The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Which book has explained sourdough in detail?

donnnaaai's picture
donnnaaai

Which book has explained sourdough in detail?

I want to understand sourdough completely, a book which talks about sourdough in detail bc with some simple recipes. What are your recommendations?

idaveindy's picture
idaveindy

"Sourdough School", by Vanessa Kimbell.  https://www.amazon.com/Sourdough-School-ground-breaking-making-gut-friendly-ebook/dp/B07BPV28CC?tag=froglallabout-20

Currently US $7.99 in Kindle ebook format.

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TFL has a few resident scientists. One of whom is Debra Wink.

See her many technical explanations in the  comments on this thread (scroll all the way through, they are interspersed with questions from others:  http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/14913/very-liquid-sourdough

And she is the authoress of several technical articles here: (all over my head)

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My personal Kindle/hardcopy library, with links to Amazon: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/61370/my-breadpizza-library-kindle-and-hard-copy

My personal hardcopy-only library, with links to Amazon: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/61371/my-breadpizza-library-2-hard-copy-only.

G. Marie's picture
G. Marie

I really liked Reinharts books for starting out. Artisan Breads Every Day. 

If you want some in depth info then look up Debra Wink's posts here. She has some fantastic posts. 

barryvabeach's picture
barryvabeach

I bought Vanessa's sourdough book on Dave recommendation, and it had more info on sourdough than most I have seen. 

On the other hand, if you want to understand sourdough completely, step one would probably be learning how to reincarnate yourself multiple times, because my guess it will take the first few lifetimes to get a basic understanding of sourdough, and the later lifetimes can be used to get the complete understanding.  Just teasing of course, but there is a school of thought that every sourdough culture is its own unique blend of microbes and yeast, and when you add the complexity that different flours -  even those with the same name, can be entirely different, it will be quite  an accomplishment to completely understand sourdough.   

Another book you may want to consider is Bread Science, by Emily Buehler ,  it is not a recipe book, though it does have a sourdough recipe, but it does go into the science behind bread baking. 

G. Marie's picture
G. Marie

I agree with the lifetimes Barry. While I have read many of Wink's posts I don't know when/if ever I'll be ever able to say I fully understood them. For something that seems simple, a loaf of bread, it is anything but.