Posted on 03/21/2023 6:56:31 AM PDT by Red Badger
(Last Updated On: March 17, 2023)
NATIONAL FRENCH BREAD DAY
National French Bread Day bakes up a delicious celebration enjoyed by millions across the United States each year on March 21st.
#NationalFrenchBreadDay
French bread, also known as a baguette, is a long thin loaf made from basic lean dough. Its length and its crisp crust define it. Over time, French law has established what is and what is not a baguette. In 1920, a labor law prevented bakers from starting their day before 4 a.m. Bread makers know that breadmaking is a tactile industry. The kneading and resting of the dough are just as important as the ingredients. When the law limited their day, the bakers knew their product so well they adjusted by re-shaping their loaves of bread. The long, narrow loaves baked more quickly and evenly. As a result, patrons found the new loaves more convenient for slicing and storing.
These sturdy loaves make delicious sandwiches, but they also go well with any soup. Any leftover bread makes delicious French toast, too!
The French are known for their high standards where culinary arts are concerned. To preserve quality in their bread, laws were passed requiring minimum quantities of certain quality ingredients in each loaf of bread.
HOW TO OBSERVE NATIONAL FRENCH BREAD DAY
Spend some time in the kitchen and fill your home with the smell of homemade French bread.
Try this French bread recipe and share it with others.
If the task seems a little daunting, be sure to visit your local bakery and pick up a loaf or two.
Make some bruschetta or serve it with your favorite pasta dish.
Use #NationalFrenchBreadDay to post on social media.
NATIONAL FRENCH BREAD DAY HISTORY
National Day Calendar continues to research the origins of this yeasty food holiday.
French Bread FAQ
Q. Does French bread make good French toast?
A. Yes. The crusty bread absorbs the egg mixture and flavors perfectly.
Q. Do I need a special pan to make French bread?
A. No. A baking sheet or stone is sufficient for baking French bread.
I had an uncle that worked in a Bakery.
He made lots of dough!..............Ping!...............
Kneed French Bread to go with French Wine.
Everybody kneads some dough. Don’t be a loafer..................
Lol!
What the heck was that?
LOL - just read a list of movie cliches - anyone shown carrying a grocery bag - the grocery bag always has a baguette of French bread and celery sticking out of the top.
That said, who doesn’t love French bread?
I’ve never made it but family loves it on a winter evening with stew, soup or even chili (prefer cornbread for that!).
zen and the art of buttering bread
I had a half of a baguette left from Christmas time in my freezer, so I will be using that with tonight’s dinner…instead of Italian bread. I’ll be making my homemade fried eggplant parmigiana for dinner tonight, a family favorite. It’s very labor intensive to me, but my family loves it. Every time I make it, I think of how it must have been for the Italian mamas of old to have a half dozen children running around tugging at her apron strings while making this meal. I always feel like I need 4 hands to do it right.
Okay, Jean Val Jean stole French bread. Once!
I prefer Italian....................
Sourdough for me.
Hey, mine too. He was a warm guy, but a little crusty, had a wry sense of humor, worked in a seedy part of town, tended to go against the grain sometimes.
Love me some sourdough, too.
The best bread I’ve ever made from scratch was Cuban bread. They don’t sell that in the stores up here, and one year I was desperate for a homemade Cuban sandwich like I had growing up. It was sooo good. Now I make it every so often and treat us to a fine Cuban sandwich for dinner. Cuban style salad and yellow rice with black beans. Mmm, making me think I need to add that to our meal plan sometime soon.
Yes, and every time some character is surprised and drops their (always PAPER) bag of groceries, there’s always a dozen eggs broken in the process.
My late husband LOVED eggplant parmigiana - I never did try to make it for him, the bar was set too high from the way his mother made it - egged and then lightly breaded (from home made bread), and it was labor intensive. The marinara was, of course, home made as well. There was no recipe, of course.
Every time he’d order it when we were out there was always something wrong with it - too heavily breaded, the sauce wasn’t right, wasn’t layered correctly, etc.
My daughter is a wonderful cook and I’m trying to talk her into making it for us - she read over some recipes and said it mostly takes all day so she’d have to set aside a lot of time.
Those old Italian cooks, like my MIL, absolutely lived to cook, the more people over to eat, the better. For them, cooking and feeding people was love.
I cheat a little. My kids went to HS with a big Italian family who owned their own grocery and meat market. They started bottling their marinara sauce a zillion years ago. So I buy the jars by the case, and use that for my marinara. Cheating for sure, but I don’t have to “doctor” it up at all.
I also flour, egg, then dip in Italian style bread crumbs, and pan fry them. Then layer in the baking dish with the marinara and mozzarella. It IS a several hour affair, and best to do it in steps. Which speaking of, it’s time to get these in the pan!
One thing you can share with your daughter: I have, on occasion, done the eggplant slices the day before and assembled them with the marinara and cheese, and then refrigerated overnight. Then I baked it the next day and it came out just fine!
Agreed. Only a couple places here sell a Cuban sandwich, and the best one was at Vicente’s Cuban Cuisine in downtown Detroit. Worth the trip.
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