Now I really feel like I am back in undergrad...

As my colleague accurately pointed out, Roggenbrot, or roggenbrod, is not the Russian word for black bread. In my haste to post before meeting up with my mother, I admit to a mistake or two. In addition to a few typos, I misspoke with reference to Roggenbrot, crediting Russia with the etymological origin of this former USSR favorite. Roggenbrot is not the Russian word for black bread. Rather this Germanic word refers to a specific class of black breads popular in Eastern Europe and Southern Russia. References to Roggenbrot have been found in the literature of the Ukraine, Russia, and other countries formerly part of the USSR as early as 1717 (probably earlier than that, but I don’t feel like looking into it). Chorniy (this is how it is spelled by the leading Russian bakeries in the US – some even spell it Cherniy) is indeed Russian for “dark”, however it is often used to classify dark breads made without sugar and oil. It is my opinion that the bread referenced by Foer is indeed the Ukrainian favored Roggenbrot which is made with both molasses and sugar. Now that I know the “standard” our blogs must meet, I will take more than 30 minutes to post.