Reviews
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`English Bread and Yeast Cookery' by Elizabeth David hides, behind its very unassuming title, one of the very best books on bread baking I have seen and possibly Elizabeth David's very best work, in a body of work which includes some of the great classics in culinary writing from the last 60 years.
For starters, the book is much more than a collection of English bread baking recipes. In the 592 pages in this edition, bread recipes don't even start until page 255. The first half of the book deals with just about everything you ever wanted to know about how residents of the British Isles, beginning with the pre-Roman Celts ground wheat into flour, what kind of ovens they used to bake bread, and how all this evolved through the Roman occupation, the Saxons, the Normans, and the modern English, especially how things changed with the industrial revolution.
The first part, nearly half the book covers `History and Background' with chapters on:
Grains, Wheat, Rye, Barley, Oats, and Pease
Milling
Flours and Meals
Yeast
Salt
Liquids and Fats
Eggs, Dried Fruit, Sugar, Spices and Flavorings
Malt Extracts
Bread Ovens
The Bread Factories
Shapes and Names of English Loaves
Moulds and Tins for Bread
Storage of Meal and Flour
Storage of Bread
Weights of Loaves and the Assize of Bread
Weights, Measures and Temperatures
Weighing and Measuring Equipment
The Cost of Baking Your Own Bread
It should be evident from this list of chapters that the material in this book goes far beyond bread baking on a largish island in the North Atlantic. The analysis in the last of these chapters alone may be worth the price of admission. What is doubly surprising is that these chapters include material which seems more at home in a book like Rachael Carson's `Silent Spring' than a book on bread recipes. This is a bit less surprising when we realize the book was written in the 1970s, not too far removed from food rationing left over from World War II and before the widespread popular concern in England with the nutritious value of food.
The second half of the book, the recipes, clearly also goes beyond what you would expect from the average English tea room. The chapters here are:
Bread
Baps and Rolls
Manchets and Mayn and Payndemayn
Crumpets and Muffins
Notes on French Bread
The Pizza and the Pissaladiere
Quiches with Yeast Dough
Sausage in Brioche Crust
Yeast Leavened Pancakes and Oatcakes
Dumplings and Doughnuts
Regional and Festival Cakes and Fruit Breads
Yeast Buns and Small Tea Cakes
French Yeast Cakes
Soda Breads
Bakestone Cakes or Breads
Toast
Since there is a chapter on Soda Breads, it is evident that the book covers more than just yeast breads. The yeasted pancakes also highlights the fact that our modern baking powder leavened hotcakes are a relatively new invention, as baking powder was not commercially available until the middle of the 19th century. Yeast, on the other hand, has been around and used in beer making since prehistoric times. And, with just a little technique, it was free for the asking from ambient spores in the air.
In case you are curious, a bap is the breakfast roll of Scotland and manchets and mayn and payndemayn are old English names (found in the `Canterbury Tales' and other old documents) for enriched white breads baked for and eaten by wealthier classes.
If you are a serious foodie, a serious amateur or professional bread baker, or simply seriously, or even frivolously interested in bread, you must get a copy of this book. Even if you don't read it from cover to cover, it's a great reference on the history, science and technique of breadbaking. It's only weakness may be that it is not as up to date on modern American bread ingredients as you may find in a King Arthur cookbook or `bible' from Rose Levy Beranbaum. But then, there are hundreds of pages of material you will find here and virtually nowhere else in an in print book.
Very highly recommended!!!
For starters, the book is much more than a collection of English bread baking recipes. In the 592 pages in this edition, bread recipes don't even start until page 255. The first half of the book deals with just about everything you ever wanted to know about how residents of the British Isles, beginning with the pre-Roman Celts ground wheat into flour, what kind of ovens they used to bake bread, and how all this evolved through the Roman occupation, the Saxons, the Normans, and the modern English, especially how things changed with the industrial revolution.
The first part, nearly half the book covers `History and Background' with chapters on:
Grains, Wheat, Rye, Barley, Oats, and Pease
Milling
Flours and Meals
Yeast
Salt
Liquids and Fats
Eggs, Dried Fruit, Sugar, Spices and Flavorings
Malt Extracts
Bread Ovens
The Bread Factories
Shapes and Names of English Loaves
Moulds and Tins for Bread
Storage of Meal and Flour
Storage of Bread
Weights of Loaves and the Assize of Bread
Weights, Measures and Temperatures
Weighing and Measuring Equipment
The Cost of Baking Your Own Bread
It should be evident from this list of chapters that the material in this book goes far beyond bread baking on a largish island in the North Atlantic. The analysis in the last of these chapters alone may be worth the price of admission. What is doubly surprising is that these chapters include material which seems more at home in a book like Rachael Carson's `Silent Spring' than a book on bread recipes. This is a bit less surprising when we realize the book was written in the 1970s, not too far removed from food rationing left over from World War II and before the widespread popular concern in England with the nutritious value of food.
The second half of the book, the recipes, clearly also goes beyond what you would expect from the average English tea room. The chapters here are:
Bread
Baps and Rolls
Manchets and Mayn and Payndemayn
Crumpets and Muffins
Notes on French Bread
The Pizza and the Pissaladiere
Quiches with Yeast Dough
Sausage in Brioche Crust
Yeast Leavened Pancakes and Oatcakes
Dumplings and Doughnuts
Regional and Festival Cakes and Fruit Breads
Yeast Buns and Small Tea Cakes
French Yeast Cakes
Soda Breads
Bakestone Cakes or Breads
Toast
Since there is a chapter on Soda Breads, it is evident that the book covers more than just yeast breads. The yeasted pancakes also highlights the fact that our modern baking powder leavened hotcakes are a relatively new invention, as baking powder was not commercially available until the middle of the 19th century. Yeast, on the other hand, has been around and used in beer making since prehistoric times. And, with just a little technique, it was free for the asking from ambient spores in the air.
In case you are curious, a bap is the breakfast roll of Scotland and manchets and mayn and payndemayn are old English names (found in the `Canterbury Tales' and other old documents) for enriched white breads baked for and eaten by wealthier classes.
If you are a serious foodie, a serious amateur or professional bread baker, or simply seriously, or even frivolously interested in bread, you must get a copy of this book. Even if you don't read it from cover to cover, it's a great reference on the history, science and technique of breadbaking. It's only weakness may be that it is not as up to date on modern American bread ingredients as you may find in a King Arthur cookbook or `bible' from Rose Levy Beranbaum. But then, there are hundreds of pages of material you will find here and virtually nowhere else in an in print book.
Very highly recommended!!!
reviewed by caramel on November 22, 2006 8:36 AM
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The sensuous aroma of baking bread filled my mind as I read the exquisite prose of Elizabeth David. Perfect for those who have the original old English oven and owning your own flour mill will increase the enjoyment of making these rare breads. As I devoured my domestically produced delights, an almost orgasmic pleasure assaulted my sensory organs. There are no greater pleasures in the world than these.
reviewed by titanium7 on November 29, 2006 5:17 AM
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Not just a cookbook, though there are plenty of recipes. Not merely a history, though abounding in historical sources and anecdotes. Not a textbook, but with enough theory for just about anyone. Not literature proper, but Ms. David's prose flows beautifully. The book is simultaneously informative, thoughtful, engaging, useful and most of all a pleasure to read. The book is equally at home in the kitchen as the living room. Simply a wonderful book.
reviewed by avi on November 29, 2006 1:48 PM