Perheleipuri Salonen makes traditional bread with modern techniques
Perheleipuri Salonen has a history of 113 years because the first breads were baked by Johanna Salonen as early as 1905.
Johanna Salonen ran Perheleipuri Salonen for nearly 50 years at a time when brick ovens were heated with wood and finished breads were taken by handcart to a marketplace. From the beginning both multigrain bread and sweet-and-sour bread made from malt root have been baked. The bakery was operated at first in connection with a shop run by Johanna’s husband Nestori but over the years the bakery grew bigger than the shop.
Johanna’s youngest son Martti took possession of the operation in the 1950s, and the first industrial bakery was built on Vähäheikkiläntie in the 1970s. The Salonen family is still responsible for the bakery operation, and the managing director at the moment is Juha Salonen, a representative of the fourth generation.
Salonen’s Bakery makes fresh bread and pastries six times a week for over 1000 shops across Southern Finland. Rolls are the product for which the bakery is known but the rolls are now equalled by oat breads made of a hundred per cent oat, traditional sourdough rye breads and sourdough breads based on a 24-hour rest.
”For example, our rye bread is made by traditional methods from a sourdough without yeast. The only ingredients are rye flour, water and salt”, says Juha Salonen.
Salonen’s biggest challenge has been to make the traditional methods function on a large scale. When bread leaves the bakery for thousand shops almost every day and the uniform quality of products is of primary importance, they cannot afford to guess results.
Jussi’s bread with 24-hour rest
One of the newest successes of Perheleipuri Salonen has been light sourdough breads which have rested long.
”The resting time of 24 hours and baking in sourdough improve the structure, the taste and the preservability of bread, or all the important qualities of bread without additives”, says Salonen and continues: ”The dough based on a long rest is sloppy and moist so it is more difficult to handle than a normal dough but we have got special equipment for it so that handling goes smoothly. In addition, the breads are baked in a separately acquired industrial oven equipped with a stone grate where the breads get part of their specific taste.”
A model of sourdough bread was searched by Salonen in Central Europe already more than 10 years ago. All the breads based on a long dough rest have been named Jussi’s breads by the bakery and these products are easy to find by name on the store shelves. The selection includes Jussi’s multigrain bread, oat bread, rye bread and rustic bread.
The main reason for investing in sourdough bread has been customers’ interest in high-quality products. Tasteless French bread has stepped aside and it has been replaced by more tasty alternatives though they may be more laborious to prepare. And it is the high-quality bread that Leipomo Salonen is always noted for.
Other recipes of Perheleipuri Salonen:
- Archipelago bread snacks from Perheleipuri Salonen with gubbröra
- Open grape jam sandwiches made of Jussi’s multigrain bread from Perheleipuri Salonen
- Patty on Perheleipuri Salonen’s multigrain bread
- Whitefish tartar on Salonen’s archipelago bread snacks
- Black Tuscan kale pesto on Jussi’s multigrain bread from Perheleipuri Salonen
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