Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The most important function of a breadmaker is "can it bake bread?"
I was in the market for a new breadmaker and I had a list of features I wanted. But first, I've been making bread at least once a week since 2012/2013 and using the cheapest breadmaker you could buy at the time. It's an Oster expressbake. It still works great but it's getting up there in age so want to find a replacement before it goes out. The features I wanted in a new breadmaker are dual paddles, large horizontal loaf pan, ceramic pan, ceramic paddles, dual heaters, and a programmable custom menu. I don't really care as much about optional menu options (jam, yogurt, etc), as long as it can bake bread reliably & has a custom programmable menu. Well, neretva has a model that just came out in November 2024 that has those features for a lot less than the other candidates. SAKI has a model with most of those features for about the same price. Hamilton beach has a model with almost all of those features. Then there is zojirushi which although it always gets great reviews, it seems way over-priced to me. So I bought the neretva somewhat based on their smaller breadmakers got great reviews so I assumed the larger 3.3 lb one would be great too. As soon as it came in, I read the manual which seemed pretty clear, looked over the included bread recipes, and they seemed way off based on my experience (and if you know the bakers golden ratio, you know how easy that was to tell). So first (not in this video) I baked "my daily bread recipe" which is one I have done 100's of times & its always perfect in the oster. The problem is, its really too small a loaf size for the neretva pan but thats ok, I just wanted to run a recipe through it I was inherently familiar with & see the results. Outside of being smaller, which was expected since the neretva has a larger pan, It didn't look very promising to say the least. I assume another difference between the oster and neretva must be baking temperature and it was also baked for about 8 minutes longer time but that should have still made a decent loaf slightly darker since I use light crust always. So then, I wanted to try the included "basic white sandwich bread" from the neretva users manual just in case maybe they know something about bread baking that I don't. Let's see how it does, and by the way, it does bake beautiful bread but only if you don't use the included recipes (every one of them are wrong just going by the bakers golden ratio and I'm not talking just a little bit off either). So, with that being said, I don't feel this would be a great choice for someone without bread baking experience as their first bread maker if you plan to use mostly the included recipes and you want a mostly "slap it together and wallah" breadmaking experience, your bread is going to be dense. If you are ok with experimenting or using different recipes than the included ones, then you will be fine because the neretva 3.3 lb breadmaker can bake beautiful bread, just not using the included recipes (there are lots of recipes online that will work, as long as you go with a 2lb or larger recipe). The third and final loaf today was using my own modifications to the neretva "basic white sandwich bread recipe" and it was "almost perfect" but could use a little more tweaking to make it truly perfect. Maybe this video will entice them to fix the recipes in the book and I can change this review. I mean, maybe it was a conversion error from one language to another (or from metric to imperial) since I believe this was made in china.
If hamilton beach, SAKI, or zojirushi would like to send me a breadmaker for comparison review, reach out.
this breadmaker: amzn.to/3SAYq8J
the oster I have (but its a newer model - I can highly recommend oster breadmakers). There are three links because they currently have 3 models available with various features:
amzn.to/3FpQaVT
amzn.to/3SQKmYw
amzn.to/43uuYGm
Neretva Book Recipe I modified: with reasons below in notes:
Recipe Calls for: Amount: :Eds Fixed Ratio:
Water 260ml/8.8floz/260g :320g
Olive Oil 42ml/1.4floz/38g :38g
Salt 4g :10g
Sugar 63g :48g
Milk Powder 24g :8g
Bread Flour 420g :533g
Yeast 4g :4g
Notes::
water: original only 62%, with oil it is 64% -- too low
Salt: not enough salt, has 4 functions: controls rate of yeast fermentation, strengthens gluten development, improves crust color, modifies flavor.
Sugar: too much sugar, this isn't a sweet bread
milk: too much milk
flour: not enough flour for pan volume & water hydration ratio
Yeast: 4g is ok for warmer temperatures but winter could go up to 6g in a cooler home
The most important function of a breadmaker is "can it bake bread?"
I was in the market for a new breadmaker and I had a list of features I wanted. But first, I've been making bread at least once a week since 2012/2013 and using the cheapest breadmaker you could buy at the time. It's an Oster expressbake. It still works great but it's getting up there in age so want to find a replacement before it goes out. The features I wanted in a new breadmaker are dual paddles, large horizontal loaf pan, ceramic pan, ceramic paddles, dual heaters, and a programmable custom menu. I don't really care as much about optional menu options (jam, yogurt, etc), as long as it can bake bread reliably & has a custom programmable menu. Well, neretva has a model that just came out in November 2024 that has those features for a lot less than the other candidates. SAKI has a model with most of those features for about the same price. Hamilton beach has a model with almost all of those features. Then there is zojirushi which although it always gets great reviews, it seems way over-priced to me. So I bought the neretva somewhat based on their smaller breadmakers got great reviews so I assumed the larger 3.3 lb one would be great too. As soon as it came in, I read the manual which seemed pretty clear, looked over the included bread recipes, and they seemed way off based on my experience (and if you know the bakers golden ratio, you know how easy that was to tell). So first (not in this video) I baked "my daily bread recipe" which is one I have done 100's of times & its always perfect in the oster. The problem is, its really too small a loaf size for the neretva pan but thats ok, I just wanted to run a recipe through it I was inherently familiar with & see the results. Outside of being smaller, which was expected since the neretva has a larger pan, It didn't look very promising to say the least. I assume another difference between the oster and neretva must be baking temperature and it was also baked for about 8 minutes longer time but that should have still made a decent loaf slightly darker since I use light crust always. So then, I wanted to try the included "basic white sandwich bread" from the neretva users manual just in case maybe they know something about bread baking that I don't. Let's see how it does, and by the way, it does bake beautiful bread but only if you don't use the included recipes (every one of them are wrong just going by the bakers golden ratio and I'm not talking just a little bit off either). So, with that being said, I don't feel this would be a great choice for someone without bread baking experience as their first bread maker if you plan to use mostly the included recipes and you want a mostly "slap it together and wallah" breadmaking experience, your bread is going to be dense. If you are ok with experimenting or using different recipes than the included ones, then you will be fine because the neretva 3.3 lb breadmaker can bake beautiful bread, just not using the included recipes (there are lots of recipes online that will work, as long as you go with a 2lb or larger recipe). The third and final loaf today was using my own modifications to the neretva "basic white sandwich bread recipe" and it was "almost perfect" but could use a little more tweaking to make it truly perfect. Maybe this video will entice them to fix the recipes in the book and I can change this review. I mean, maybe it was a conversion error from one language to another (or from metric to imperial) since I believe this was made in china.
If hamilton beach, SAKI, or zojirushi would like to send me a breadmaker for comparison review, reach out.
this breadmaker: amzn.to/3SAYq8J
the oster I have (but its a newer model - I can highly recommend oster breadmakers). There are three links because they currently have 3 models available with various features:
amzn.to/3FpQaVT
amzn.to/3SQKmYw
amzn.to/43uuYGm
Neretva Book Recipe I modified: with reasons below in notes:
Recipe Calls for: Amount: :Eds Fixed Ratio:
Water 260ml/8.8floz/260g :320g
Olive Oil 42ml/1.4floz/38g :38g
Salt 4g :10g
Sugar 63g :48g
Milk Powder 24g :8g
Bread Flour 420g :533g
Yeast 4g :4g
Notes::
water: original only 62%, with oil it is 64% -- too low
Salt: not enough salt, has 4 functions: controls rate of yeast fermentation, strengthens gluten development, improves crust color, modifies flavor.
Sugar: too much sugar, this isn't a sweet bread
milk: too much milk
flour: not enough flour for pan volume & water hydration ratio
Yeast: 4g is ok for warmer temperatures but winter could go up to 6g in a cooler home
