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30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just Flour, Water, Yeast & Salt, May 2, 2010
This review is from: 52 Loaves: One Man's Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and a Perfect Crust (Hardcover)
If you enjoyed watching the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", then you are going to relish reading "52 Loaves". Just as the audience did not have to be Greek to laugh at the hilarious movie scenes and to empathize with the protagonist's experiences, readers do not have to bake bread, to be fully sated with this wonderful book. For me, the most satisfying book is one that balances character, plot, setting, and theme. In "52 Loaves", all four strands are woven in a tapestry of well-written, thoughtful words. The main "character" is the author, William Alexander. If you can recall a time in your life when either a meal or food tantalized you with its sublime taste, smell and texture, you can understand the author's dogged attempts to recreate a memorable experience with a loaf of bread. Given bread's many dynamic variables (flour, yeast, time and temperature), replicating a loaf of bread without a recipe, is intricately complicated. As the story enfolds, we laugh heartily as the author encounters one mishap after another in search for this elusive recipe, while admiring his doggedness. The single-focused character who we meet at the beginning of the book becomes introspective and philosophical at the end. The plot holds the reader's interest as it revolves around the author's activities, his tribulations paired with triumphs, his obstacles followed by revelations. Along with the author, we learn from and enjoy meeting, among others, the miller, the bakers, the hippie, the scientist, the storeowner, and the monk. While we know intuitively that the author will eventually bake a "perfect" loaf, we read on to share in this victory. Rich in setting, the book travels from one location to the next - a myriad of fascinating places that culminate in a week's stay at a French monastery. The descriptions are precise in detail, informative in context, and lyrical in tone - a pleasing juxtaposition. Finally, like the author who learned that the perfect bread is the penultimate one, at the conclusion of the book, the reader will think about its many meanings long after the last page is read. "52 Loaves" is quintessential story-telling. Whether you have never baked a loaf of bread, want to bake a loaf of bread, or have experienced the joys of baking your own or eating the "perfect" loaf, this is the book to read.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Serious Home Baker Will Want This, May 29, 2010
This review is from: 52 Loaves: One Man's Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and a Perfect Crust (Hardcover)
Alexander is a fine writer who examines the many processes involved in bread-making and gives wise advise as to each. He has read the books, noted the deficiencies and contradictions in how we are taught to create bread at home, and provided just enough information to enable the already-serious baker to take his or her skills up a notch. While this is certainly not a book for those new to bread-making (who should read Reinhart, Bertinet, Corriher and Hamelman to gather an appreciation of the difficulty and many approaches), it is a book for those of us who have struggled for years to make a tasty and enjoyable-to-eat loaf and yet have failed. I can't say there is a magic bullet contained somewhere in the pages, nor even that the recipes work (that is yet to be decided, though early experimentation with the 500-550 degree heat recommendation produced a loaf so leathery that it could not be cut), but I feel he has helped me to systematize and summarize a lot of thoughts I had on the baking process and ingredients - which could also mean he has confirmed my prejudices. In short, and from my own perspective, I found someone who understands the profundities of home bread-baking and the roadblocks that home bakers encounter. His writing style takes you smoothly and with wit through his learning experience, and his reflections on the many people he encountered on the way are alone worth the cost of the book. I savored, in particular, the last 50 pages or so, knowing I was coming to the end of an adventure that I did not want to end. I have just two reservations: 1. I now know more about his marital sex life than I wanted or needed to know, and am at a complete loss as to why that was included in the book, especially in view of the fact that he is the father of almost-adult children and his wife is a physician. It was a surprising and serious error of judgment. 2. Throughout the book he touts the boule (ball) shape of his main enterprise, the peasant bread loaf; yet four pages before the book ends he informs the reader that his preference has changed to the batard (hot-dog) shape. The reasons for the switch are understandable and appreciated, but without explanation the recipe for the peasant loaf following the end of the text retains the boule configuration, with all its drawbacks.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great read for those in pursuit of baking the perfect bread, May 22, 2010
This review is from: 52 Loaves: One Man's Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and a Perfect Crust (Hardcover)
For anyone who has picked up a book on how to bake bread and only to be disappointed with the results after their first attempt, you need to read this book. Like William Alexander, I have been in pursuit of baking the perfect naturally leavened bread in my home oven for the past 3 years. Now that I am pretty comfortable with the bread that I produce, I have to laugh when people taste it and then ask for the recipe. My reply used to be, "It just isn't as simple as giving you a recipe." Now I will be able to tell them to read 52 Loaves and then I will teach them how to make bread. It is amazing how a seemingly small number of variables (four, water, levain and salt) can produce such different results. Like Bill, I have read lots of books about baking bread and have been mentored by a couple of friends who bake bread for a living. What I learned from 52 Loaves has helped make sense of all of the dry and tedious technical information I have gleaned from the pros. And, it was much more fun to read. But, most impressive about the book is the fine writing which was far better than I would expect from a guy who is a propeller head by day. Bill's writing is concise, funny and always interesting. On a recent trip, the flight attendant gave me a weird look when I told her that it was a book about bread that was making me laugh out loud. I never read The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden, figuring it was just another book about someone's gardening experience, but I have it on order now and am looking forward to reading another book from William Alexander.
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