A baguette is a variety of bread distinguishable by its much greater
length than width, and noted for its very crispy crust. A standard baguette
is five or six centimeters wide and three or four centimeters tall, but can
be up to a meter in length. It typically weighs 250 grammes (8.8 oz). It is
also known in English as a French stick or a French loaf.
Shorter baguettes are
very often used for sandwiches. These sandwich-sized loafs are sometimes
known as demi-baguettes or tiers. Baguettes are often sliced and served with
pāté or cheeses. As part of the traditional continental breakfast in France,
slices of baguette are spread with jam and dunked in bowls of coffee or hot
chocolate.
Baguettes are seen as closely connected to France and especially to Paris,
though they are available around the world. In France, not all long loaves
are baguettes for example, a standard thicker stick is a flūte and a
thinner loaf is a ficelle.
French food laws define bread as a product containing only the following
four ingredients: water, flour, yeast, and common salt[1]. The addition of
any other ingredient to the basic recipe requires the baker to use a
different name for the final product.
The baguette is a descendant of the bread developed in Vienna in the
mid-19th century when steam ovens were first brought into use, helping to
make possible the crisp crust and the white crumb pitted with holes that
still distinguish the modern baguette. Long loaves had been made for some
time but in October 1920 a law prevented bakers from working before 4am,
making it impossible to make the traditional, often round loaf in time for
customers' breakfasts. The slender baguette solved the problem because it
could be prepared and baked much more rapidly.
From Wikipedia
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