I think most Germans can agree, that if there is one thing Germans miss when they are in foreign countries, it is their bread. You find good beer and sausages in other countries, but bread is always missed.
Good beer? Only after craft beer became famous. Good sausages? Almost exclusively Italian. But yes, something I would call bread is desperately missed.
Außerhalb von Deutschland gibt es nur Österreich, Schweiz, Tschechien, Dänemark und auch das eine oder andere Bier aus Ungarn,was ich trinken würde. Der Rest ist nur Pisswasser. Platz 1 geht ganz klar an Deutschland. Kein Bier schmeckt so gut wie unsere Biersorten.^^ Brot? Da kann uns keiner das Wasser reichen ;)
Grew up in Germany. Live in the Netherlands now. 1. Whenever I meet other Germans the question rises "Where do you get your breed?" (Btw organic bakeries offer reasonable sour dough bread.) 2. Whnever I visit Germany there will be a pelgrimage to the bakery.
One of the most typical German phrases occurs after returning to Germany like from vacation: Q: "How was your trip?" A: "It was wonderful! But they have no decent bread there."
I'm more into light bread but even that can/could be difficult to find in some countries. I had that experience in Italy (Rome and southward) and Norway (but no problems at the last trip). That was even a reason I got a simple device to bake on an RV stove (but didn't need it since then).
To me, the crust makes the bread (yes, I'm swiss). And even though I like German bread, I still prefer swiss bread because of its crust. The crunch when you take a bite of bread is simply addictive. Also: wholegrain, preferably with grain that is only crushed, not finely ground is my absolute favourite.
@@wokmay it kinda is, as she talks about an american bachelor, not a german one. in the US you graduate with an associate or bachelor´s degree from regular college, not from university. college moves on an educational level somewhere between abitur and a german bachelor´s degree from university. the educational system of the US and Germany is kinda difficult to compare side by side. especially the german system of trade school, as it has no direct equivalent in other countries.
@@jonasgrohs5997 Your Graduation from an American College, is equivalent to a German finishing School after 9-10 Years. A "Gesselenbrief" is a special Education, which allows you to calll yourself, for example a Baker or a Smith or a Electrician and so on. It comes on TOP and after your Regular School Education. It´s another, seperate Part, to learn and Grow, compared to the University Path. It also allows you to Study in Universitys for Related academic Subjects, if your School Grades for example, wernt up to Par to allow you the Study Place in the First Place.
Ich denke sie sind nur erstaunt, dass es eine 3 Jahre-Ausbildung für **Brotbäcker** gibt, sowie unzählige Regulationen dazu. Nicht alle Länder haben so eine Obsesion mit Brot.
In the US or UK what you can get is dark bread which usually is just coloured dark. Vollkornbrot? 404 Bread not found, doesn't compute. I know various Europeans living in the UK who started baking their own bread.
A Geman called Peter Petermann baking his own bread because "Wenn Du willst, dass etwas richtig gemacht wird, mach es selbst." - Doesn't get more German than that. 😁
my dad went to Munich and Dusseldorf on a business trip for a few days in 1997, and wouldn't stop telling us about German rye bread for the next 20 years.... (he's from India)
When i was abroad in Australia, all i wanted when i came back was basic german bread. The most basic bread here is so much better than everything i ever ate in Australia and the US
When I studied abroad in Canada I jokingly told my family that all I wanted was a proper piece of bread for Christmas. They actually went through with it and sent me a full packet filled with black bread and pumpernickel. Best Christmas gift ever. (Also the first thing I did after returning was sprint into the next bakery and got myself a Brötchen to just marble at the crunch) It's really weird how much we miss our bread when cut off from our supply for a prolonged period of time
After my wife and I came home from our (just) 10 day vacation in Tunesia, the first thing we bought was some belegte Brote at a Rewe To go and man were we happy. That was two days ago
After 5 weeks in Australia, I got so desperate for real German bread, I spent an inordinate amount of money to buy dark rye bread at a German bakery in Miranda, Sydney….went home with it to our couch surfing hosts who really thought they were taken for a joke because they just looked at the dark chocolate colour and said…you bought burnt bread?! 😳 When the other German and I went ahead, putting butter, salt and avocado on the toasted slices and having near orgasmic spasms over finally having REAL BREAD, they just shook their heads at us… We must‘ve made a right spectacle to them….😅
This was probably your smartest content choice ever. Grabbing every German's attention by playing into their bread patriotism, grabbing everybody else's attention by just the appropriate amount of rage baiting, but then ultimately delivering another one of your incredibly well-reseatched and highly educational videos. *Standing ovation* Also: one hell of a thumbnail...
Well same facts are a bit of like that bakers are especially long in training naa that is the common time for most profesions I myself had 3,5 years the standard for most blue collar Jobs (the exeption are the lower ed once that take 2 years for the people how strugel a bit with school stuff 😅) Also the point with gessele and Bachelor is wrong only a Meister has a degree on the same Level But a Gessele alwasy has the Fachgebunden Hochschulreife (like Abitur but without a second foreign language) and with that he/she/it cann apply at a University for a Bachelor Abgang (nothing you did your time in school by law but did archive a degree
@@TheLtVoss thank you for your input! I think she was trying to put this into context for viewers from outside of Germany. So in that context, it makes sense that she talked about a really long training time - compared to other countries not other professions. And while she may not have been precisely correct about the equivalence of degrees, I don't think she was trying to be, I think she was just trying to give people an idea of what the degree roughly means. Many countries don't have Gesellenbrief etc.
As someone who jobbed selling bread, not baking it, I would like to add some context…we opened at 6 a.m., so I got up at 4 a.m., walk my dog, have my coffee and arrive at the bakery around 5-5.10 am., so to sort all the bread and buns delivered at that time to our shelves, take out the cakes from the fridge, prepare the coffee and cream machine…and control the cashier‘s amount of money. At 5.50 a.m. I‘d have the first old people knock at the windows, requesting I‘d open up the shop… Just fyi, never give in to bullying, they know we open up at 6 a.m., coming earlier is their problem, not mine…
@solokom Everyone except US prison guards has a longer training period than US police officers. And what little training US police officers get is usuallyfocused on the wrong things - like hand-to-hand combat and firearms training.
german baker here. Great video! However, there are two errata in your account: 1) The "Gesellenbrief" is DQR (German Qualifications Framework) level 4, and thus considered below a university bachelors degree. The "Meisterbrief" is DQR level 6, and on the same level as a university bachelors degree. 2) There was a time, one needed to gather experience for several years before attempting to go to the Meisterschule (culinary school for master baker). But those times are no more. Nowadays a new Geselle can continue his/her training immediately after the Gesellenprüfung at the Meisterschule, if he/she has the necessary funds to do so, and feels up to the challenge.
I liked the old system better. Being a master at something should not be equivalent of having only studied it, but having actually done if for a least half a decade.
@@Quotenwagnerianerif you are qualified I see no problem in continuing your education right after being a Geselle. You still need to to do the same training as someone who waited a few years and you need to take the same exams. So in reality there is no need for you to wait a few years if you feel that your apprenticeship was very high quality.
Not sure you fully got your head wrapped around the model of German trade education. 1.) Gesellenbrief is not a bachelor by a far cry. At best an associates degree. But in reality it is not an academic degree, but a time-honored, well regarded, - well - trade degree. 2.) In the apprenticeship program, you do not do "internships". In fact, you are employed by a company - in this case bakery - and you actually get paid: 1. Ausbildungsjahr 680 €, 2. Ausbildungsjahr 755 €, 3. Ausbildungsjahr 885 €. The school element might be en block or in the traditional way, two days a week. 3.) This model applies not only to bakers, but to all "Ausbildungsberufe" (trade professions), whether they are bakers, electricians, plumbers, hairdresser or any of the other 324 Ausbildungsberufe. Yet, the pay can be different from trade to trade. 4.) You can own and run a bakery without any training if you so desire, but you need the "Meisterbrief" to take on apprentices.
This smells a bit of classism. A Gesellenbrief/finished apprenticeship with a government diploma is in many cases equal to an American Bachelor's degree in the sense that that's how they/Germany organizes that specific field of education/employment. Germany traditionally didn't have a Bachelor's degree to begin with, that's fairly recent.
Many bachelors degrees in the anglo-saxons world are also not academic, even gained at univesities or colleges.. So I think, the comparision of Geselle with bachelor is fair.
If you never ate a fresh baked rye hazelnut bread, with sourdough, whole hazelnuts and sunflower and other seeds in it, with outmeal around: you haven't lived. The world thinks that Germany is all about cars and beer, but in reality bread is our real passion.
Germany is one of the best wine producers in the world. In my region, people drink wine, not beer. I'm so tired of these stupid Bavarian stereotypes that are being applied to the whole country.
Hey, as a german, I greatly appreciate the video. I think bread is something that gets ignored or un noticed by tourists or people who are interested in the culture. Also I wanted to add something about Sauerteig (sourdough): a lot of households make sourdough bread at home. Something I believe people in the US or in other countrys rarely do.
Americans are so good at stealing food from other countries and add there own style like pizza from Itlay or Hamburger from Germany or even Hotdogs but failed to adapt the bread kinda sad
When I visited my husband's family at Christmas 2022, I felt so bad about eating the bread there. I didn't really enjoy it, because the texture and flavour were so odd (it felt as if there was chalk or some kind of powder in the dough? I don't know, it had a non-grain aftertaste). But I didn't really like most foods there, especially restaurant food (EVERYTHING was greasy! Even tomato soup! HOW?!) And on my Japan trip many years ago in 2012, all the bread I've ever found was really soft and sweet, but not the kind of heavy, filling dark bread I wanted to eat with my Spundekäs. Breakfast was either sweet breads (with therefore sweet toppings) or a whole cooked meal (who eats a cooked meal in the morning?! How do you not get stomach aches?!) And that is when I realised just how much bread is ingrained in my culture and how important it is to me, personally. No other country can compare (though other European countries do make some yummy bread, too)
Nice video, but there are some minor misunderstandings here. The apprenticeship as a baker lasts three years - that is correct. But that's really the standard duration for most of the apprenticeships. So it's not that a baker needs (or gets) more training than a chef or a qualified nurse. Also, at least if you ask employers in Germany, an apprenticeship is NOT the same as a bachelor's degree. It is similar in regard of both being degrees after whose completion you are "ready" to work somewhere. But a baker apprenticeship does not include universitary studies like a bachelor's degree does. Also, you don't need to have a Meisterbrief anymore to start your own business. In many cases it's sufficient to have worked for an extended period of time as a baker and take some additional courses for example in business economics.
@@ingokolb6871That's the problem, they aren't regarded as equal. Also, in Germany, "Duale Ausbildung" (dual education, i.e. trade school and practical training) fills many rôles that require a bachelor's degree abroad (eg nurses). In the former GDR (today's East Zone), there indeed WAS a branch of grade schools; in 1990, they over night lost their right to call themselves college-educated. Working abroad, very often a college degree is a job requirement Germans cannot fulfill. In the reverse direction, if you want to practice your trade in Germany, bring a crowbar. It's two mutually incompatible systems, and German Crafts (Zünfte/Innungen, sg die Zunft/die Innung) don't want to budge AT ALL. Only when the EU steps in and forces Germany to allow people starting a company without a Meisterbrief, there is the minimal required movement.
@@disobedientdolphin I've heard baker apprentices get paid a very paltry amount each month. An amount in no way enough to live on. That's probably the reason there are so few people interested in baking. And, I would also guess that all the grocery stores and small chain store bakeries in Germany competing with the independent bakeries doesn't help either. They get the bread dough delivered every day and only have to put it in a timed oven and it takes no skills to do that job.
@truegemuese a living wage is needed to draw in workers. Germany is in danger of losing the bread making tradition because they can't pay people enough to want that job. What a shame!
@@kitkatkrissy I think it's not the low earnings during apprentices, as that's the same for most jobs, it is getting up at about 2 o'clock in the night and start work at 3. I know somebody who stopped their traineeship so they liked the job. Time for sleeping and friends didn't fit together. Nowadays some baker start at 7 in the morning, but do not sell e.g. rolls. They only sell bread and find apprentices with no problems. They prepare the dough in the afternoon and bake the bread in the morning and sell it still warm. I for my self bake lot of the time my own bread at home. Usually sourdough bread which takes a lot of time, sweet bread or sometimes yeast bread if I need some quick. I even grind the flour from different grains myself.
Most US bread cannot be exported to the EU because there are literally a dozen ingredients in it that are considered illegal here. European bread usually has four ingredients: flour, water, salt and the time it needs to ripen before being baked. That's it.
The bread/cake story is about a specific case regarding taxation that happened in Ireland. There was a court decision some years ago that the bread sold by Subway (the US sandwich chain) contains too much sugar, so (for tax purposes) it was classified as 'cake'. I think Subway in Ireland then changed the recipe to avoid paying higher taxes.
No. It was Ireland that refused to classify specifically Subway Sandwichbread as too sweet for bread, only offering classification as cake. Not all American bread and it wasn’t Germany at all.
Traditional small bakery business unfortunately is not booming due to high energy costs making it a struggle for them to survive. If you see a small German bakery (none of the bakery franchises) show some love and support them by buying a loaf even if you think that it’s expensive. 99% of the time you won’t regret it.
I think a good kind of middle ground are largerer but local bakeries. They have a large bakery somewhere but deliver freshly baked goods to a number of local branches. There are three different ones within walking distance (less than ten minutes) where I live. They're all very good. There was a small bakery nearby which closed eleven years ago. They had a very limited variety of breads and rolls. Especially anything sweet wasn't good at all.
I am Russian & we love butterbrots, it’s literally a word that we use on daily basis. I like it like this - bread, butter and cheese, some use sausages, but I sometimes add a bit of sugar instead
Twenty-five years ago when I used to visit Höpfingen from California, there were Bäckereien and Metzgereien within a block of the house, and I was always so amazed to have FRESH bread every morning. Now I live here, but there are no more butchers, and we lost the last Höpfi-based bakery a year ago. There is one bakery left in town, bringing bread from somewhere else. I suspect that this is our own fault, opting to just buy the convenient stuff at Netto or Aldi or Lidl or Penny or…. We need to treasure what made this place special. I don't want this place to turn into an American strip mall. Thanks again for a wonderful video piece on something that matters!
Often it’s just because young people don’t like the labour intensive jobs that need you to be at work at 6 am or earlier. Since the labour market is the way it is, plenty other jobs with better pay are available, so butchers and bakeries get almost no new employees and slowly die out, even with plenty of advertising
In many places, this trend turns around. But Bakers have first to actually learn again how to make their own bread without any premade mixes. So it might take a while until we see and upward trend in bakeries in Germany.
@@MaticTheProtoBaker is special, you have to start work at night, at 6 in the morning everything has to be finished. So you sighn up for a whole working life that doesn't fit into normal workhours. Not easy for relationships.
It's very important that they keep their food integrity. They are poisoning us here in the States. There is a takeover and between big food and big pharma, it is obvious that the food is killing us. But we are condemned for speaking out, calling us conspiracy theorists.
To all non-Germans watching: The Gesellen-/Meisterbrief system is actually not limited to backers. That's how pretty much all crafts are organized, be it plumbers, electricians, bakers, butchers, carpenters, mechanics etc. We basically have three ways of professional progression: Gesellen/Meister in crafts (all well respected and highly sought after), a similar certificate for mercantile professions (kaufmännische Ausbildung) and academic professions. Unlike the US we highly value trade schools and the like, not only college degrees.
0:15: Centuries? Bread has been a part of human history for millennia! In fact, bread had already been mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest surviving writings in the world.
I think the point was "since a long time" and as you surely know, saying something is "centuries ago" also includes millenia and even eons. If the time frame is not important for an argument or explanation saying centuries is fine
Wait so Abendbrot being a weird thing, or at least worth mentioning, implies that people outside Germany eat two warm meals a day? Really? Wild if true.
Most Asians eat even 3. My German gf never understands why I don’t like cold meals like a platter of cheese and processed meats with bread for breakfast . I guess it’s a culture thing.
Same in Poland - we have mainly one hot meal, midday. You CAN have hot part of breakfast (scrambled eggs etc) OR a hot supper in case of guests or an occasion, but superbasic is just slices of bread with topping, and the same for evening meal. Same for second breakfast (so, brodzeit). And a random snack between meals. But, well... basic food customs are VERY close between PL and DE, since we are all in a similar geographic area, local climate, wild yeast cultures etc.
I actually eat warm two times a day (and I am German). But I think U.S. Americans often have a cold lunch like a sandwich or a salad... Many Asian countries eat 3 warm meals per day. When I was in Japan, soup in the morning became normal to me.
@@dbwjlh Sorry, korrigiere mich falls ich falsch liege, aber das macht auch überhaupt keinen Sinn, da man BA/MA und Handwerksabschlüsse schwer vergleichen kann. BA Abschluss ist dazu in den wenigsten Fällen zu irgendwas zu gebrauchen (es sei denn man studiert was "vernünftiges" :-D ), während ein Meisterbrief vom Aufwand her eher in Richtung MA-Aschluss geht, wobei mMn der Aufwand, einen Meisterbrief zu erlangen, immer noch viel höher ist (kommt halt aufs Studium an...)
According to the official European and German qualifications framework, a "Meister" is equivalent to a Bachelor's degree, while Gesellen and specialists are to be found just below that. It usually tells you the EQF level on the diploma itself
@@Atlantjan You are right, I reserached it! But in reality - but this is just my opinion - you won't get anything job wise with a BA-degree unless you studied something that is really attractive for the job market. On the other hand a master craftsman is much more wanted in Germany. So in my opinion a BA-degree is not an equivalent to a Meisterbrief in a employer's perspective - even if it officially is the case. 😕
The word „Geselle“ is part of the german translation for „bachelor“ „Junggeselle“ and it is true that the word „Meister“ translates to „master“. But those „titles“ have nothing to do with academic degrees. We do love our bread, but you donˋt have to go to university to make some. The educational qualifications you need to do an apprenticeship are very different from what you need to go to university. You can begin an apprenticeship after 9 years of school (depending on what school you went, you donˋt even have to take a final exam). For university you have to graduate from school after 13 years and have to pass the Abitur-exam. On a sidenote ironically enough, we call our university degrees „Bachelors“ and „Masters“, also. Same as in the U.S.
A Secondary school or intermediate school leaving certificate and a completed vocational Training, which lasted at least 3 Years, is equated with a vocational high school diploma (Fachabitur) and allows you to study in certain Universities(Fachhochschulen).
Not just a part of Junggeselle but a straight-up historical equivalent to/translation of Geselle. Also, originally, Meister = Magister = Master. Their respective formal ranks have drifted apart due to a continuous trend to value university education more than craft trade, exacerbated when European higher education systems got standardized (benefitting Erasmus) ca. 25 years ago and adopted the names of US degrees.
To be fair, apprenticeship programs like this exist in other countries in Europe, but more importantly aren't unique to baking. Apprenticeships exist for almost every job you can imagine from baking to working with cars, and all of them tend to run 2 - 3 years. And pretty much all of them end with you becoming a Geselle, and pretty much all of them allow you to study further for becoming a Meister.
@@Robynhoodlum It is that exact system, even Journeymen still exist, although not for every type of job, and usually more as a tradition than anything else.
Basically anything that isn't fully academic. One of the bigger issues today is everybody wanting an academic degree even when that isn't remotely useful to their desired career.
I am a Brit who has lived in Germany (NRW) for 31 years now. There is no comparison when it comes to bread. German bread is not only the best in the world, it is the most diverse. The same goes for the beer. So I guess the Germans are just great with yeast ;-) When my family visit from the UK, one of the things they most look forward to is the bread. One repeating thing they say is, “we can buy bread in the UK that looks like this, but it does not taste like this.”
It's hard to know if it's the best. We haven't tried most of breads. And in every country the bread changes with the micro-climate and is not the same all over the country. Also, lets always keep a special honoured place outside the competition for egyptian bread because it's maybe the first one.
Nothing better than getting a couple "brötchen" after a night out freshly baked. In my hometown we always went to the same "bäckerei" that started their workday at ~2:30-3:00 AM to have the first goods ready for the opening hours (6 AM all week), but we got ours by knocking on the window on the back of the store half an hour to an hour early for a small premium haha.
Oh, when they're fresh and still hot. Nothing beats that. Even if you just get the pre-baked things and finish them in the oven or get them from supermarkets with an oven in the bread section. Those are already pretty good.
Yes, unfortunately the Netherlands lags wayyyy behind when it comes to bread despite the fact they have bread every day for lunch, terrible bread in my opinion.
@@rucky_665 when I was in the netherlands I actually didn‘t dislike their bread. But when I have the opportunity to eat french and german bread daily, it‘s not the same I‘m afraid.
The baguettes in France are very tasty but I find it very strange that they sell baguettes with stuff on it everywhere as a snack - it's the main snack and it becomes soooo boring and repetitive. I would say that Belgium is actually extremely similar to Germany - they also sell a huge variety of quality bread :)
It comes from a medival law that fixed the price of one brötchen. So the size of the brötchen was following very strict rules from the cities guilde, how much flour it was allowed to contain based on the current price for flour.
The thing I miss the most from my years living in German is the food, especially the bread. Every village had a bakery with fresh bread, rolls and other goodies every morning, and everything was great. Having a freshly baked brötchen (or semmel) in the morning with butter and jam was a great way to start the day. Funny story: There was one bakery in the fussgängerzone in the city near me that ran the vent from the kitchen in the back out through the front of the store to spread the smell of freshly baked things into the street in front. It was almost impossible to pass without the urge to go in and get something. Where I currently live, Spain, the bread is good too, but just good. No real variety and no good rye bread. No brötchen or bauerbrot, just wheat bread. The local Aldi and Lidl stores try, but they don't have a good local source. Good story, but good and bad. I love thinking about the good bread, but it makes me miss it and want to get on a plane to just get some of the fabulous bread.
A friend of mine has her appartment over a bakery in a neighbor city (Black Forest area). When I stayed there overnight I woke up at 6 or so from the smell and hoped they'll open the shop asap! :D
This is not just Germany, similar bread you have in the whole Central Europe. I lived 4 years in Germany but I could not find anything like the old-Polish rye sourdough I love the most.
Bread is so good in Europe. German bread very much resembles the bread we got in Sweden, but there's variations, but I also love French, Italian and Greek bread. Bread should not be an industri product but something handcrafted and treasured. With the history and culture we have in Europe it's no wonder our breads are the best in the world. Yes, I challenge you out there! European bread rules.
I've been in Sweden a three times. 2 times super rural, no tourism area and once in Stockholm. There is definitely good bread and I loved it yet, the diversity of bread is not nearly as big as in Germany. Still, Sweden is one of my "dream countries". Experiencing true nature, waste landscapes, freedom and tranquility. We booked a house with no internet connection in 2017 and I had a lot of time but was limited in my ability to move. So I started drawing maps. Slowly but steady, Sweden inspired me to draw maps for over 6 years now. Thanks Sweden, for being great! Much love from Germany
Greek bread? When I went to a local bakery in Naxos (the biggest island in the Kyklades), the only decent bread they had was a dark baguette. The rest was all white, unsalted bread. I'm Swiss and my favourite bread is Ruchbrot (rough bread, it's half white bread with coarser flour).
Well of course you have the best bread. You have the longest history of growing cereal crops. All the Americas had were corn, most of SE Asia had rice and SOME grain but without yeast, and Africa didn’t really grow grains at all. Grain and yeast were solely an Eurasian phenomenon for ten thousand years!😂
@@Robynhoodlum Africa didn’t really grow grains at all ... Right ... Look, I hope you are aware that crop cultivation and bread is less of an European, but more of a west Asian / north African thing? Romans imported their crops from Tunisia and Lybia. In the more southern parts of Africa you had more cultivation of millet. In China wheat was cultivated since over 4000 years. And east Asia did have yeast.
@@etuanno Hm, ja, Ruchbrot ist superlecker. Grüße aus Deutschland. Viele Brotsorten werden extra neu kreiert, um mehr Sorten zu haben. Ist irgendwie ein Wettbewerb...
A nice video about the German apprenticeship system from the baker's perspective. The same system is used in all trades in Germany. Mechanics, electricians, roofers, carpenters asf. all enjoy an at least 3 year education. Oh, my favorite bread? Weltmeister (world champion bread).
@@TypeAshton BMW USA introduced this in their factories there because they couldn't find any well-trained people. A dual system with theory at school and practice in the company.🙋♂
@@TypeAshton It's very important that that's what is considered "normal basic training" in Germany, which usually qualifies to get a job at which you will get specialised training for what you need to do there. Same thing with university degrees: The German university system is based on a complete basic education of 5 years, in which the bachelor is just a "well, they heard half of what they need to know, but we are forced by EU-law to hand out a certificate for that."
First things humans made out of grain was not bread but porridge and beer. The production of both was more or less collateral, because beer at that time was basically fermented porridge.
Which makes sense, as walking and drinking don't mix well, really. (Sorry for the bad joke, lol ... I simply could not resist, reading your initial statement. 💀)
Sorry, but here you are wrong. "Toast" is a false friend, and you fell for it. First of all, the american Sandwich Bread was he model for German Toast Bread. Yes. But there is a major difference: - American Sandwich Bread is made to just eat it. Toasting it is possible but not obligatory and most of the time not done. - German Toast Bread on the other side is specifically meant to be toasted. Is is made in a way, that the result after toasting is best. Eating German Toast Bread untoasted is not mandatory because it is kind of unfinished bread and untoasted it tastes like cardboard. In the US "Toast" referres to ANY type of bread that is toasted In Germany "Toast" referres to "German Toast Bread" either toasted (finished) or not
@@mijp idk... typical american "sandwich" looks pretty much like "untoasted "german toast"" to me - but I never ate one, so I dont know. Toasted "german toast" is fine though - guess its called that for a reason after all.
@@Yaeko275 Yes, it also looks alike. But believe me, they are both different. You can try by buying som american sandwicht bread at a supermarket near you. It might be not that tasty as it is, by our standards not a good bread, but at least you can see, feel, and taste the difference between American Sandwich Bread and German Toast Bread.
@@mijp i have to admit that i also always call american sandwich bread "toast" and never bread. 🥲 i mean i think its not bad, you can eat it from time to time but if said i wanted bread and someone would bring me american sandwich bread my brain would still be like "??? thats not bread". 😭
Here in the Czech Republic it is very similar to Germany. For example every morning that has gentle northern wind I get to smell fresh bread when I cycle through a nearby town with less than 4000 inhabitants. There is a bakery that supplies to neighbouring villages too and my route passes about 200m south of it. The smell is beautifull. I also still find it weird to have a hot meal for dinner. Like Germans we usually have a big hot meal for lunch and dinner is usually bread with something. Some people prefer a bit more variety but I am happy eating bread with cheese for every dinner 🙂. And by bread I mean the ones that look the same as the German ones in this video. Something like the American thing can be bought here too but everyone I know willing to eat it considers it an emergency only thing if they get from work late, forgot to buy yesterday and today all the "real" bread is gone by the time they get to to shop. I don't know anyone who will eat it if they can avoid it.
Weil der Deutsche Einfluß damals sehr Hoch war. Böhmen und MährenPrag wurde auch von deutschen gebaut und erst seit 1918 war es eigentum von Tschechien.
@@TheGladbacher2011 No. the Lands of Bohemia were always primarily Czech speaking, and all of it's important cities were established by Czechs, including as far west as Cheb. Germans came later, by invitation to colonize rugged mountains and dense forests that were not attractive to existing Czechs (who lived in the agriculturally productive valleys and lowlands) or as traders. It is frankly rude and disgusting of you to claim other people's culture and history as your own. Not least in the fact that many dishes enjoyed in Austria and Germany came from Czechs and Bohemia. bohmische kuchen, buchteln, krems, powidl etc. The Bohemians even refused to attend the 1848 Frankfurt conference exactly because they were not German, and not you. Germany and Czechia has had over 1000 years of trade and mutual influence, it was not a one-way street. The type of Chauvinism you are displaying here is what led to 2 world wars and most of the German population being expelled from Czechoslovakia.
That's how it is, you have a fine fresh bread, a baguette and then you top it with cheese, salami, ham or salmon and onion rings or gherkins, radishes. And then a fine beer. I can't imagine a better dinner
2:55 in Germany we call it Toastbrot (toast bread) and if the slices are a little larger than what fits into your bread toaster, we still say Taostbrot, but it's sold as Sandwichbrot (sandwich bread), I heard in many videos that Americans or English speaking people in general call toasted bread, no mather if its sandwich bread, sunflower bread, sourdough bread or any kind a "toast" but in Germany we disstinguish it a bit. If you toast a toastbrot or sandwich bread, its a toast or still called toastbrot, but toastbrot is still called toastbrot even if its not toasted. If you toast other breads like for example sourdough than we say "getostete Scheibe Brot" (toasted slice of bread) but it's not that common to toast other kinds of bread than toastbrot. I think it has to do with the quality of how the toasted bread will be like, cause most breads you toast end up being quit hard and too crispy and some people may struggle to bite them trought, so almost anyone who tries to toast a bread in Germany is doing it either with a soft white bread or a toastbrot.
The cheaper industry breads are pretty good for toasting. Rewe and Penny have a dark bread with sunflower seeds, the bread is still so wet, you can easily toast it twice and only then it starts getting crunchy. And the other trick, toasting old bread. If its already 2-3 days old, just toast it and its nice (as long as its warm :P). With buns or thicker pre-cut bread slices you can also drip a little water on them first (for a normal bun, just make your hands wet and run them over the bun until it touched water everywhere), after toasting (or a few minutes in the oven) it feels almost fresh again (as long as its warm.... :P)
Even as a Coeliac, I fully appreciate this comprehensive approach to something we should take seriously. Bread should be the ultimate combination of flour, yeast, water, and salt and not an Ultra Processed 'Food'.
@@ronaldderooij1774 I can't agree there. Every element has a significant impact. The flour has different protein, carb and fibre levels, and what hydration level it can tolerate, the water has different calcium levels (and other electrolytes). These all impact how the dough behaves.
@@ronaldderooij1774 "The rest is the same all over the world" - nope, it isn't. As a German immigrant in Canada, I have to mix some of the Canadian flour to get about the same properties as the German variants. For example, to get the same properties as the German type 405 flour, you need to mix one part "pastry flour" with 2 parts "all purpose flour" over here. If you just use the all purpose flour (or just the pastry flour), your bread will be quite different from what you expected it to be!
@@ronaldderooij1774 In many breads, no yeast is used at all, only sourdough. The best breads contain only rye flour, wheat flour, water, salt, sourdough and most importantly: time!
Sidenote: The apprenticeship programm and the Meisterbrief is not a special thing about bakers, you get that on the majority of jobs. From electricians over laboratory workers (bio, chem, physics), cooks, bank workers to bakers and workers on water sanitation plants. Almost all jobs that aren't exclusively accessible via University (like lawyer and med doctor) you can get a "berfuliche Ausbildung" for. (the aforementioned combined practical and theoretical education.) Typically you get hired by a company/small business (which includes craftsmen) and they send you to special schools ("Berufsschule") with the necessary courses for 1 or 2 days a week or several weeks in a row, depending on the school). "Gesellenbrief" is not equivalent to Bachelor's, but it's nor far under. "Meisterbrief" is somewhat equivalent, in some regards under, in others over Bachelor's. But one thing is true, most Germans hold real bakers (Bäckermeister, so bakers with a Meisterbrief) in high regard, bc about as far as a store bought Roggenmischbrot is away from one you get in a franchised bakery, is that franchised bread from that of a real Bäckermeister. Sadly, in many regions those franchised bakers completely took over...
Calling "Bäckermeister" real bakers might be a bit too far ;) bakers are real bakers. But I have to agree that mostly large bakeries are taking over the smaller ones.
Just like every country, Germany isn't perfect, but I'm grateful for being born in this country because our food honestly is ORGANIC as organic food can be.
Moin moin, many people here store their own sourdough starter in the fridge and feeding "him" every week. Nothing taste better then your own fresh bread right from the oven.
Hermann was a kind of chain mail when I was a kid (70 / 80 ies). You got a cup of the dough (with instructions), fed "him", baked a bread for yourself and gave away 5 or 10 cups of "him" to friends, family, collegues or who ever couldn't escape.
My current sourdough is 7 years old, but I have baked with sourdough all my adult life - got my first starter from my local bakery when I was 19. (I'm 65) I have 3 children, sadly they are too busy to bake, even though they have had homemade bread all their childhood.
Bread and salt are also important in Polish culture. It is a very old tradition to greet newly wed couple with bread and salt at the start of the weeding feast. Traditionally it is the parents of the couple who great them to wish them that they always have enough bread and salt. We also have many traditional kinds of bread for different occasions: "chałka" (sweet bread made with egg yolks and fresh yeast, can be seen at 1:49) for Easter, gingerbread for Christmas etc. Sandwiches of any kind are extremely popular for breakfast, second breakfast and dinner. All in all, bread culture is also very strong in Poland with local bakeries on every other corner
Just for information: the training system you described is the standard in Germany for nearly every kinds of work e.g. mechanics, bank staff, butchers etc.
@@Arltratlo another "this is older than your country", they seem to live the "just try and see if it works" idea of (many) fast- and early failing attempts. It's standard for craftsmanship: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zunft#Geschichte en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation_(feudal_Europe)#History
@@kn9788 That training system is also far older then Germany as a country itself. It was practiced in most parts of the holy roman empire as soon as cities began to pop up. Similar systems were also used in italian citystates, around Barcelona and other places in Europe. What makes it special in Germany is that the system survived until today and expanded with formal education.
First of all, thanks for the great video and the excellent research. It might be interesting for you to know that pretty much every profession, apart from tattoo artist or similar, requires an apprenticeship that lasts between 2 and 3.5 years. For tattoo artists, there are considerations on how to realize a proper apprenticeship. Each of these apprenticeships consists of the practical part (in the training company "Ausbildungsbetrieb") and the theoretical part (vocational school "Berufschule") and there is always an intermediate examination (halfway through) and a final examination (at the end). Only when you have passed the final examination do you receive your journeyman's certificate "Gesellenbrief" and can then attend master school or even university to reach even higher ranks in the profession. Of course, there are also professions that can be learned directly at university, but especially in skilled trades it is appreciated if you have completed the basic training. Looking forward to more videos and have a nice weekend. 😁👍
Hallo, German here. Good video and very informative. One thing I would like to add: "Sauerteig" (sourdough) that German backeries uses for their bread is often a decades old, unique substance that is kept just for this one backery. New sourdough is created from existing (living) sourdough every week to keep the culture alive. The dough created like this from the original yeast is often "bred" over decades or longer, permanently kept alive, cultivated and protected. This leads to some backeries creating original tastes in bread that no other backery can replicate, because they don't have access to the particular sourdough. I find this highly fascinating.
German here - och, german culture, german tradition, centuries of experience.... When you are in germany and you walk through the streets, and there is then an bakery that has just taken fresh bread out of their oven - it plays no rule if you are american, german, chinese or turkish or from some planet from outer space: If you have an nose (or something that does the same as our nose) and you then get, by simply passsing by on the street, this smell of fresh backed bread or breadrolls, that´s dispersing from the backers oven, through the whole bakery, out of its door into the street... - you are simply hooked! And when you have then entered the backery, you see the bread in all its variations that is on-sale there, you get more of the smell, often then are there also tables where you can buy you an coffee, and the smell of the fresh-brewed coffee adds to the smell of the bread and the cakes.... be honest: It´s addiction - some few buys are sufficient and you cant stop it anymore! The german baker, nothing more than an well organised and highly respected kind of traditional-old-style-drug-dealer! 😋😋😋
Sehr schön geschrieben, aber ich musste über deine wörtliche Übersetzung von "es spielt keine Rolle" als "it plays no rule" schmunzeln 😅 ich glaube, in Englisch sagt man einfach "it doesn't matter".
But Luxembourg is … also neighbouring Germany And even Flanders (a bit further away) has good bread. Unlike the Dutch, who tend more to the American style, although it is changing for the last decades
NOT Switzerland! In a Swiss bakery I pointed to a piece of baked goods and said 'I'll have a brioche' the baker stared at me and said 'what?' I repeated my order pointing 'what? That's a bretzel' Now it was my turn to say 'what?' I left without buying anything.
I would like to include the Bohemian and Tyrolean bread traditions into the mix and talk about Central European Bread. As you rightly pointed out, sandy soil, cold, rainy weather and many small and medium sized mountain ranges made wheat expensive and other types of grain, mainly rye, oat and barley, a common source of carbohydrates and ingredients for bread. As the other sorts of grain do not easily form a bakeable dough, people invented many tricks and recipes - from crispbread around the Baltic Sea to Vinschgauer and Schüttelbrot in South Tyrol, often enriched with local herbs, like caraway in Bohemia or blue melilot in South Tyrol. My favorite is the common brown bread, especially one with a high content of rye, and baked with sourdough. MALFA-bread, baked with malted barley, comes in close second. (MALFA derives from Malzfabrik - malting plant).
Some years ago my sister started making her own bread. It quickly became her hobby as she stated that making bread helps her to completely calm down and relax. I guess that effect mirrors the things needed for good bread since a dough also needs its time to relax. As my sister and her family got increasingly used to the taste of fresh self made bread they didn't even like the taste of what the local baker shop offered anymore. At some point she also convinced me to try it and although I still mostly buy bread from a bakery I sometimes make my own bread. But it's not just limited to bread. As someone who loves good burgers I now strictly refuse to use buns from the supermarket and instead bake my own. There are always some buns in my fridge and I don't like running out of stock. These burgers look better, can be handled better and taste much better than those with supermarket buns that crumble and disintegrate the moment you put your hands on them.
As a German Meister I had to pause this video a couple of times, because it hits all the right spots. I just wanted to share some thoughts, feel free to read, if it's not to much text. German bread culture really is about an honest day of work. From the farmer, who puts some insane working hours into producing the grain, over the miller who grinds it to flour, to the baker who gets up as early as 2 am to bake the bread. Just for hard working individuals to have a proper "Stulle" to handle their workload. Good bread gets you going until its lunchtime. And thank you for comparing the German apprenticeship to a bachelor degree, because young Germans tend to forget, that an apprenticeship is a valid option in life. There is a reason for that phrased in a German saying "Ausbildungsjahre sind keine Herrenjahre." Meaning you'll be on the wrong end of the food chain for quite some time and that sucks. For sure. But you'll be very well respected down the road. In my experience, as a Meister, even Professors and PhDs will admire your skill and expertise. I often read statements of young and frustrated Americans "how am I supposed to have years of working experience, when I studied for years in this field?" And thats a valid point. But as an employer I'd rather hire someone who knows what he's doing, instead of someone who knows what he's talking about. And thats what a German apprenticeship will do for you. You'll learn how to get sh*t done. Sorry for the long comment, here is a potato for your effort. 🥔
Hi, was munching on some bread while watching this. Here in Austria , from an article I read recently, there are about 150 different kinds of breads and ( yearly) consumption is about 50 kg per person. Austria also got the "Immaterielles Kulturerbe" status from Unesco for its bread. One of the customs in the countryside is to put bread and butter at the main entrance on Christmas day( or eve) to bring a blessing, as is taking bread and eggs to Easter Sunday mass to be blessed. Like in parts of Germany the children get a kipferl (croissant) on St. Martin's day and they are supposed to share theirs with someone else ( as the saint shared his cape) It may have changed, but when our daughter was little it was a custom to give teething babies some very hard bread. You didn't mention pumpernickel! I was so sure you would. When I lived in the USA, my aunt would drive miles to the "German bakery" for some "proper bread" and put several loaves in the freezer, so I was lucky to enjoy German bread growing up. She would order ahead of time because she said the waiting time and lines were so long!
Speaking the same language, it's kind of natural that swiss, german and austrian culture will have developed a lot of similarities I guess. Bread culture is probably also strong in switzerland.
Really? 150 only? Sure? I was convinced our direct neighbors have at least half the variety Germany does. (Apart from the Netherlands, all our neighbors have their own bread culture) But aren’t Austrians masters of the yeast? I am so confused now.
@@dontanton7775 France, Czech, Poland…. It’s not the language it’s the agricultural make up, not perfect for wheat but great for other grains - which leads to more variety.
There's nothing as magical as making your own sour bread just allowing yeasts and bacteria randomly flying around in your home to feast on some flour and water producing bread with an individual flavor that can't be reproduced by anyone else, because it's the microbiologic fingerprint of your home. You feed that little buggers - the oldest lifeforms on earth - and they feed you - one of the youngest, most complex results of evolution. So essential, poetic, humbling and of course - tasty.
I went to a medieval market once and they sold freshly made potato bread. Man, I am still dreaming about that one. Nothing better than bread fresh from the oven. And the smell 🥰
dont wanna destroy ur memories on that potato bread BUT potato found it's way to the old world in the 1700's, and medieval ended more or less 500 years before. so enjoy ur potato bread but forget about the medieval market :D
@@cYr_Berlin yeah, thanks, I studied medieval archaeology and remember at least that much 🤣 but medieval festivals are fun, even though they are rarely anywhere near authentic and that damn bread was goooood 😁
@@cYr_Berlin None of the bread we have today, no matter what country, is 'authentic' medieval, for the simple reason that the ingredients aren't. No matter if wheat, or rye or anything else, it has been modified for centuries to become stronger, more resistent and a bigger harvest. The pro side, there is rarely if ever a harvest fail, the downside is that nowadays it's mostly gluten. Potato bread is btw a 'poverty' version. It was added to bread to make it cheaper, but turned out quite tasty and is also quite popular.
as a German, bread is a huge part of my diet, I eat one warm meal and two small meals every day, both small meals almost always contain bread and sometimes the warm meal contains bread too
Bread is exceptionally good in Europe, like here in Italy, with a giganormous diverse regional production. Form flat bread like piadina in Emilia, stick bread like grissini in Piedmont, 50 cm wheels pitta in Calabria, sheet thin carasau in Sardinia, you can definitely say that bread is heaven.
As coming from Upper Swabia I'm a fan of "Seelen" (souls). They got their name from All Souls' Day, in Catholic regions the day of remembrance for the faithfully departed, the day after All Saints' Day (and therefore in some traditions the third of Allhallowtide, which starts with Halloween). Around this time siblings and cousins met to visit together the graves of their parents and grandparents and to sit afterwards together in the old family house to talk and eat. Therefore they needed a food which did taste good, was easy to make and did not ruin the hosting family financially. The result was a kind of long (about 30 to 40cm) breadroll made from a mixture of wheat and spelt flour and sprinkled with coarse salt and caraway. It became a staple also for other days, and at the time of my grandma many villlages had specialized "soul bakers" (often part-time farmers) who baked only "Seelen" for the weekend or for public holidays.
Thank's for the explanation. I knew 'Seelen' are somehow connected to Allerheiligen/Allerseelen, but nothing more. I appreciate the little history lesson 😊
One of the things I LOVE about my trips to Southern Germany, from my home in Switzerland, is ... the bread. And I also noticed, that often, a local Bakery will have a branch (Filiale) in the local ReWe or Edeka. So not all Supermarket bread is 2nd class. Some can be as good as the good local bakery, that also has a shop in said supermarket.
BTW - Swiss bread is also very good and sometimes can hold a candle to German bread. St. Galler Ruchbrot, for example. But it's still not as good as a Sauerteig Roggenbrot in Süd Baden.
@@musicofnote1 I wouldn't discredit our Swiss bread either. Not sure how considerable the difference is to its German counterpart, but it is certainly in its own league compared to most overseas alternatives 😆 A delicious, healthy bread for breakfast is something I dearly miss abroad whenever it's not available.
Those bakeries are chain bakeries btw. They have one main baking complex, where everything is pre-mixed and even the Bretzeln are mostly formed by machine. The goods are then driven by truck to all the chain stores in the country, many are pre-frozen and need to be 'baked' up in the baking stores. They are ofc still better than what you find in most other countries, but can't even compare to real bakeries. Those are unfortunately dying out, as they can't compete with the prices of chain stores, while still paying the same bills (if not higher ones), even when they cheap out on employee expenses, which many private bakeries do. But when you have 1-3 master bakers baking the stuff the night before, and the bread so fresh at opening time that you can't cut it cause it's still hot inside, it's something else.
@@olgahein4384 Stop trying to act as an authoritative source on things you know little about. While the in-store "bakeries in Lidl, Penny, ... are what you describe, the local bakery store in our Edeka is... local. As in, the actual bakery is 600 feet from my house, they have about a dozen "chain stores" in a 10-mile radius. No frozen Rohlinge. No dough starters. No in-store ovens. They don't plan on expanding, as that's about as far as you can transport fresh baked goods without them going cold.
@@artforz I AM a source in that regard, as I've worked for several chain stores, 2 independent bakeries and one family run bakery in 3rd generation (run by moms cousin) before i finished college. Your 'local' chain bakery might not be Armbruster nessecarily (which have at least 2 of theirs in Edekas in my south-western area), but they are still the same just on a smaller scale, or just a franchise - not very common for bakeries, but completely normal for Edeka stores and Edeka in-store bakeries.
The "Gesellenbrief" in germany is not equivalent to a bachelors degree. It's more likely to a document showing that you finished your apprenticeship and passed your final exams. A bachelors degree in germany is only achievable when going to am university or a "Hochschule" or a "Fachhochschule" which is also kinda like an university.
When I lived in Germany, my German wife- then a student- introduced me to Lidls. There she would buy a specific pack of square rye bread. That was the staple bread she would always have in her flat when I visited her. She would have mehrkornbroetchen now and again, but being a medical student, most of her time was spent studying. She didn't have time to go shopping. That rye brot- with Landbrot written on the pack- was her go-to. It's funny. We moved to Scotland in 1999. But they have Lidl here too, and I still shop there to this day and I still buy that little square pack of Landbrot rye bread. It's so good and you FEEL the nutritional value in it with your tongue when you're chewing it. You know you're eating something that's good for you. Also, how can stollen not be a thing 12 months a year? Well, lol, I guess if it were, I'd be as round as a beach ball because I can't lay off that stuff. We only see it here in Scotland around Christmas, and I look forward to it appearing on Lidl's shelves every year.
Real "Stollen" contains a lot of butter. Therefore it’s not that good to store (especially in ancient times) bc it would go rancid quite fast. Conclusion, in the past, at home, it was a seasonal thing. Meanwhile it’s no problem so bakeries start baking them partially after Eastern (because of the high demand at Christmas) and store them in dedicated places (in ancient times in mining tunnels = Bergwerks*stollen*) until sale starts in winter. And yes, we order almond (preferably) and traditional Stollen and have them even through January.
Unfortunatly the big supermarket bakery chains have ruined the proper master bakeries in Germany. Over the past 20 years or so, I watched one bakery after another getting closed, because they cant compete with the prices of the bakery chains. Those are using industrially produced does, often made in Poland or so, and employ women for extremely low wages, who only bake the pre-prepared stuff ready to be sold. Unless you have a traditional bakery near by, I guess the best choice is to bake bread yourself. And you dont need a 3 year apprenticeship for that. My advice: get a good Brotbackautomat (from Panasonic or so) to begin discovering the bread making. That way you get instant success experiences, and yet have full control over the ingredieces. From there on you can begin experimenting. But such a machine is a tremendous help - because bread making is very exhausting if you only do it by hand.
@@RoyalDudeness lol. both of you forget that bread became rather expensive like 20 years ago... many people couldnt afford the bakers bread anymore without feeling the difference in finances.
Depends on where you are in germany. Some towns have no decent bakeries left while others are doing fine. Most people I know very much prefer bakeries over Discounters
It's surprising how delicious a simple slice of dark bread (especially if still warm or toasted) is with butter and maybe some additional grains of salt. For toppings in addition to butter, I really like chives (also goes well with cream cheese) but if you add crushed walnuts or even some sugar the humble bread feels more like a treat.
Here in The Netherlands it had the same bread traditions as in Germany in the past, but commerce changed it a bit. We still have a lot of special bread sorts (the Stol with religious holidays, Frisian sugar- and rhybread, krentenwegge (sweet bread with all kinds of flavour makings like raisins in it), krenten- & rozijnbrood with raisins in it, the krentenbol, even specialities with meat in it like saucijzen-, frikandel-, and worstenbroodje), but mostly we go for the 'Swedish' bread type. It's cheap, simple and qualitative. It isn't as good as the German bread anymore though. It are still the big bakeries who control the market with some addition of local bakers. We are bread eaters as well, but we do it for breakfast and lunch. The evening is for the big meal, mostly without bread. We have a dessert called 'Wentelteefjes', it are breadcrumbs or slices of bread gone old dipped in a mess of egg white and other nice stuff if you like. Bread is in our DNA, but we are losing the quality of it a bit.
I sent this video link to my American friends and my now American family. You explain our bread culture much better than I could. I also bake my own bread - have done so for decades, with sourdough, of course. Great video, great presentation. Thank you!
The Dutch actually eat annually even more bread per person than the Germans. However, german bakeries are definately better than the dutch ones, and there are way more of them. German bakeries usually also function as a breakfast or lunchroom where they have some seating and you can get a coffee with you Nußecke or Kanelbulle 😁, a meeting point for the local Rentners. I guess thats what it also takes to survive in modern times. That trend starts to pop up in the Netherlands too a bit now.
I remember when I lived in Central Franconia, we had a tiny little backery where we bought our bread. It was always fresh AND warm! Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside! It was so good you didn't even need to put butter or anything else on it! I could eat half a loaf in one sitting! (We always bought 4 metric lbs loaf! It was usually gone the next day!) Where I live now, you can't find anything like it anymore! All industrial made! Big corporations! Just sad!
I'm a German and I love German sour dough bread. But traditional bakeries became quite rare here. In West Germany you can barely find any in a lot of areas and in former East Germany most of them died after the Berlin Wall fall. The lack of of resources, in this example yeast, was btw an important reason why traditional baking survived so long in East Germany. But to be honest I like French bread even more. Before I've been in France I believed in the stereotype that in France they eat only spongy white bread. But the truth is that they have a huge variety of bread. There is no bread that I love more than real traditional baguette which is btw also a sour dough bread. But there is also a huge variety of rye sourdough bread in France.
I live in Wisconsin, and here the state still heavily practices Friday Fish Fry. Along with your dinner is Rye bread with butter. My favorite is Sourdough, and I've been learning to make it from scratch(including the starter). oddly enough I have been thinking about what it would take to open a micro-bakery.
I'm from the U.S., however, I moved to the Czech Republic a little while ago. I had a short hospital stay and we were given 'rohlik' (a small, long roll made of white bread) almost every morning for breakfast and every evening with cold cuts and butter for dinner. Just like in Germany, the only hot, substantiative meal was at lunchtime. While I would cut the roll in half and put the butter between the two halves, the Czechs would butter the outside of the roll.
Yeah, it will actually taste different since the inside will loose some of its fluffiness after cutting it and, most likely, buttering it. No point doing it with fresh rohlik unless we are talking jam or honey or "to go" sandwich. Have to say that fresh cheapest traditional supermarket rohlik is still one of my favorite pastries...
There's a kind of small bread called "Seele", a typical type of bread in Swabia. It has the form of a stick, with a diameter of about three fingers and a length of about 25 - 40 cm. It's made from wheat and spelt. Usually caraway seeds and graines of salt are strewn on it. It's usually prepared and eaten the way you're describing it. A very popular variation relaces the caraway seeds and the salt by cheese with which it is being baked ("Käse-Seele").
A lot of the „German“ things described here are really „Holy Roman Empire“ (for lack of a better word/comparison) things found throughout Central/Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Apprenticeships, local bread types/flavours/specialities etc. and can be found all around. DE,AT,CH,CZ,SK,SLO,PL,HU,HR,…
And that means that there was a huge intercultural exchange between all those smaller and larger groups of people that lived between its boundaries. Fun fact: In Denmark a puff pastry with a filling of custard and fruit is called "Wienerbröd", "Vienna bread". In the German border region in and around Flensburg we say "Wienerbrot", but in Vienna it is called "Kopenhagener". English people call it "Danish". And a delicious cake that consits of a layer of custard and cream sandwiched between two layers of puff pastry under a coat of icing sugar is a "Kremschnitte" in Germany. When my parents went to Croatia they found the same cake as a "cremsnit" in the local bakeries.
Not in the Netherlands, and until 1566 or 1648 (officially) we were also part of the Holy Roman Empire, which according to Rousseau, was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire. (funny sidenote). But back to the bread. In the Netherlands there is no such tradition since ages. So now you made be curious, why?
A sensitive topic for a German. If I go back to my childhood, I can remember bread (and "Brezn") that hava almost nothing to do with today's products. Compared to the bakery products of the past, today's products are mostly just bad. In my hometown, there used to be a lot more small bakeries with awesome products, now replaced by semi-industrial large bakery factories, often integrated into Kaufland, Lidl and Aldi. Many old bakeries have stopped because it became uneconomical to do everything by themselves, many have not found successors and are in well-deserved retirement. But there is hope. A new bakery with good bread can cause long customer queues - and people do not have a problem to wait for some good bread. But that also has to do with the training. For a very long time, a complex system of craftsmen's guilds (Baker, Butcher, Taylor, Stone Masons, Wood worker, ...) had prevailed. For almost all professions, one must have started as a "Lehrling" (apprentice) and - depending on the profession - learn from a "Meister" (master craftsman) for several years. After passing a final test - theoretically and practically (making a "Gesellenstück") - one is then allowed to call himself a "Geselle". Often one stayed with his "Meister" or went on a journey working elsewhere ("Walz") and after a few years as a "Geselle" one could then - again after even harder tests (making a "Meisterstück") - become a "Meister". Only a "Meister" was allowed to open his own business and train "Lehrlinge". As early as the Middle Ages, there were certificates ("Gesellenbrief" / "Meisterbrief") and a central register for "Gesellen" and "Meister". A superb and mighty system that is very weakened today, which is often also noticeable in the quality of the products (just compare a chair from a carpenter with one from IKEA).
as a sourdough baker from australia this was really interesting to watch! makes me want to travel to germany to try a bunch of different kinds of bread.
I am sure, if you wanted to, you could get a visa for some time of work experience and get to work with a traditional bakery - if you wanted to try more than just the different taste.
My father is a Bäckermeister (he has a Meisterbrief in bakery) but sadly isn't working his trade anymore because the industry today is quite a rough spot to be a small business owner or an employee of a large company. Too much work, too little compensation. He often states that it used to be much different; his father was one of the most important people in the village and quite well off, financially. He is a janitor now and often is a bit reserved when talking about his old days mostly bc the last years before quitting the job entirely were *really* unpleasant for him on many levels. We recently made a trip to a history museum where people where baking authentic bread like they did 50 or 70 years ago in rural areas, and my father (who knew about this, we've been there before) pretty much darted to the bakery and just watched and talked with the bakers there, and you could see his eyes light up. We bought a bread from there afterwards, it was pretty great.
Bread is the one thing that keeps me from moving out of germany. My favourite bread is Röstbrot wich is also called restebrot, wich means leftover bread. back in the day leftovers where cooked to a crisp and grinded into powder. with that powder you could make new bread, wich has a rich flavor. i just love to put some butter and salt on top
at 13:06 there's the most cursed pretzel (Or Breze/Brezn) I've ever seen. What is that abomination? In case this is a regional variety; sorry. but it just look so wrong to me
I just came home from my local bakery with a bag of fresh breadrolls for a delightful sunday breakfast - and got. a big grin on my face whilst watching your newest topic and biting into my delicious Mohnbrötchen. 😂
Guten Morgen mit Brötchen. Yes, I bake my own sour dough bread since I love it fresh and with a cracky, smoky crust and healthy rye and dinkel and no sugar ❤
We have very similar traditions and organization around bread in France as well. Also the trade apprenticeship. Maybe we have less people buying rhie breads, though I'm not sure about that. Personally i love it and the bakeries where i live / have lived always have / had all sorts of rhie and whole grain breads. I think my favorites are those with lots of seeds and nuts, like walnuts and hazelnuts. Love me some rhie walnut bread. 😂 But i also love the olive breads i sometimes find at our local bakery. And dry fruit whole grain bread, though it's a bit sweeter. Anyway, bread is generally a huge thing in the whole of Europe. I've been to loads of countries around the continent and people always prefer to buy from bakeries and eat "slow bread". When i was a kid in Romania we had these huge "black breads" (must have been rhie). I loved to eat that with milk and salt, or with yogurt and salt (apart from the bread butter and salt sandwiches i loved). It was funny when i first got to France and discovered a whole trend of "yogurt with sugar". I was very confused as to why anyone would want sugar in their yogurt. For me it was always either salt or fruit/preserves. So fruit yogurt didn't shock me, but sugar yogurt was totally weird. I still prefer salty yogurt, though i admit i have been converted to greek yogurt with honey 😂
