I blame whole wheat

[ohairas]

Could just be because not all people have to buy brand name items. I don't think we ever bought Wonder brand, always got the cheap stuff.

I still squeeze each loaf to see which is the squishyest tho! I hardly eat any bread these days, but I must admit I was on a Bunny Bread kick when I moved out and had to buy my own groceries years ago.
I used to make dough balls too. Totally grosses my husband out. But again, since I hardly eat it anymore it might gross me out too.

A friend of mine once said white bread was kinda like Elmer's glue. I think she's right.
Nikki

 

[Diamondback]

I quit eating white bread when I was introduced to sourdough, myself.

 

[Starius]

Could just be because not all people have to buy brand name items. I don't think we ever bought Wonder brand, always got the cheap stuff.

I thought wonder bread was the cheap stuff!

I like honey wheat bread and old fashioned potato bread these days.

 

[Fletch]

We called it Kleenex bread in the 70s, not so much because it was so white and soft as because it didn't have enough taste or nourishment to blow your nose on.

I grew up eating Pepperidge Farm and/or the handbaked stuff from the grocery bake shop. Much better for (my then-favorite) baloney, altho I envied the other kids who could smash their baloney sammiches pancake-thin, and often did. Funny how shape is as important to food as taste when you're that age.

 

[Starius]

Funny how shape is as important to food as taste when you're that age.

<.<

>.>

Heh heh, ummm... when I was a kid, my mom used to cut out my sandwiches in the shape of Pac-Man. I'd pretend the cut out wedge portion was a ghost and I'd eat it first. Then I'd eat Pac-Man himself.

Apparently, I was the top of the food chain in my imaginary video game world...

 

[carter]

So, what was the WONDER in the doughball/dice/sponge-forming bread?
I see the HQ is/was in Detroit, MI. Is this a product of the auto industry?
Helps Build Strong Bodies 12 Ways! Did they recycle WWII surplus?
What exactly are/were the 12 Ways?
Enriched...isn't Uranium enriched?

What, exactly, was the value of this product beyond the assertion that a loaf was BIG and weighed 1 1/2 lb.?

My mom worked at Holsum Bakery in Verona, VA so you can guess where we got our bread, cakes, pies, etc. I suspect the day old stuff that we ate was at least as nutritious as WONDER BREAD.

Of course, for the sake of nostalgia, one could always buy the product, discard the contents, and place whatever bread you like in the wrapper. Then you would truly have WONDER BREAD.

 

[dhermann1]

So, what was the WONDER in the doughball/dice/sponge-forming bread?
I see the HQ is/was in Detroit, MI. Is this a product of the auto industry?
Helps Build Strong Bodies 12 Ways! Did they recycle WWII surplus?
What exactly are/were the 12 Ways?
Enriched...isn't Uranium enriched?

As I recall, there are 12 vitamins added to enriched flour. Of course they enrich white flour because all the nutrients are rubbed off when they make it white. The trade off is that whole wheat flour will get gobbled up by critters and stuff right away. Rub the nutrients off and they leave it alone. All you have left is the gluten, which gives you calories and not much else. The early pioneers living off white flour biscuits and dumplings must have been awfully sickly!

 

[Dr Doran]

I hate wonder bread. I hate all soft tasteless gaggy white breads in packages.

I had a terrible teacher in junior college, an old guy, who said the following inane thing:

"I just don't understand why people like these French breads and baguettes and stuff. It's HARD TO CHEW! Why not eat Wonder Bread? You can chew it easily!"

This guy actually taught European history. My wife, a European, upon hearing this anecdote said, "well, it's obvious he never went to Europe and ate real bread."

Hate to be a snob about this subject (well, actually I don't) but ....

 

[ohairas]

Beer bread sounds good to me right now... mmmm.... big crusty crust! :essen:

All these low carb breads that are out now are really nasty and chewy.

And what I really like is a big ol' sammich on a flakey croissant! (sp?)
Nikki

 

[Dr Doran]

Croissants rule.
Beer bread rules.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

Since this is a Wonder bread thread....not a 'which bread is bestest'.......

The history of Wonder

The Taggart Baking Company of Indianapolis was planning to launch its 1.5 pound loaf of bread. But first, the new product needed a name and identity. Vice President Elmer Cline was charged with merchandising development of the new bread loaf.

Inspiration struck while Elmer was visiting the International Balloon Race at the Indianapolis Speedway. He was awestruck by a sky filled with hundreds of colorful balloons. To Elmer, the image signified a sense of “wonder,” and Wonder® Bread was born. Since that time, the colorful red, blue and yellow balloons have been the cornerstone of Wonder Bread’s logo and package.

In 1925, the Continental Baking Company bought the Indianapolis bakery and Wonder Bread soon became a national brand.

The Continental Baking Company altered the course of bread forever in the 1930s when it introduced sliced Wonder Bread. Sales were slow at first as suspicious consumers were reluctant to accept a pre-sliced bread, but convenience overruled apprehension and soon everyone wanted sliced Wonder Bread on their dinner table.
During the ‘40s, Americans were forced to tighten their belts and the Continental Baking Company did its part to support the war effort. Metals become so precious that the blades for the bread-slicing machines are no longer available. Unsliced bread is again sold on grocery store shelves.

Several advances in the nutrition and baking process were made during this decade. In 1941, Wonder Bread was involved in a government-supported move to enrich white bread with vitamins and minerals to improve nutrition. Known as the “quiet miracle,” bread enrichment nearly eliminated the diseases Beriberi and Pellagra and brought essential nutrients to people who previously could not afford nutritious foods. At the same time Wonder introduced a revolutionary new way of baking that eliminated holes in bread.

The ‘70s ushered in an era of providing the consumer with nutritional information. Wonder Bread adopted an open-dating system on bread products and introduced nutrition information labels, clearly informing consumers about freshness dates and product ingredients.

In 1986, a new reduced-calorie Wonder Bread was launched. Wonder Light remains as one of the company’s strong sellers.

In 1995, Interstate Brands Corporation acquired the Continental Baking Company, and the “Remember the Wonder” ad campaign reminded consumers that Wonder Bread, one of the nation’s softest, freshest, most fun bread products, is also nutritious.

In honor of Wonder Bread’s 80th birthday, the Wonder Bread hot air balloon begins touring the country in the summer of 2001. Flying at balloon festivals and spreading the story of how Wonder Bread earned its name, the balloon brings back childhood lunchbox memories to people from coast to coast and reminds everyone why Wonder Bread is their favorite.

 

[Kishtu]

Will someone please be kind and tell me either what beer bread is, or point me towards a recipe, cos till my dearie comes home with dinner my tummy is rumbling at the thought here!

 

[Dr Doran]

What a marvelously objective and fair tone that hagiography of Wonder Bread has! Not an encomium at all, but balanced reporting.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

What a marvelously objective and fair tone that hagiography of Wonder Bread has! Not an encomium at all, but balanced reporting.

Well its from the Wonder site....erm like most company histories are.

I suspect I shall just go mourn the loss of an american icon, nutritious or not...best bread in the universe or not...on my own.

Since once again...all people here do is grouch about stuff not being 'golden era' enough...but when someone points out a lost tradition...every grouches that the tradition wasnt that great anyhow.

 

[Tommy Fedora]

The best use of Wonder Bread is to pick up broken glass.
Don't eat it, its just filler.

 

[Dr Doran]

I suspect I shall just go mourn the loss of an american icon, nutritious or not...best bread in the universe or not...on my own.

I'm sorry, I did not mean to step on your favorite.

Since once again...all people here do is grouch about stuff not being 'golden era' enough.

People also flirt shamelessly and show off ...

The best use of Wonder Bread is to pick up broken glass.
Don't eat it, its just filler.

Even more delicious with broken shards ... almost like salting your bread after you have put unsalted butter on it, and feeling little grains of salt in your teeth .... EXCEPT IT'S GLASS AND IT WILL KILL YOU.

 

[Rick Blaine]

We had, when I was but a wee bairn, a Wonder Bread bakery on the far east end of downtown Athens, Ga. I can still recall getting out of the movies (there were still movie houses downtown then too...) and in the early twilight the smell of baking bread saturated the entire downtown... smelled better than it ate, tho.
I DO seem to recall that bread balls made a great crappie bait, maybe its sole redeeming feature.

 

[ohairas]

Will someone please be kind and tell me either what beer bread is, or point me towards a recipe, cos till my dearie comes home with dinner my tummy is rumbling at the thought here!

Google beer bread recipe, I'm sure you'll get many! Good stuff, very easy to make!!
Nikki

 

[dhermann1]

.
I DO seem to recall that bread balls made a great crappie bait, maybe its sole redeeming feature.

And carp. The two seem to go together.

 

[LEUII]

<quote>The early pioneers living off white flour biscuits and dumplings must have been awfully sickly!</quote?

The flour they used wasn't the white flour that we know of today. It was a flour in which the germ and, gasp, sometimes a bit of husk was still on the wheat berries. It was more akin to our whole wheat. Hard tack made of it is quite tasty and will sustain you well.