Cuban bread

[ahm Fae glasgow]

Hi all,

I just got back from Cuba last week and I must say that the bread there is fantastic. Go figure eh! go on vacation and the best thing I can say is the bread is fantastic. A word of warning, don't eat the beef, it's as tough as old boot leather and even done in front of me on a BBQ it required a table saw to cut it. the taste was also way different from what I am accustomed to in Canada.

Anyways I digress, if anyone has a authentic Cuban bread recipe I would appreciate it. I have looked on youtube, but nothing there is consistent from what I found. I did find that salt there was different from the standard iodized salt here in Canada as was their milk. I'm wondering if that could be the difference.

[ComradeQ]

A word of warning, don't eat the beef, it's as tough as old boot leather and even done in front of me on a BBQ it required a table saw to cut it. the taste was also way different from what I am accustomed to in Canada.

On the resorts this may be true, but having a good home cooked Ropa Vieja or "Old Clothes" as it translates to is amazing. The beef really benefits from slow cooking and shredding. Also, the cattle there are not fed a steady diet of growth hormones, antibiotics and fatteners so they tend towards being very lean and fat free.

On a side note, since Cuba has not been able to afford insecticides and pesticides since the collapse of the Soviet Union they have now become an almost entirely organic nation. The veg, fruit and meat are all chemical free.

As for the bread, I was told the last time I was in Havana and speaking with some friends there that the secret is to use lard. I have sent a message to one of my friends to see if I can get a recipe for you, in the mean time this one looks good ... https://icuban.com/food/mobile/pan_cubano2.html

[ahm Fae glasgow]

ComradeQ : thanks very much for checking into this further for me. yes it was the resort beef that i was referring to. They served up something that looked like ground beef, but when it came down to it, was a disgusting texture that went mushy and almost took on the texture of the old kennelmeat dog food. totally disastrous. I eventually resorted to living on chicken and pork and avoided the beef under all circumstances. As I have said the bread is fantastic and the quality and richness of cheese is to die for. I made 2 very large cheese and ham sandwiches for my return flight home as we left at 6:00am before the restaurants opened for service and new it would be a long time before we got home for a meal. Sadly being half awake when we left I forgot the sandwiches in the fridge. She laughed all the way home on the plane and made sure to tell everyone she spoke with about how much trouble I had gone to and then left them. Nasty piece of work is my Mrs. but it was funny. i look forward to any help you can get, thanks again.