
The Invention of Sliced Bread - ryan_j_naughton
http://priceonomics.com/the-invention-of-sliced-bread/
======
camillomiller
Just to add some perspective from the outside world (I.e. Not America). In
Italy sliced bread never really took over common bread. Yes we make toasts,
and yes, we have sliced bread, but that's usually some industrial, over-
processed bread loaf that you'll never find fresh at a bakery.

Here in Germany, were I live now, it's a mix. Common bread everywhere, but you
can slice your own loaf at the supermarket with a terrific automated spring-
loaded circular saw machine that's very cool to operate.

I just want to point out that "the best thing since sliced bread" is a
sentence culturally linked to the U.S. conception of bread. I point that out
because I had conversation with American friends in the past who were
surprised by the non-universality of this sentence (as often happens with
other cultural references).

~~~
aikah
French here, sliced bread is like "the worst thing ever".And dont get me
started on industrial bread.If your bread isnt like less than 30 min fresh,hot
from the oven, you shouldnt eat it.And by the way,we call sliced bread
"english bread".

~~~
tinco
Dutch-near-German-border here. I think your opinion stems from the quality of
industrial bread in France. If you look in the Netherlands you'll find a wide
variety of very tasty pre-sliced industrial bread, always fresh baked in the
morning.

That being said, I always buy unsliced artisan German bread from my local
baker who imports it from across the border.

And for fun, let's fan the flames a bit. You can't compare the simple french
baguette to the rich flavour of artisan German bread, simply no contest ;)

~~~
Gmo
As a Frenchman who has lived 7 years in France, I can't agree with you.

Is the Dutch industrial sliced-bread better than the French sliced-bread ?
Yeah, mostly because it's "freshly" baked every morning.

But it is still industrial bread, which can't be beaten by bread fresh from
the bakery.

As for german bread, they do have a wide variety, I give you that, but once
again, it's more and more industrial.

My parents in law, who are germans, complain that more and more bakery only
bake pre-made bread and don't do their own anymore.

So yeah, if you have the chance to have a "real" baker nearby, it can be quite
gorgeous, but in the general case, not so much.

~~~
jules
Dutch industrial bread is nice in its own way, but it's not really bread like
a baguette is. White Dutch bread has a cake-y character to it, which goes very
well together with more 'delicate' toppings like butter & hagelslag (chocolate
sprinkles), jam, a young dutch cheese or boiled ham, which are common in the
Netherlands. Whole wheat sourdough bread, no matter how great, just doesn't
mesh with delicate toppings like strawberry jam. That said, a baguette or
artisan bread is a far superior base for a good old cheese, Serrano ham or
other 'strong' toppings. This is why brown dutch bread is never worth buying
IMO -- it's kind of a weird thing like cake made with whole wheat flour that
reminds me of antroposophic foods: it's slightly less unhealthy but it tastes
like crap. If you're gonna eat something unhealthy it better taste good.

------
whoopdedo
First, that is one of the sloppiest colorized photos I've ever seen.

Now on to the article. Though I had heard bits and pieces of lore behind the
invention, this is the first complete history. I'm surprise that he went about
building the large-scale automated machine first, rather than evolving it from
simpler devices. That the development was delayed and almost lost for good
serves as a warning more than his success is an inspiration, I think. But he
was persistent which I suppose is the single most important quality an
innovator can have.

Not to mention a sense of humor. "Mac-Roh Sales & Manufacturing". And then he
ended up selling his business to "Micro-Westco".

I once asked my grand-father "What was the best thing _before_ sliced bread?"
Without hesitation he said, "Indoor plumbing."

~~~
orjan
About the photo: I think it looks fairly representative of a colorized photo
of that time. Note that this is not a photoshop job - it was colorized in
1920, probably by the photographer.

~~~
bane
I agree, my grandmother has boxes full of photos that look like this.

Here's another example
[https://www.pinterest.com/pin/465911523921633003/](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/465911523921633003/)

------
Htsthbjig
As someone being born in Spain, form me sliced bread means: "The worse thing
ever". An industrialized type of food that also requires to use the kind of
ugly plastic that ends in the stomachs of turtles, dolphins and whales.

Now the crustless bread is even worse as they need lost of additives for it to
stay fresh.

In China and Japan good bread was in the top list of things I missed, so I
bought my own bread machine. But getting good flour was not easy.

In the US I could get it but it was expensive.

People from China, Japan or the US loved to come over my house to eat. Most of
them have not tasted good bread ever, but they believe they do because of
sliced bread.

------
trumbitta2
"Trusting the great potential in his hypothetical invention, he immediately
set out to conduct some market research. He put together a brief questionnaire
“for the purpose of determining a thickness of slice which would be most
nearly universal in acceptance,” and placed it as an ad in several large
newspapers. Over the course of a few months, he managed to cull responses from
30,000 housewives.

Armed with this knowledge, he embarked on a long, painful journey to bring his
invention to life."

Talk about validating your idea!

I found it amazing this guy was doing what we recently discovered, back in
early 1900's

------
thomasjudge
Here's a parallel read, also interesting

[http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/good-
bread/](http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/good-bread/)

------
brc
I've become a convert to home baking with a bread machine, and the loss of
easy slicing is one if the biggest downsides. The purchase of a slicing guide
and electric knife has offset this somewhat, but it's still easy to get wrong.
What I'd like is a compact home bread slicing machine.

~~~
netcan
You might consider just getting a nice long, sharp bread knife. There's
something fun about a great knife.

~~~
obviouslygreen
Absolutely agreed on the great knife bit. As for the bread... I think ditching
the expectation of perfectly even slices is a good start. Cut a piece and cut
it in half; there, half a sandwich (assuming your bread maker spits out loaves
with a square cross section). Want another half? It may not be the same
thickness as the first one, but as long as you're a little bit careful, your
pieces should at least be consistent with _themselves_ , so there you go.

------
bane
I'm old enough to remember buying your basic sandwich bread at the grocery
store and taking it to the bread slicing machine. I guess the idea was that it
would keep the bread better until slicing it, after which it would quickly be
turned into all the lunch sandwiches for 3 or 4 kids for the week. I think the
presliced bread cost a little more since it had shorter shelf-life or
something.

These days, even my local grocery sells fantastic artisinal breads. Which you
can either keep in the loaf and cut at home, or take it to a similar machine
and have it pre-sliced for you. You can of course get the old basic sandwich
bread in cheap loaves...$2-$3. But even the "fancy" breads are usually under
$4 a loaf.

------
unwind
Interesting to see the early wrapper for Wonder Bread, where it's quite
clearly labelled as "Wonder-Cut Bread". Obviously the "-Cut" became
superfluous and was dropped over time.

------
jimfuller2014
related to me by a drunk baker some evening many moons ago -

'sliced bread has more surface area, so goes stale faster; companies loved it
because their bean counters found out that people ended up buying more bread
for the perceived convenience. By the time they started crazy additives for
longer life, people were convinced that sliced bread is better. Throughout,
people were eating less and less bread ... as a slice with your meal so its
usage has changed quite a bit as well.' As the evening wore on, he probably
had a point, but I missed it.

Now I do not know the veracity of the above ... what is clear to me is that
(like many things in the western world) bread is no longer bread (that strange
sliced white loaf is probably full of sugar, etc) ... having lived in
countries for 20 years where I slice my bread I've not noticed the incredibly
time consuming act of slicing bread.

