The National Loaf was introduced in 1942, the year that I have chosen to be in for the duration of my rations, and as such I am going to be getting as close to that particular bread as I possibly can.
The loaf that I have found that most closely fits the bill is the uncut Wholemeal loaf from Sainsbury's. I will allow myself the occasional sliced brown loaf, as I have had to do this week, because our Sainsbury's is pretty small and doesn't always have a full quota of bread items.
What I am really pleased about is that my slicing is getting better, well sometimes. Alan came in to cadge two slices of bread the other day, and laughed at the slantedness of the loaf in my breadbin. He got it back to straight for me in a manner that my Great Uncle Harold would have been proud of.
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Just seeing him in this photo makes so many happy memories of weekends spent with him and my Aunty Ida both in their house and in their caravan.
Now Uncle Harold would stand his uncut loaf on it's end and slice through the bread horizontally from right to left, the slices would be so thin you could see his hand through them as he passed your slice over to you to put on your plate. Spreading butter without tearing a hole in the bread was an artform that I never quite mastered and he would smile at my little torn mound of 'buttered bread' and show me how to make a sandwich with a lettuce leaf instead and take a bite of my bread alongside it. I tried to find a picture on Google Images of bread being sliced this way, but unfortunately there weren't any ... I'll have to have a go at it myself!!
The Ministry of Food supplied lots of information during the war years of how to get the most out of your bread, and how to waste absolutely none of it at all. After all, although bread was not rationed until after the war a lot of the wheat for making it had to be shipped to the UK, endangering our Merchant Seamen, so to be seen to be wasting any was classed as being very unpatriotic.
This was one of my favourite tips and something that I now do every time I buy an uncut loaf, it really does work. I love it because I am not a great fan of having the crust of the bread left to eat when all the other bread has gone.
The very end crusts of the bread when I do it this way still get whizzed up in my Nutribullet and then almost dry fried in a touch of oil with some garlic granules added, and then finished off in the hot Remoska after I have been cooking something else to use it's residual heat.
Once completely dried and cold they are added to a jar and kept in the cupboard if they are very dry or the fridge if I have made them a tad too oily. So I am making sure that I don't waste a single crumb of bread.
My Uncle Harold and Aunty Ida would be very proud. 💖
Sue xx
Hi Sue do you have an air fryer or just the Remoska and how good is the Remoska. Heather
ReplyDeleteNo I don't have an air fryer, I looked into getting one when they became so popular and everyone was raving about them, but found that the Remoska does virtually the same thing. To differentiate between the two, an air fryer is a mini fan oven (it was originally designed as such many years ago) and the Remoska is a mini traditional, ie: non-fan oven.
DeleteThe Remoska is brilliant, it costs about as much as having a lamp on to run and can cook everything from curries to scones in a little bit less time than having the main oven on. Me and Alan have one each as I bought one for the caravan when I lived there full time and Alan needed the first one back in Wales.
Thank you that’s really helpful think I’ll get one as I live alone. Heather
DeleteI remember back in the the 1960s we stayed on a farm in Devon for a week. The farmer's wife used to spread the butter on the loaf, and then cut the slice paper thin. She clutched the whole loaf to her chest, and sliced towards herself using a long, thin bladed knife sharpened on the kitchen doorstep! I was completely mesmerised.
ReplyDeleteYes, I remember Uncle Harold buttering the bread before he sliced it sometimes, perhaps he got sick of me mangling his lovely thin slices with my bad butter spreading. He always did it on the breadboard though, not clutched to his chest. :-)
DeleteMy gran cut the loaf just like the woman Kirsten mentions. I was always convinced she'd cut herself and perform some sort of terrible mastectomy at the dining table. Dad, however, would sometimes slice 4 perfect, thin slices, with almost no crumbs. Then he'd stand them up against the uncut loaf, so it looked untouched. Mum would come in from the kitchen and say "Haven't you cut that bread yet?" And it amused me every time.
ReplyDeleteI love family jokes that become standard fair, they really stick in the mind don't they and make you smile all over again when you remember them. I don't think I'll try that particular slicing method, I might have a go at horizontal cutting on the breadboard though.
DeleteI remember my Auntie Barbara used to stand the loaf on it's end, then butter it and then slice it perfectly. As a child it used to fascinate me! I like the idea of upending the loaf when you get to the last few inches as I also dislike crusts. Must be why I've never had curly hair 😂
ReplyDeleteYes I've been tipping the loaf over this way since the last time I did a rationing challenge, it's a gamechanger. My Mum always told me I would never have curly hair because I didn't eat my crusts. :-)
DeleteMy great aunt ( a farmers wife) used to clutch the loaf to her ample pinafore clad bosom and slice the loaf from the top in the way you described. We always cut the end of anything that needs sliced in the way you have shown-yesterday it was a gingerbread so that it divided “the heel” equally. Catriona
ReplyDeleteWhen I was Googling for an image of a loaf being sliced horizontally and not vertically yesterday, the thing that kept coming up was the different names for the ends of loaves of bread. Heel was the favourite and most used and in Manchester, where I'm from it was always 'crusts'. I have a relative from Liverpool that calls them 'cruzzies'. :-)
DeleteI made our national loaf in the beadmaker yesterday, also took the saved crusts from the freezer and made a lovely bread pudding ,I think I am starting to put weight on again :(
ReplyDeleteOh no, perhaps more porridge and less bread.
DeleteA good trick if you are enjoying toast is to only have jam or marmalade on it. That way you are not mixing fats and carbs, it's just carbs and carbs and your body uses it all for energy and doesn't store the fat.
Thank you for the tip , I don't mind not having butter so I should be able to do that ,it's the likes of bread pudding and pastry that do me , I just love things wrapped in pastry , I make sausage rolls for the coffee mornings where my son lives and there is always pastry left so the jam ration calls me or a few root veggies for a pasty and then there are the windfalls that cry out to be put in a pie ,it's hopeless, I cannot be saved !!!
DeleteI have always admired anyone who could cut a straight slice of bread, mine are always on the wonk. The denser the loaf the easier I find it, nothing too airy. I think crusts are a marmite thing, for myself the crust is the best and tastiest part of the bread.
ReplyDeleteThe two slices of bread in the photo are the best ones I have done over the last three weeks, that's why I took a photo of them ... I daren't show the others. Some are like doorsteps that you would slide off. I can only eat a full crust if it is smothered in a thick layer of butter ... and that's not very ration friendly. :-)
DeleteI keep my loaf in an large square Tupperware box, minus it’s lid.
ReplyDeleteI take it out to slice it then knock any stray crumbs off the breadboard back into the box.
After about a week the breadcrumbs, now dry, get poured into the breadcrumb jar - the corner of the Tupperware box makes a good funnel.
That is a really good idea, and wholewheat uncut loaves do make a lot of stray breadcrumbs when you're slicing them don't they ... well mine seem too. :-)
DeleteWhat a very, very sensible way to slice the last few inches of a loaf. If I ever find I can eat the dratted stuff again I would definitely do that. I do miss bread . . . 😢
ReplyDeleteHow long have you been unable to eat bread? I know I would miss it dreadfully, but I do find that after a few days without it I am fine for quite a while ... then I hear toast calling my name. :-)
DeleteLove the, Save bread, Save ship. I have never thought of slicing the end of the loaf as in the diagram. Shows you are never too old to learn something new. I am really enjoying your posts.
ReplyDeleteI love learning new things. I always think life is over when we stop learning. Thank you, I am enjoying writing them. xx
DeleteI think that way of slicing the end of a loaf is a genius idea.
ReplyDeleteIt's so simple and yet just perfect isn't it. 🙂
DeleteI was taught to turn the loaf of bread on its side to slice it, but, always on a bread board. These days, I tend to buy supermarket bread which is almost always pre-sliced. I only like the end crusts/heels when it is a loaf of bakery bread (as opposed to supermarket bread). But, I save the bread ends to make croutons, bread puddings, or to be the bun for hamburgers. .
ReplyDeleteYes, on it's side is a good idea ... perhaps I would get a straighter cut that way. 🙂 I like using the crusts to make a pizza too, just lightly toasted and then topped with a tomato based sauce and lots of bits and pieces.
DeleteOoh, that's a good idea! Individual mini pizzas!
DeleteMy husband has fond memories of his gran cutting the bread by clutching to her middle and sawing across it horizontally with a razor sharpe knife - we still have the knife and I use it for everything in the kitchen - she would also butter it first. I’d never heard of it being done that way until he told me so it’s nice to read of others knowing this method. I absolutely love the poster here about how to cut the end of the bread up! How have I got to nearly fifty three and only just heard about doing this! Wonderful x Danette
ReplyDeleteIt seems it's a quite popular way to cut your bread back in the day, dangerous but popular. 😂
DeleteIt's okay I got to 62 before I learnt to flip over the last bit of my loaf. 🙃🙂
My Nanna used to slice her bread that way too and her slices were always perfect. And she spread before cutting too. Must give the former a go . . . xx
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have a try of buttering and then cutting that way ... but definitely not while holding the loaf and cutting towards me. 😃
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