Bread in a Can?

My friend Dave asked me if I have ever had bread in a can.  My response was, No, and that I had never heard of it.  I laughed at the thought and never considered investigating it myself.  The next thing I knew, I had a box of canned bread sitting at my front door.  Thanks Dave, new things keep life interesting.

Now I had to give it a try.  But what was I going to do with a can of bread?  I did a little research and discovered that there are a lot of people that eat and love canned brown bread toasted.  But as I was reading through the comment threads, I discovered that the most memorable way to eat this canned delight is with baked beans and hot dogs.  I may have to give it a try.  The thing that i found most interesting is how long it’s been around.  Brown bread in a can is an old New England tradition that has been around since 1867.  For that reason alone, I had to give it a try.

I’m not going to lie; I was extremely leery about testing out this colorful can of bread.  Just the idea of bread in a can was a bit disturbing to me.  But the time had come and I needed to open both ends of the can and shake out its contents.

To my surprise, I found the bread to be quite good.  I really wouldn’t call it bread; it reminds me more of a very moist and dense cake with a strong molasses flavor that is surprisingly balanced.

So I sliced up the loaf and I tried the bread three ways,

Straight out of the can; it had a dense cake like texture with a strong molasses flavor.

Toasted in my toaster then smeared with cream cheese;   the cream cheese took away some of the sharpness of the molasses giving the bread a more balanced bite.

Buttered on both sides and grilled like a grill cheese sandwich; this resulted in a butter soaked center with a deliciously crispy yet chewy edge.

I really liked them all three ways.  I also found it easier to enjoy when I didn’t think of it as bread and instead a dense slice of molasses cake.