I was despairing over the huge cavern in my most recent sourdough spelt loaf. I suspect I underproved the shaped dough, which resulted in excessive oven spring, producing this giant hole.
However, when my parents arrived for dinner, my mum took one look at the sliced bread, and exclaimed, “Holey bread! That means you’re about to come into some money!”.
Whilst I’m not a believer in luck, that one made me smile a lot.
Just for fun, do you know any bread related sayings or superstitions? The only other one I could recall was the plea to small people to eat their crusts to ensure their hair would go curly!
What about any related to baked goods in general? You can’t have your cake and eat it is the only one that comes to my mind. Do you know of any others?
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Pie in the sky? Working for crumbs.
I know that there are all kinds of religious connections with bread.
Hahaha…yes, of course, bread of heaven, bread of life…
Hi Celia. The one that comes immediately to mind is ‘best thing since sliced bread’. When we used it in front of our 8 year old he wanted to know what sliced bread could possibly have to do with anything!
I have to say that you’ve been my inspiration for starting to bake sourdough bread. I started establishing my own culture about 3 weeks ago. So far I’ve baked two loaves, the first looked very much like the loaf in this post and I wondered why I got the hole at the top – at least now I can put it down to under proving……….I tend to lurk rather than comment so this is a good opportunity to say thanks for your fabulous posts.
Meaghan, that’s fantastic, thank you! So glad you made lucky bread too – according to my mother, you should now come into some money. Although I have to say, I’m yet to know a wealthy sourdough baker..hahaha
Re the hole at the top – I think it might be a shaping error on my part as well – maybe Joanna or Doc or Craig will let me know.. :)
I have no bread thoughts to add. I am a bit sorry the Chinese year is coming to an end. I am a water snake and apparently we are the luckiest people this year. I was hoping for a major lotto win, but perhaps getting my Italian driving licence used up all my luck for the year. Of course, our house wasn’t too badly damaged in the flood – that’s lucky.
I have been eating my crusts all my life and I can report that the curly hair bit is a myth.
I’ll keep an ear out for some Italian bread sayings.
Deb, you always make me laugh! Getting your Italian driving licence – wow, that’s brave!! :)
My mum was born in 1919 and so therefore would have been a young woman during the depression and, as well, lived through WW11 in London and the rationing that went with that. I remember her saying that throwing bread away was giving bread to the devil. Our house was not a religious one and I was wondering whether that expression was born of the depression and WWII or does perhaps have its roots in religion. Crusts of bread in our house were not thrown away, but saved and made into bread pudding. Mum was generally an optimistic, cheerful person and she would see good luck signs in all sorts of things so she would be agreeing with your mum, Celia.
Jan, that’s a wonderful story! I wonder what you mum would have thought about the incredibly wasteful society we live in now?
I actually think it’s exciting to cut into a new loaf of bread, you’re never completly sure what it contains. The one sure thing though if it’s your’s Celia, it will taste delicious!
“Bad customs are like pie crust, better broken than kept”
I hope you do come into some money, but then I bet your mum will want a commission!
New one to me, Chef, but so true! :)
There are a few sandwich related phrases…”two slices short of a sandwich”, “all jam and no bread”, etc. Then there is the infamous “let them eat cake”….hmm…you’ve got me thinking now. I am sure I am going have most my brain thinking of more phrases and only one small part of the brain focussed on work today!
“bakers dozen”, for thirteen,
“upper crust” I suspect it has a real life derivation a bit like snob,
I use boring like “white bread” sometimes, stemming from my youth when all we would buy were the square sliced bland loaves.
“Being the meat in the sandwich”, when you are caught between two people/arguments
Let them eat brioche! Marie Antoinette
Magnificent Celia – warms my heart to see the open expansive centre of your crumb, I am sure your Mother is right and it is a sign….Mothers are always right :)
3, 3, and 3 … my Mother’s directions when I asked her for her sponge recipe. It was so obvious to her what to do … I love that about nannies and mammies recipes – in their heads not written down :-)
There is a whole thing about bringing bread and salt and wine to a new home that has some sort of cleansing ritual from pre-Christian times.
Also a verse about a little leaven leavening the whole loaf in the Bible referring that even a little hidden sin will affect your entire life.
Casting bread upon the waters is used in reference to trusting in God for the future.
And I’m sure there are a lot more that are just beyond my ken right now.
Lucky bread, huh? I think the universe owes me some money!
Had such a giggle reading through all the bread related sayings, I’d think of one & sure enough someone beat me to it…, so, can’t add to all the sayings. I used to hate eating my crusts & managed to only perform crust eating exercises when Mom was giving me ‘that’ look – now only the back of my hair is curly…, so maybe this eating crusts thing works…, maybe…. :)
I don’t have any phrases or sayings to add, but as soon as I saw your holey bread, I immediately thought: What a perfect vehicle for eggs in a nest! (or eggs in a basket or eggs in a hole or whatever else you might call it) One of my kiddos’ favorite meals and you wouldn’t even have to cut the bread! =)
I’ll have to let my hubby know that even you get big holes in your bread. I keep telling him about all the wonderful things he can learn here. We bought a nice new KitchenAid mixer for ourselves (more for him) and he’s on to bread making again. The first few loaves had big holes and he didn’t know why. Now he uses the dishwasher with a steamer to proof the bread. Unorthodox, but it seems to work…
Oh! Forgot to add that I don’t know any other food or bread related sayings other than the one’s already mentioned except for bread being the “staff of life”.
SG, of course there’s also the universal slang in English speaking countries to refer to money as “dough”! :)
Moo, “bakers dozen” came from a time when selling underweight bread was a crime that carried a heavy penalty – hence the extra roll to ensure no-one was inadvertently cheated! And I think I’ve read a reason behind the uppercrust comment – something about loaves baking unevenly in old ovens, so the top section was light and delicious, but the bottoms burnt and fit only for the lower classes.
Jo, do you think the great big hole is due to a shaping error, overproving, or the impending arrival of dosh? :)
Gill, that’s a classic re your mum’s recipe – I once watched my elderly neighbour June mixing up cookies, and when I asked her for quantities, she said, “oh, just enough so the dough feels right”. ;-)
Heidi darlin’, if holey bread really meant money was forthcoming, most sourdough bakers I know would be rich! Hahaha….
Anna, I ate everything put in front of me, and I have dead straight hair. The curly hair thing never worked particularly well on us Chinese kids! :)
Abby, it would have been good for that, you’re absolutely right. But then we wouldn’t have the little round bit in the middle to dip in the yolk! :)
Cat, tell your hubby that he’s due for a windfall, with all those big holes..hahaha
Haha so cute and such a Chinese parent thing to say! :P
How fantastic! I’m going to say it’s good luck and money is coming my way next time I make holey bread. Thanks!
I have a few food sayings I can add…
As cute as pie. (very cute)
A few snags short of a barbie. (not all there)
As easy as taking candy from a baby. (too easy)
Throw salt in the wound. (be mean when someone is already down)
Beef it up. (make it bigger)
Ok I’ll stop now or I’ll take up the whole post.
One more – to have egg on your face (to be embarrassed)
L, sooo Chinese, made me laugh! :)
Bee, I reckon we should all try and figure out how to make holey bread on purpose! Mine only ever happen by chance! LOL
Claire, I wonder where that cutie pie expression comes from? I like pie – a lot – but I never think of it as cute! :) Oh and by the way, thank you, you and Lorraine have inspired me, and I have a sponge in the oven to make into lamingtons!
Mothers are always right so just a matter of time then before you receive your money! ;-)
What about something being better than sliced bread.
:-) Mandy
A loaf of bread, a jug of wine and thou, said the poet.
I’ll include this one as this blog sometimes includes frugality
Roughly, “don’t throw the children’s bread to the dogs”. It does not mean, “don’t feed your pets/chickens leftovers”, rather advises against devoting energy, sustenance, financial support to people considered unworthy of diminishing the resources of your personal household, community, racial group.
for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs: as by “the children” are meant the Israelites, who were not only the children of Abraham by natural descent, but the children of God, to whom pertained the adoption, by virtue of the national covenant made with them; so by “the dogs”, are meant the Gentiles, who were reckoned as such by the Jews;
Doh!
New International Version (©1984)
Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again.
New Living Translation (©2007)
Send your grain across the seas, and in time, profits will flow back to you.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Cast thy bread upon the running waters: for after a long time thou shalt find it again.
And another biblical example which puzzled me? Who wanted to eat that soggy bread? Some new translations may be closer to the truth but I rationalised in mean’t plant seed after the flood. I you’d tossed in a loaf in Toowoomba I don’t think it would be making its way back from Moreton bay like a spawning salmon
Interesting bread quotes, thanks all! Great fun.. :)
Mandy, you’re so right about mothers being right – could you please convince my sons? ;-)
Ha You have to love mothers! Let me know when you win the lottery. B:)
Aaah, now wouldn’t that be nice, Beth? :)
I better get a-baking with my spelt flour. The money sounds good :-). Can’t think of any yeasted dough sayings at the mo except, ‘Man cannot leave by bread alone’……….. where’s the butter?
No problem Celia! I hope the lamingtons went down well.
This phenomenon is known as ‘flying crust’ and is a result of over-proofing, not under. (My particular bread disease is over-proofing, so I know it well!)
Oz, nothing’s happened yet, so I can’t guarantee the superstition..hahaha
Claire, they certainly did, thank you!
Doc, overproofing? That surprises me, because when I over prove the dough, I always end up with very flat bread with almost no holes. The other three loaves made at the same time were fine, and quite standard sourdough crumb?
Just did a little googling on this – seems that Dan Lepard would agree with you – not an easy answer for this! Guess that’s why bread making is so interesting.