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| BREAD MATTERS: The State of Modern Bread and a Definitive Guide to Baking Your Own | 
 enlarge | Author: Andrew Whitley
Publisher: Fourth Estate Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £20.00
Buy Used: £11.01
You Save: £8.99 (45%)
New (22) from £12.53
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 4454
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 371
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.1
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 7.6 x 1.7
ISBN: 0007203748
EAN: 9780007203741
ASIN: 0007203748
Publication Date: September 4, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Passionate about good cliches October 23, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I don't doubt the sincerity of the author and his passion (dread word) for 'good' bread (never ever bad bread) but I could have done without page after page of rants about the state of the food industry. I can find that free of charge in any newspaper, magazine or TV programme and it's all become very smug and boring. I guess I should have been alerted by the title.
The non-ranting bits of the book are engagingly written and all the recipes that I've tried have been good. I do wish however that some simple line drawings of the techniques could have been provided as the prose can be a tad confusing when you are up to your elbows in dough. Try this for size "...roll the dough into a sausage about twice as long as the longest side of the tin. Flatten this sausage with your knuckles and fold it in three. Again, knuckle the dough down until it is a flattish rectangle about two-thirds the length of your tin. Starting at the edge furthest from you, fold it over and roll it up, trying to keep the dough under some tension but ..."
Just pray that the phone doesn't ring while you're at in the middle of that.
Breadmaking as a metaphor for revolution April 6, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
As a complete novice to breadmaking, I was stunned by this tour de force. I had not realised that we are eating such rubbish in the average sliced pan. This book shows how ordinary mortals can bake delicious and nutritious bread from two ingredients (flour and water) using time as the third ingredient. Along the way, the author decries the state of modern UK bread - soft gooey pap which reflects the sickening influences of the nanny state and big business. I have followed the recipes and produced bread which is consistently devoured by my three kids. They take three slices each into school for lunch every day and are mobbed by their friends for 'a taste'. In a way this is a sad book because it highlights how much we have lost in our rush to make fast cheap food for the masses. On the other hand it is a clarion call for revolution! If I can bake bread, anyone can. I urge all readers of this review to buy this book, for its fascinating history, biochemistry, biology and political content... and most of all for the tasty bread it teaches the reader to create. Well done for a heroic effort Mr. Whitley!
Bread really does matter. January 9, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I agree totally with all the other positive comments regarding this excellent book. If you are serious about food and baking your own bread (it covers the whole breadth of yeast type products, plus an excellent section on sourdough of course) do not hesitate to buy a copy.
I am so proud to own a copy! Thank you Mr Whitley very much indeed!
Brilliant - Simple and easy to understand - Great results! December 27, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Skip the first half - If you are buying this book you already know you want to bake your own bread. Jump instead straight to the wonderful sourdough recipe. The method described worked for me first time and now I have lovely sourdough bread, certainly the best homemade bread I have ever made.
Entertaining polemic and great recipes - what more could I ask? June 9, 2007
46 out of 47 found this review helpful
If you bake bread, then you will be in sympathy with what Andrew Whitley has to say. The author rants extensively about the state of the industry, and the depredations to our palate caused by the Chorleywood process with no signs of abatement. He informs this with an eye to the biochemistry of baking that is missing from most 'hard-core' bread books.
About three quarters of the book is devoted to the process of baking; we are taken through simple yeast risen recipes, and led directly into creating a no nonsense rye sourdough starter. The recipes here are centred around Russian style ryes, with additional recipes for different grains: wheat and rye of course, but also spelt and gram. Later chapters include the modern trend for flavoured doughs (tomato and onion, mushroom and garlic, etc), and cover the range from ciabatta and calzone to stollen and lardy cake, with an extensive chapter on gluten-free baking.
It should be clear to the experienced from the above description that Andrew Whitley favours working with very wet doughs, using natural leavens and a wide variety of grains. For a novice some of the descriptions could be more detailed, and the number of permutations for using leavens tends towards the confusing. On balance, I think that a novice breadmaker would be able to learn to make bread from the progressive instructions given in the three chapters devoted to this.
I baked my way through the central section of the book; I had to substitute dried yeast for his fresh yeast in the initial recipes with some stumbling on my part - the instructions for conversion are located in a different section of the book. My rye starter worked exactly as he predicted, and is currently producing a series of fantastic wholemeal rye loaves and French country style wheat and rye (which he calls Cromarty Cob). The doughs all come out somewhat wetter and more fluid than the author describes, but bake successfully (which is what really matters). He also suggests baking at 220-240 C for an initial period, which my last two domestic ovens refuse to reach (they all lie about their temperature, too, which is a very common problem).
Bread Matters is joining my bookshelf alongside Ed Espe Brown, Elizabeth David, Laurel's Kitchen and Nancy Silverton. I can't say any better than that.
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