Sandwich bread (also referred to as pan bread, loaf bread, or sandwich loaf) is

bread Bread is a baked food product made from water, flour, and often yeast. It is a staple food across the world, particularly in Europe and the Middle East. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cu ...

that is prepared specifically to be used for the preparation of

sandwich A sandwich is a Dish (food), dish typically consisting variously of meat, cheese, sauces, and vegetables used as a filling between slices of bread, or placed atop a slice of bread; or, more generally, any dish in which bread serves as a ''co ...

es. Sandwich breads are produced in many varieties, such as

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

whole wheat A whole grain is a grain of any cereal and pseudocereal that contains the endosperm, germ, and bran, in contrast to refined grains, which retain only the endosperm. As part of a general healthy diet, consumption of whole grains is associated wit ...

sourdough Sourdough is a type of bread that uses the fermentation by naturally occurring yeast and lactobacillus bacteria to raise the dough. In addition to leavening the bread, the fermentation process produces lactic acid, which gives the bread its dis ...

rye Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is grown principally in an area from Eastern and Northern Europe into Russia. It is much more tolerant of cold weather and poor soil than o ...

, multigrain and others.

Description

Sandwich bread is overwhelmingly commercially baked and pre-sliced, though any similar shaped loaf can be turned into sandwiches by hand. It may be formulated to slice easily, cleanly or uniformly, and may have a fine crumb (texture) and light body. Sandwich bread may be designed to have a balanced proportion of crumb and crust, whereby the bread holds and supports fillings in place and reduces drips and messiness. Some may be designed to not become crumbly, hardened, dried or have too compressible a texture. Sandwich bread can refer to cross-sectionally square, sliced white and wheat bread, which has been described as "perfectly designed for holding square luncheon meat". The bread used for preparing finger sandwiches is sometimes referred to as sandwich bread. '' Pain de mie'' is a sandwich loaf.

History

In the 1930s in the United States, the term sandwich loaf referred to

sliced bread Sliced bread is a loaf of bread, sliced with a machine and packaged for convenience, as opposed to the consumer cutting it with a knife. It was first sold in 1928, advertised as "the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was ...

. In contemporary times, U.S. consumers sometimes refer to

white bread White bread typically refers to breads made from wheat flour from which the bran and the germ layers have been removed from the whole wheatberry as part of the flour grinding or milling process, producing a light-colored flour. Nutrition Wh ...

such as

Wonder Bread Wonder Bread is an American brand of sliced bread. Established in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1921, it was one of the first companies to sell sliced bread nationwide by 1930. The brand is currently owned by Flowers Foods in the United States. His ...

as sandwich bread and sandwich loaf. American sandwich breads have historically included some fat derived from the use of milk or oil to enrich the bread. Thin-sliced breads, wherein the bread is sliced somewhat thinner than customary, are often labeled as "sandwich bread". Examples of U.S. bakers that produce sandwich bread are Wonder,

Pepperidge Farm Pepperidge Farm Incorporated is an American commercial bakery founded in 1937 by Margaret Rudkin, who named the brand after her family's 123-acre farm property in Fairfield, Connecticut, which had been named for the Black Tupelo, pepperidge tree. ...

, and Nature's Pride. Some supermarket chains, such as Texas-based

H-E-B H-E-B Grocery Company, LP, is an American privately held company, privately held supermarket chain based in San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, with more than 435 stores throughout Texas and Mexico. The company also operates Central Market (Texas) ...

, produce their own

store brand A private label, also called a private brand or private-label brand, is a brand owned by a company, offered by that company alongside and competing with brands from other businesses. A private-label brand is almost always offered exclusively by th ...

s of sandwich bread. Bonn Group of Industries of Ludhiana Punjab, India, produces a product called Super Sandwich Bread. Tai Pan Bread and Cakes Co. produces sandwich bread in Hong Kong. Mass-produced sandwich breads are sliced before being packaged.

Japanese milk bread , also called Hokkaido milk bread, or simply milk bread in English sources, is a soft white bread commonly sold in Asian bakeries, particularly Japanese ones. Although bread is not a traditional Japanese food, it was introduced widely after Wor ...

, a specific style of sandwich bread, is popular in Asia, particularly in Japan, and has

artisan An artisan (from , ) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art, sculpture, clothing, food ite ...

status there. Bread was not a traditional food in Japan, but it came into culinary use there after the American response to post-World War II Japanese rice shortages included

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

shipments of

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

. The style of bread became popular outside Asia in the 2020s.

Description

History

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading