How to make bread like Grandma

[Delmonico]

Most the time Grandma's bread was plain white bread.





How to make bread like Grandma


How many times have you heard someone say that they just can?t make bread like their grandma, many times even mentioning they have the recipe grandma wrote down for them? Most times if the person is any kind of a cook, the bread they make is fine; it just doesn?t have quite the taste of Grandma?s.


When ever anyone mentions this, something I discovered many years ago comes to mind, my brother loves homemade bread, but he had told me one time that it was good, very good, but just didn?t taste like Grandma?s bread did and he was right. He wanted to know if I had Grandma?s recipe, but she never used one that I ever saw, not for just plain old white bread, she just mixed it up, they way I do it, a couple tablespoons of lard, maybe a teaspoon or so of sugar, a dash of salt and work in enough flour for a stiff dough.

Well as I started traveling around with my cook camp, I noticed that my bread tastes different at different places, not a lot, but it was different, none of which was exactly like Grandma?s. I realized the places I went to had well water, and depending on where it was, it tasted different. I also remember a class I had on water treatment years before and I remembered something from the class, a lot of national brands of many items uses water treatment to make them taste the same wherever they are made.

I also remembered Grandma?s bread was never quite the same after she moved to town. What I did the next time we were hunting at the farm was to use the water out of the well. The well has very old pipes and a slight nitrate level, not serious, but we just haul our drinking water from Lincoln and refill at the neighbors who has a much better well. At supper time, my brother went over to the dutch oven full of bread, got himself a couple large pieces, covered it with butter and took a bite. The look on his face was priceless, ?you did find Grandma?s recipe!?

I had to tell him again, there was no written down recipe I?d ever seen. ?You had better remember what you did different, this is Grandma?s bread.? I explained what I had done and now when I?m at the farm I use the water from the well.

[Mogorilla]

Interesting topic.   I know of several people who swear that New York style pizza outside of New York does not taste the same and Bagels made outside of New York do not taste the same.  I can confirm both, but honestly the things that pass for bagels in the midwest just do not come close to a nice bagel from a kosher deli.   The prevailing theory is the water that is used.