Customer Reviews

The Complete Sourdough Cookbook

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you want an interesting book about the lore of sourdough - and the experiences of Don and Myrtle Holm, this is a great book.

If you want authentic, useable, sourdough recipes this is not your best choice. All the recipes use baker's yeast in them. Baker's yeast wasn't available to the sourdoughs who made sourdough famous, and it doesn't belong in sourdough.

Don and Myrtle admit you can make sourdough without adding baker's yeast, but they get vague on the details. I'd rather stick to a purist approach to sourdough and just use sourdough to raise and flavor my bread, and for that goal, this book was disappointing.

Instead, look at the books by Ed Wood, Peter Reinhart, or Allan Scott and Dan Wing.

I bought this book hoping to get started making my own sourdough bread. Instead, I found a mildly interesting collection of anecdotes, lore, and "recipes" concerning the history of sourdough in the American West. The instructions for making a starter were vague and brief. Most of the recipes called for commercial yeast anyway, making me wonder if the starter was even responsible for any rising that took place. I tried 5 of the recipes in the book and found them all to be bland and disappointing.

This is an interesting book to read but I was looking for an actual cookbook, with recipes, in a cookbook format, which this book is not. If you read enough chapters you can glean various steps to the sourdough process but there are no recipes in an easy-to-follow format. I would have preferred to have the story telling in one section and a recipe section at the end.

This is a nice little book, with Don Holm's humor & interesting stories regarding Sourdough Lore. The recipes are pretty good, too. Well worth the price!

I have several sour dough recipe books, this is one I use most often. My husband loves the banana nut bread, chocolate cake and pancakes from this book.

So what if this book has a starter recipe that calls for commercial yeast? So what if Don does a lot of Storytelling in the book? It seems to me this book was written with the home cooking enthusiast in mind, with recipes made for modern kitchens... the small amount of yeast added to the starter is meant to jump start it for cooks who can't wait to experiment with the myriad of delectable recipes contained in this book... I have tried several and they are all superb... I even add a little of the starter to the bread I make in my bread machine... delicious... Plus there are about a half dozen additional starter methods in this book that don't require yeast... As for the Storytelling, Don's stories provide a glimpse into an era I'll never be able to experience firsthand... I love Don's Writing Style... So, if you are thinking about buying this book, take it from me... ignore the negative reviews and low ratings that some customers have given this book, and buy it... you will be glad you did :)

I really enjoy this book. It is a fun, fascinating glimpse into the world of the trappers and folks who actually used the sourdough, back in the Day. It is completely untrue that all of the recipes use commercial yeast!! Some of them do, but not many. The author presents a good cross-section of the difficult, demanding recipes that Sourdough can often turn out to be, and also, in some recipes, tries to make things a little simpler for the average home baker. Overall the book is VERY authentic, and a very refreshing book to read, after all the elite Sourdough Snobs there are.

This book turned me against the snobbish world of Sourdough Purists- I don't use a thermometer, I don't use a timer. I just throw in a handful of flour and some warm water in the morning, afternoon, and evening, and stir. (It's a new starter, I'll get to the refrigerator part later- if I need to.) I take out some starter if it seems like it's getting to be too much. I enjoy the process, and enjoy what I'm doing, and my starter is coming along nicely, thank you very much!

The only thing I do wish is that the book was more clear on the various stages that Starters go through, but an internet search resolves that pretty quickly. I highly recommend this book!

The is the second copy of this book I have purchased for myself. The first one was in 1974, and I wore it out! This copy that I purchased at Amazon is bound better. It is easy to use, and the receipies are wonderful. This time I also got one for our granddaughter as a wedding gift. She is living in Italy and loves sourdough...she is thrilled to make her favorite bread. The chocolate cake is great also. Cheers, Carolyn Wright

I purchased this for a friend, as I have enjoyed this book since 1977, when I purchased it for myself. My friend was so enthralled with my book, that I went in search for one for him, and was very pleased to find it and in excellent condition...he has since dropped me a line to let me know that he has enjoyed many of the recipes out of the book and is thrilled to have it...it arrived in record time and as I said in excellent condition......very delighted with the purchase...w.

This book is the Grand-daddy of Sourdough cookbooks. It is a great read full of recipes and stories behind the recipes. Highly recommended.