Spreads and Bread

Honey & Syrup Our Honey and Syrup Category Welcome to our...

Welcome to our range of nut and chocolate spreads Are you a...

All about Plum Jam What is Plum Jam? Plum jam is a sweet...

The best vegan and vegetarian bread spreads for your healthy...




Sweet bread spreads on everyone's lips

The category of bread spreads actually includes all spreadable foods that can be applied to a slice of bread or a roll. The original form of bread spread is the sweet variety: archaeologists discovered traces of plum puree and sugar cane in clay vessels. Honey, another sweet bread spread, also has a long tradition. Rock paintings from the Stone Age prove the use of honey as a sweetener at that time. In ancient Egypt, honey was considered very valuable, and its healing properties are even mentioned in the Quran. Until the 19th century, honey served as an important sweetener, which was gradually replaced by sugar obtained from sugar cane or sugar beets. Both apple syrup and pear syrup have existed as special syrup types at least since the Middle Ages. In both cases, it is the cooked juice of the fruits. While apple syrup used to be produced mainly in the Rhineland and in some parts of Belgium and the Netherlands, pear syrup is still a typical product for central Switzerland. Another well-known syrup type is sugar syrup, which comes from regions where sugar beets are grown.

Other sweet bread spreads that are popular in Germany and other countries are fruit spreads of various kinds. The inventor of jam is considered to be the wife of a Scottish merchant, who in the late 18th century chopped bitter oranges and boiled them with a good portion of sugar. Scottish bitter orange marmalade is still one of the internationally best-known jams. Within the EU, only fruit spreads consisting of citrus fruits may now be called jam. The fruit content per kilogram of jam must be at least 200 grams. Other ingredients may only be sugar and water. According to the EU-wide definition, preserves are fruit spreads that do not contain citrus fruits and whose fruit content is between 250 and 350 grams per kilogram of fruit spread. Jellies are made from fruit juice and sugar - the characteristic feature is that no fruit pieces and/or seeds are contained.

Chocolate and nuts in spreadable form

The invention of spreadable chocolate is thanks to the Italian Petro Ferrero, who sold a nut and nougat cream called Pasta gianduja in the 1940s. The subcategory of spreadable nut and chocolate products includes pure chocolate creams, which are mainly made from milk powder, sugar and cocoa powder, as well as nut and nougat creams (sometimes with almonds) and peanut creams. Thin slices of chocolate, which come in various varieties, are actually a bread topping. If you don't appreciate nuts or chocolate too much, maybe a caramel bread spread will suit your taste. Usually, condensed whole milk, glucose syrup, and sugar are used as ingredients.

Margarine and butter as essential bread spreads

Regardless of whether you prefer sweet spreads or savory spreads: a layer of butter or margarine usually forms the transition between bread and spread. It is still unknown when butter was first made. However, experts believe that butter was already known in ancient times - as medicine (for example in the form of ointments). During the Middle Ages, butter became an important commodity, which was filled into barrels or pots and transported over longer distances. From the 17th to the 19th century, ice cellars were necessary to allow the cream to settle. The method of creaming was further developed by several inventors and machine builders. The steam dairy from the end of the 18th century enabled butter production without being dependent on the prevailing outside temperatures. In the 19th century, steam dairies gradually gained ground, and industrialization of butter production took place. The invention of the refrigerator in 1913 meant that butter could be stored easily.

Since butter was initially very expensive, the common people could not afford this bread spread. As a substitute for butter, the Frenchman Hippolyte Mège-Mouriés invented a spreadable fat made from milk, kidney fat and water in 1869. The taste of this artificial butter was not as good as that of natural butter at first. The recipe was improved in the following decades to such an extent that margarine and butter differed only slightly. The Margarine Act, which Kaiser Wilhelm issued in 1897, included a packaging form for margarine that differed significantly from that for butter. Due to the discovery of using hydrogen to solidify liquid oils, margarine became a mass-produced product from 1902 onwards. Meanwhile, you can choose from a variety of margarine types. For example, there is margarine that is particularly suitable for baking or frying, but there are also margarine types that have special vegetable oils (such as olive oil or rapeseed oil) added.

Healthy bread spreads - organic and/or vegetarian

If you prefer a bread spread that is purely plant-based, you will find the corresponding products in the Vegan/Vegetarian subcategory: Choose from bread spreads that promise a savory change on the breakfast table. The range extends from vegetable cream spreads, which can also be used as dips, to apple syrup, with which you can prepare sauces or dressings, among other things. In any case, the products in this group meet the requirements for food that you have as a vegetarian. You can find out which of the products are even suitable for vegans by reading the product details. Several of the bread spreads that are assigned to the Vegan/Vegetarian subcategory can also be found under the organic spreads. These cream spreads are characterized by ingredients that come mainly from organically controlled agriculture.

Select bread spreads in peace

Shopping in supermarkets is often stressful - especially after work or on weekends. If you may not have the time or inclination to shop, you should already know exactly where the bread spread you prefer is located in the store. Your online grocery shopping, on the other hand, is much more relaxed: Without having to worry about store opening hours, you can display the bread spreads in question and call up the product descriptions. After comparing the information, you can finally put the desired bread spread(s) in your shopping cart.

read more...