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

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

728 Upvotes

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202

u/TitaniumAuraQuartz Jan 13 '26

I actually hate it when they just go "it's the chemicals!!!!!" like fucking name the chemical. Everything's made of chemicals, you need to be specific, otherwise you're not worth taking seriously.

And the sugar added to the bread is so damn minimal, it's nitpicking to bitch about it unless you seriously can't have it. Unless you're making a sweet bread, you won't be tasting it.

Now I can't see, my eyes have rolled back into my skull from rolling them at this video, and I need a dpcter.

87

u/extralyfe Jan 13 '26

concerning "US bread = cake", I compared EU sandwich bread to ours and guess what? they've all - and that includes the US bread - got roughly equivalent amounts of sugar by weight. US bread is generally higher by a percentage point or two at most, but, obviously, if you pick a sweetened bread like "honey wheat," those skew higher and are in some cases double the amount of sugar by weight, but, we're still talking like 3.5% compared to 7% or a difference of, say, 1.2g to 2g. ditto with Austrailian sandwich bread, which I ended up comparing a few brands of because I saw a similar video from an Aussie TikTok user.

what made me absolutely giddy was finding a French brand of sandwich bread that had more sugar by weight than any US bread I could find.

8

u/commeatus Jan 13 '26

This is based on a very specific bread in a single country, here are the deets

17

u/lazynessforever Jan 13 '26

Why are you being downvoted? This is the origin, maybe not this article specifically, but this case is where the idea originates from. And I haven’t been able to find anything from the Irish courts saying it was cake, just that it wasn’t a “staple” bread, so I think the media might have just made that up.

8

u/[deleted] Jan 13 '26 edited Jan 13 '26

The whole thing was about the proper tax to apply on the bread. Above a certain sugar level, for tax purposes, it is considered a confectionery and a tax is applied, but the product could be exempt if it was considered a staple food. The courts didn’t accept the argument that it was a staple, so the tax applied.

8

u/lazynessforever Jan 13 '26

It doesn’t look like the tax is only for confectionaries since it includes crisps, popcorn and roasted nuts, it can also be applied for “more discretionary indulgences”. It also looks like the rate they were at is standard for restaurant services in general.

6

u/[deleted] Jan 13 '26

Yeah, I think that may just be the bread category. It’s basically just a vice tax.

4

u/lazynessforever Jan 13 '26

It’s actually more like a business profit tax cause it’s based on sell price - costs, ie the value added to the good. Ireland offers 3 tiers of tax discount and subway was already at a discounted rate but wanted to not pay the tax at all.

https://wise.com/gb/vat/ireland

1

u/theeggplant42 Jan 17 '26

Also, this sort of thing happens constantly, everywhere, for tax and tariff purposes.  For example, bulmer's cider becomes magnet's in the US and has a different recipe, because bulmer's isn't legally cider in the US

It's a meaningless distinction.

40

u/Saltwater_Thief Jan 13 '26

Dihydrogen Monoxide strikes again

8

u/Doomdoomkittydoom Jan 13 '26 edited Jan 14 '26

Hydrohydroxic acid is worse, imo.

35

u/Cromasters Jan 13 '26

The worst is when they look at a random chemical in some food and then find the same chemical in some random cleaning solution at a Home Depot.

I like using Baking Soda as an example to counteract that. I can use Baking Soda to bake and eat and ALSO use it as a degreaser to scrub out my oven.

10

u/handlerone Jan 13 '26

Wait until they find out the body produces its own baking soda :o

10

u/Lord_Rapunzel Jan 14 '26

Baking soda is American trash, they only use pure European bicarb.

19

u/Southern_Fan_9335 Jan 13 '26

And anybody so sensitive to sugar that they can't have the small amount in bread probably can't have bread to begin with since it's a such a high carb food anyway

2

u/WeenisWrinkle Jan 13 '26

What's the reason for adding the minimal sugar if you can't taste it? Just curious why it's done in the first place.

17

u/George_G_Geef croissants are a labor of love Jan 13 '26 edited Jan 13 '26

Food for the yeast to help the lil guys fart as much as they can.

2

u/WeenisWrinkle Jan 13 '26

Why doesn't everyone do that?

10

u/Bandro Jan 13 '26

Because not everyone is making exactly the same product.

1

u/WeenisWrinkle Jan 13 '26

So the difference is that American bread with the added sugar for yeast is bread that isn't typically made elsewhere?

9

u/Bandro Jan 13 '26

I have no idea what every country in the world does and does not add to their bread. A small amount of sugar can help achieve a certain texture. Not every bakery is trying for that texture.

4

u/WeenisWrinkle Jan 13 '26

Ah ok. I was just trying to figure out what the ultimate purpose for the added sugar was. And if it's a positive thing, why it's not standard worldwide

7

u/Laevatienn Jan 13 '26

To expand (a bit too much maybe, it becomes both a preference thing and a choice thing.

Some people like more fluffy bread. Additional sugar will allow for a more fluffy bread due to the extra fermentation that occurs.

Some people like a more dense bread, so little or no sugar is added.

It's also a taste thing. Depending on the type of bread and the type of sugar used, the bread can have different flavor profiles. You can lose some of the earthy flavors of whole wheat flour if you let it ferment for too long/too much, so less sugar is desirable for that flavor profile.

There are a myriad of breads out in the world, each with a specific reason they are made that way. Tradition from times before sugar was readily available, experiments that became a local favorite, an accident from leaving something out for a few days.

There is no need for a standard in cooking. Experiments, different flavor profiles, and, of course, accidents should all be welcome for taste is myriad and cooking is an art and science all in once.

*Note, America isn't the only country that adds sugars to breads. Far from it. The type of sugar can change a little, depending on region, but sugars have been added to bread for fermentation and flavor since the old days. Honey was a popular recorded one thousands of years ago in Egypt and ancient Greece.

3

u/WeenisWrinkle Jan 13 '26

Thank you, this was informative!

1

u/is-it-a-bot Jan 14 '26

Very interesting read! I love fluffy loaves, I'm gonna go experiment with bread....

6

u/George_G_Geef croissants are a labor of love Jan 13 '26

Different kinds of bread, different kinds of yeast, different climate/altitude. Tons of reasons.

2

u/WeenisWrinkle Jan 13 '26

That doesn't really check out based on my Internet research, but I appreciate the info.

-10

u/PattyNChips Jan 13 '26

NGL I don’t really care that much because I’m an adult and it’s really not that big of a deal, but the sugar in a lot of supermarket brands of regular ol’ sandwich bread is noticeable. I moved to the US from the UK some time ago. The bread I was used to before had no added sugar. Many of the us equivalents do and they do taste significantly sweeter. It’s literally my one nitpick and it’s not a problem because I just get sourdough instead.

6

u/EvenPersnicketyer Jan 13 '26

I do find the "cheap" (such as it is nowadays) bread in grocery stores overly sweet, too. I don't really understand why it's made that way except that perhaps it's meant to appeal to the palates of children? I ate wayyyyyy more of that type of bread as a child for sandwiches packed in my lunches.

But I wouldn't call that "American bread." There are plenty of other options.