Hee. The Ten Commandments as issued by Coyote:
[link]
I. Thou Shalt Have As Many Gods and Spirits and Personal Trainers and Gurus As You Like Before Me, But You Shalt Not Let Them Block the Exits, and More, You Shall Not Permit Them To Take the Last Beer, For That Beer Is Mine. Seriously. Don't.
VIII. Thou Shalt Not Be A Martyr. If You Have One Beer, Drink It. Do Not Give It To Me and Then Expect Adoration. Dude, That Was Your Beer, I Did Not Break Your Arm To Get It. Give What You Can Give, and Expect Neither Praise Nor Worship. You Are Not Being Morally Superior, You Are Being A Decent Human Being. There Is A Difference.
The leavening, no? Except, I don't know that there's any good reason to call sweet quick breads (banana et al.) "bread" instead of cake.
I vaguely recall cakes with yeast, but may be hallucinating. There definitely are breads without yeast (soda bread, for instance).
There definitely are breads without yeast (soda bread, for instance).
I was trying to hedge my bets by saying "leavening." Does soda bread use significantly more soda than a cake would? Or something?
Basically, I have no idea, and think there may be no actual answer other than the Jewish one.
Its sandwichability.
I said that (co-worker discussion) and then they became obsessed with the layer cake and permutations thereof. So I backed off.
sticks together when you smoosh the crumbs, whereas bread is not
By that tenet, hard dough bread is cake, although it passes the sandwich test and the yeast test and all the other bread tests I can think of. And I'm sure it's not the only bread that does.
Its sandwichability.
I don't think I want a thanksgiving sandwich on banana bread, though. That would be kind of weird.
Also, FTR, in New Joy there are milkless breads and milky breads, and I've made them both, and they both come out quite bread-y. The milk breads come out lighter, smoother (they also have one egg in), but pretty much alike in terms of what the crumbs do. Actually, the milk bread base recipe is right next to the challah recipe, which I would get around to making, if it did not require the separation of egg yolks. Whatever would I do with the whites?
I said, SUGAR.
That's actually my made up criteria. If it is sweet, it's cake. Even though I'll call it banana or zucchini bread. It's really a cake. In disguise.
Whatever would I do with the whites?
The Cake Bible has a section where she lists recipes in different organisations, and one of them is, IIRC, about extra yolks or whites.
There are always meringues, angel food cake, facials, souffles, omelettes ... a whole bunch of options.
Betsy would know. I bet Betsy will come on and tell us it is some complex interaction between the milk, sugar, and rising agent that makes the difference. Possibly also the butter/fat content.
My criteria is this - if I can add either wheat germ or savory herbs to it with no fundamental shift in tastiness, it's a bread. Thus banana bread is a bread, as is brioche.
I fully accept that my criteria is not other people's.
