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52 Loaves: One Man's Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and a Perfect Crust |  | Author: William Alexander
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy New: $12.98
as of 9/8/2010 00:26 EDT details
You Save: $10.97 (46%)
New (35) from $12.98
Seller: CDCellarVA
Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 33497
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.9 x 1.3
ISBN: 1565125835
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.815
EAN: 9781565125834
ASIN: 1565125835
Publication Date: May 4, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9781565125834 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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Product Description
William Alexander is determined to bake the perfect loaf of bread. He tasted it long ago, in a restaurant, and has been trying to reproduce it ever since. Without success. But now he’s going to try again—every week for one year—until he gets it right. He will bake his peasant loaf from scratch. And because Alexander is nothing if not thorough, he really means from scratch: growing, harvesting, winnowing, threshing, and milling his own wheat.
Alexander’s often hilarious quest takes our (anti)hero through dangerous back alleys of Morocco, where he bakes his loaf in an ancient communal oven; to Paris, where he enrolls in the cours de boulangerie at the famed École Ritz Escoffier; to a monastery in Normandy, where (his lack of French and faith notwithstanding) he becomes bread baker to the monks; and finally to his own backyard, where he builds a lopsided brick oven and learns that perfection is just a state of mind. Alexander also takes us along on entertaining visits to yeast factories and flour mills, seeks advice from master bread bakers, captures wild yeast to make his own levain, and enters the baking contest at the New York State Fair.
An original take on the six-thousand-year-old staple of life, 52 Loaves explores the nature of obsession, the meditative quality of ritual, the futility of trying to re-create something perfect, our deep connection to the earth, and the mysterious instinct that makes every single person on the planet, regardless of culture or society, respond to the aroma of baking bread.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 11
 It is not about the bread. August 27, 2010
Steve Sill (Las Vegas, NV USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It is a great story about life, and bread. I started baking bread after reading My Bread, a no knead way to bake. I was looking for something else. This book wasn't like a cookbook. It was a series of weekly essays about a man's experience with bread, grain, flour, yeast, and a monastery. Some serious moments, but mostly light humor that will keep you smiling for days. I insisted my wife read it also; I think she liked it even better than I did. Now, will I try and make bread by the final recipe. Not yet, it is alittle to complicated. But after my attempts to bake a good loaf, I know Mr Alexander's recipe will work.
Thanks for a good read.
 52 loaves of bread August 22, 2010
H. Dagostino (Da Deeeeeep South)
Very good book with humor and wit. Teaches you how to make wholesome tasting bread at home.
Great bread making tips + history and philosophy August 8, 2010
R. Kendall (Indianapolis, IN USA)
I loved this book, both for its tips into bread making and its wonderful commentary on all sorts of other topics, e.g., I had heard of pellagra but didn't recall what caused it and its impact on the southern United States. My only complaint is that the author didn't tell me where to find apples with natural yeast on them. None of the orchards
near me seem to know what I am talking about!
Made my first loaf while laughing July 22, 2010
Pamela Thomson (Huntington Beach. CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you want to spend your summer laughing---and learning, this couldn't be a better pick for summer reading. Alexander's pursuit of the perfect crust leads him across modern America to cloistered Europe in short, readable chapters. Each of the 52 weeks introduces historic villains and heroes behind bread making. With humorous and life-changing discoveries 52 weeks will zoom by and leave you craving the perfect crust. (Recipes included). A definite buy.
52 loaves July 12, 2010
Marion Sowka (HSV, AR)
Recently retired, I listened to Alexander Williams on Public radio. His description of finding the perfect recipe for bread intrigued me and so I ordered the book. It is now 3 weeks later and I have baked thus far 5 loaves of the peasant bread. The (grown up) kids love it, our grand son does as well. The book is easy to read and at times humorous.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 11
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