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A comment on IBM Bob. Parent comment

Re:IBM Bob by wrboyce on Friday September 04, 2026 @02:56PM (#49568680)
It’s barm, with an m, from barm cakes. Barm is the frothy scummy stuff you get on top of fermented beer, and it contains yeast. Back in the day bakers would take the barm from local brewers to make weakly fermented bread rolls… barm cakes.

(So obviously those calling them cobs or rolls or whatever else are just wrong!)

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Re:IBM Bob by podgietaru on Friday September 04, 2026 @03:01PM (#49568762)
I think that was just autocorrect to be fair. Barm isn't in the standard dictionary
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Re:IBM Bob by wrboyce on Friday September 04, 2026 @04:16PM (#49569705)
I suspected that might be the case, but I wasn’t about to turn down an opportunity to share one of my fun facts!
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Re:IBM Bob by KineticLensman on Saturday September 05, 2026 @10:16AM (#49576721)
Can confirm. Per the (paywalled) Oxford English Dictionary [0]: 'barm' is The froth that forms on the top of fermenting malt liquors, which is used to leaven bread, and to cause fermentation in other liquors; yeast, leaven. OR The froth or foam on the surface of beer OR English regional (chiefly Lancashire). A soft round bread roll, a barm cake.

[0] https://www.oed.com/dictionary/barm_n2?tab=meaning_and_use#2...

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