Talk:Baguette

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 30 June 2020 and 3 August 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Kellyjank.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 15:13, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Official French bread

This article is wrong, isn't it? I believe French food laws specify that "french bread", not any bread, is to be made only of water, flour, yeast, and salt. Please correct me if I'm wrong, or correct the article if I'm not. CGameProgrammer 19:56, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

I deleted the passage below as it was not sensible : I tracked who inserted it and found that it was inserted by user Center-for-Medieval-Studies who was banned more then a year ago but I found today a text that he left in the article on Baguette : 08:55, 6 June 2005 Center-for-Medieval-Studies He wrote :

The French government recently codified into law a specific type of baguette, the "baguette de tradition", which can only be made using pre-modern methods. This classification was the result of the efforts of historian Steven Kaplan, who specializes in the history of French bread from 1700 - 1770. Kaplan called upon the French to reject the modern baguette - which he denounced as a "tasteless, odorless monstrosity" - in favor of more flavorful, original types of French bread. The key, Kaplan's research suggested, is the 18th century practice of allowing the yeast to develop overnight, which results in bread with a cream-colored interior (rather than the familiar white) and a much more pronounced flavor and smell which is widely regarded as superior to the modern baguette.

Did someone try to find the mistakes that he wrote in the wikipedia?

--YoavD 19:34, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm not an expert about baguettes. I did my best to undo the damage he did to some other topics, but I really don't know what to make of an edit like that. Go ahead and delete it as unsourced if you wish. DurovaCharge! 02:24, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

--YoavD 19:15, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

There is some confusion in the paragraph "Manufacture and styles" in the terms used. The french law that's quoted in the article states that bakers can only use the word "traditional" (e.g. "baguette de tradition", "pain traditionnel"...) when the ingredients are limited to flour, water, salt, yeast, 2% max. of broad beans flour, 0.5% max of soya flour, and 0.3% max. of wheat malt flour.

The list of legal ingredients for a normal baguette or bread (as specified by EU directive 95/2/CE, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31995L0002:FR:HTML) allows the use of 106 additives on top of flour, water, salt and yeast. Obviously, they're not supposed to be used all together (some would even cancel each other out), but some are quite common, like ascorbic acid (which helps leavening) and malt extract (which gives the typical color of the baguette, and also gives a better taste).

There are three categories: 1) No additives can be used, 2) 14 additives can be used (French bread), 3) 106 additives can be used (all other types of bread). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.76.201.9 (talk) 22:12, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

My english is not good enough for me to edit the article, so if some charitable soul wanders by, feel free to edit it! 82.66.91.114 (talk) 00:13, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one article was rated and this bot brought all the other ratings up to at least that level. BetacommandBot 02:28, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Vandalism

erm... I'm not quite up to speed on wikipedia protocol, but there's a glaring piece of vandalism on this page, and I wasn't sure how to bring it to an editor's attention. Anyway, someone messed up the "baguette" page.

"When you eat it, you make a noise such as MnMnMnMnMnMnMn And also it is Yummy in your tummy. You are also bound to say KAKAPPOOO!"

Praverma (talk) 22:11, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

Done. Jauerback (talk) 22:12, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

Minimum 80 centimeters??

That's 3 feet! I've been to France, I don't recall seeing baguettes that long. Is this a mistake? Arvindn (talk) 19:03, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

It's not: - The normal baguette is indeed 80cm (2'7"). - The "traditional baguette" (the word "traditional" being legally binding: they cannot contain additives except for broad beans flour, soya flour and wheat malt flour) is only 60cm (2ft) to 70cm (2'4"). The shorter size gives it a more "rugged" look, conveying the "tradition" notion. There is an annual competition called "Grand Prix de la Meilleure Baguette de Paris" (Best Baguette in Paris Award), which required the traditional baguettes to be 60cm long in 2007 (http://www.viamichelin.fr/viamichelin/fra/tpl/mag5/art20070315/htm/tour-gastro-concours-baguette-paris.htm), but changed it to 70cm in 2008 (http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/viamichelin/gbr/tpl/mag5/art20080301/htm/tour-gastro-meilleure-baguette-paris-2008.htm). A variation of +/- 5cm (2 inches) is tolerated. 82.66.91.114 (talk) 00:31, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

I got a tip that the "80cm minimum" thing was added to prove a point and is probably inaccurate, and wasn't cited, so I nuked it. I did find the definition of baguette de pain de tradition française on the French government website which lists it at about 60cm, but since I don't speak French and I'm relying on automatic translation, I don't trust it as a source. It would be reasonable add back in some general reference to length (not stated as a hard-and-fast minimum), and then additionally explain the whole "baguette de pain de tradition française" thing. Also, to 82.66.91.114's point, there might be an updated length somewhere. -- RobLa (talk) 05:35, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

It's correct. I'm French and the text does say that the proper "tradition française" baguette (an upscale version of the common article to be sure) should be about 60 cm or 2 ft long. 80cm would be 2'8" and rather difficult to manage... and it's already common that the baker ask you if you want your baguette size loaves cut in half for easy handling. --Svartalf (talk) 15:48, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

I believe the French definition of a baguette "tradition francaise" is not an overall legal definition, but the definition for a particular brand, much like appelation controlee for wine. I do not believe there is any legal definition for a baguette, traditional or otherwise, that has general application.

69.237.76.53 (talk) 08:43, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Wrong picture?

The photo of a "baguette" on this and the French version shows a shorter, thicker bread than I believe the baguette is (I think this is a batard, but I don't know the other styles well). The baguette I know appears in the (no doubt copyrighted) picture here: [1] (page 40, top left).

Any French volunteers to go to their local boulangerie and grab a real baguette and photograph it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.237.41.235 (talk) 17:21, 4 July 2009 (UTC)

Unsourced/dubious

Not only are both these statements wrong, but they seem to be completely unsourced: "a bâtard, or bastard in English, originally a way to use up leftover dough, but now a common shape with similar weight to that of a baguette, another tubular shaped loaf is known as a flûte (also known in the United States as a parisienne) flûtes are generally half the length, twice the width, and approximately the same weight as baguettes," No documented origin for the term "batard" exists; the flute is almost indistinguishable from a baguette, heavier in some places, lighter in others. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.237.76.53 (talk) 08:46, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

French stick

Perhaps it should be mentioned that a baguette is also known as a French Stick? Citations: [2] [3] -62.30.219.79 (talk) 16:45, 7 September 2010 (UTC)

Agreed!!! Googled French stick to see how international it was, got a hit here then wondered why it didn't say French stick=baguette. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 118.163.199.188 (talk) 07:10, 12 April 2012 (UTC)

Rant removed

The following shouting rant by anonymous editor 77.205.199.80 on 10 July 2009‎ was embedded as a commented-out paragraph in the "Manufacture and styles" section:

<French food laws define bread as a product containing only the following four ingredients [*** THIS STATEMENT IS INCORRECT: YOU'RE CONFUSING "PAIN" (BREAD) AND "PAIN DE TRADITION" ***]: water, flour, yeast, and common salt[4] [*** CLICK THE LINK AND READ ***]; the addition of any other ingredient to the basic recipe requires the baker to use a different name for the final product (though French law does allow for certain specified additives [[*** IF ADDITIVES ARE ALLOWED, IT'S NOT JUST WATER, FLOUR, YEAST, AND SALT. NOTE THAT THE "BAGUETTE DE TRADITION" DOESN'T CONTAINS ADDITIVES BUT THE REGULAR BAGUETTE DOES ***] and the flour itself may legally contain a long list of additives ).

 — Quicksilver^{T @} 13:48, 19 March 2013 (UTC)

References

Cornell Bread Project

I have been working on a project for Cornell, as a newbie to Wikipedia, with the topic of Bread . I found this great article from the Today Show about the decline of the baguette culture in France. I think this would be a great addition to this page! This is the link to the article Today Show Bthuglas (talk) 17:42, 1 October 2013 (UTC)

Symbol of culture

The article could point out how President Macron of France has suggested the baguette could be seen as a symbol of culture. Vorbee (talk) 18:16, 13 January 2018 (UTC)

Origin myths

Hey guys! I added a section to this page about the different myths of the origin of the baguette. I couldn't find any single source that was super credible, but each source I looked into shared the same stories. If anyone finds more credible sources feel free to replace mine! Kellyjank (talk) 23:44, 30 July 2020 (UTC)

Per serving?

The calorie value says "(Per serving)" (which appears to be part of {{Infobox food}}), but doesn't specify how much the serving is. With baguette serving sizes varying so much, it feels weird to me to not provide any serving size to go with the calorie value. 2601:182:180:1160:59E0:56CA:781A:3F2E (talk) 13:37, 7 June 2023 (UTC)