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- Verified Buyer
The Rye Baker is an utterly beautiful, well-researched treasure of a cookbook on baking rye breads. This book will open up a whole new world to any reader. I read and own a lot of bread baking books, and I've never seen anything approaching the level of detail and variety found in Stanley Ginsberg's book. He has clearly done an exceptional amount of research into the use of rye as an ingredient in baking, both contemporary and historically throughout Europe and the US. From well-known favorites like Boston Brown Bread and Jewish Bakery Pumpernickel to regional specialties like Slow-Baked Frisian Rye (Holland), South Tyrolean Christmas Zelten (Italy), Sauerkraut Bread (Germany), Normandy Apple Cider Rye (France), Riga Rye (Latvia), Ginger-Plum Bread (Germany) and Yogurt Rye (Poland), this book explores the stunning variety of breads made with rye.Importantly, all of the recipes and explanations are accompanied by measurements in grams, ounces, volume, and baker's percentages. The handful of comparisons I've made while starting to bake from this book indicate that the conversions are correctly done between weights and volumes.This book starts with an brief introduction to how this book came into being, the history of rye in agriculture and food, a very comprehensive section on ingredients, including US-Europe flour equivalencies and a breakdown of their protein and moisture content. This section is packed with concise but key information on the roles of salt, sweeteners, spices and herbs, leavening, yeast, liquids, and other mix-ins like fruits and seeds. This section also walks you through starting and maintaining a rye sourdough culture.Following the introduction, there's an in-depth chapter on understanding the terminology and techniques used in these recipes - "Nine steps to great rye bread". This section covers things like why and how different types of preferments are used, the importance of accurate measurements and scaling, benching the dough, etc. Even if you are an experienced baker, this section contains lots of interesting details about how baking with rye works and the rationale behind some of the different techniques.An equipment section follows the "Nine steps", and again, Stanley goes into a lot of detail about the roles of specific equipment (like proofing baskets, steam pans, and baking stones) in turning out a great loaf of rye bread. This chapter concludes with a short section on cooling and storage.The recipes themselves are split into Immigrant Bread (America), the Essential Loaf (France and Spain), Robust and Complex (Holland, Denmark, and Northern Germany), Sweet and Crisp (Sweden, Finland, and Iceland), Aromatic and Flavorful (Bavaria, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy), Dark and Intense (Russia and the Baltics), Tender and Piquant (Southern Poland), and Rich and Varied (Central and Southwestern Germany).While a lot of the recipes make use of a starter or preferment, there are plenty of recipes that look delicious and take very little advance notice. I just got this tonight and my loaf of Spiced Honey Rye (France) is already cooled and ready to eat. It smells and tastes utterly amazing. If I were to bookmark all the recipes I want to make from this book, I would flag almost every page. There's so much knowledge and diversity of rye-based recipes in here, this bread book will be a great resource for anyone (home baker or professional) who enjoys baking bread.
