Product Description

Since the early 1970s, more than 250,000 bread lovers have relied on Beard on Bread to show them exactly how to make the most out-of-this-world breads imaginable. Now, this classic collection of 100 scrumptuous bread recipes is available in a new trade paperback edition featuring more than 90 illustrations by Karl Stuecklen.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #188876 in Books
• Published on: 1995-02-07
• Released on: 1995-02-07
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From the Inside Flap
Since the early 1970s, more than 250,000 bread lovers have relied on Beard on Bread to show them exactly how to make the most out-of-this-world breads imaginable. Now, this classic collection of 100 scrumptuous bread recipes is available in a new trade paperback edition featuring more than 90 illustrations by Karl Stuecklen.

Customer Reviews

A classic that has aged gracefully
I was given my copy of BEARD ON BREAD soon after it was originally published. In some ways I have outgrown it and in many ways I never will. It came into being in the generation of Julia Child with James Beard doing for American food what Julia was doing for French--pulling authentic food out from under the homogenous pre-packaged commercial culture of the post War era and making it accessible for home cooks. This book came out in the early 1970's when it was dawning on America that making bread was suddenly not just for the Amish and hippies anymore. The breads are not particularly artisan or European, and the ingredients are typical of what would have been available 35 years ago (hard wheat flour = bread flour today). He made his sourdough starter with milk, which I find weird, but then he admits to a bias against sourdough and was just incorporating a recipe for the sake of a well-rounded cookbook. He includes a number of novelty recipes that are a reminder of an era of bridge luncheons and going over to someone's house for coffee.

That said, I just returned to it to make buttermilk dinner rolls for a traditional Easter feast; I will always make biscuits Beard's way; and his rye breads are more beginner friendly than most. I often use the food processor to mix up dough and I use instant (not fast-rising) yeast, so I adjust his instructions accordingly. This remains a good starter book on bread baking and should be a part of a shelf devoted to the subject.

Glad I bought another copy
James Beard was one of those wonderful chefs who could make even the most humble foods fit for kings. My original paperback is so dog-eared, with so many notes scribbled in the margins about the scrumptious Beard bread recipes I've tried out, I had no choice but to buy another, larger format book. Yay! Even more space for notes and observations. Beard's creations live on. If you love bread, you'll love this book and so will the willing recipients of the goodness that comes from Beard, through your kitchen, to them.

The basic bread book that lasts
I have been baking bread, or attempting to, for thirty years. I still need this book. I seem to always give them away, so when I want the recipe for the apricot bread, or the girlfriend getter walnut-onion; I must call an ex or buy another. I can stand on my own, from experience, on the yeast breads for the most part. But the quick breads in this book stand out in my memory. That is what I need this book for. When I tell people that I bake bread, they ask me "do you have a bread machine?", I reply" I am a bread machine!".

The Cuisinart large capacity processors will do the Pita recipe in this book in less than a minute, kneading and all.

I haven't tested many more recipes with modern appliances that appear in this book.
I believe that I could adapt them all.

All The Best
Ken