Rating: 
Summary: Don't hesitate, just build it ...
Review: If you want to know how to make sourdough bread, this is THE book to get. It not only tells you how, but equally importantly (at least for me) why. My sourdough bread has turned from a heavy, unappetising brick, to a loaf that my friends and family are actually enjoying. Even better than the bread, if you want to know how to build a wood-fired oven, then look no further - this book has nearly everything you need. With discussions on fundamental design guidelines, required tools, materials and one set of plans in the book, anyone with a little "handyman" experience should be able to build a robust and reliable oven. But don't expect everything to be laid out in the form of fool-proof instructions - YOU will have to do a bit of work in figuring out what size you want the oven, (dome height, door width, floor height), exactly how things will fit together and how many bricks, how much cement, aggregate, etc. you will need. But for me, doing this was part of the challenge, even if I did spend 6 months reworking my plan a dozen times or so. The only thing I'd change in this book is to add just one example of how you could do a chimney - this caused me considerable torment, although what I've done seems to work just fine. So if you want a wood-fired oven, and are thinking of building one - don't hesitate, just build it ...
Rating:
Summary: Don't hesitate, just build it ...
Review: If you want to know how to make sourdough bread, this is THE book to get. It not only tells you how, but equally importantly (at least for me) why. My sourdough bread has turned from a heavy, unappetising brick, to a loaf that my friends and family are actually enjoying. Even better than the bread, if you want to know how to build a wood-fired oven, then look no further - this book has nearly everything you need. With discussions on fundamental design guidelines, required tools, materials and one set of plans in the book, anyone with a little "handyman" experience should be able to build a robust and reliable oven. But don't expect everything to be laid out in the form of fool-proof instructions - YOU will have to do a bit of work in figuring out what size you want the oven, (dome height, door width, floor height), exactly how things will fit together and how many bricks, how much cement, aggregate, etc. you will need. But for me, doing this was part of the challenge, even if I did spend 6 months reworking my plan a dozen times or so. The only thing I'd change in this book is to add just one example of how you could do a chimney - this caused me considerable torment, although what I've done seems to work just fine. So if you want a wood-fired oven, and are thinking of building one - don't hesitate, just build it ...
Rating:
Summary: Build it and they will come!
Review: My Dad an I built a wood burning oven in the fall of 1999 using this book. It would be impossible for any book to answer all the questions but this one comes close. Danniels attention to detail and Alans experience combine to get you more than started. Before we started I wanted answers to all my questions. Now that were done I realize that discovering some of the answers on our own made the journey worth it. This book provides an excellent compass heading for the trip. Good job guys.
Rating:
Summary: Build it and they will come!
Review: My Dad an I built a wood burning oven in the fall of 1999 using this book. It would be impossible for any book to answer all the questions but this one comes close. Danniels attention to detail and Alans experience combine to get you more than started. Before we started I wanted answers to all my questions. Now that were done I realize that discovering some of the answers on our own made the journey worth it. This book provides an excellent compass heading for the trip. Good job guys.
Rating: 
Summary: At last: how to make wonderful sourdough hearth bread!
Review: Taste and smell are the memory senses. My Proustian drive for many years has been to make bread that is as good as my memory of the best bread I ever ate. Although I have been baking (fairly regularly, but at home) for thirty years, it has only been for about ten years that I have been able to make bread that approached the best I have ever eaten, and only about five years that I have been able to make bread that is as good or better than the best available-- hearth breads with wonderful color, chewy/crisp crust, resilient crumb, satisfying flavor, and full nutritional value. I had to make two major changes in my baking to make the bread I love. The first was to stop baking with commercial prepared yeast, changing to the slower European sourdough or natural leaven method of rasing my doughs. The second was to bake in masonry: first in a ceramic cloche, then in a masonry oven I built myself with advice from America's leading masonry oven builder, Alan Scott. The combination of these two changes produced bread that was so different, (and so much better!) that I joined with Alan Scott to write a book about both halves of the process-- a book in plain English about the science and art of natural leavens and the theory, construction, and management of masonry ovens. I am a scientist/physician by training, and I drew on my established research skills to chase down the best available published technical information on sourdoughs and ovens, then supplemented that information with practical trials. For example, Alan and I used instrumented ovens to record temperature changes over time. In the book, this type of technical content is leavened (excuse me!) with an extensive series of profiles of bakers, millers, and bakery consultants, illustrating the principles developed in the main text. The result is a book that is visually beautiful, informal, and accessible. Alan Scott not only is an oven builder and metal craftsman, but also is a master baker and a deep thinker about whole foods, right livelihood, and ecology. In addition to his technical contribution to the book (which contains a full set of plans and instructions for building an Alan Scott-style oven of household size) is a continuing awareness these great issues. Many of these themes have also run through a number of recent Chelsea Green Publishing releases-- about organic orchard practices, commercial organic flower farming, solar gardening, and sustainable building methods. I think The Bread Builders has the potential not only to allow you to make the kind of bread you have always wanted to bake, but to allow you to look at your life (family, career, diet) and consider some wonderful changes. Even if you will NEVER build your own oven, if you love hearth breads, you will want to read our book. I wish I had it to read, YEARS ago!
Rating: 
Summary: Missing Plans?
Review: The authors make several references to a set of plans and list of materials that are included with this book but these appear to be missing. I would not try to build a masonry oven with this book but it is a good start.
Rating:
Summary: A must-own book for any serious baker
Review: This book is not a bread recipe (or formula) book, it is not a learn-to-bake book and it is not a baking reference book. It is a treatise on hearth bread and it is not one you want before you have already become very serious about bread baking and have become a full and fanatical convert to baking with natural leaven ("sourdough"). If you are not already there, then I recommend Peter Reinhart's "Crust and Crumb" and Paul Bertolli's "Chez Panisse Cooking" (it has a single great chapter about baking naturally leavened bread). Once you have arrived at good, satisfying, naturally leavened bread and bake it as a matter of routine, "The Bread Builders" will give you a very good understanding of what is really going on or what should be going on and what you can do to make sure it is. Even though I currently bake in a bottom-of-the-line, electric Jenn-Air oven, the book gave me enough knowledge, science, technique, hints, tricks and understanding that I could take my bread one or two steps further towards perfection, and for that it was worth buying. You also get to understand that the ultimate step towards perfection is baking in a brick oven. When I get around to taking that step and building my oven, this is the book that will guide me.
Rating:
Summary: A must-own book for any serious baker
Review: This book is not a bread recipe (or formula) book, it is not a learn-to-bake book and it is not a baking reference book. It is a treatise on hearth bread and it is not one you want before you have already become very serious about bread baking and have become a full and fanatical convert to baking with natural leaven ("sourdough"). If you are not already there, then I recommend Peter Reinhart's "Crust and Crumb" and Paul Bertolli's "Chez Panisse Cooking" (it has a single great chapter about baking naturally leavened bread). Once you have arrived at good, satisfying, naturally leavened bread and bake it as a matter of routine, "The Bread Builders" will give you a very good understanding of what is really going on or what should be going on and what you can do to make sure it is. Even though I currently bake in a bottom-of-the-line, electric Jenn-Air oven, the book gave me enough knowledge, science, technique, hints, tricks and understanding that I could take my bread one or two steps further towards perfection, and for that it was worth buying. You also get to understand that the ultimate step towards perfection is baking in a brick oven. When I get around to taking that step and building my oven, this is the book that will guide me.
Rating:
Summary: The book we have all been waiting for
Review: This book is the best researched and informative work on bread since the Laurel's Kithcen Bread Book. So many books contain what I call bakery myths (rumors and speculation that bakers pass along to one another that have no basis in fact). These fellows put together a book that debunks many of these myths and offers real insight into both nutritional information and practical tecnique. Beyond a simple primer on one particular method, this book provides the information to allow anyone to develop their own breadbaking style, or improve upon the methods that they are currently using. This book will serve well for a beginner, an amature hobbiest or as a tool for the most demanding professional baker. Hats off to my esteemed colleagues
Rating:
Summary: The book we have all been waiting for
Review: This book is the best researched and informative work on bread since the Laurel's Kithcen Bread Book. So many books contain what I call bakery myths (rumors and speculation that bakers pass along to one another that have no basis in fact). These fellows put together a book that debunks many of these myths and offers real insight into both nutritional information and practical tecnique. Beyond a simple primer on one particular method, this book provides the information to allow anyone to develop their own breadbaking style, or improve upon the methods that they are currently using. This book will serve well for a beginner, an amature hobbiest or as a tool for the most demanding professional baker. Hats off to my esteemed colleagues
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