|
| Crust & Crumb: Master Formulas for Serious Bread Bakers | 
 enlarge | Author: Peter Reinhart
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $12.89
You Save: $7.06 (35%)
New (29) Used (9) from $9.52
Avg. Customer Rating:  42 reviews
Sales Rank: 4682
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 209
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.7 x 7.8 x 0.9
ISBN: 1580088023
Dewey Decimal Number: 641
EAN: 9781580088022
ASIN: 1580088023
Publication Date: August 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Not worth the money November 29, 2006
7 out of 50 found this review helpful
If you want to spend 2 weeks and end up with bread that you wouldn't feed a dog, follow the barm sponge or yeasted rye recipes from this book.
 Imparts a real understanding of sourdough bread. June 4, 2006
22 out of 23 found this review helpful
I honestly think that this deserves more than the average 4-star rating it got. It uses the slow-rise method, which takes longer in the beginning, but the results are spectacular, with the wonderful aroma, great texture, and delicious flavor that draw you in.
This is not merely a recipe book. Rather, it gives you an understanding of the chemistry of sourdough (no, not what you think) that allows you to understand how to the develop complex combination of flavors that make sourdough truly divine. The small extra effort is well worth your time. It offers truly diverse recipes as well: Ciabatta, focaccia, naan, pizza dough, brioche, kugelhopf, sourdough buttermilk biscuits, scones, sourdough pancakes... If you ever wanted to know what the effect of doing pretty much every possible thing to sourdough would be, this is definitely the book for you. This is not just filler material: It tells you how each type of thing you do to sourdough affects the flavor, crust, texture, etc. If you have ever had sourdough failures before using purchased starter and recipes (and I have) and want to understand what went wrong and how to make it right, this is a great book. I consider it my favorite bread book.
 Crust & Crumb August 29, 2005
3 out of 32 found this review helpful
I have had time to take in a good part of this book and find it to be a great Book on Bread Baking. Would Buy Again.......
The only bread book I use regularly March 18, 2005
24 out of 26 found this review helpful
I've read several books on bread baking, including Reinhart's earlier Brother Juniper's Bread Book. Ever since I found Crust and Crumb on my roommate's bookshelf, those other bread books have been gathering a lot of dust.
Perhaps the best quality of this cookbook is its almost poetic writing. It's as enjoyable to read as many novels, and I've frequently passed time while waiting for a loaf to bake by rereading some of its more interesting passages.
The recipes themselves are incredible, especially the focaccia and the two varieties of pizza crust. Better yet, Reinhart doesn't simply give you a recipe and expect you to follow it blindly. He explains why bread works the way it does, and in doing so, he gives you all the tools you need to experiment on your own. These days, many pages of my copy (well, technically, my poor roommate's copy) of Crust and Crumb are covered in scribbled writing suggesting ingredient modifications, different rising times to try, etc. -- not because there's anything wrong with the original recipes, but because Reinhart inspires experimentation.
And when such experiments produce yummy bread, who's gonna complain?
 Writing economy problem January 9, 2005
40 out of 97 found this review helpful
Substantial flaws make this a semi-okay bread book. First of all, I am under the impression, that Peter Reinhart suffers from tunnel vision. He has never been to Italy, but insists the best Pizza is being made in the U.S.. Brillant. The book is filled with such amusing bits. I wonder what he tells us in his "Pizza - American [sic] Pie" book? Where it gets annoying are these things:
- Recipes stretch over more than two pages. Really hard to read. The read has to be able to grasp what the recipe is about in a few moments.
- Side remarks to the recipes are too long, not very concise and positioned at the beginning of the recipe in small font. Again very messy and confused writing style.
- The book does not have a lot of recipes in it.
- The photographs in the book show mediocre bread or breads that would not deserve the title "Baguette" or "Pizza" as stated.
- There is too little variation in using different flours. Reinhart states that he isn't a huge fan of darker rye breads, but what about more whole wheat, barley, spelt wheat, ... kinds of bread?
- The binding of the book causes the pages of the book to take on wavy shapes, the paper used is of lesser quality. It's not a cheap book, so this should be corrected ASAP.
I am tempted to add
"- Boy, that Peter Reinhart sure likes to hear himself talk"
I.E.: The book is totally blown out of proportion. The material in it would gladly fill one third of the volume it now has.
Peter Reinhart would prove himself a master writer and not only a master baker if he thoroughly revised this book from start to finish. More recipes, less esoteric talk! That's the message.
|
|
|
| |
