 | |
| Author | Nathan Myhrvold, Francisco Migoya |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | The Cooking Lab |
Publication date | October 24, 2017 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 2,500 |
| ISBN | 978-0982761052 |
| Preceded by | Modernist Cuisine |
| Followed by | Modernist Pizza |
| Website | modernistcuisine |
Modernist Bread is a 2017 cookbook by Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya. The book is focused on bread, its history and baking techniques, and a guide to the science behind baking.
Modernist Bread set consists of 5 volumes plus manual: [1]
The book received positive reviews. Tejal Rao of The New York Times praised the book, saying that it:
chronicles the history and science of bread-making in depth ("Baking is applied microbiology," one chapter begins), breaking frequently for meticulous, textbook-style tangents on flour and fermentation. Its recipes require a commitment to close reading, and to flipping back through the books for deeper explanations. But each has useful variations that work with many kinds of mixing and cooking methods, for both professional and home kitchens. Above all, the book is a call for cooks to rethink one of the world's oldest foods — to understand how bread is made, using more than their instinct and intuition, so they can push the craft forward. [2]
The reviewer was also impressed by a commitment the team made: "To reproduce the squat loaves, they procured a bronze Roman bread stamp ( signum pistoris ) from an antiquities dealer in New York (yes, he was horrified when he found out it would be put to use in a working oven) and called in a costume designer to dress a few of their bearded colleagues. What might sound like cute cosplay for bread nerds also sums up the spirit of Modernist Bread, a book that demands bakers look into the past without romanticizing it." [2]
Joe Ray of Wired praised the book too, saying: "There are stunning photos, images of gluten made with scanning electron microscopes, history, discoveries, science, and at this point you're either amazed by the whole idea or went glassy-eyed in that last paragraph, vaguely wondering "Five books about bread?" before finding a suitable spot on the floor to take a nap." and "There's no way to look at Modernist Bread and not be stunned. It's gorgeous, and Myhrvold goes around talking about how many pounds of ink it took to print each five-volume set. Also, the team has both come up with new techniques and refined scores of old ones." [3]
The Cooking World notes breadth of the book: "Another work that finds inspiration in a variety of sources, industrial as well as artisanal, offering a defense of high-fructose corn syrup alongside a guide to caring for wild sourdough starters, and debunking the idea that water purity affects the rise and flavor of the bread." [4]
The book is a winner of several awards: [5]
Pasta is a type of food typically made from an unleavened dough of wheat flour mixed with water or eggs, and formed into sheets or other shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. Rice flour, or legumes such as beans or lentils, are sometimes used in place of wheat flour to yield a different taste and texture, or as a gluten-free alternative. Pasta is a staple food of Italian cuisine.
Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made foods, having been of significance since the dawn of agriculture, and plays an essential role in both religious rituals and secular culture.
Cake is a flour confection made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate and which share features with desserts such as pastries, meringues, custards, and pies.
Pastry is baked food made with a dough of flour, water, and shortening that may be savoury or sweetened. Sweetened pastries are often described as bakers' confectionery. The word "pastries" suggests many kinds of baked products made from ingredients such as flour, sugar, milk, butter, shortening, baking powder, and eggs. Small tarts and other sweet baked products are called pastries as a synecdoche. Common pastry dishes include pies, tarts, quiches, croissants, and pasties.
Baking powder is a dry chemical leavening agent, a mixture of a carbonate or bicarbonate and a weak acid. The base and acid are prevented from reacting prematurely by the inclusion of a buffer such as cornstarch. Baking powder is used to increase the volume and lighten the texture of baked goods. It works by releasing carbon dioxide gas into a batter or dough through an acid–base reaction, causing bubbles in the wet mixture to expand and thus leavening the mixture. The first single-acting baking powder was developed by food manufacturer Alfred Bird in England in 1843. The first double-acting baking powder, which releases some carbon dioxide when dampened and later releases more of the gas when heated by baking, was developed by Eben Norton Horsford in the U.S. in the 1860s.
Dough is a thick, malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops. Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes yeast or other leavening agents, as well as ingredients such as fats or flavorings.
In cooking, kneading is a process in the making of bread or dough, used to mix the ingredients and add strength to the final product. Its importance lies in the mixing of flour with water; when these two ingredients are combined and kneaded, the gliadin and glutenin proteins in the flour expand and form strands of gluten, which gives bread its texture. The kneading process warms and stretches these gluten strands, eventually creating a springy and elastic dough. If bread dough is not kneaded enough, it will not be able to hold the tiny pockets of gas created by the leavening agent, and will collapse, leaving a heavy and dense loaf.
Molten chocolate cake is a French dessert that consists of a chocolate cake with a liquid chocolate core. It is named for that molten center, and it is also known as mi-cuit au chocolat, chocolat coulant ("flowing"), chocolate lava cake, or simply lava cake. It should not be confused with fondant au chocolat, a recipe that contains little flour, but much chocolate and butter, hence melting on the palate.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the preparation of food:
Spoonbread is a moist cornmeal-based dish prevalent in parts of the Southern United States. While the basic recipe involves the same core ingredients as cornbread — namely cornmeal, milk, butter, and eggs — the mode of preparation creates a final product with a soft, rather than crumbly, texture. As the name implies, the consistency is soft enough that it needs to be served and eaten with a spoon.
Lahoh, is a spongy, flat pancake-like bread. It is a type of flat bread eaten regularly in Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Yemen. Yemenite Jewish immigrants popularized the dish in Israel. It is called Laxoox/Lahoh or Canjeero/Canjeelo in Somaliland, Somalia and Djibouti, and called Lahoh/Lahuh in Yemen, respectively.
In cooking, proofing is a step in the preparation of yeast bread and other baked goods in which the dough is allowed to rest and rise a final time before baking. During this rest period, yeast ferments the dough and produces gases, thereby leavening the dough.
A baking stone is a portable cooking surface used in baking. It may be made of ceramic, stone or, more recently, salt. Food is put on the stone, which is then placed in an oven, though sometimes the stone is heated first. Baking stones are used much like cookie sheets, but may absorb additional moisture for crispier food. A pizza stone is a baking stone designed for cooking pizza.
The sponge and dough method is a two-step bread making process: in the first step a sponge is made and allowed to ferment for a period of time, and in the second step the sponge is added to the final dough's ingredients, creating the total formula. In this usage, synonyms for sponge are yeast starter or yeast pre-ferment. In French baking the sponge and dough method is known as levain-levure. The method is reminiscent of the sourdough or levain methods; however, the sponge is made from all fresh ingredients prior to being used in the final dough.
Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking is a 2011 cookbook by Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young and Maxime Bilet. The book is an encyclopedia and a guide to the science of contemporary cooking.
No-knead bread is a method of bread baking that uses a very long fermentation (rising) time instead of kneading to form the gluten strands that give the bread its texture. It is characterized by a low yeast content and a very wet dough. Some recipes improve the quality of the crust by baking the bread in a Dutch oven or other covered vessel.
Straight dough is a single-mix process of making bread. The dough is made from all fresh ingredients, and they are all placed together and combined in one kneading or mixing session. After mixing, a bulk fermentation rest of about 1 hour or longer occurs before division. It is also called the direct dough method.
Peter Reinhart is an American baker, educator and author. He is most known for writing Bread Revolution, American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza, The Joy of Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Baking and The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. Four of his books have been nominated for James Beard Awards, with three of them winning, including the "Book of the Year" in 2002 for The Bread Baker's Apprentice.
Injera is a sour fermented pancake-like flatbread with a slightly spongy texture, traditionally made of teff flour. In Ethiopia, Eritrea, and some parts of Sudan and Kenya, injera is a staple. Injera is central to the dining process, like bread or rice elsewhere and is usually stored in the mesob.
Modernist Pizza is a 2021 cookbook by Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya. The book is focused on pizza, its history and baking techniques, and a guide to the science behind it.