Discovering French bread and the rules of 'baguetiquette'

[Music] the stereotypical french person has a beret a striped shirt a baguette under an arm well that's a total cliche genie but it's true that bread is an integral part of the french diet and people take their bread very seriously french people will go very far to find the perfect baguette but just what makes french bread so good join us for this episode of french connections plus where we take a bite out of the delicious heaven that is the french baguette [Music] just like wine or cheese the baguette is an unofficial symbol of france it's said that the french eat 30 million baguettes a day that's 320 baguettes a second the baguette has its place at every meal jam and butter tartines for breakfast baguette sandwiches for lunch with cheese after dinner there's actually an expression in french long like a day without bread and like all national treasures the baguette is protected by law in 1993 the government passed something called the the bread decree which lays out certain ground rules for what's known here as a traditional baguette now this is a traditional baguette and this is a regular baguette and a traditional baguette goes for a little bit more than a euro a regular baguette a little bit less than a euro but a traditional baguette is a little bit more delicious and to be called a traditional baguette it has to be made on-site using four ingredients wheat flour water yeast and salt it can't be frozen at any time and can't have any additives or preservatives the idea is to protect artisanal bakers from supermarkets and industrial bread so the baguette is a cherished institution here in france but just where did this iconic bread begin and what's behind its incredible shape surprising as it may be the exact origin of the baguette is unknown and there are several competing theories one popular story is that baguettes were created during the napoleonic wars at the time bread was round because it kept better that made it bulky and not practical for soldiers to carry hence the new baguette shape easier to pop in a bag on the go another theory is that the baguette was invented in vienna and imported to france during the 19th century others argue that it was developed in paris during the 1920s at the time a law forbade bakers from working before 4 am so they had to invent a kind of bread that was quicker to bake than traditional round bread and then there are those who link the origin of the baguette to the creation of the paris metro workers digging the galleries carried knives to cut the bulky bread they brought for lunch but knife fights would break out so the engineers asked bakers to invent a long bread that didn't require a knife to be eaten originally the baguette was a parisian bread and had a hard time being accepted in the countryside where people preferred darker thicker and rounder bread that sticks to your bones and last longer but these days the baguette is a national treasure [Music] despite their reputation the quality of baguettes varies and choosing the right one is an art form well first of all there's the visual aspect a good baguette should neither be undercooked nor overcooked if it looks golden and crispy on the outside you're probably on the right track so that's for the appearance but the texture of the baguette is also very complex that's right because it has to be dense and crunchy on the outside soft and fluffy on the inside but not chewy now a good way to know if you got the balance right is actually to squeeze the baguette because a good baguette genie actually tells a story in fact bakers say that a delicious baguette sings just take a listen i hear it okay and what about the baguette etiquette or bag etiquette if you like do you tear it do you slice it well purists like my grandparents would say that you never cut bread you break it although in practice people do use bread knife to slice bread and i love the bread vocabulary in france the inside of the bread is known as la mi as for that pointy heart bit on the end that's the crouton the croutons and really is the prized part of the baguette because after all there are only two of them so people tend to fight over them it's also the part that you'll see people eating on the way home from the bakery when the bread is still warm which is also one of the rare times you'll see french people eating in the streets now lots of countries of course have fantastic bread but flo you went to find out just what makes french bread that much better to unlock the secret of what makes french bread delicious i want to meet yoshimi london co-founder of the popular london men bakery line with shops in paris lil and even tokyo hi yoshimi thanks so much for having us today you're going to teach us how to make a traditional french baguette what are the steps [Music] oh [Laughter] away [Music] so 24 hours later what we just did gives [Music] foreign so we divided it up into little balls and now we're going to make it into the baguette shape and this is called the fesonage technique on paula [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] how do you know so now we can taste it yes this is the best part okay thank you that's a very good baguette thank you so much yoshimi for teaching us thank you so much the baguette may be king but french bread isn't just about baguettes just walk into any bakery and you'll see the variety well there's bread made from white flour this bread made from whole wheat flour known as pan campaign there's rye bread buns egg all this in all shapes and sizes one reason there's so much variety is to match changing tastes and eating habits in france because the truth is people are eating a lot less bread than before well during the 18th century bread represented 90 of the french diet and at the beginning of the last century people ate on average one kilo of bread a day which is the equivalent of this now these days people tend to eat about 120 grams a day which is the equivalent of that which is still a lot people are becoming aware that too much bread i.e carbs in your diet just isn't that good for you plus there's the growing gluten-free trend but bread is not demonized as it can be in the u.s or the uk these days it's all about quality over [Music] quantity [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Music] many of you sent in your questions about french bread particularly about how long it can keep and snail rahila wanted to know what do you do with the leftovers well the only problem with baguettes is they get stale after about just a day so if you want to keep a baguette fresh you can always put it in a cloth bag if you put it in a plastic bag it'll get chewy but there's always the option to freeze a baguette now if it ever gets hard you can also make that infamous french toast which is known here in france as lost bread now interestingly french people don't really eat french toast the way they do elsewhere in the world probably because they ate all the bread the night before all right next tweet self-regulation central wanted to know what's the best baguette in france and how is it decided well there's several competitions across the nation but the most prestigious one is the one here in paris and the jury which is composed of bread professionals and journalists and even a couple of hand-picked internet users will they decide what is the most delicious baguette here in paris and the winner gets to deliver freshly baked baguettes for a year to the president at the elysee presidential palace sounds delicious now unfortunately that's all the time we have today but please keep tweeting me your questions at floville minnow or you can reach out on facebook and we'll see you next time for another french connections plus i don't know about you judy but i am off to eat the coutu but there's two of them

Channel: FRANCE 24 English

Views: 54,763

Keywords: France, food, French culture, FRENCH CONNECTIONS PLUS, france24, news

Id: KQH7zbXtQxA

Length: 12min 31sec (751 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 31 2020