As I read a comment left by Paula on last Tuesday’s post, Something You Won’t See in Ontario, I was reminded of something else that you won’t see in Ontario. This one saddens me as well. Let me tell you how I discovered this very wrong use of words “brown bread” in Ontario!
It was probably my first year that I was living in Ontario. I was going to college at the time, living in Cambridge. Someone invited me out for breakfast (one of my favourite meals to eat out) at a diner and I decided to go. We were giving our order when the waitress said,
“Would you like white or brown bread?” I got very excited as I heard her say brown bread, so I ordered it. I was so happy to find a place that had brown bread.
My friends and I chatted while we waited for our food. Then it came. I could hardly believe my eyes. That’s when I saw it. Whole wheat bread. It wasn’t brown bread at all! I could have cried, but I didn’t. As I went from restaurant to restaurant I began to learn that no one had brown bread even though I was repeatedly asked if I wanted some. I didn’t even find it in the stores or bakeries. Sometimes I wanted to explain to them that they didn’t have brown bread, but I just accepted the fact that when I was asked if I wanted white or brown bread they really meant whole wheat bread.
Last year I was out with some friends for supper and I told them my little story. This is what he told me:
“You see, they use to only serve white bread. When they started to serve whole wheat bread, they started off by saying whole wheat, but then they started to say brown bread because it was easier to say.”
Oh, so people just got lazy and shortened it up by calling it something that it actually isn’t. I’m sure if you are from the Maritimes you know what I am talking about. And even those of you who aren’t from the Maritimes might know what I am talking about. But for those of you who have no sweet clue what brown bread is I will fill you in.
Brown bread is delicious. What makes it so? Molasses. That’s right. Brown bread has Molasses in it (you might want to refer to the above mentioned blog post for the other thing not found in ON – molasses, which started this whole thing). The best is to eat it when it is warm with some butter on it. Yum. You can also put raisins in it, but then it would be raisin brown bread. I prefer it without the raisins. Anyway, needless to say if you have never had brown bread, you need to find yourself a loaf and dig in.
If any of my readers has an awesome recipe for brown bread they would freely share, please do so in the comment section. Not everyone has access to this wonderful bread and we need to share it with others! Plus, I would like it too!
What are some other things that you can only see/find in the Maritimes? I’d love to hear what you have to say. Leave me a comment below.
P.S. The picture is not mine, but the brown bread looks delicious!
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This is my favorite brown bread recipe, I've made it a few times and sometimes make loaves to give as gifts to other people. It may not be a “true” brown bread because it does have raisins and walnuts, but I really like it all the same 🙂
Boston Brown Bread
1/2 cup rye flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup molasses
Preheat oven to 325 F.
Combine rye flour, cornmeal, whole wheat flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Stir in walnuts and raisins. Whisk buttermilk and molasses in medium bowl until smooth. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients, stir until well mixed.
Spoon batter evenly into prepared pan. Bake 45-50 minutes.
Cool completely on wire racks.
As far as foods only in Maritime provinces, I hear garlic fingers are not found anywhere else. At least that's what I remember University students being excited about coming to study here, having garlic fingers!
Thanks for the recipe Paula. I'll let you know if I try it sometime.