The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Do I really need BBA?

expatCanuck's picture
expatCanuck

Do I really need BBA?

Greetings.

To open, a confession. I have a nasty bread book habit. Really nasty.
Tho' I try to mitigate the malady by typically acquiring relatively inexpensive, gently used volumes.
And I do actually bake some of the recipes, too. ;7)

Over the past few years, I've acquired:

Hamelman's Bread,
Leader's Bread Alone,
Glezer's Artisan & Blessing volumes,
Reinhart's Brother Juniper

and the tragically out-of-print:

No Need to Knead (Dunaway) &
Village Baker (Ortiz).

So -- is BBA going to provide me with anything significant that I don't already have in my current library?

Thoughtful analysis, careless half-truths and outright lies all welcome.

- Richard

www.oldWithoutMoney.com

Floydm's picture
Floydm

Do you need it? No.

Would you enjoy it? Probably.

caryn's picture
caryn

Yes!!!!!!  (I had to respond because I was LOL after reading your question.)

Of course, I own almost all that you have listed and then some, so I may be suffering from the same ailment.  Now I do not have P.R's Brother Juniper, but the BBA has the reputation that it is somewhat better.  Here is my suggestion- go to the library and try some of the recipes, and then decide if you need to buy it.  I do that a lot. And finding slighly used is a great idea- I have also acquired at least one of my books that way.

And put things in perspective, you could have worse habits!!!

expatCanuck's picture
expatCanuck

Caryn -

Glad I provided some mirth -- that's often my intent.

It's probably noteworthy that used copies of BBA are currently pretty much non-existent.

Curiously, I enjoy Brother Juniper more for the 'philosophy' than the recipes.  It was around the same time I read that book that I migrated away from the machines to a simpler manual approach to bread ... I suspect that there was some cause and effect there.

Cheers, 

 - Richard

www.oldwithoutmoney.com

JIP's picture
JIP

If you can afford to feed your addiction I think a god fix is in order.  Personally I think you can never have too many bread books and tis one in my opinion is particulaly good.  While I am not a HUGE fan of the reipes in the book I think the techinques presented are very good and the pictures are superb.  

expatCanuck's picture
expatCanuck

> If you can afford to feed your addiction I think a god fix is in order. 

I do hope that you meant 'a good fix' ... 

Cheers,

 - Richard 

www.oldwithoutmoney.com

browndog's picture
browndog

Oh, Richard, I thought that was simply a reference to Peter in his capacity as bread god.

expatCanuck's picture
expatCanuck

lol ... don't get me started ...

Tho' I can see how some readers might come away with the impression that certain authors have a curiously heightened sense of self-importance.

PR was arguably more circumspect in the Brother Juniper tome.

- Richard

www.oldwithoutmoney.com

JIP's picture
JIP

Whoops!!!!

 

breadnerd's picture
breadnerd

I mean, even if you don't *NEED* it to further your bread skills, it makes a really nice coffee table book. The first time I picked it up I said "it's bread porn!"

Though of course mine is now broken in with flour and dough stuck to some of the pages...

JIP's picture
JIP

Bread porn or useful text personally I think it is worth it either way......

Trishinomaha's picture
Trishinomaha

with so many of the people above. You don't "need" any bread book - you can get great recipes here and on the net but...that being said, as some one who loves to bake I can never have too many good bread books :-)

KipperCat's picture
KipperCat

I don't buy cookbooks that are just recipes, but I'll spend money on cooking books that are instructional.  Good bread books, like BBA fit that criteria.

I need to get started on my Christmas bread book wishlist!