Classic Sourdoughs: A Home Baker's Handbook [Paperback]

Ed Wood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 2001

Bread lovers and baking enthusiasts who covet the mouthwatering aroma and tantalizing taste of the most esteemed of breads, sourdough, will delight in CLASSIC SOURDOUGHS, an updated version of our essential baker'¬?s companion, WORLD SOURDOUGHS FROM ANTIQUITY. Author and sourdough aficionado Ed Wood describes the basics of preparing a sourdough culture, and then moves on to building, shaping, and baking these storied loaves from the ground up. En route, Wood mixes hard science with a profound respect for baking traditions, emphasizing the importance of ingredient selection and paying homage to the baking techniques practiced by the ancient Egyptians. Baking, history, chemistry, cultural anthropology-this is truly a sourdough magnum opus, an engaging, authoritative volume that, most importantly, will show you how to prepare these scrumptious breads in your own kitchen.‚Ä¢ Includes over 90 delicious recipes and an up-to-date chapter on baking authentic sourdoughs in bread machines.‚Ä¢ New information on Dr. Wood's latest discovery-a culture considered to be the authentic San Francisco sourdough-that will allow you to re-create the world-famous taste of San Francisco bread in your own home.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Brings the tradition of sourdough cooking into focus. It is easy, interesting reading and doesn'¬?t make sourdough baking seem complicated.”—Sharon Maasdam, The Oregonian“A Match Made With Leaven: A True Story of Loafing, Lust, and Loss” —headline of review with recipe tested by The Palm Beach Post

About the Author

ED WOOD is a pathologist, biologist, wild yeast expert, and master baker. In 1993, he was invited to participate in a National Geographic project to reproduce the first leavened breads at an excavated baking site in Egypt. Through his company, Sourdoughs International, he sells dried authentic sourdough cultures he has collected from around the world. He lives and bakes in Cascade, Idaho.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press (November 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580083447
• ISBN-13: 978-1580083447
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.4 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #198,532 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for the novice and expert home baker alike!, March 8, 2002

By 

Mary Sanders (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Classic Sourdoughs: A Home Baker's Handbook (Paperback)

This book really is for the home baker who doesn't have the special ovens and tools of the artisans like Daniel Leader's Bread Alone or Nancy Singleton"s La Brea Bakery. Ed Wood's book gives instructions that can be used with any sourdough starter although I have produced far better sourdoughs with his starters than any I captured myself. There isn't a baker's yeast recipe in the entire book. If you're a novice baker or an old hand, you can learn a lot about sourdoughs from this book.

52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best sourdough cookbook, March 3, 2002

By 

Helen Goode (Las Cruces, NM USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Classic Sourdoughs: A Home Baker's Handbook (Paperback)

This is the only book I have found that really tells how to make sourdough bread the right way without having to use yeast. The book gives explicit instructions from the moment the starter comes from the refrigerator until the finished loaf leaves the pan. The step by step methods tell how to produce an active starter every time so the bread always rises well.
Each recipe gives different options for length of proofing cycles using different proofing temperatures. I was never able to control the temperature during proofing until I read the description for making an inexpensive proofing box described in the book. It made all the difference between success and failure.

70 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good Information...Recipes Not So Good, August 28, 2005

By 

John "johnellenbe" (Groton, MA, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Classic Sourdoughs: A Home Baker's Handbook (Paperback)

I began following this author quite a while ago including reading ealier books because there wasn't that much information about baking sourdough bread. He has simplified the directions a little but I was never successful with his directions until I took a course at King Arthur and discovered that baking sourdoughs isn't all that complicated. Now I make naturally leavened bread almost every week. I finally trashed the silly "proof box" that Mr. Wood recommends. I occasionally dip into this book to try the recipes and I'm pretty sure some of them have significant errors (the SF sourdough turns out more like a ciabatta because either the flour or water measurments are wrong). If you want a really good book on bread baking check out "Bread A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes" by Jeffrey Hamelman. It has lots of good sourdough recipes based on solid baking formulas.