AtW has the right idea

[expat]

Lucifer, do you know anywhere where I can get a low-salt/no-salt loaf? The amount of salt in bread is truly criminal.

OT but has anyone checked out supermarket tomato juice? Salted to 6 or 7 grams per litre! That's your daily salt limit gone in one decent glass.

[Lucifer Box]

There's also the hidden shockers that the law allows. Fruit juice marked as "100% unsweetened juice" can legally (and nearly always does) contain upto 15g per litre of added sugar without it having to be declared on the label.

Squeeze your own or be sure to buy juice that is clearly marked "no added sugar".

[sasguru]

Absolutely agree, Sasguru. One slice of the typical supermarket loaf has more salt in it than a packet of salted peanuts (plus lots of hydrogenated fat and fungicides)

Some of the supermarkets have cottoned onto this and sell a few loaves of "Lo-Salt" bread, which uses a chemically manufactured mix of potassium and sodium chlorides, with anti-caking agents and the ubiquitous "treatment agents". Of course, this misses the point that it's the type of salt that matters a great deal, sea salt, that retains all its trace elements, being much preferable (and more salty so less is needed).

You can't use no salt, as the bread won't rise otherwise, so it's all about quantity and quality. You need to stop buying supermarket bread and seek out your local independent bakery, where they will use "real" salt and less of it, as they don't have to cover the flavour of the hardened fats and the fungicide that the supermarkets add.

There are many well known craft bakeries in London, many of them available through delivery schemes such as Able & Cole or the Organic Delivery Company, or your local farmers' market.

Cheers - will investigate this. It's interesting that the leading causes of premature death in the west are

(1) Diseases arising from high blood pressure
(2) Diseases arising from high Cholesterol

- both diet related. The interesting thing is that smoking comes third. Yet the government has recently backed down from pushing low-salt (a leading cause of high blood pressure) due to lobbying by food manufacturers.
Meanwhile millions are spent on the urealistic aim of trying to get smokers to quit completely.
A more sensible option would be to tell smokers to cut down to 10 a day and watch their diet and alcohol intakes.
It's revealing that the country in the developed world with the highest prevalence of smoking, Japan, has the highest life expectancy and one of the lowest rate of smoking-related disease. Genes? Perhaps. But I suspect that japanese diet must play a part.

[scotspine]

try one of these.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...508230-3842042

fresh bread every 2 days with organic flour, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, poppy seeds, olive oil and sea salt. better than pies and idiot-proof!

[threaded]

A nut dispenser is quite important. I like raisin bread and if you have to put them in by hand you either do it at the beginning and they get mashed up or forget alltogether.

[hyperD]

A nut dispenser is quite important.

I wish they'd get rid of the one outside Woking bus station though...

[Lucifer Box]

try one of these.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...508230-3842042

fresh bread every 2 days with organic flour, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, poppy seeds, olive oil and sea salt. better than pies and idiot-proof!

Nowt wrong with those to get you started, but doing it yourself isn't hard or time consuming, and it tastes even better. A good compromise is to let the bread machine knead the dough for you (which is what it does well) and when it's done that take it out and bake it in the oven yourself (which is the bit the bread machines do poorly).

And no matter what the machine manufacturer tells you, you don't need to add any sugar (although sometimes a little honey can give a nice flavour if you are using spelt flour). Try to avoid the extra fast yeast as well, that contains a lot of chemical nasties. Stick to the old fashioned dried or fresh yeast (and contrary to all advice, you don't need to activate fresh yeast with water and sugar - just bung it in with the flour).

[hyperD]

I've had some bread from them, hyperD. Have to say, some was good and some not so good. In my opinion my rye bread is better than theirs and all I've got is a regular domestic oven (and I don't do any of this spraying it with water or putting trays of ice cubes in there).

You are absolutely right that once you've had a proper loaf again it's very hard to go back to supermarket bread (for me, impossible) but not everyone has the time or inclination to go to the local proper bakery (assuming there even is one), never mind bake their own.

Yep - I did the same I think using Abel & Cole - mixed results. Ended up doing my own like you.

What I was thinking is once you've got your potential customer into the bread taste then you have to make sure you can supply it to him. Tricky unless you look into partnership delivery options like Abel & Cole etc

[Lucifer Box]

Yep - I did the same I think using Abel & Cole - mixed results. Ended up doing my own like you.

What I was thinking is once you've got your potential customer into the bread taste then you have to make sure you can supply it to him. Tricky unless you look into partnership delivery options like Abel & Cole etc

You're absolutely right. The delivery or retailing partnership is the key to becoming successful fast. That's how the home made puddings woman did it (Liz Dove Puddings) after nearly giving up.

The key to making life easy is to identify that high perceived value but easy to make in volume product and offer combination deals (e.g. home made rolls). Oh and of course, pray you don't poison someone and get your arse sued off.

[scotspine]

Nowt wrong with those to get you started, but doing it yourself isn't hard or time consuming, and it tastes even better. A good compromise is to let the bread machine knead the dough for you (which is what it does well) and when it's done that take it out and bake it in the oven yourself (which is the bit the bread machines do poorly).

And no matter what the machine manufacturer tells you, you don't need to add any sugar (although sometimes a little honey can give a nice flavour if you are using spelt flour). Try to avoid the extra fast yeast as well, that contains a lot of chemical nasties. Stick to the old fashioned dried or fresh yeast (and contrary to all advice, you don't need to activate fresh yeast with water and sugar - just bung it in with the flour).

made my own off & on for 20 years or so and tried a few machines along the way. up until i tried the panasonic, i'd have agreed with you lb, but now it's a no-brainer. mr panasonic makes exceedingly good loaves.