The Trouble with Bread and Butter in the 40s (Bread Recipe)

Oleo... if you are a fan of crossword puzzles, you are familiar with the term. Oleo is an old-school, colloquial term for margarine. Although the product had already been on the market for some time, oleo was not truly popular until wartime butter rationing. The reason for its lack of public appeal is that it was a giant pain to use. When it was developed (during the 1800s), dairy farmers got hella jealous and lobbied to disallow the product from being dyed yellow. Without the yellow dye oleo just looks like a gross hunk of fat that nobody wants to eat. Butter makers knew this well, because they were dying their own product. A law was passed, but left room for a loophole, wherein margarine makers included a dye pack that could be worked in at home.

"Easy" is false advertising, but "E-Z" is marketing.

Once butter rationing went into play, oleo made its way into kitchens across the country. Homemakers and children everywhere took on the laborious task of coloring margarine. (Apparently having a yellow spread is very, very important to people.)

As though this was not trouble enough, for a brief period in the early 40s a law was passed forbidding the sale of pre-sliced bread. The ban, intended to reduce the cost of labor in bread production, was short lived (Jan. 18th 1943 - March 3rd 1943). There was too much backlash from the public. It seems like an odd place for people to draw a line, especially considering all of the hardships during that time, but I feel like I understand. February 1943 was officially the worst time in American history to make a simple piece of toast.

In honor of their "rising" troubles, I am baking bread... from scratch. I have never baked bread before, because it seems like a process that is both time-consuming and a little bit intimidating. So. many. steps. (I was not entirely wrong.)

The recipe du jour is the Standard Recipe for White Bread.

To make the bread add 1 cake (or envelope) yeast to 1/4 cup lukewarm water and 1 tsp sugar. Set that aside for 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, add 1 1/2 tsp salt, 2 Tbsp shortening, and 2 Tbsp sugar to 2 cups scalded milk. (I had to call on my parents for this one. Scalding milk means almost bringing it to a boil.) Add the softened yeast to the milk mixture (making it smell like beer... and milk... yum) and 3 cups "sifted" flour. (Yeah, I'm not really about sifting any more.) Beat well.

Good luck removing the dough from the mixer

Add an indeterminate amount of flour to make the dough soft. (I took this to mean, add flour until the "dough" stops sticking to your fingers.) Put a bunch more flour (I'm seriously not being any less specific than the cook book) onto a board and knead the dough on that surface until "smooth" and "elastic."

Nothing says smooth like dry flour.

Place the dough in a greased bowl. Flip the dough over so it gets greased all the way around. Leave the doughy mass in the bowl until it doubles in size. Punch that baby down and cut into halves. Round each half into a ball and let stand 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, shape into loaves and place in greased bread pans. Grease the tops and let rise until it doubles in size. Bake at 400* for 10 minutes.

But wait... there's more... Reduce oven temperature to 375* and bake for 40 minutes more.

30 minutes in. Is "golden black" a thing?

I only have one bread pan, so my other dough ball is being left idly by to grow and grow while waiting its turn. It's creepy and reminds me of Panera's "mother."

The first loaf is really tasty, even despite the fact that it's a little too done. I plan to watch mother closely to try and get her out of the oven right at the point of Maillard Reaction. The most delicious chemical reaction known to man.

I recommend the recipe, if baking bread is your cup of tea. For me, I will continue to revel in the amazing gift that is pre-made, pre-sliced bread available wherever things are sold.