Whereabouts in the North West are you from?? 
For sliced, I’m a big fan of Jackson’s brown, but agree - it can be a bit sweet.
We’re a bit bereft here in East London because Percy Ingle has closed down. They weren’t supermarket bread so are off topic, but still…a great shame. Sadly missed.
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I just searched and found a recipe with lard and milk warmed to ‘blood temperature’ - brilliant.
At least we can still buy lard and beef dripping - I’m sure it’s better for us than all the awful margarines that were around in my childhood.
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Sadly I don’t remember this one, I was too young:
I loved Purdey though as a teen.
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Virtually all commercial shop bought bread contains additives and enzymes … to preserve and speed up the process (Chorleywood, introduced in the 60’s)
Real bread uses only 3 basic ingredients;
- Flour
- Water
- Salt
(and a little yeast if not using a Sourdough leaven)
There should be no other additives.
You may have a proper local Artisan Bakery in your area, otherwise … bake your own 
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Too far North fir me mate. Essex boy me…n me baps.
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I make my own with Shipton Mill flour. Usually 50:50 mix of stoneground white and whole meal.
I’ve yet to crack sourdough so it’s an overnight recipe with enriched dough with butter and an egg. Now that the weather has improved I’ll give sourdough another go with a rye starter.
Our farmers’ market has four bakers attending, so we’re spoilt for choice when I forget to bake.
Most supermarket bread is absolute crap. We use a Panasonic machine and good organic flour. It makes lovely bread and you know exactly what’s in in. It’s far cheaper than shop bread too, especially if you want organic.
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Brought up in Alsager before moving all over the place. Now in sunny Devon
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No fats?
Funnily enough there are a few artisan bread shops locally, and friends of friends run one.
The Bap Map speaks the truth then!
Do Devon people stare at you in the bakers when you ask for a dozen Barm Cakes?
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This thread is fascinating to me, in the netherlands we don’t really have ‘bread brands’. Our supermarkets generally sell their own bread, mostly fresh/daily in unmarked paper or plastic bags, and we have a lot of separate bakeries (usually close to the supermarkets) which sell their own baked bread. I think there are at least 5-6 fresh bakeries within a mile from my house…
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Agree - partly why I specified supermarket bread, some are better than others, theer may be good ones I’ve overlooked.
Our ancient Panasonic SD-255 is about 3 feet away from me as I type - we used it a lot during the start of the pandemic, less later.
I love using it, and made some very tasty stuff randomly using organic white flour and some organic spelt and rye, just experimenting really. Great fun, and good fun for the kids to measure out ingredients from the recipe booklet. Not sure why it’s been sidelined really!
Found some very nice organic flour variants at Waitrose - about the only flours that weren’t sold out a year ago.
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Probably wiser than asking if you could take a peek at their baps!
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Took the words right out of my mouth. Yes Panasonic bread machine, simple, fast, no mess and 100% perfect lovely warm bread results. Favourite flour is Wessex Mill French Bread flour on the French bread setting. Takes longer, but great.
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Most UK supermarkets have in-store bakeries too, and many produce quiet nice products.
The ‘sliced bread’ convenience market is huge though.
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That’s really interesting, i don’t think that exists here at all! (except for glutenfree and other special/diet bread)
Most supermarket bread in the states is crap, highly processed and full of poisonous ingredients. We get the take and bake varieties that have no more than 3-4 ingredients or we make our own which I’m going to do more of.
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