English Bread and Yeast Cookery [Hardcover]

Elizabeth David (Author), Wendy Jones (Illustrator), Karen Hess (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 16, 1980

An inspired collection of recipes includes informative essays on the history and traditions of bread making and provides American equivalents in recipes for all types of breads, yeast buns, pancakes, muffins, crumpets, oatcakes, pizzas, dumplings, soda breads, and more. IP.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 592 pages
• Publisher: The Viking Press; 1st edition (September 16, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670296538
• ISBN-13: 978-0670296538
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,125,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Important book on Bread and its history. Buy It!, October 6, 2005

By 

B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: English Bread and Yeast Cookery (Hardcover)

`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!!!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learn to respect this most basic foodstuff, September 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: English Bread and Yeast Cookery (Revised) (Hardcover)

This book is as readable as all of Mrs. David's other books. The history of bread is fascinating. I have loved breadmaking since I was a child sniffing the lovely aroma of proofing yeast in my mother's kitchen. I loved being met by the perfume of freshly baked bread when I ran back in the house to see if the bread was ready. Alas, we can only imagine the aromas in Mrs. David's kitchen. But, reading the book is like sitting down and chatting with her as she tells you how to bake better bread and touch history at the same time. Brew yourself a nice cuppa, have a good read and prepare to be inspired. Your family, if they are like mine, will be thrilled with your experiments.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative and engaging, June 27, 2000

By 

James Frohnhofer "fijimf" (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: English Bread and Yeast Cookery (Revised) (Hardcover)

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.