Le Baguette

Le Baguette

Lately I am on a kick of buying two fresh baguettes from the Costco bakery at my local Costco Wholesale store. Who doesn’t like baguettes? Bread is one of those things that can we wonderful or it can be a boring filler. In the case of fresh baguettes, they are most often wonderful. One of my favorite French photos is of a beret-wearing Frenchman riding off into the sunset with two baguettes strapped to the rack of his bicycle. The baguette is so identifiable that it immediately changes my mind about any person carrying groceries if their grocery bag has a baguette or two sticking out of it. Whenever anyone mentions the Mediterranean diet, I think of a Frenchman sitting at a cafe with a glass of red wine, a plate of aged cheese, a piece of fruit and a baguette. The baguette can be ripped into pieces to eat or sliced on the diagonal. Whenever I travel to Europe or France in particular, there are two things I always want to eat. I want a fresh croissant for breakfast and a crisp baguette with some butter, cheese and sliced meat for lunch (yes, that is called a Po Boy sandwich in Louisiana). Lately, with those two baguettes from Costco, Kim has been cutting the baguettes into three sections that she then freezes for me. Baguette bread is so delicious that she is wise to apportion it for me so I don’t eat too much at one sitting, and freezing it doesn’t do it too much harm since I am generally inclined to toast it anyway. A toasted piece of Costco baguette with butter is a very satisfying repast for me that compliments almost anything that I am having for a meal.

Bread is a symbol for life. The motto of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is Fiat Panis, translated from the Latin as “let there by bread”. It is considered a food staple, which is to say that it is a foundational part of the diet. It is made of mostly wheat flour and most often has a leavening agent like yeast to make it chemically rise of become fluffier. It has been around for 30,000 years, with evidence of its making in both Europe and Australia. Since yeast appears naturally on grain husks, it is likely that some aspects of its creation were more accidental than based on purposeful discovery. It is a staple everywhere in the world except in parts of Asia where rice and noodles play that role based on the local abundance of rice versus other grains that lend themselves to bread-making. That said, there are many different varieties of bread and its fair to say that many of us are familiar with them by dint of our selection of exotic restaurants if not from direct foreign culinary experience. The European forms that are most prevalent are white, brown, whole wheat, rye, pumpernickel, babka, ciabatta, brioche, and bagels. If you wander through the Middle East you will find pita, lavash, matzah and sangak (Persian bread that our friend Faraj has given us to try) and then in India, various forms of Naan and Roti. In Latin America its all about flour and corn tortillas with a bit of sopa, and various forms of pan. But few breads are as recognizable and preferred than the French baguette.

As evidence of the global recognition and national pride that the French hold in their noble baguette, France has just announced that they will be issuing a baguette postage stamp ahead of the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris, the XXXIII Olympiad. That alone is not so unexpected. Using stamps, a national pictorial memorial for any number of historical and noteworthy things, is not so unusual. It happens all the time in many different countries. But the French have added an interesting feature. These baguette stamps will be issued with a new feature, a scratch-and-sniff element that will add a memorable olfactory aspect to invoke the real wonder of the baguette. This is not the first scratch-and-sniff stamp that has ever been issued. The idea first came to market from the U.S. Post Office in 2018 under the banner of the smells of summer of certain types of ice cream and lollipops. Even the French have used the scratch-and-sniff approach before for sweet-smelling chocolate stamps. But finally someone has found a perfect use of the concept by taking a national treasure like the baguette, something that has been placed into historical righteousness by UNESCO naming it an intangible cultural heritage in 2022. Accordingly, France has issued 600,000 of these scratch-and-sniff stamps and they are on sale right now. Given the nature of philately, one must wonder if a scratch-and-sniff stamp will retain its value over time, given the likely erosion to the chemical infusion on the stamp over time.

Imagine where this could go from here. I’m thinking that Germany will need to issue a beer scratch-and-sniff stamp while Italy will most certainly want a series of scratch-and-sniff pasta and pizza stamps, perhaps pepperoni, but Hawaiian less likely. I’m guessing Greece will want to patent the olive scratch-and-sniff stamp very soon. Japan will undoubtedly want a sushi scratch-and-sniff stamp (yikes). I’m wracking my brain for national foods for England and the United States and wonder if Yorkshire Pudding is a recognizable smell. For the United States it would have been hot dogs in days gone by, but I’m thinking something more like the Big Mac would be more globally recognizable now. Anyway, the possibilities, as you can see, are limitless.

I do not know why I and so many others are so enamored with the French baguettes. There is truth to the fact that the quality of bread is often a function of the water used in the dough. Bakers in the know will tell you that the chemistry of local water can have a profound impact on the leavening of the bread as I’m sure the exact nature of the yeast does. Why does slicing the baguette on the bias make such a difference? I think that cutting it that way makes it feel somehow more exotic and…. French. Whatever the reasons for any of this, the smell and taste of the baguette is simply sublime. Add some melting butter to a freshly toasted piece cut on the diagonal and you have a real treat. Ah…le baguette!