Customer Reviews

Baking in America: Traditional and Contemporary Favorites from the Past 200 Years

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Patent sifted 200 years of cookbooks, journals and newspapers to select these 250 recipes, tested and adapted for the modern kitchen. Organized by type, from yeast breads to quick breads to doughnuts, pound cakes, layer cakes, pies and tarts, cheesecakes and more, this is a solid all-round baking book, with clear directions. Sidebars sprinkled throughout offer quotes from old cookbooks and advertisements and brief prefaces give the provenance of the original recipe, serving suggestions and a few words about its character. Patent also offers tips on choosing and handling ingredients, and cooking techniques, such as deep-frying doughnuts, pound cake pointers and step-by-step layer cakes.

A section of full-color pictures (Coconut Layer Cake, Lemon Genoise with White Chocolate Buttercream and Raspberries, Rhubarb Strawberry Pie) should be kept away from dieters. From Martha Washington's Currant Cake to Jalapeno, Cornmeal and Cheddar Bread, Patent does justice to the American baking scene.

I really enjoyed reading this cookbook. I learned so much about the history of American baking, the ingredients that were and are used in baking, and about the origins of some of the foods that I bake for my family. I read it cover to cover, like a history book, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Then I started baking from it. The first thing I tried was the honey apple torte, and it was one of the best baked goods I have ever made or tasted. It disappeared in a day--my family couldn't stop eating it. And it is a beautiful cake, too. I am looking forward to baking it for company. Next I tried the lemon sour cream pound cake, and that too was exquisite. I can't wait to try some of the other recipes. I found the recipes very original, and there were many that I haven't seen in other cookbooks. I also enjoyed reading the introductions to each recipe, which give history of the recipe or the ingredients contained in it. After reading (and baking from) this book, I feel like I have a better understanding of American culinary history. This was a very enjoyable cookbook. Thank you, Greg Patent.

I own this book and it is without a doubt the best baking book I own and one of the top cookbooks that I have ever seen.

The Introduction alone will get you hooked, with Greg Patent's intriguing preview of how thousands of years of cultures have been combined, modified, and enhanced to create the modern cooking of today.

And what about the recipes? I have tried many and they are flawless. Particularly delightful are the Lemon Sponge Cloud (p. 348), the Boston Creme Cakes -- that's right -- cakes (worth the price of the book on their own -- p. 252), and the irresistable Malted Milk Chocolate Cake (p. 276).

But this is much more than just a cookbook of delicious recipes. It is a culinary geneology full of rich accounts of how the cooking of today came to be.

So while you are waiting for your sponge cake to bake, you can pass the time learning how it used to take 4 hours of beating to produce its predecessor back in the 17th century. And when you bite into that delicious and fluffy treat, you will thank Greg Patent, but you will also appreciate those folks along the way who were part of the evolution of American baking.

This baking book was disappointing. It represents itself as a survey of 200 years of baking in American kitchens. In the end, the result is a rather ordinary collection of baking and pastry recipes. This collection is supposed to be a collage of 200 years of baking recipes. The book has numerous references to old, out of print recipe books. Then, the author takes these recipes and updates it for the modern kitchen and grocery store.

In the bread chapter, for example, all of the dough make-up procedures are virtually identical. This is suspicious, as the sources, hydration percentages, and ingredients for the bread recipes go all over the place. I suspect that the author here has cheated a bit. Also, the procedures do not have very extensive descriptions of how to form the doughs into loaves. Some of the instructions for preparing the various fruits are either incomplete or wrong, as are procedures for cooking sugar into syrups, caramels, etc.

I like the fact that the procedures (for the most part) are very detailed, and many of the little steps that are often overlooked are thorough described here. The recipes often have as many as a dozen steps. The beginning of each chapter has some baking tips and hints, although they are far from complete. At the head of each chapter is a list of recipes, which is very convenient when you are looking for something specific. The most valuable part of this book is the bibliography, which lists many historic cookbooks, many of which are still available in facsimile editions. Very valuable, and hard to find, are the dozen or so recipes for doughnuts; these alone are almost worth the price of admission.

On the other hand, many chapters are collections of fairly standard recipes that you can find in almost any all purpose cookbook. The one about pies, for example, is very ordinary and commonplace, most of them currently popular ones, and not historic nor heritage in any sense of the word. It is a very decent collection of baking recipes that covers most of the major areas of baking, but it is not as advertised.

This wonderful new book will satisfy your intellectual curiosity as well as your palate. The marvelous introduction, historical notes and recipe openings all serve to inspire and enrich the baking experience. The recipes themselves are fantastic -- straightforward, simple and delicious. I rate this book as the best I have bought in more than 10 years.

Baking in America is one of those rare cookbooks that both experienced and beginning bakers will treasure. My copy already has 14 sticky notes marking recipes that I've tried or want to in the near future. The introduction sets the tone for the book - lots of helpful information about various ingredients, tools and equipment, intermixed with interesting historical tidbits. The color photographs seduce the reader into marking yet another recipe that just has to be tried.

Then on to the "meat" of the book - the recipes and insight into challenges bakers have faced in past generations. Each recipe has tips that beginners will appreciate ("adjust an oven rack to the center position" or "beat for one minute," "stir constantly for 2 minutes"), as well as new ideas for more experienced bakers ("cake is covered tightly with foil for the first 10 minutes...").

I'm still getting kudos and demands for a repeat of the Irish Whiskey Fruitcake with Spiced Walnuts and Pecans (p. 208) even from friends who don't like fruitcake. The Cranberry Muffins from Nantucket (p. 105) are easy and delicious. The Spicy Buttermilk Pecan Layer Cake with Pecan Buttercream (p. 295) that showed up on the Thanksgiving table has become the cake-in-demand for family birthday cakes.

Some recipes include tips about ingredients that can make a big difference, like using whole citron chopped at home instead of the packaged grocery store variety, or home-grated nutmeg. A source list of books, ingredients and equipment at the end of the book is an invaluable part of Baking in America. It puts truly distinctive recipes within easy reach for any baker. This cookbook makes readers feel like they are baking with a knowledgeable friend in the kitchen - easy-going, dependable, innovative, and full of quirky historical gems.

Whoever wrote the review that said "Whose America?", must not have read the book thoughly. These realy are classic American recipes with interesting backgrounds. The introduction to each chapter is filled with interesting things you probably never knew about American history and most recipes explain how they are tied to American. Recipes include: Peaches and Cream Cobbler, Emily Dickenson's Black Cake, Honeyed Apple Torte, Kentucky Stack Cake, Chocolate Chestnut Torte, Ameretto-Amaretti Cheesecake, Maple Pecan Tart, and Buttercrunch Lemon Bars, to name a few of the recipes. And I have tried a recipe, the Lemon Genoise w/ White Chocolate Buttercream and Raspberries and it was AMAZING!!! I loved it, and so did our guests! I have checked this book out of the library about 4 times and just bought it from Amazon. Tonight I plan on making ladyfingers from the book for tomorrow's tiramasu (the tiramasu recipe is not from this book but from The Barefoot Contessa Family Style, which I also love just as much.)

Patent uses the Introduction to disclose his inspiration for the cookbook: an unusual recipe for Indian Pound Cake from 1828. He takes us on his journey through reading rooms all over the United States, musty cookbooks and the beginnings of Bake-Offs. Interspersed throughout the text are historical blurbs discussing "Hints to the Working Classes" (1846), "Weights and Measures" The New England Economical Housekeeper (1846), and "Recipe or Receipt?" Following the Introduction are thirty pages "About the Ingredients." This valuable section discusses types of flour, leaveners, sugar, fats, nuts, and a listing of equipment used in the book.

Baking in America features twelve chapters of recipes. Some of the chapter titles are: Sweet Yeast Breads and Doughnuts, Layer Cakes, Cheesecakes and Tortes, Cookies, and Fruit Desserts. The recipes themselves are adapted for today's bakers, there are no antique baking tools called for or obscure ingredients. The recipes range from Buttermilk Bread to Chocolate Tart in a Chocolate Crust.

Patent has meticulously researched the recipes in this book. For example, the Golden Butter Layer Cake with Chocolate Frosting on page 260 includes this introduction: "I've based this cake on the nineteenth century 1-2-3-4 cake, made with 1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, and 4 eggs." Patent doesn't stop with historical trivia, he also shares the elimination of the flour category in the Pillsbury Bake-Off in 1996 on page 114.

I made the Caramel Pecan Candy Bar Cookies on page 421. These "cookies" are bar cookies, not individually baked. The recipe makes 20 bars, baked in an 8-inch by 8-inch pan. The recipe is very easy to prepare, and yields a treasure of tastes. This treat calls for: butter, brown sugar, salt, vanilla, flour, caramels, evaporated milk, and pecans. The bars have a crunchy crust that is reminiscent of a fine shortbread. The topping, composed of caramels, vanilla, and pecans, adds a chewy texture, hence the "candy bar" in the recipe name. These bars are pure, simple goodness.

Some of the recipes call for special equipment. For example, the very last recipe in the book, Chocolate Tart in a Chocolate Crust calls for a ten-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. To compensate for using recipes calling for special baker's tools, Patent has provided a listing of Sources for Books, Equipment, and Ingredients on page 522. On pages 528 - 535, there is an extensive Bibliography including everything from The Original White House Cookbook to Civil War Recipes. The alphabetical index has 11 different recipes under the heading "cake" and 29 recipes for "Cookies."

Greg Patent has left a historical treasure for future generations of bakers. The recipes in this book have stood the tests of time and taste: Chocolate Buttermilk Layer Cake, Boston Cream Pie, Cranberry Muffins from Nantucket, and Coconut Layer Cake. This cookbook is valuable to anyone seeking the baked tastes of America.

`Baking in America' by professional Zoologist and baker, Greg Patent is different from the rich selection of books we have on American desserts from the likes of Nancy Baggett, Wayne Harley Brachman, and Judith Fertig in at least two ways. First, the scope of the book is broader, with close to 40% of the recipes being dedicated to non-dessert baking such as breads and breakfast items. Second, a substantial portion of the text is dedicated to the history of baking in the United States and how it is different from its antecedents in Europe. While this is a book with a scholarly bent, it should not be dismissed as a book of history or essays. Rather than being dry material, the historical perspective is more like a leavening that lightens up the book much as yeast lightens and flavors bread. I suggest you treat the author's historical point of view more as a unifying theme to his subject introductions and headnotes rather than a textbook on culinary history.

In addition to giving a very good historical perspective on `Baking in America', the author gives us a very good text on baking elements. His fundamentals may not be as deep as Peter Reinhart's lessons on bread baking or Nick Malgieri's tutorials on pastry or Maida Heatter's tips on cake baking, but they are good enough for the amateur baker who does not wish to invest in a whole library of baking books. His details on American wheat are just right. There is not quite as much detail as you may find in Rose Levy Beranbaum's `Bibles', but its good advice. It will guide you to the best brands and types of wheat to use for breads and biscuits and pastry and cakes without your having to mount a long search of the Internet.

One of the more interesting historical perspectives gleaned from this book is the fact that in 1900, over 70% of American flour was bought for home use, compared to about 10% today. This, in spite of the fact that home baking was enormously more difficult a century ago than it is today, in that one had to heat up a coal or wood oven, thoroughly clean it of ashes, and knead dough with no mechanical aids (actually, there was a very primitive version of the bread machine early in the 20th century, but I suspect it took almost as much muscle as hand kneading.).

In the very tricky realm of pie crust pastry, the author is firmly in the camp which prefers butter AND as many additives as possible (vinegar and egg yolk) to retard gluten formation which may result from the moisture (about 20%) in water. Parent's recipe for his `flaky piecrust' is virtually identical to the one I typically use, acquired from Susan Purdy's `As Easy as Pie'. Patent is also quite comfortable using the food processor to mix butter, dry ingredients, and wet ingredients. My inclination on this issue actually lies in the direction of the `Martha Stewart Baking Handbook' that keeps things simple with only the simplest list of ingredients of flour, butter, water, and salt. I'm certain Martha did not originate this schema, but her authors' endorsing it, as probably more similar to the classic French recipe, suggests that the add-ins are really not necessary if you are careful with using cold ingredients, cold equipment, and a light touch. As someone with warm hands, I even think it is time for me to go to the food processor to mix dough. The chemist in me tells me that even if it is no easier than hand mixing, it is more reproducible, so you are likely to get more consistent results with it.

But getting back to this book, it seems that Americans didn't invent any major baking techniques. That was pretty much taken care of by the French, Austrians, and Italians by the time Americans had enough cheap wheat flour to make use of it often. Rather, their primary inventions seem to be in new fillings and some interesting things done with corn, which was more plentiful up until the end of the 19th century.

Another theme running through much of this book is the evolution of leaveners, both chemical and microbial. Both seemed to come into their own with the perfection of baking powder after the Civil War and the packaging of yeast near the same time. While baking powder was touted as an easier replacement for yeast, it is not. It simply cannot achieve most of the flavor effects of long yeast rising.

There is one major and one minor oversight worth noting. The major oversight is the absence of any reference to sourdough. While San Franciscans didn't invent bread baking with artisinal yeast sponges (the French and Italians have been doing that for centuries), there is a very special yeast named after San Francisco which is responsible for our American sourdough. This is so well known that I'm surprised Parent makes no mention of it. I can only assume he had no interest in getting into the technique of natural yeast baking. The other lesser omission is that there is no mention of Shoofly pie (molasses cake), that very Pennsylvania Dutch speciality. This is especially odd since he enlists advice from Pennsylvania Dutch food expert William Woys Weaver for material on the Moravian sugar cake. I miss this recipe since it doesn't seem to make the cut for any of the latest American dessert cookbooks except for Judith Fertig's `All American Desserts'.

An excellent source of American baking specialities.

Some of the earlier reviews are unduly harsh. The recipes are clearly explained and look very good. Even better are the historical facts and quotations from early American cookbooks and pamphlets. I found the history of baking in America fascinating. This is truly a unique book and well worth the price.