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Cookbook review: English Bread and Yeast Cookery – Elizabeth David

Perhaps bread has always been a comfort food. We welcome the day with a slice of hot toast dripping with butter, if we are lucky. Lunch of a bowl of hot soup with a slice of crusty rustic loaf. Afternoon tea with some crumpets (yes, they too are technically breads) and a romantic evening meal with a basket of French baguette. We consider bread as such an iconic food that estate agents are suggesting that the aroma of home-baking bread could secure a house sale.

Not only are these baked goods iconic but the author has a similar status. Elizabeth David is the cook’s cook, the chef’s companion and the cookbook collector’s perennial target. She has remained the doyen of all things culinary for two generations. She was penning prose about olive oil when the nearest most of us came to such an ingredient was Boots the Chemist. Elizabeth David has provided inspiration as well as practical advice, and this volume (first published in 1977) presents both those qualities.

It’s probably true that her books on Mediterranean cuisine have been the most celebrated, but the author has stayed close to home for this project, with perhaps some short trips across the Channel. English Bread and Yeast Cookery is a cookbook but it’s also a bread-maker’s almanac, a baker’s digest and a loaf lover’s manual. It’s a comprehensive guide to all the accoutrements of bread, from milling, yeast production, varieties of flour, to myth and lore.

The experienced cook will doubtless leaf through these first chapters and revel in the usual charm and wit that made this lady so popular. Her words set the scene for the extraordinary alchemy that is baking in general and bread-baking in particular. One is using a live ingredient which is influenced even by changes in the weather. One’s sense of touch is key to success, making the process perhaps the most intimate and rewarding of culinary pastimes.

English Bread and Yeast Cookery will be equally welcomed by less experienced bakers who will want to turn to the recipes right away and start cooking. Their raw enthusiasm will be nurtured into confident skill with simple straightforward recipes. There can be few greater triumphs than presenting a well-textured loaf from one’s own oven. Don’t even consider leaving your first such master-work to cool. That honestly would be an unachievable challenge.

I mentioned that Ms. David gave a nod to the celebrated breads of France but she also voyaged south to Italy. Her recipe for Pizza might well be a starting point for those who want to learn more about yeast cookery. This is forgiving dough which will always result in a presentable meal. There are none of the worries of potential slump that one might have with the first attempt at a lofty cottage loaf. Pizza will also tempt younger members of the family into the kitchen. Cooking should be fun but bread baking can be magical.

This is a classic and a one-stop bread book. There are all the traditional favourites like Bloomer, Granary Loaf, and Baps but there is also a section on yeast cakes as well as those yeast-batter treats like crumpets and yeast pancakes, sweet savarin and savoury quiches. English Bread and Yeast Cookery is a book for those who know nothing of yeast baking and equally for those who love it but want to know more. Outstanding value for money and a must for any cookbook collection.

Cookbook review: English Bread and Yeast Cookery
Author: Elizabeth David
Published by: Grub Street
Price: £14.99
ISBN 978-1-906502-87-4