Canned bread - homemade?

[StarWish624]

Since I was a child, I have enjoyed the canned brown breads by B&W (which is really expensive, nowadays). But, I am wondering if we can make it ourselves, and long-term store it? I can see baking it in a can, this is easy to do. But, if you then seal the bread in the can, or transfer it to a jar, will it keep? Is it worth the trouble? The bread comes in regular brown, and with raisins added. Warm bread with butter, or other toppings, would be real comfort food if SHTF.

 

[Marianne]

Oh no kidding. I don't remember even hearing about canned bread. What if you made it like fruitcake?
I just had my first slice tonight, made it a month ago. But my mother always had hers sitting around for three months. Since she never used alcohol, I asked what kept it from getting moldy. Long pause, then she said that she never heard of a fruitcake going moldy. So, if it had lots of dried fruits, would it keep? What about using one of those vacuum seal things for canning jars?

 

[raro]

I had a friend whose mother served canned bread that she made and canned herself. She said it was a sweet bread and she served it with some sort of sweet sauce that was fabulous. But her mom passed away, and with it went the recipe. So I know it's possible, but I wish I knew how!

 

[the_whingnut]

I had remembered seeing canned bread as a little guy, but I don't know if my Granny made it or one of the quilting elite that was always over. I'll have to ask dad once he's back from Honduras in a week or two. But here is something I found similar to what I remembered.

http://canninggranny.blogspot.com/2011/04/canning-cakes-sweetbreads-brownies-and.html

 

[Marianne]

Well, that's pretty interesting. Looks pretty good, too!

 

[Britesea]

Well, I was taught that real brown bread is steamed, not baked. Like this:
New England Brown Bread

2/3 cup flour
2/3 cup old fashioned rolled oats
2/3 cup cornmeal
2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
½ cup molasses

Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Combine buttermilk and molasses; stir into the dry ingredients. Pour into 2 greased 10 oz ramekins or custard cups; cover with foil.

Place ramekins on a rack in a deep kettle; add 1 inch of hot water to kettle. Bring to a gentle boil; cover and steam for 35-45 minutes or until it passes the toothpick test. Add more water to kettle as needed.

Remove ramekins from kettle and let stand for 5 minutes before removing bread from ramekins.

Makes 2 servings

 

[k15n1]

I see that I've returned just in the nick of time.

Yes, you can can bread. There's defense-funded research from the 40s about how to do this safely. Basically, you have to keep the moisture below a certain level and maintain a certain acidity. My understanding is that it is difficult to achieve these goals and have a tasty treat. Although I did recently have an MRE with "pound cake" that was delicious. Obviously, it wasn't an equal-ratio cake, but it was the best thing I've found in an MRE.

It's become popular to can nut breads. Nut breads are, if done correctly, moist, so it's not compatible with the research findings. I found a formal study of the practice in a peer-reviewed scientific journal a while back. They intentionally introduced C. botulinum before canning and measured the amount of toxin after so-many days. The conclusion, not surprisingly, was that canning the bread did not kill the pathogen.

I feel like I've written this out here before but I can't find it....

There's a German tradition of steaming bread. Black bread and the like. I assume this was due to the curse of rye, which grew readily, even in bad years. If it was a good year for wheat, there was a respite, but otherwise you had to deal with rye-based bread. The rye flour holds moisture more and is difficult to bake. By steaming the bread, it didn't burn even when baked for a long long time. At least, that's what I've pieced together over the years.

 

[Britesea]

I can't help thinking that bread is easy enough to make that I wouldn't want to risk my health by canning it...