I haven’t made soda bread for a while (actual Irishman here) but soda bread isn’t nearly as sweet as that Subway stuff. Of course, if you are using an American recipe, then all bets are off. And besides, there are all kinds of different soda bread - white soda farls (a farl is the fourth part of a [soda] loaf) wholemeal plain, wholemeal rich (with eggs) and wheaten (fit for a king!).
The only time I’ve ever eaten anything from subway is when I’m visiting someone in hospital and desparately need to eat something. Since the Conservatives are killing the NHS with the death of a thousand cuts, all the refectories are now “outsourced” and it’s either Subway, or Marks & Spencer take-away. Subway has apparently some options that are almost vegan, so it’s a case of captive consumer.
You don’t like tall bread?
So, for my own sanity, I did a bit of online research yesterday.
Per multiple online sources, to define a bread as being “Staple Bread” and get the tax break, the weight of any sugar, oil/fat, or “Bread improver” cannot exceed 2% of the weight of the flour.
Subway bread weighs 71 grams and has between 3 and 5 grams of sugar.
Wonder Bread weighs 57 grams per serving of two slices, and contains 5 grams of sugar.
Sunbeam Giant bread (My preferred kind!) has 31 grams per slice and has 2 g added sugar. That’s 62 grams total weight and 4 g sugar for the same serving size.
This means Subway rolls seems to have less sugar than the average American white bread.
Pepperidge Farm Swirl Raisin Cinnamon Bread contains 9g of sugar including 5g added sugar per 33 gram slice. (The raisins add the rest of the sugar, I’m sure)
I am thinking very little packaged bread in the USA would be considered “Staple Bread” in Ireland.
I looked at Panera Bread’s website; some of their breads (like the Artisan Ciabatta) might qualify on not having too much sugar, some (like the Brioche Roll) would not. None of their Bagels would, and obviously none of their pastries would.
I can’t get nutritional info for actual, local, real artisanal bakeries; but I suspect that much of their products would also not qualify under this definition.
So I looked at a map of Ireland, starting in Dublin, and looked for a grocery store. I found a shop called “SuperValu”. They have a website, https://supervalu.ie/ . I looked for their bread, and found what looks to be a basic store brand sliced white bread- Daily Basics White Pan.
A 38g slice contains 1.1g sugar, much lower than the American breads. Interestingly, the calories are about the same. (Flour has nearly as many calories as sugar.)
So, from a very small sample size, it looks like Irish white packaged bread does have significantly less sugar than an average American white bread. This may be related to the tax laws, or it may be that USA Americans just demand sweeter bread.
But I would also be very hesitant to claim Subway bread isn’t bread, because then most of our bread (as USA people) isn’t.
I wonder how lunchmeat on scones might taste?
It’s totally bread, and you can call it that, it’s not one of those European rules relating to a protected name. It’s just for a tax break and tax law in the EU isn’t harmonized (and Ireland in particular would fight that hard).
But yes, as pointed out above by someone who moved to Europe from America, recipes over here would tend to have a bit less sugar. If I follow an American recipe on the web or one of my books in the calculations I’ll have to translate the American quantities to metric and then work out what the effect of reducing the sugar by a third to a half is. But I don’t start with trying out the American amount of sugar.
Salt and fat though, I’m down with them at the stated amounts! It’s not health, it’s just taste.
ETA SuperValu is the closest supermarket to me, their own brand white slice would be the equivalent of the absolute worst out there. Not that it’s a bad shop but that product is homogenised crap.
British mass produced bread seems to be getting worse for sugar, and the pattern predates Brexit.
Has anyone intentionally made a sandwich with cake? How did it work out?
I’ve made a sandwich with brioche, and it was too sweet for my liking.
Who the hell eats that tasteless dreg?
Whole wheat, whole grain, everything bread, Asiago cheese covered, pumpernickel, sourdough, etc.
BTW, I’m addicted to double hot pastrami bagel sandwiches on everything bagels from Bruggers Bagels, its like crack cocaine addictive to a large man…
It is bread this was done by the court to continue charging taxes…it’s purely political BS
That’s not how courts work.
The court ruled it isn’t bread under the law as written…the law was written in order to charge taxes without regard to what Bread truly is
No. That is not what happened. The revenue commission adjudicated that the bread sold by Subway didn’t meet the standard to be classified as a staple food as it had too much sugar.
They appealed all the way to the supreme court and the court found that revenue was correct in law in making that decision. This would be based on precedent in revenue interpretations. It’s not based, I should say, on politically based rules of interpretation (originality etc.) Though the current supreme court (and I actually know two of the judges) has some of that far right nonsense in it.
Clearly, you’ve never eaten Subway…
that really is a lot of sugar for a bread recipe. for comparison purposes that’s almost 10 times the sugar i put in my baguette dough, 5 times what goes into my dinner roll recipe, and right at the amount i put in my sweet roll/cinnamon bun recipe. labeling it as “confection” isn’t too far off the mark.
That’s what I am saying…and no matter what you choose to believe taxes is a political matter
the distinction between bread and pastry is somewhat less so.
So is tax avoidance, which is what Subway failed to do with their cake sandwiches.
Did you read what I wrote at all? I maintain that subway “bread” isn’t very bready.
But no, that’s not necessarily the case. A government needs funding to run, to offer services to citizens. Now, debates over that is politicized, but there has rarely been a society without some sort of taxation to support itself.
Indeed!
To be honest this is revenue being revenue. They love finding ways you are not able to avoid tax, not a political decision on their part, merely a procedural one from functionaires.
