess that makes sense, and I would have no idea which type of bread uses cheaper equipment.

      • ComfortableRaspberry@feddit.org
        4·
        3 天前

        The containers can increase your breads toaster compatibility :D

        But overall I guess it’s a bit like pasta: different use cases (sandwich, sides for salad or soup, as a stand alone dish / food), regions with different resources for flour, fluids, spices, … and also different kinds of utilities (metal pans weren’t easily available everywhere, all the time and they take up space) and so on.

        And all these things influence how the bread tastes, looks and feels. So variety in process (container vs surface, loafs vs flat breads, handcrafted vs automatically processed, …) leads to different results with different characteristics.

        E.g. I love Apulian bread. It’s a loaf with a slightly darker crust, but lighter and soft on the inside. The crust gives it a slightly bitter taste, that makes it a bit rustic (the only thing better is a fresh baked sourdough loaf).
        It’s perfect for sandwiches IMHO but for french toast it’s a pain in the ass. I use pan baked toast (different density, crust and form) instead and again: perfect bread for this dish.

        And then just imagine eating a Döner from half a loaf of grey bread, or toast, … blasphemy!

  • AFK BRB Chocolate (CA version)@lemmy.ca
    547·
    4 天前

    The sandwich bread is mass produced, baked in racks of loaf pans, designed to give very consistent and convenient slices for making sandwiches.

    The second pic is the way many people prefer to bake a more rustic loaf. The dough is just placed on a flat sheet, so there’s much more crust, and it can just rise however it does. It’s less convenient for sandwiches.

    No baguettes aren’t used for sandwiches, they’re used to serve bread with the meal. If you’re eating dinner, you don’t really want a slice of sandwich bread, you want something more convenient to hold in your hand, dip in you pasta sauce, or whatever. Plus it has a higher ratio of crust to insides, which can be nice.

    Edit: I replied to someone who corrected me, but apparently baguettes are very much used for sandwiches, I’ve just never seen it. Apparently I’m an ignorant American.

  • bossito@lemmy.world
    18·
    4 天前

    Baguettes are delicious, use a knife if you want to do a sandwich, what’s the difficulty?

  • Seefra 1@lemmy.zip
    12·
    3 天前

    US , EU and FR variants.

    Side question: Why do people buy baguettes? Do they make sandwiches with them?

    Sometimes, sometimes just eat with butter. They make good toasts too.

    How do you even make a sandwich from them?

    Just cut it open and put the ham and cheese inside it, not much to it really. Either cut the slice in half if I’m feeling poor or fold it in two if I’m feeling rich.

  • Delphia@lemmy.world
    25·
    4 天前

    The rectangular loaf became popular due to packing efficiency. You can fit more of them in less space.

  • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
    1·
    2 天前

    For some soups, a great way to serve them is to toast a thick slice of one of the uncut loaves (so you can cut it thick), then place it in the middle of a wide bowl and serve the soup on top of that. Sometimes, you put another sauce that harmonizes well with the souo on the bread, first.

    Then you eat it as the soup absorbs into the bread, experiencing a combination of soggy and dry bread textures along with the flavour of the broth (and sauce, if present).

    It wouldn’t work with a standard loaf of bread, as both the slices and the bread itself aren’t thick enough to keep it from quickly going fully soggy. Breaking crackers or dipping toast into soup are pale imitations (ok, dipping toast isn’t that far off, but I still prefer a good thick piece of toast).

    Also, if you take a baguette and cut it into thinner slices then toast/bake those slices, you end up with a much cheaper version of those artisan crackers that are just dried pieces of baguette.

    Also, look up beef wellington for one of the more extreme uses of non-standard bread.

  • MunkyNutts@lemmy.worldEnglish
    27·
    4 天前

    One’s cooked in a pan, the other not.

    You can use baguettes in multiple ways like other breads, imagination is the limit.

    -Cut it on the bias (at an angle), toast and use to dip in soup or mop up sauce. I do this with onion soup to top it, buttered and sprinkled with a good melting cheese, place on top of soup in bowl and broil in oven until melted and browning.

    -Slice in half long ways, butter with a good garlic butter recipe, bake in oven until browned serve with spaghetti.

    -Once it’s old, stale and hard, cube it up (can do it fresh too) use as croutons for salads or grind it up for bread crumbs to cook with.

  • owsei@programming.dev
    20·
    4 天前

    In Brazil we have a small baguette called “French bread”! It’s very convenient and absolutely everywhere. And it tastes good, white bread in comparison tastes like nothing and has a shitty texture

    A pile of small baguettes

      • owsei@programming.dev
        4·
        4 天前

        At first I was impressed it exists if France, but it’s kinda obvious. Now I’ve learnt that, for 20 years of my life, I believed a bullshit story about how hundreds of years ago people in Brazil couldn’t make baguette so they sold “French Bread”

        Btw, cute name for a pastry

        • ThePyroPython@lemmy.world
          6·
          4 天前

          So here in the UK they sell these fresh in Lidl: a cheap supermarket but it has an amazing bakery where they make these and other items.

          I often go to Lidl at lunchtime to buy two of these and something simple to fill them with into sandwiches, usually cheese and ham, (insert bland UK food joke here).

          My question for you, in the spirit of international culinary collaboration, what Brazilian fillings would you stuff one of these with to make a great sandwich?

          • owsei@programming.dev
            3·
            3 天前

            We put cheese, ham, salami, mortadella and other stuff. However just mortadella on bread is really famous, because it’s quite cheap and a very famous TV show called Chaves had the main character loving it.

            Recently I’ve started trying to make more meal-like sandwiches, like chicken, tomato and lettuce (really tasty) or egg, cheese and peperoni (all heated up together) and it’s considerably better

            Also, you’re talked about petit pain, do you know they have that name in France or they are sold with that name in the UK?

            • ThePyroPython@lemmy.world
              3·
              3 天前

              Those all sound delicious, I’ll have to give them a try 😋

              Yeah I do and they are sold under that name here in the UK because English will just adopt words from other language or slang terms if they’re used enough. Also in English words for farm animals are Germanic in origin and words for the meat of those same animals are Norman (northern France) in origin because after the Norman Conquest in 1066, the nobility were all Norman French and were the ones to refer to cuts of meat whereas the peasantry didn’t eat the meat of the farm animals.