>>>So, my next question in this investigation is - how did people make sandwiches when oven-toasting wasn't practicable and toasters weren't invented yet? Was bread different then? I know the bread I have in mind exists here - I have found such bread once or twice. Was all bread like that before toasters?
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>>I rarely toast bread to make sandwiches (with the possible exception of a 'Western Sandwich'). Bottom line. If you don't like toast, then that's your own taste, but the bread itself isn't better or worse just because some people do like toast. Bread is bread. Good bread usually makes good toast, and lousy bread isn't improved by toasting it.
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>>I have to admit I'm a bit amused by the fact that you so adamantly hate toast, and feel that bread is only good if you don't toast it.
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>I didn't say I don't like toast. It's the industrial sliced bread that must be toasted that I can't stand - has wrong smell, is too watery, too spongy, and virtually crust free.
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>The bread my wife makes is pretty much a nirvana-in-a-loaf. And it does get toasted sometimes - when, say, older than two days. And we have a slicer machine so slicing to toaster width isn't a problem.

What's missing in this conversation is how important manufactured (yuck) bread was to women. When women starting moving into the workforce, it became more and more difficult to do cooking from scratch and work out of the home. There weren't any tv dinners back then and putting a meal together was a lot of labor. Bread is a staple. Unless the women wanted to be up all night baking bread for the next day, a loaf from the store or bakery was a godsend. It's amazing what someone will settle for in order to have more time for other responsibilities (except for those folks who could afford kitchen help or lived near a bakery). Pre-sliced bread saved the woman of the household from having to slice the bread in the morning and back then everyone had lots of kids. You couldn't have your kids slicing their own bread or you would end up with ragged pieces and mashed bread. Sliced bread was even banned for a time during WWII.

The preference for home-made bread though is pretty universal as demonstrated by the huge sales of bread machines.