People have worried about bread quality for a long time. In some theoretical sense, I believe that homemade bread is better than purchased bread. That said, I can barely remember the last time that I made bread.
Here is what a hundred-year-old home economics textbook said:
A pound loaf of bread at the bakery should cost five cents, the cost being slightly less when the bread is made at home, even taking the fuel into account. It is an open question, however, whether bread should be made at home or bought at the bakery, all of the circumstances being weighted in the balance by the individual.
In America, we need to learn to dictate and control the methods in the public bakeries because bakers’ bread is being used more and more, although it is said that 50 percent is still made at home. If bread is to be bought, it is necessary for the housekeeper to understand, the bread-making process, and the standard of good bread so that she may criticize intelligently, and force the public bakeries to furnish bread made under ideal conditions.
It must be understood that the baker’s oven is fitted to do better work than the small oven of the average kitchen, and if the public through laws and inspection, will control the quality of the materials used and the cleanliness of the process, baker’s bread will be a useful “ready-cooked” food.
Foods and Household Management: A Textbook of the Household Arts (1915)
