Food manufacturers' Secret stuff

[Michael_Schaap]

We had talked about this is another thread.

About how for instance, the salt that we would put in home made bread is nothing compared to the amount of salt that food makers put in thier bread. I mean how does our 2 tsp or 1 Tbs compare to what they actually put in?

How about cheeese. How much salt do big cheesemakers put in their cheese compared to what a home maker would do... or perhaps even better... how does the cholesterol compare? The home maker can use 2% milk for cheese making, but I am told it will be drier and not taste the same. But, in our process of making cheese with whole milk does the chosterol come out much better then the big cheeses as this assumption holds true to many of the things we home make as apposed to buy in the store.

Well at any rate, I was wondering if anyone knows of any web site that has this kind of information... or have seen a book.... or someting like this...

Any thoughts?

 

[Andy M.]

Michael:

An easy way to figure the differences is to buy recipe/cookbook software that provides nutritional analysis for your recipes. You can then enter a recipe and the number of servings and get a nutritional analysis that can be compared to the store product's label.

I use MasterCook (around $20.00) and that provides me with this info. Other softwares also do this. If you search this site, you'll find some discussion of members' comments on different software packages.

If you're watching what you eat and want to monitor salt, fats and cholesterol, something like this is a very valuable tool.

 

[Michael in FtW]

If you use 1 teaspoon of table salt per 1 pound loaf of "home made" bread, it will probably have a higher sodium content than commercial "off the store shelf" bread. While salt does add to flavor, texture and aids in strengthening gluten - it also retards fermentation and too much will kill the yeast ... so commercial bakers are not going to use any more than necessary. For example: the recipes that I use just about every week call for 1-teaspoon of salt (2360 mg) - and the local commercial bread bakers come in at around 1525 mg for white bread and 1960 mg for honey-butter wheat bread.

Different cheeses have different recipes - and some require as much dedication to ingredients, equipment, storage, and time as making wine. You can make low fat low sodium cheeses - but they will not be like the cheeses made from high fat and/or high sodium. Substituting this and that is kind of like someone trying to make chicken noodle soup from a chuck roast and potatoes sometimes.

Andy offered one good solution - software that gives you nutritional information for your ingredients. Another way is to simply look at the nutritional information on the packages of the ingredients your recipe calls for and calculating it yourself.

 

[Rom]

If my memory serves me well, a software called BigOven gives you the nutritional analysis as well, you can search for it and get a 30 day trial.