Why Change A Wonderful Recipe?

[Porthos]

The Eric Schatz bakery in Bishop, CA has been a fixture there for many decades. For reasons unknown the quality of their pastries have gone downhill over the last several years. A stop there to buy bread and pastries on our way to Twin Lakes out of Bridgeport was a required part of the trip, until the last few years when the pastry quality wasn't any better than "store-bought." Stopping on the way back is still part of the trip, and my favorite item was their Vollkorbnbrot, a small, dense whole grain bread. When I picked up a couple of loaves last week, it felt different, bigger, softer. We were in a hurry and Bishop was in full Memorial Day Weekend mode, hosting the nth year of Mule Days. We gathered what we wanted, paid, and got back on the road.

 

Sadly, it is no longer the bread we've bought for decades. If there was declining sales for it, they make so many varieties of freshly-baked beads, discontinuing it would seem the logical choice. Whatever the reason for the change, it is off my list of must-haves. I can get "somewhat soft whole-grain bread" lots of places so I have no need to pay top dollar for bread that isn't anything special. I will surely mourn the passing of this treat for a few years. Heck, I still mourn Carl's Jr for eliminating their California Roast Beef Sandwich, and that was decades ago.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

it is indeed tragic that many traditional products have been dumbed down in an effort to cater to mass taste.    But economics drives us all to some extent and at some point.  How many "remember that..." memories we each harbor.  

[JoNorvelleWalker]

On 6/3/2021 at 6:33 PM, Porthos said:

The Eric Schatz bakery in Bishop, CA has been a fixture there for many decades. For reasons unknown the quality of their pastries have gone downhill over the last several years. A stop there to buy bread and pastries on our way to Twin Lakes out of Bridgeport was a required part of the trip, until the last few years when the pastry quality wasn't any better than "store-bought." Stopping on the way back is still part of the trip, and my favorite item was their Vollkorbnbrot, a small, dense whole grain bread. When I picked up a couple of loaves last week, it felt different, bigger, softer. We were in a hurry and Bishop was in full Memorial Day Weekend mode, hosting the nth year of Mule Days. We gathered what we wanted, paid, and got back on the road.

 

Sadly, it is no longer the bread we've bought for decades. If there was declining sales for it, they make so many varieties of freshly-baked beads, discontinuing it would seem the logical choice. Whatever the reason for the change, it is off my list of must-haves. I can get "somewhat soft whole-grain bread" lots of places so I have no need to pay top dollar for bread that isn't anything special. I will surely mourn the passing of this treat for a few years. Heck, I still mourn Carl's Jr for eliminating their California Roast Beef Sandwich, and that was decades ago.

 

Why not ask them?

 

[Porthos]

Update.

 

We took our grandson up to "the Lake" for an loong weekend of fishing. My Sweetie ran in to Schatz to pick up a couple of things, and she picked up a loaf of Vollkorbnbrot. It was the loaf we would expect. Our best guess is that on the previous trip we purchased a loaf mistakenly labeled as Vollkorbnbrot. Yay for getting the real deal again.