I remember reading about a baker in California who finally found the secret to a making proper French baguette. But it required something silly like shipping water from France. Here in the UK they still having cracked it.
I can not for the life of me imagine how you might need water from France for baguettes. I think the limitation in the US is not the water, but the public preference and the way bread is marketed.
>>The UK also has some very good mills and we're spoilt for flour
That's interesting, because I find the exact opposite - not in terms of quality of course, but in terms of variety. I find that usually you only have your normal plain, then self-raising, then maybe two types of wholemeal....and that's it. In Poland where I'm from you'd get at least 10 different types of normal white flour in every store, based on how finely they are ground and how pure they are(denoted as "type" from 450 to 2000), and then you have flour from Poznan, from Warsaw, from Wroclaw etc etc - all found in normal stores. In UK it's just "plain". Tesco's own brand or maybe one other "named" brand.
Okay that's impressive. I buy my flour from Shipton Mill online[1] because, as you noted, supermarkets only carry commercial flour with very little variety, if any. Worse even, you don't get much information on the packaging about how coarse/fine it is, many times.
Side note: I'm also not originally from the UK and had also noticed the lack of bakeries, or specialist shops here. Even smaller towns have your typical Tesco/Sainsbury and few if any local baker, butcher, etc. Where I'm from, a neighbourhood without a butcher, bakery, fishmonger, etc would be considered a bit strange. I don't know why but it seems like the assassination of British culture is almost complete. I don't know if it was consumers that drove it or if the big supermarkets imposed it. They've made the local merchant almost extinct. And don't get me started on food culture (most brits I know don't regularly prepare their own meals, and when they do, they're rarely traditional home cooking outside of the typical sunday roast with the family, or christmas dinner. It's a sad loss in a way.
1. https://www.shipton-mill.com/flour-direct-shop/flour/organic...
I am traumatized by this „decrusting“
And as a bakery enthuisiast that baked in many european countries it is the quality of the flour in my opinion. For every country i visited it were different results but the same recipe. The french have a way „finer“ flour
The crust on artificial bread like wonder bread isn't crust so much as darker more bitter bread. As a Frenchman you can relax because you probably wouldn't even consider it bread in the first place.
But this seems only valid for certain parts of the US and food outside of the supermarket or fast food realm. Here in french or most europe the food has a decent quality even the ready to eat stuff in the supermarket.
Btw was never in the US, corona killed that plan. But I had contact with US culture by living in germany near the us military base.
I suspect it's the latter but am curious.
Also, what would make flour be of higher quality?
Did some search and found this … if someone who reads this want to do a deeep dive, Please let me know the results, thanks
https://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-between-regul...
Edit: in europe we have numbers for the flour and they have a relativ to their number a certain amount of minerals. But most european countries are have their own system. But they are mostly comparable
Edit2: did a little search and the waterfree mass of baguette flour should have 0,52-0,62% of minerals. Thats calles t55 to t65 flour. But even then those flour have different proportion of gluten … and worse gluten aint the same everywhere. As I said the milling could affect it but also the kins of wheat and how it is grown…. You see a deep dive into the world of french baguette could be hard… I am happy with beeing often in france and getting the stuff I need there.( I live in germany) … btw same problem with ground almond .. french stuff works perfekt, german stuff not… but for almonds i am sure it is how fine it is ground… because now I ground them myself and it works.
Hope it wasnt tooooo much text and i could help :)
Exactly correct. Most of us grow up eating cheap, crappy bread and simply continue the habit. There is plenty of really good bread out there but most people are content with the mass produced supermarket fluff.
A lot of the "European mystification" about US eating habits boil down to the fact that we have a lot of really cheap food available. Given a choice, most people choose cheap over good for daily usage.
I think there is - as always - some truth behind what you call "European mystification", or at least the US people coming here (Italy) wouldn't be going "Wow" (like they almost invariably do) when entering a good (but common enough) bakery shop or at the restaurant (or even when eating a "real" pizza).
Or maybe they are only very kind, in order to compliment us, but anyway they generally give the impression they never ate some "good" food.
Try it for yourself: Baking bread is easy (and many have taken up the process as a hobby during the pandemic). Youtube is a great teacher of these things.
Anyway, here's a working recipe if anyone wants to try it : https://www.lesfousdeterroirs.fr/nos-recettes/pain-maison
I don't agree with your comment about UK baguettes though. In London at least, you can get very good baguettes from Orée, le Pain Quotidien, (to an extent) Paul, and a bunch of small local bakeries here and there. As a Frenchman, I find these to be just as good as what you'd get in any French bakery.