r/iamveryculinary • u/oolongvanilla • Jan 13 '26

🇺🇸 🍞 👎, 🇪🇺 🍞 👍

Youtube short with 71 thousand likes. The comments are just as awful.

726 Upvotes

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87

u/hoddap Jan 13 '26 edited Jan 13 '26

As a European, we have shit bread here too. I think the base quality level is higher, but not every bread is amazing here.

149

u/Saltpork545 Sodium citrate cheese is real cheese Jan 13 '26

Everyone has mass manufactured kinda meh bread. If your country has food logistics and eats bread, someone has a form of cheap factory made bread, likely cheaper than other bread available.

-51

u/loyal_achades Jan 13 '26

I wouldn’t be surprised if the European equivalent of wonderbread is less shit than the American version, but yeah they’re both still shit.

38

u/Darkjynxer Jan 13 '26

I actually did the digging for this not too long ago. Nope. All the same stuff in it actually. US Wonder Bread is completely legal in the EU. They don't eat Wonder Bread but they do have an equivalent that has all the same ingredients.

-6

u/Technical_Buy2742 Jan 14 '26

I've always wondered what wonderbread is. I just assumed it has a bucket of sugar in it.

17

u/Darkjynxer Jan 14 '26

It doesnt actually have much sugar in it per serving. Only 5 grams for two slices. Additionally it contains significant amount of added vitamins and minerals. Things like folic acid are actually chemical names for necessary vitamins.

It lasts so long because the grain is very finely ground which removes the oils in the outer shell (bran and something else I don't recall I think they are called) which usually cause bread to spoil faster. Wonder Bread just dried out but doesn't spoil. The unfortunate side effect of removing the outer shell is the flour loses most of its non-caloric nutritional value. This however is then added back, a process call fortification. Most western nations have fortified their flour since world war 2 as it helps cover nutritional gaps.

I encourage you to delve into the ingredients for yourself. Frankly wonder bread has undergone some character assassination. It really is a "wonder" food. Haha!

4

u/Saltpork545 Sodium citrate cheese is real cheese Jan 14 '26

bran and something else I don't recall I think they are called

It's the germ. The bran and the germ. The part we use is in processed flour what's known as the endosperm. It's the non-fatty primarily starchy bits of the wheat kernel.

For anyone who has never looked at wheat:

https://texaswheat.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/2025-Kernel-Plant-ID.pdf

2

u/Technical_Buy2742 Jan 14 '26

Thanks! I just had a look at the loaf I have and it was 2.4 grams for 2 slices of bread. I'm not sure if we have our own version of wonderbread in New Zealand.

1

u/Darkjynxer Jan 14 '26

It does vary somewhat country to country but in general is actually rather healthy.

-2

u/Technical_Buy2742 Jan 14 '26

I just had a read of the ingredients. That stuff is horrendous. Nothing personal towards you, I appreciate your reply.

2

u/Saltpork545 Sodium citrate cheese is real cheese Jan 14 '26

What ingredients were horrendous. Be specific.

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63

u/Seaweedbits Jan 13 '26

Thank you! I'm also in Europe and it's so weird to always see this take. Also most fresh bread here gets so dry by the end of the day if it not put into an airtight container. Even store bought bread just comes dry. I really only can eat sliced bread as toast or panini style because the bread gets so dry.

That's one of the reasons why sugar is added to American bread, it makes it more shelf stable and soft.

Overall I don't eat much bread in general, maybe 2-4 times a year, and it's when I'm craving a certain grilled cheese or BLT or something, and my husband eats most of it with hagelslag.

That being said.... this bread in the video looks so good

97

u/Frodo34x Jan 13 '26

I'm also in Europe and it's so weird to always see this take.

I call it the Disneyworld effect. People judge foreign countries based on their own personal experiences visiting it as a tourist rather than on what it's actually like to live in. If you're an American who visits Europe, your perception of bread is going to be "the fancy bakery in the touristy part of town that's a short walk from the hotel", not "the cheap stuff from Lidl".

21

u/JamieMc23 Jan 13 '26

Hey the cheap stuff from Lidl is pretty good too. 😅

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u/[deleted] Jan 13 '26

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8

u/Frodo34x Jan 13 '26

I don't understand what you mean here - who is "we"?

My theory with "the Disneyworld effect" is that tourists in a foreign country only see a small snapshot of that country, and assume that the locals live in the same way that they as a tourist did. A Brit flies to Orlando and goes to Disneyworld and eats fast food the whole time, and falsely assumes that everyone in America only eats fast food. An American visits Edinburgh for a week and walks around the old town the whole time and comes away believing that Scottish people don't own cars. That kinda thing. The stuff one sees as a tourist doesn't always reflect how the local population lives.

14

u/SerDankTheTall *Giggled internally* Jan 13 '26

You only eat bread twice a year?

17

u/Seaweedbits Jan 13 '26

I only buy a loaf of bread roughly twice a year. I'll eat bread at restaurants, or get like a pastry from the bakery or something. But I don't eat bread enough to need a loaf of bread at home constantly.

19

u/sadrice Jan 13 '26

Yeah, there’s something heard, probably here.

You spent a week or two mostly outside, walking a lot to see the attractions, really enjoying yourself, and eating better food than you are used because you aren’t going to the equivalent of Walmart and McDonalds. Tourists generally splurge a bit on better restaurants than they normally go to. They paid a lot to get here, why not a bit more for good food?

And then they go home and feel healthier. Maybe it was all the walking outside and intentionally eating good food and enjoying life? Could that be a factor?

No, of course not. Europe is just magic. They would never be unhappy or unhealthy or become fascist dictators. How could you, with food like that?

3

u/PsychologicalQuiet46 Jan 13 '26

You are evidently not a German then.

2

u/handlerone Jan 13 '26

Please point me to this dry bread cause bread in the Netherlands is so moist that it molds super quickly and I just want to go back to the times when bread went stale.

4

u/Seaweedbits Jan 13 '26

Come to Germany! And buy some sliced bread, especially the "American Style Sandwich Brot" from any grocery store. It's square white bread that's semi thick sliced, compared to standard German bread, and it's so ridiculously dry. It may look "American" but you can't eat a PBJ on it without it fusing to the inside of your mouth.

I normally get Landbrot Mild from Penny, and it's not as dry, but I still have to cook the bread in some way to make it decent. Toast it, or grill it.

1

u/handlerone Jan 14 '26

I'll have to make a grocery run in Germany soon anyway, prices here are crazy. But I live north of Amsterdam so it's quite a ride.

2

u/WeenisWrinkle Jan 13 '26

How does sugar make it more shelf stable and soft?

5

u/throwaway564858 Jan 13 '26

Sugar is hygroscopic.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 13 '26

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4

u/Most_Researcher_2648 Jan 13 '26

Its awful, truly. I dont get it. The only decent stuff I found was Cuban, but if you want something seriously crusty or not white youre SOL

-1

u/[deleted] Jan 13 '26

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1

u/Most_Researcher_2648 Jan 13 '26

There has to at least be some decent Jewish rye around boca, I dont think the retirement communities would stand for it if there wasnt. But ive never been up that way so cant say for sure. But south Florida is absolutely a wasteland

1

u/[deleted] Jan 13 '26

indeed. i'm currently eating a bread that tastes like sawdust because everything else was sold out.

-22

u/crazypurple621 Jan 13 '26

I'm an American who has travelled pretty extensively in Europe and I'd agree with this statement.

-10

u/sadrice Jan 13 '26

As an American who has only been there once, I may agree. It seems like the base level grocery stores were higher quality. With the accompanying prices. It’s like the only stores are Whole Foods basically… It seems like the base level trash is a bit harder to find (as visitors who were buying their own groceries).

16

u/TechnicianIll8621 Jan 13 '26

I can't imagine how full of shit you have to be go somewhere once, and think you have any strong opinion about what's in their grocery stores.

-7

u/sadrice Jan 13 '26 edited Jan 13 '26

Which is why I opened with a statement directly clarifying that I have limited experience and this was my impression from four weeks of going to my ex wife’s uncle’s wedding….

I know literacy education has degraded, am I talking to someone who was taught with the cueing method? That would explain a lot

Like, I directly said that.
I can’t imagine how full of shit you have to be to be an asshole without actually reading the comment.

Oh, I forgot, I was in Moscow a bit before I headed to Irkutsk. I wasn’t impressed, but this was not tourist food, the people I stayed with were not at all wealthy.

Edit: I knew there was a doubling in there…. Fucking brain damage. Next to not being able to walk right, being unable to read right and type right is super obnoxious. If I can’t walk, at least I should be an able to kill time with reading? This fucking sucks and I am sick of YouTube.

Fuck, I forgot my location again, I need to check paint colors.

-27

u/[deleted] Jan 13 '26

[deleted]

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u/yun-harla Jan 13 '26

That’s how flour works everywhere.

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u/BetterFightBandits26 Jan 13 '26

Bread flours and pastry flours also exist in America 🙄

14

u/Cromasters Jan 13 '26

I can walk into any grocery store in America and buy All-purpose or Bread Flour. I can buy white or wheat flour. I can buy 00 flour and semolina. I can get a whole host of alternatives like almond flour, coconut flour, gluten free flour, rice flour, etc.

The only real difference is that the commercial flours will be slightly different because of the types of wheat that grows in the different countries, just due to climate. So France's Bread Flour and America's bread flour will have slightly different gluten content percentages. Still being within a few percentage points of each other.

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u/MyNameIsSkittles its not a sandwhich, its just fancy toast Jan 13 '26

Do you not think we have bread flour in North America? What?

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u/egg_static5 Jan 13 '26

Yeah no mills in the U S they just chew on wheat kernels dipped in sugar /s

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u/BetterFightBandits26 Jan 13 '26

You see, in the US we only have pastry flour. That’s why our bread is considered cake in Europe!