Is bread normally served with your meals?

Addie said:
During hard times, food would often be scarce. Soup was made from whatever was on hand. The juices were sopped up with bread. During the days of early America, it was thought that the reason folks were talking in a weird tongue was due to the mold on the bread. You didn't throw out old bread. Thus a lot of folks were thought to be witches and killed.
When we started to head west, there was no time to cook a large nutritious meal on the trail. Bread was the mainstay of every meal. It was quick to make in the cast iron pans that every good mother had in her wagon.
The same goes for when we started to take the cattle on the trail, to be sold. Cookie (the name assigned to every cook on the trail) made sure there was plenty of hardtack or some form of biscuits. If the cattle started to stampede, there was no time to finish the meal. Grab some hardtack and jump on the horse to get control of the stampeding animals. And of course there was the problem of warring Native Americans attacking the wagon trains or stealing the cattle. Cookie would be unable to have a fire to cook over. The Native Americans would spot the smoke.
So you see, bread played an important role in settling this country. Every good wife or mother had a bag of flour to make bread or biscuits. Even during the Depression. And she knew how to make a starter for her bread.
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Fascinating how social history can shape a nation's cuisine. In the light of your explanation I now understand the importance of bread to the US diet. Given the size of our island we had to do all of our conquering by boat. I do recall that 'biscuits' made up a large part of a sailor's diet, but I guess that on returning home they would be sick of eating them so they didn't much feature in the mainstream diet. I am only guessing here!
 
epicuric said:
which is not common here.
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It was in my grandparents home. I lived with them for a while growing up and distinctly remember bread and butter with every meal. It was always there, always on the bread board with the butter dish, dedicated butter knife and bread knife. Every meal, everytime - right up until the last of my grandparents died.

Here we do something similar, except that we tend to slice it before serving and only serve 2 slices each unless it is a soup/stew/casserole or sloppy pie. Dippy bread is sometimes just torn from the loaf though.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
It was in my grandparents home. I lived with them for a while growing up and distinctly remember bread and butter with every meal. It was always there, always on the bread board with the butter dish, dedicated butter knife and bread knife. Every meal, everytime - right up until the last of my grandparents died.

Here we do something similar, except that we tend to slice it before serving and only serve 2 slices each unless it is a soup/stew/casserole or sloppy pie. Dippy bread is sometimes just torn from the loaf though.
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The plot thickens. Maybe I'm the odd one out here? Maybe regional variations?
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
regional how?
my grandmother was from rural wales (south from the valleys).... my grandfather was from Lancashire... Warrington area ish...
They moved to N/C, staffs.
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My grandparents too were from rural Staffs, a fairly remote mixed farm. They were pretty self sufficient in veg, fruit, poultry and dairy products. For some reason my grandmother didn't make her own bread, although she made pretty much everything else from scratch. Bread came in a big van (Sunblest I think) once or twice a week. The back of the van had shelves full of all sorts of bread and cakes - a joy to behold for a small boy occasionally allowed in to choose a treat. The only times I remember eating bread though was toasted for breakfast, or as sandwiches for supper in a Sunday. I don't think we ever had it with a main meal.
 
@SatNavSaysStraightOn
@epicuric


In the Mediterrean, bread has always been on the table in Spain / Portugal ( however, no butter ) ..

We use Evoo to dip the bread or just eat the crusty amazing loaves by themselves. ( we are Evoo producers. )

In France, bread is always on the table too .. with butter and Evoo in Provençe and all of Southern France and in Italy, bread is always on the table too and Greece as well ..

In the few cities I have been too, in North America ( Boston, Manhattan, Chicago, Washington D.C. & Orlando, San Francisco & Los Angeles ), bread was the 1st thing the waiters brought to the tables and then our wine / drinks ..
 
epicuric said:
The plot thickens. Maybe I'm the odd one out here? Maybe regional variations?
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I grew up in the fifties and sixties - for context: working class, council estate, South of England, low income. We only had bread for tea (meaning bread and jam or bread and marmite) or for supper (bread and cheese, bread and dripping) - sometimes for breakfast (toast). Bread wasn't served with main course meals at all.

Now I'm no longer working class. I only put bread on the table if it is with a soup or stew or is with and Indian meal, when I might serve home-made naan or simple flatbread. In all these cases it will be the main carbohydrate of the meal.
 
The only place where I've had a weird experience with bread at a restaurant was in California.

My wife and I were at some fu fu restaurant on the beach near Monterey, and when we were seated we ordered drinks, then waited 10 minutes for those to arrive with the menus.
We were really hungry, so as we placed our order, we asked the waiter for some bread and either butter or evoo. The waiter looked at us sideways and questioned why we wanted plain bread before dinner. We saw him go over to the host, then put on his jacket and leave the restaurant.
10 minutes later he came back to our table with a plate of a few slices of Wonder bread.
By then our appys had arrived, so we never bothered to eat it.
Still, the restaurant added a $10 charge for the bread, to which I asked the waiter to remove the charge. When he very rudely objected stating that he had to run to a store just to get it, I didn't argue.

But when I filled out the check, I subtracted $10 from his tip in very large letters.
 
buckytom said:
You won the lottery? Lol. :D

I guess I'll always be working class since I work, and I sometimes have class.

But only sometimes.
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:D I wish - I was only using the term (which is still used in the UK) to give historical context. Now I'm middle class I suppose as I went to University and had a career in the University sector. It is quite surprising how meal rituals differ across the UK, in part to do with working class, middle class traditions. For example - a lot of people refer to the main evening meal as 'tea' and tend to eat it earlier in the evening - say around 6.30 pm. This is not tea as in afternoon tea with sandwiches and cakes but a proper main course meal. I serve something I call 'dinner' at around 8.30 pm and that is our evening meal. The latter is much more a middle class/upper class tradition although I think this is changing quite a lot.
 
Funny that you mention afternoon tea.

My parents had tea every afternoon unless my dad was working. Just a cup with some sweet biscuits or cookies. But it wasn't a meal in any way.

I figure that this was from their European backgrounds, my dad having been raised in Ireland, and my mom's Norwegian heritage.

Nevertheless, we never were anything but working/middle class. But I guess this proves that class isn't in your bank account.
 
buckytom said:
My parents had tea every afternoon unless my dad was working. Just a cup with some sweet biscuits or cookies
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Breakfast, elevenses, dinner, fourses, tea, (supper).
Breakfast at 6 or 7 depending weekday or weekend
Tea and a scone/biscuit/bread and butter or even toast and butter at 11am.
Dinner at 12:30-1
Tea and biscuits at 4
Tea always at 6.
Supper would be hot milk and a malt biscuit or a malt drink and malt biscuit if you had been good that is.
 
buckytom said:
The only place where I've had a weird experience with bread at a restaurant was in California.

My wife and I were at some fu fu restaurant on the beach near Monterey, and when we were seated we ordered drinks, then waited 10 minutes for those to arrive with the menus.
We were really hungry, so as we placed our order, we asked the waiter for some bread and either butter or evoo. The waiter looked at us sideways and questioned why we wanted plain bread before dinner. We saw him go over to the host, then put on his jacket and leave the restaurant.
10 minutes later he came back to our table with a plate of a few slices of Wonder bread.
By then our appys had arrived, so we never bothered to eat it.
Still, the restaurant added a $10 charge for the bread, to which I asked the waiter to remove the charge. When he very rudely objected stating that he had to run to a store just to get it, I didn't argue.

But when I filled out the check, I subtracted $10 from his tip in very large letters.
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@buckytom,

Wow .. I am sure that this is the last time you, your Mrs. and also, everyone you know, shall never ever go to that Venue to eat if in Monterey, Calif. !!!!

This is the 1st I have ever Heard of such a disaster !! White Sándwich Bread in Plastic !!!!!! This is a true catastrophe and that Waiter, if I were the owner, would have been fired !!!!

Have a great day ..
 
Addie said:
During hard times, food would often be scarce. Soup was made from whatever was on hand. The juices were sopped up with bread. During the days of early America, it was thought that the reason folks were talking in a weird tongue was due to the mold on the bread. You didn't throw out old bread. Thus a lot of folks were thought to be witches and killed.
When we started to head west, there was no time to cook a large nutritious meal on the trail. Bread was the mainstay of every meal. It was quick to make in the cast iron pans that every good mother had in her wagon.
The same goes for when we started to take the cattle on the trail, to be sold. Cookie (the name assigned to every cook on the trail) made sure there was plenty of hardtack or some form of biscuits. If the cattle started to stampede, there was no time to finish the meal. Grab some hardtack and jump on the horse to get control of the stampeding animals. And of course there was the problem of warring Native Americans attacking the wagon trains or stealing the cattle. Cookie would be unable to have a fire to cook over. The Native Americans would spot the smoke.
So you see, bread played an important role in settling this country. Every good wife or mother had a bag of flour to make bread or biscuits. Even during the Depression. And she knew how to make a starter for her bread.
Click to expand...

I have just learnt something new from reading this :okay:
 
morning glory said:
:D I wish - I was only using the term (which is still used in the UK) to give historical context. Now I'm middle class I suppose as I went to University and had a career in the University sector. It is quite surprising how meal rituals differ across the UK, in part to do with working class, middle class traditions. For example - a lot of people refer to the main evening meal as 'tea' and tend to eat it earlier in the evening - say around 6.30 pm. This is not tea as in afternoon tea with sandwiches and cakes but a proper main course meal. I serve something I call 'dinner' at around 8.30 pm and that is our evening meal. The latter is much more a middle class/upper class tradition although I think this is changing quite a lot.
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Growing up we had dinner, the main meal, at lunch time and tea in the evening, sandwiches and cake or whatever. As a couple we no longer do this as we are both at work so lunch is a sandwich and juice at 12.30 lunch break, our main meal is in the evening around 6pm. At weekends and holidays we still eat light at lunch and main meal in the evening.
 
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