Rye Bread

Having been buying rye bread (sour dough)  from our local Sainsbury's for a few months, I wondered why rye bread at home some 55 years ago tasted stronger. 

Initially I assumed that one's taste buds tend to fade slightly as one becomes older. This is probably true but interestingly, early one morning when Sainsbury's had not yet baked their fresh bread, I walked up to Wimbledon Village and purchased some of the  sour dough rye bread from Gails, the baker there.

Despite being only about 7am there was simply a single newly baked loaf of rye bread on the baker's shelves although the newly baked loaves of other varieties, were stacked high. 

Presumably there is little taste for rye bread these days. In any event the Gails' loaf seemed very small but heavier than an ordinary large loaf of say Hovis sliced brown bread. 

Upon cutting a couple of slices of the Gails' sourdough rye, it soon became apparent that a single sandwich  (plus say an apple)  would be all that was required for lunch. 

The bread was delicious but extremely filling, hence presumably its price, which was double the price of my usual Sainsbury's sourdough rye loaf. 

Sandwiches are easily made from the supermarket sourdough rye. These   are tasty enough at lunchtime but one needs double the volume of the supermarket bread than is required, at least by yours truly, for a lunch time sandwich from the Gails' version.

The Gails' version is twice the price of the loaf from the supermarket, the logic of which pricing is now clear.

And yes, the taste of the traditional rye sourdough bread, is as I recall, similar to that of  55 years ago.