I have been baking bread, or attempting to, for thirty years. I still need this book. I seem to always give them away, so when I want the recipe for the apricot bread, or the girlfriend getter walnut-onion; I must call an ex or buy another. I can stand on my own, from experience, on the yeast breads for the most part. But the quick breads in this book stand out in my memory. That is what I need this book for. When I tell people that I bake bread, they ask me "do you have a bread machine?", I reply" I am a bread machine!".

The Cuisinart large capacity processors will do the Pita recipe in this book in less than a minute, kneading and all.

I haven't tested many more recipes with modern appliances that appear in this book.
I believe that I could adapt them all.

All The Best
Ken

The late James Beard (1903-1985) - began a high profile career in the culinary community by writing his first major cookbook in 1940, followed by Cook It Outdoors, published in 1942.

With such titles as The Complete Book of Barbecue & Rotisserie Cooking, Fish Cookery, Treasury of Outdoor Cooking, and Casserole Cookbook, James Beard kept his focus on simple recipes with what he called honest ingredients that reflected his American heritage.

Written in 1973, Beard on Bread was Beard's best-selling book in his lifetime. It demonstrates a classic example of Beard's philosophy for simplicity; reflecting the ingredients, and tastes popular at that juncture of our culinary history.

It brought back memories to see my maiden name in my old 1973 copy. Beard on Bread and the Sunset book on bread were our best published instruction during that bread-making revival 35-years ago when bakers relied on packaged yeast as their prevailing leavening agent.

Already a serious cook at the time, Beard on Bread gave me the confidence and skill to bake the bread I needed to bake to keep food on my table as a young struggling artist with my first art gallery opening. The unintended consequence was a waiting list to purchase not my paintings, but my bread!

The recipes may lack the sophistication, taste preferences, and comprehensive instruction demanded by much of today's cooks. Sassafras, for instance still boasts that Beard endorsed their baking products, but one must conclude that the kitchen accessories of 35 years ago were quite different from today's more sophisticated equipment.

Beard was not fond of homemade sourdough and his book's content reflects this predilection. He stated homemade natural leavening agents are "very unreliable" which is not helpful for today's baker aspiring to artisan baking.

His Finnish Flat bread recipe using dry commercial yeast for leaven, attempts to embroider the taste of an authentic European sour rye sponge by way of stale beer and buttermilk.

I am neither a fan of Peter Reinhart's taste in bread recipes, nor his style of writing. Reinhart, still praises Beard on one of my least cherished recipes, Anadama bread. The recipe reflects the preferences in many of Reinhart's recipes for dense, sweet bread recipes with molasses, sugar, cornmeal, butter, packaged yeast and a tablespoon of salt. Reinhart, like James Beard, are attracted to sweet breads, the use of much sugar, fat, and salt in their bread percentages.

For today's baker, I recommend Nancy Silverton's, Breads from the La Brea Bakery : Recipes for the Connoisseur (Hardcover). Or, Bo Friberg's The Professional Pastry Chef: Fundamentals of Baking and Pastry, 4th Edition, or, The Village Baker: Classic Regional Breads from Europe and America by Joe Ortiz.

For those who are really hooked, I recommend, The Bread Builders: Hearth Loaves and Masonry Ovens by Daniel Wing, Alan Scott.