 |
| Otto Frederick Rohwedder of Davenport, Iowa The inventor of sliced bread, well, the first bread slicer ... (Source - Go read it!) |
Anyhoo, Skip's comment presented that chap above to my cerebral cortex, it was good to find this out.
I mean, c'mon, who among us has never said, "The greatest thing since sliced bread!"
Well, we can all thank Otto for that.
Dude, set the bar for the measure of greatness!
Speaking of bread, I found this video très amusant ...
And with that, I lamely begin my New Year (yesterday didn't count).
Be back with something, I'll think of something!
Ooh, almost forget, Oppenheimer, watch it. I thought it was damned good. Four stars I give it.
Sliced bread, who knew? But I do have to admit that sliced bread is one of those things that's just been there my whole life...
ReplyDeleteMovies? I saw "The Boys In The Boat" right after Christmas, it was a good movie, entertaining and educational. Educational in that I knew nothing about rowing and the Olympics & very little about life in the depression.
I saw the previews for that one, it did look good.
DeleteMost highly recommend "Boys in the Boat! As with " Devotion" it had been long enough since I'd read the book that I wasn't too picky about the adaptation. See the movie, then read the book.
DeleteBoat Guy
Copy that.
Delete"Away All Boats" in either book or film form is an excellent look into attack transports in the Pacific. Though I may be somewhat biased as they mention my Kwajalein in there. The movie is a pretty good adaptation of the book.
DeleteI just had to riff off 'Boat' because that's what I do.
DeleteBeans #1 - Concur.
DeleteBeans #2 - Yes, that is what you do. We let it slide because we like you. 😉
DeleteWeird comment on rowing. Remember the mid 70's Budweiser commercial that had a couple teams of scull-boats and a bunch of late 20s to late 30s guys win? That was the FIT (Florida Institute of Technology, in Melbourne, FL) team and they regularly handed Ivy League teams their asses on the Indian River. Used to watch the crews row all the time back in the day, all sizes of boats from singles, pairs up to the big long ones.
DeleteWasn't unusual to see one of the crews jogging on campus carrying one of their boats overhead.
Although I've never gotten into the sport, it looks hard and yet graceful.
DeleteI agree with your comment that rowing is 'hard and yet graceful'. A former GB coach said that when a top VIII was on on form it was like having eight golfers hit the ball simultaneously off the tee, and then repeat for about six minutes at rates of between 38-45 strokes per minute with everyone in time. My youngest son has rowed on the water at the highest level ( Five times Henley Royal Regatta winner and several international medals) and I can assure you the men and women you see rowing at the Olympics are some of the fittest athletes around, yet after 2k they are physically wrecked, the thing is that in rowing it's you against the others, at some stage someone will crack. It all comes down to willpower and a ridiculously high pain threshold.
Delete'The Boys in the Boat' comes out on the 12th Jan in the UK, I'm off to see it as I have read the book. What was interesting to me were the descriptions of society in the 30's and the differences between the USA and GB. The GB of the 30's was intensely class bound and a lot of the Washington crew would not have got near a university over here. For example the Australian VIII of 1936 was not allowed to compete at Henley as it was the Melbourne Police Rowing Club and they were therefore deemed not to be 'gentlemen' and as the weren't gentlemen they couldn't compete.
A lot of the shooting was done near where I live and my youngest son said he could have got a part as an extra as the film makers wanted people who could actually row but work got in the way, much to his regret.
Retired
From the sounds of it, I need to see this film.
DeleteDuring my electrician years, we worked at a bakery in Boerne, TX a few times. One of the machines I saw was a tilted square of wood with bread knives all along one side, slice a loaf by shaking. It was mesmerizing to see work. I doubt it was NSF certified, most probably home made. The working side of the bakery was something to behold. It was a machine shop for food.
ReplyDeleteA machine shop for food, an apt description!
DeleteA good commercial bakery is a beautiful sight to behold. A good medieval bakery was a great way to die young due to baker's lung from the flour and smoke. Still cool to see, though, but not to actually work.
DeleteWhich is amazing with all these people going back to wood-fired ovens. Yeah, bucky, there's a reason electric or gas ovens took over.
Smoke inhalation, been there, done that, not good.
DeleteSarge,
ReplyDeleteI’ll give that vid 6 “groans”. Well done!
juvat
So bad, it's good.
DeleteFor a short time in 1943 the War Foods Administration banned the sale of sliced bread. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/america-banned-sliced-bread
ReplyDelete"The ban on sliced bread was just one of many resource-conserving campaigns during World War II. In May 1942, Americans received their first ration booklets and, within the year, commodities ranging from rubber tires to sugar were in short supply. Housewives, many of whom were also holding down demanding jobs to keep the labor force from collapsing, had to get creative. When the government rationed nylon, women resorted to drawing faux-nylon stockings using eyebrow pencils and when sugar and butter became scarce, they baked “victory cakes” sweetened with boiled raisins or whatever else was available. So by January 18, 1943, when Claude R. Wickard, the secretary of agriculture and head of the War Foods Administration, declared the selling of sliced bread illegal, patience was already running thin. Since sliced bread required thicker wrapping to stay fresh, Wickard reasoned that the move would save wax paper, not to mention tons of alloyed steel used to make bread-slicing machines."
It was not, NOT, a well received move. The backlash, and the blow to civilian morale, caused it to be withdrawn in early March of the same year.
Another example of "trust the experts."
DeleteJoe #1 - If you need something screwed up in a hurry, you turn to the gubmint.
DeleteJoe #2 - Yeah, "top men."
DeleteI still have my mom's rationing book about half filled in and one for myself with nothing in it.
DeleteCool.
DeleteAnd now do the reason for 'enriched bread.' Which was due to weird hard-to-diagnose illnesses in the South that led to bad joints and possible deaths. Caused by the South's reliance on cornbread and various beans and black-eyed-peas, which were very low in riboflavin. se
ReplyDeleteOr 'iodized salt' because some brainiac actually noticed significant differences between people who ate seafood (and thus iodine) and those living inland who didn't eat seafood.
Very strange things happen around food.
And the Europeans can whine about our good white wonderbread loaves, but, dang, nice to have a loaf of bread that doesn't go stale by the next day.
There is that.
DeleteActually that nice, fresh backerei brot lasts far longer and is far better for you than that chemically augmented, bland, spongy stuff. Might's well be eating Twinkies.
DeleteBG
I loved the bread we got from our loca German bakery. Very tasty.
DeleteProblem is that pre-widespread A/C, fresh bread in the South, like the backerei brot, a good Chicago roll, or a wonderful pumpernickel will sprout mold in one day, legs in two days.
DeleteWhich is one reason I'm not really into the hotter climes. But after this coming weekend, I might change my mind. (Snow is predicted, for the first time, the standard Little Rhody "a dusting to 20 inches." The ocean, it gets a vote.
DeletePlus, we have a fun governor!
DeleteFun is an interesting appellation to apply to any politician. Just saying.
Delete? Must have been someone else's comment, I don't remember mentioning bread slicing at all. I did order a 12" roast beef slicer for my traveling knife kit, thus probably guaranteeing I'll never face one of those giant roasts again. Giant watermelons, fear me!
ReplyDeleteBehold htom's knives and tremble, ye watermelons!
DeleteThe simplest things of technology we take for granted were once upon a time great marvels. As in turn - if we do not blow ourselves up - our technological wonders of today will be the equivalent of "meh" to generations in the future.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recommendation. On the whole, I have heard nothing but good things about Oppenheimer.
I thought the movie well-done, well-acted, and close enough to historical fact to please me.
Deleteand I'm old enough to remember going to a local bakery near my aunt's (Brooklyn, NY) and when purchasing a loaf (almost always rye bread), the counter person asking whether or not you wanted it sliced
ReplyDeleteNot saying you're old boron, but damn, that had to have been a while ago. Then again the small local bakeries would do that kind of thing, keeping it old school for the older generation. (Probably still do.)
DeleteMy Publix bakery offers sliced and unsliced, and offers to slice unsliced, breads. So do the specialty bakeries that have bread almost as good as Publix.
DeleteGood to know!
DeleteYeah, especially if you and The Missus comes escaping from the evil snow storms. Publix, where shopping actually is a pleasure.
DeleteThe furthest south I ever see us potentially moving is Virginia. There are a lot of them there from what I can see via the "magic" of Gargle.
DeleteWe have been in CA this past month or so, forced to go to an older Safeway. Prices are all that you’ve ever heard and the staff here in Santa Cruz is longing for the surf, or worse, a quick hit of some kind. Seriously!
DeleteCalifornia has fallen a long way, is there any hope of repair?
DeleteMy go to phrase: "Best thing since self contained metallic cartridges." Priorities people.
ReplyDeleteAdd "non-corrosive" to that and you're there!
DeleteBoat Guy
Tree Mike - Okay, I'll give you that, being a military guy who has tasted black powder while ripping cartridges open with my teeth.
DeleteBG - Yeah, that's important too.
DeleteWait, they had paper cartridges around when you started, OAFS?
DeleteSticks and stones.
DeleteLiterally ...
So that was YOU at the beginning of "2001: A Space Odyssey!"
DeleteThe ape off by himself in the opening scene.
DeleteWIthin the past few years, a local grocery store had a self service bread slicing machine next to the baguettes. A real time saver for lazy folks, but it only made 90 degree cuts, so you could not get the longer artistic looking slices you can do by hand. Have not seen the machine lately, but have not looked for it. Probably got pulled for hyper-hysterical lawyer excuses.
ReplyDeleteJB
No doubt someone with ten thumbs tried to use it. Of course, now they've only got nine.
DeleteOr twenty, if they do it right...
DeleteHeh, a fair point.
DeleteI'd say a score of points...
DeleteI see what you did there ...
DeleteMy wife makes bread periodically, which is delicious and has no preservatives. But since it's delicious, the lack of preservatives is a moot point- the loaf usually doesn't last the day. Maybe those Europeans just expect everyone to eat more bread quickly!
ReplyDeleteAt least in Germany, when we lived there in a small village, shopping was a daily thing. You bought enough for the day, no more. So no chance for anything to go stale.
DeleteMB created a sourdough starter. She periodically makes loaves of crusty, tasty, sourdough bread, and, occasionally, other really tasty things. The one thing we have noted is that it is really close in taste and texture to the San Francisco sourdough French bread of our youth, but not quite because the yeast is slightly different.
DeleteThis bread is always hand sliced and seldom lasts beyond the second day.
The starter is a couple of years old; is the closest thing we have to a pet; and its name is Harvey. He lives in the refrigerator when we go away.
I remember, from when I was really young, going to the local bakery with my mother, and watching them put loaves of shite bread through the slicing machine, which could be adjusted for thickness.
Sounds like some good memories there.
DeleteSnippy?
DeleteNot me, maybe a little terse. I'm a little challenged at the keyboard, so I tend to be a little short at times.
I've reached a point where I don't used the computer much any more, and the smartphone and tablet, with their different keyboards and interfaces aren't my favorites.
I hate changing devices, I have more than one, life seems to be a constant adjustment.
DeleteI've been making bread on and off since Sunset Magazine published a "Basque Shepherd's Bread" receipt in, I think, 1972. The receipt called for 10 cups of flour. As written it's for one large round loaf baked in a Dutch oven. Water, flour, yeast, a little sugar, a little salt, some butter or oil, and yeast. On a cut loaf the exposed face will get stale only about 1/8" in. Beyond that the crumb stays soft for days.
DeleteWhen I make it for church, either for Lity or zapivka, I leave out the oil. I'll add eggs, milk, and more sugar as a dough for poppy seed or nut rolls.
All this talk of bread is making me hungry. Home made bread? Love it.
DeleteHere is a short on making bread, I do this often now, it is that easy.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/shorts/JwLo010f8j0
👍
Delete