Screw Atkins

[Jinmyo]

Piece of baguette, roughly torn, smeared with Normandy cultured butter, dipped into a sauce made from long braising beef with a tomato base.

[ronnie_suburban]

I am currently low-carbing and I love bread. I love baking it and I love eating it. My life was transformed a few years ago after I read Nancy Silverton's Breads from the La Brea Bakery. I made my own starter and baked beautiful loaves for years. I haven't eaten much bread lately, but that's not the point

Anyway...my point is that I miss well-baked bread more than any other single thing when I am low-carbing. I have such a love and respect for bread and the craft of creating it that no amount of low-carbing could ever erode it. For me, bread is too important, too perfect, too central to shun. When I take time away from low-carbing, I always stop at the bakery for some bread...a country boule, ciabatta, baguette, sesame-semolina, honey wheat, onion rye. Let's face it, when done right, they're all great!

Unfortunately for me, a little bread goes a long way. But I love it. Bread will always be a part of my life. When it comes right down to it, there aren't too many foods that are as special or as meaningful as bread.

Bread is life.

=R=

[melkor]

Forget bread, it's good but it can't compare to the potato.

[nessa]

Don't get me wrong. I love potatos. They are good vectors for cheese and buttah and other lovely things. But I'll take my fresh sourdough slathered in butter any day over any potato product. Hell I'll even take it over chocolate But not good chocolate mousse. One must have standards.

I eat low carb, not no carb. There will always be room in my diet for good breads.

Speaking of which I best set some starter out for tomorrow!

[marie-louise]

I never met a carb I didn't like.

[bleachboy]

Piece of baguette, roughly torn, smeared with Normandy cultured butter, dipped into a sauce made from long braising beef with a tomato base.

Oh dear.

[lia]

Does Tomcat Sourdough still exist? even if i DID plan on attempting a low-carb lifestyle (not likely) there is no way in hell i'd be able to succeed if i was able to still buy that wonderful bread in my neighborhood. But i haven't had it in years. nor have i seen the trucks anywhere. and i'm sad.

[lala]

I never met a carb I didn't like.

I have a 20 year old mug that says that on it! It's from Boynton, who does those squishy people and animals, and it shows a big blue fella shaking hands with a layer cake!

[lala]

Real bagel and schmear

The little rolls made in Austria with butter and their whole apricot jam

Garlic bread made with any good artisinal bread, topped off with reggiano, run under the grill.

Those sesame seeded, chewy round rings of bread sold on the streets in Greece.

Good bread and Good butter is the perfect whoops-I-drank-too-much midnight munchy food. Preferably with homemade blackberry jam.

Cornbread slathered with honey butter.

lala, you rock. Stick around will you?

Couldn't have said it better myself. I especially agree with the drunken toast with jam theory. Mmmm mmm.

Oh, you're sweet! Thanks, I will

Of course, after all this bread disucssion I had bread (volkhorn) and cheese (Irish sharp cheddar) for dinner last night! Who needs to cook?!

[Moopheus]

I got the raisin bread part all right, but I've not heard of "Plugra." It's rather an unappetizing name for butter, I must say!

Was watching the very non-atkins-friendly "Unwrapped" the other night and they were showing a baker using "a special ingredient called Plugra, which is like butter, but has more fat."

Let us also not forget all the wonderful Indian flatbreads--paratha, naan, and so on, which can be stuffed with even more carby goodness.

[Jason Perlow]

I've been thinking about us doing a "Screw Atkins" T shirt and having it put up on the eGullet Cafepress site.

Who wants to design one?

[ghostrider]

I've been thinking about us doing a "Screw Atkins" T shirt and having it put up on the eGullet Cafepress site.

Who wants to design one?

I do!

Unfortunately, though, I have absolutely no talent in the field, so I'll leave it to someone else.

[Mabelline]

Can we have one that's a big old screw at an angle through something Atkins like one of those international don't do it signs?

[Andrew Fenton]

Funny, just last night as I picked up a loaf from my local fancy-pants bread bakery, I was thinking much the same thing: damn, this is good stuff.

What type of loaf did you buy? Did you eat it straight or with a schmear of something?

Whole wheat, with lots of little seeds. I tore off a piece to eat on my walk home. Then I made a peanut butter and Asian pear butter sandwich, with a glass of milk. Very nice.

[chromedome]

Bread is beyond food, and into the realm of the magical and the spiritual.

Honestly.

I left home for university at 15, and the thing I missed most was my mother's (perfectly ordinary, but always fresh) home-baked bread. Of course, at a distance of some hundreds of miles, I couldn't count on her for my supply any more; so I decided to bake my own. This was northern Newfoundland in 1979, so artisanal bakeries were not an option!

I'd never baked bread, never really helped my mom, and was too stubborn to try and "get it" from a cookbook (and I'd been told that you can't really do that very successfully anyway) so I ran by memory. "What did she start with? What did she do next?" Even with these handicaps, I think in retrospect that I did fairly well. The only thing I had a real problem with was the shortening...I couldn't remember how much she put into her bread. So I decided that a quarter-pound should do nicely.

That bread was well and truly shortened, let me tell you.

It was edible, though, if dense, and the flavour was not bad. I was pretty pleased, and hooked, and I've been baking my own bread ever since (about 25 years, now). I think my fresh bread may have been one of the things that helped my now-wife decide that I was a "keeper."

[hillvalley]

After reading this thread I just went shopping and bought a whole bunch o' bread.

Petite pan, bagels, wheat

and some pate to go with it

[nessa]

I've been thinking about us doing a "Screw Atkins" T shirt and having it put up on the eGullet Cafepress site.

Who wants to design one?

I was thinking along the lines of the eGullet cartoon person thing surrounded by breads, potatos, pie, cake, etc , with mouth open and chomping on a slice of bread or pie....

It might be too subtle.

[bloviatrix]

When I was a kid my mom would buy the most amazing rye bread. It was a race to see who got the the heel first - which is still my favorite part. When the bread was still warm from the oven, and I bit into that crunchy piece I was in heaven. Fresh rye bread (with caraway seeds) still holds a warm place in my heart, but I can't always get it - and then rarely just out of the oven.

Reading all these posts, I find my brain reviewing my bread "hall of fame." There were the chocolate bread with chunks of chocolate from Ecce Panis. Sourdough onion rolls which I can easily eat by the dozen. The sesame encrusted pugliese from my buddy Allen at Tribeca Oven, and their parker house rolls which raise tuna to a higher level. Fresh challah from the now defunct Royale Bakery (home of Seinfeld's famous marble rye). Cinnamon-raisin rolls that I pick up at Dean & Deluca - they're $.50 each, one of the few bargains there and the tops get all camelized - who needs cake when you have a roll like that?

I'll stop now because my keyboard is getting covered with drool.

And I love the idea of a "Screw Atkins" t-shirt.

[Mabelline]

I've been thinking about us doing a "Screw Atkins" T shirt and having it put up on the eGullet Cafepress site.

Who wants to design one?

I was thinking along the lines of the eGullet cartoon person thing surrounded by breads, potatos, pie, cake, etc , with mouth open and chomping on a slice of bread or pie....

It might be too subtle.

nessa, I don't think the point would be lost on anyone, particularly anyone on Atkins.

[ExtraMSG]

I've been thinking about us doing a "Screw Atkins" T shirt and having it put up on the eGullet Cafepress site.

Who wants to design one?

I'd have no problem designing one, but better might be to brainstorm and then have people submit versions that you and FG can choose from.

I do wonder about copyright/trademark issues. Might have to go with the less impacting "Screw Low-Carb".

Here's a couple quick options I did (animated gif with the two options):

[Mabelline]

Thats definitely got impact. I think I like the fries better than the bread, but elyse is gonna ask you "Where's the pie?"

I concur that we oughta find out about using the "A" word. I'd hate to have the t-shirt cops confiscating it or something.

[ExtraMSG]

I actually did a third image of a pie. Even has whipped cream on top. The idea is actually a good one. I bet a press release could generate a little buzz for the site. I was thinking about a second idea with SCREW PETA, I "heart" a cow or pig. Even if Atkins did get mad and try to sue or something, that in itself would generate buzz and then you could change it.

[Mabelline]

You do SCREW PETA, I'm down for 4. SCREW ATKINS, down for 2.

[tommy]

i'll buy a few SCREW TOMMY t-shirts to give out as holiday gifts.

[ExtraMSG]

SCREW

I "heart" humiliation

TOMMY