Transported Back in Time with Rye Bread

Homemade salad with rye bread from Holland

Today I found a brick of bread labeled Rye bread, Pumpernickel, from Holland. Amazingly, a small brick of it weighed 500 grams. Being from Cincinnati, Ohio, I love rye bread. Growing up we had 26 varieties of rye bread available to choose from. I am lucky to find one hard loaf of Centeno Negro in either Chedraui or Mega, so this was quite a find. It was in the international section by the sliced ham and turkey at Chedraui.

But when I opened it up, to my utter delight, it was so much more than expected. This was not any ordinary rye bread. This was like the brown bread my mother used to make. As I took the first few bites before my salad was prepared, see the photo above ... I was transported back in time. 

I was a girl of 10 or 12 again, helping my mom in the kitchen. We had collected cans for a few weeks, cutting out the tops and saving the cans. We used the size that baked beans come in. Then on this special Saturday, my mom would make the brown bread from my grandmother's recipe. She would pour the thick mixture in to the cans and bake them in the oven. When the bread cooled sufficiently, we would turn them upside down, get out the hand can opener and open the bottom. Then I would help push the brown bread through the can and pop it on a plate. Grab a slab of cream cheese and be transported to Heaven.

If any of you have German or Dutch roots or have ever had this type of brown bread and loved it, I highly recommend this treat. I think it was $42 pesos for 500 grams. It is made by ven der Meulen of Holland. I could taste the molasses and for a few minutes, I was no longer in Cozumel. I was back in Ohio, enjoying my Saturday treat with my mom.

van der Meulen Dutch Pumpernickel wrapper

Miss you mom!