Flatbreads & Flavors: A Baker's Atlas [Paperback]

Jeffrey Alford (Author), Naomi Duguid (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 26, 2008

As they have pursued their passions for travel and exploring culture through food, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid have found an internationally shared and nourishing element of culture and cuisine: flatbreads, humankind's simplest, oldest, and most remarkably varied form of bread.

In their James Beard Award-winning cookbook Flatbreads and Flavors Alford and Duguid share more than sixty recipes for flatbreads of every origin and description: tortillas from Mexico, pita from the Middle East, naan from Afghanistan, chapatti from India, pizza from Italy, and French fougasse. In addition, they provide 150 recipes for traditional accompaniments to the flatbreads, from chutneys and curries, salsas and stews, to such delectable pairings as Chinese Spicy Cumin Kebabs wrapped in Uighur nan or Lentils with Garlic, Onion, and Tomato spooned onto chapatti. Redolent with the tastes and aromas of the world's hearths, Flatbreads and Flavors maps a course through cultures old and intriguing, and, with clear and patient recipes, makes accessible to the novice and experienced baker alike the simple and satisfying bread baker's art.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An amazing cookbook that travels to the furthest reaches of the world to celebrate flatbreads with over the recipes for a myriad of breads, including Afghani naan, Mexican tortilla, French fougasse, Middle Eastern pita, and Armenian lavash. Hungry for something to go with all that bread? The authors include another 150 recipes for traditional accompaniments. How about a Scandinavian smorgasbord, tomatillo salsa with arbol chiles, Nepali green chile chutney, Ethiopian beef tartar, or Yemeni stew? --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

More than sixty recipes for flatbreads of every kind range from Mexican tortillas to pizzas from Italy and chapatis from India. Splendid and unusual breads mark an exceptional cookbook which goes way beyond just placing recipes in logical format: explanations of recipe origins and cultural influences make for a detailed, in-depth guide. -- Midwest Book Review

These people have really gone and done it! They've brought the real excitement of these flavors and textures back home. -- Nancy Harmon Jenkins, author of The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks (August 26, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061673269
• ISBN-13: 978-0061673269
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #76,032 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #34 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > International
  • #83 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Baking > Bread

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 84 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The only cookbook I'd grab in case of fire! October 1, 1998

By [e-mail] Kathy Bungard

Format:Hardcover

These recipes are so clearly written and easy to follow that I have not had a failure yet and I've tried nearly two thirds of the recipes in the book to date. This book opened a whole new world of baking and cooking for me. Peasant breads I had never heard of are now part of my family's daily diet and are met with rave reviews from even the pickiest eater. The food in this book is not only simple it is certaily healthy eating as well. I've had many cookbooks, this is the one I've had to get a second copy of, because I wore the first one out. It sits on my counter for daily use and hasn't seen a bookshelf yet. Please, Jeffrey and Naomi, more cookbooks like this one. Love their travel tales almost as much as recipes. Bon appetit!

54 of 54 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Flatbreads and Flavors April 12, 2002

By Erica Eastley

Format:Hardcover

I love this book. I have had it for nearly a year and I use it several times a week. I made Afghan Homestyle Naan and the Uigher bread with cumin and onions yesterday, and have the recipe for injera souring now to try for the first time. I was first introduced to flatbreads while studying Arabic in the Middle East 5 years ago, and I was delighted to find this book that has so many of my favorites, plus many new ones to try. There are a wide variety of breads in this book, along with plenty of delicious accompaniments. I personally use a baking stone to replicate the tannur breads and have found it to work pretty well, although nothing can compare with a flatbread hot off a saj or out of a tannur. I agree with the authors that bread are a fast food- I have a one-year-old and a two-year-old, and I find flatbreads are one of the most convenient things to make. My boys love the breads. I highly recommend this book!

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The recipes are fantastic and it reads like a novel! July 22, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

Traveling around the world with the authors is only a small part of the joy this book brings. The detailed recipes are described step by step, enabling even novice bread makers to create a marvelous array of flat breads that are both delicious and appealing to the eye. It is the bible of flatbreads and should be part of every bakers library.

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A cookbook and travelogue in one March 6, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

This cookbook features recipes for a wide range of flatbreads from many regions of the globe along with meat and vegetable accompaniments. The authors provide nonintimidating instructions, and most of the ingredients called for are not difficult to find. The book is attractively designed, and the many photographs add their own interest to the engaging and informative text. "Flatbreads and Flavors" would make a thoughtful gift for someone who enjoys baking bread.

Also recommended: "Recipes and Remembrances from an Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen," by Sonia Uvezian. This is by far the best volume in its subject area and one of the greatest ethnic cookbooks ever written, offering fascinating text and hundreds of splendid recipes. The illuminating essays on the region's flatbreads as well as recipes for flavor-packed dishes that utilize them are reason enough to purchase this book.

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Treatment of a Broad Culinary Topic. Buy It! April 1, 2006

By B. Marold HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

`Flatbreads & flavors, A Baker's Atlas' is Canadian culinary photographer / writers' pair Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid's second book, which is easily more useful to the average foodie and reader than their last two expensive culinary travelogues, `Mangoes & Curry Leaves' and `Hot Sour Salty Sweet'. While this book covers a broad geographical range, like the `big' books, it maintains its high level of quality and focus by concentrating exclusively on the subject of flatbreads and dishes that are most commonly served with these flatbreads in their `natural habitat'.

While Alford and Duguid seem to have inherited the style of the great culinary travelogue, `Honey from a Weed' by Patience Gray, they have their own twists on this style which makes it all their own. One difference is that while Gray does a fair amount of reflection on the whys of local techniques, her observations are not systematic. They are more in the line of archeological observations. Since Alford and Duguid in this book, are dealing with the single technique of baking flatbreads, this focus give them the opportunity to give us an excellent tutorial on bread baking technique, including the use of modern appliances in the making of traditional flatbread recipes.

The authors take their `Atlas' approach seriously, as each chapter addresses a particular geographical region and opens with a map locating the center of traditional production for each type of bread. The eight regions are:

Central Asia, primarily Iran, the `...stans', and Tibet with lots of yoghurt and kebabs.

China, Vietnam, and Malaysia with dipping sauces, pancakes, and roll-ups.

India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka with chutneys, curries, and lentils galore....

Eastern Mediterranean, or `flatbread central' with pitas, matzos, Bulgar wheat, and dips and wraps.

Morocco, Tunisia, and Ethiopia, with mostly accompanying dishes.

Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan, the home of Lavosh

Europe, from Italian pizza to Scottish oatcakes

North America with tortillas, crackers, and salsas.

While this would seem to be a rich subject, the authors don't spend much time reflecting on why flatbreads are so important in some parts of the world and less important in others. In Asia, it seems that it is the only kind of bread they make, while in Europe, it's definitely a sidelight. I hypothesize that flatbreads are important where there fuel for ovens is scarce and the native peoples are or were at one time primarily nomadic.

It is just a bit surprising to see how many different bread recipes use yeast. One would think yeast requires a nearby brewing industry, but natural sourdough type yeast is free for the asking and a lot easier to manage on the road than chemical leaveners, when the nearest 7 - 11 is 7000 miles away. But, all the recipes have been modernized and none actually use natural sourdough yeasts. All yeast doughs are made with `active dry yeast', the kind you have to bloom in warm water, but which will keep for years in their little foil packets. The other side of the coin is that there are a fair number or yeastless recipes, especially India's skillet breads, where the leavening is the action of heat and water in the dough, very much like unleavened matzos, except that matzos is made in an oven. So, if you can't tolerate yeast and you are tired of buttermilk biscuits and Irish soda bread, this book may be a great ticket to enriching your range of tolerated breads.

One thing this book does not do is be a complete source on those flatbreads which are so dear to our French / Spanish / Italian backgrounds. If your primary interest is with Pizza, go to Peter Reinhart's `American Pie' or some other treatise on pizza by your favorite Italian cookbook author. If your primary interest is in tortillas, get Diana Kennedy's `From My Mexican Kitchen'. But, if you like these things and want to find the their flatbread cousins, this is your book.

This book is simply all around excellent, and certainly deserves its James Beard Cookbook award. It makes me wish Alford and Duguid would stick to their single subject surveys instead of boosting their photographs business with the richly pictured , `Mangoes & Curry Leaves' and `Hot Sour Salty Sweet'. Their other books on rice and home baking are similarly delightful and should be in every foodie's library. Read more ›

48 of 58 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Bread Anthropology 101 November 22, 2004

By jerry i h

Format:Hardcover

As a travel log and exposition on the anthropological significance of flatbreads, this book is endlessly fascinating; as a bread book, it is less sucessful. Note that this book has both yeasted and non-yeasted varieties.

There are some things that are very good. The explanation for making bread in a home kitchen for the beginner is one of the better ones I have seen: it is thoroughly and simply laid out. Many of the flatbreads were rather problematic, and either tasted like cardboard or were hard to form and roll out; plus, some of the recipes do not give a clear indication of when the baking time is done. The non-bread recipes are the authentic peasant dishes that come from market places, food stalls, street vendors, and homes in third world countries, rather than the Michelin-rated hotel in the capitol city of that country. As such, the Asian chapters constitute one of the best oriental food cookbooks I have seen in recent years.

On the other hand, there is much here to criticize. For every bread recipe, there are at least two (and often more) non-bread recipes that are suppose to be served with that bread. In some chapters, the bread recipes are hard to find. Many of the recipes are inedible herbed chutneys or salsas. Some of the tools and ingredients are hard to get, even in a large city with a substantial ethnic population, and there is often no equivalent listed. Some of the dough make-up techniques are not easy and require practice. The authors have only done a fair job translating the peasant recipes for the Amercan kitchen.

Basically, this book is a fascinating account of Eurasian travel by the authors, eating and baking their way through several foreign countries. Their passion and dedication to their subject come through every page.... There are many interesting accounts of eating flatbreads in different and diverse cultures. It is a reasonably valuable collection of hard to find flatbread recipes. It has chapters on basics, Steppes, Indochina, Indian subcontinent, Middle East, Caucasus, old Europe, and north America. Read more ›