Possibly of less interest to those who've already got a machine, but here is
something from when they were just becoming known. They were much more
expensive at the time.


--
Re-post from rec.food.cooking, 1988 . Edited down a bit.


In article >, Ellen Keyne Seebacher writes:

| In article > writes:
|
| | Has anyone tried one of those new machines that make bread?
|
| This was discussed at length on misc.consumers a couple
| of months ago ...


Automatic bread makers were also discussed at length recently here on
rec.food.cooking. One obvious question that doesn't come up much in these
discussions is why?

With the five minutes it takes me to assemble ingredients and the five
minutes to work the dough [by hand], for a modest batch of dough (which,
usually, becomes pizzas later, rather than loaves, but considerations are
similar), I'm puzzled to understand why it would occur to anyone to automate
the process, unless they have never done it much and the whole thing seems
mysterious.

Unless these machines self-measure and self-clean, the savings of real time
seems negligible when compared honestly to hand assembly with a little
experience. Therefore other than gimmick value, I gather that the big
advantage is to wake up with the smell, as with self-timed coffee makers.
Put pay hundreds of US dollars for this?? For that I can pay a local bakery
to deliver fresh breads in the morning, aroma and all, dozens of times --
and they'll have brioche and croissants, too. Besides, working dough with
the hands is an earthy experience -- and it lives, and evokes (to me anyway)
merry memories of 1950s horror movies like _The Blob._

-- Max

"Adam and Eve sold themselves for an apple. What would they have done for a
truffled fowl?" -- Brillat-Savarin


2005 addendum: "Qu'ils mangent des brioches." -- Marie Antoinette