Customer Reviews

English Bread and Yeast Cookery

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`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!!!

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.

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.

The introduction to the original US edition by Karen Hess has been replaced by a puff-piece of foodie journalism and to add insult to injury the table of contents lists the original introduction. Get the original!

For those interested in the *how* and *why* of bread baking and the behaviour of yeast, this book is a must. It provides a true understanding of what yeast does, different ways to make it do what you want, and the techniques that yield different flavours and styles of bread. Wonderful book! so glad to see it reprinted.

Inspiring and enlightening history of the staff-of-life. Antique as well as modern receipes for traditional breads with a wealth of background information. Certain to increase your appreciation for bread and improve the bread you bake.

This book is what culinary writing should be: comprehensive, thoroughly researched, reliable, unimpeachable. My only complaint is the title: this book is about the history of English baking, not a cookbook of baking as it currently exists in England. If you have ever wondered what English bread used to be like, and are conversely appalled by what is sold by the English today as bread, this book is for you. The author has systematically studied entire libraries of cookbooks of centuries past, and culled and adapted recipes that are of current interest.

The author reveals the true travesty of modern English bread baking. Most such recipes use chemical leavening, e.g. baking soda and/or baking powder, which produces what we have come to know of as English bread, e.g. masonry material but not human food. Indeed, much flour sold in England today is `self rising' flour, which is the English equivalent of American pastry flour with a little baking powder mixed in. The author has revived the original bread and pastry and baking recipes of centuries past that use yeast as leavening; as such, they are airy, light, chewy, good baked goods. The author has devoted entire chapters to rolls, fruit breads, crumpets and English muffins, bread, and cakes, all of which use yeast and are closer to baked goods in modern day France and Italy rather than England.

The chapter on fruit cake (bread) is especially illuminating. Current incarnations of said recipe conjures images of inedible bricks. The recipes expounded by the author are authentic, historical ones thoroughly vetted, and resemble panettone, brioche, and stollen of modern baking, and not the travesties of American holiday sales.

The first half is an impressive reference of tools, ingredients, history, techniques, and stories about bread in Britain of centuries past. It is a valuable book for bread bakers to have on the shelf. Many bread baking book authors give large credit to this book.

One complaint about the format. The TOC lists only the chapter titles, and not the recipes contained therein; some chapters, like the bread chapter, have dozens of recipes. Like many current bread books, this one has disappointingly vague descriptions about how long to knead breads, properly proofed, and how to tell when it is properly baked. Judging by the recipes, the author tends to prefer softer, under developed breads.

This is the first book I've read by Elizabeth David. Her writing is clear and fun to read. The information contained in the book is detailed, the historical documents impressive. Though the book is not recommended for those looking for immediately usable recipes, I would recommend it to anyone interested in baking and learning more about it.

The sensuous aroma of baking bread filled my mind as I read the exquisite prose of Elizabeth David. Perfect for those who have the original old English oven and owning your own flour mill will increase the enjoyment of making these rare breads. As I devoured my domestically produced delights, an almost orgasmic pleasure assaulted my sensory organs. There are no greater pleasures in the world than these.