Beard on Pasta

I like how the recipes are more down to earth and less precise than what you find from other bakers. Its more about the feel versus exact measurements. Great book for a beginner!

Excellent classic bread book that I bought to replace my book from the 80s that someone borrowed and never returned. Just love this book.

Beard IS the best. I hear the James Beard awards & the like on chopped & now I know why it's so prestiges! This book is phenomenal! Truly, I bake bread all the time & am dedicated. I doubt there is a bread cookbook on amazon that I don't own. This one is so diverse. Breads I've actually never seen. Amazing! A very well organized book with amazing breads. Do wish it had weights as well as measures. I have baked enough bread that I can adjust the ingredients based on the feeling of the dough. But as most know most cookbooks are entirely based on measurement by cup not weight & this book is outstanding in its depth & breadth. I was so amazed. No pictures but I read every recipe cover to cover & I'm ready to start. A truly great book, it won't disappoint. I highly recommend this book. I really liked the chapter on egg breads, far more comprehensive then I've ever seen. I'm gonna bake from cover to cover & then start all over again. Not trendy like so many bread books but they are all there. Not trend setting but timeless top yum recioes. I recommend this book for any and all levels of bakers. Delicious.

It's not just Italian! Beard explores various other cultures for noodle dishes... but there's more Italian than anything else. The recipes look solid, but the "exotic" ones like Chinese are much more Chinese-American than authentic to China itself. Still, some Chinese-American dishes are delicious! The basic pasta recipes look really good, and there are options for making them- everything from by hand through a food processor, and the rolling can be done by hand or in a pasta machine. He does say that his recipes will likely not work well for extruded pasta. Beard generally has good recipes, and a number of these look worth trying. Still, it's rather skimming over the huge variety of noodles around the world.

foundation of all bread books. a true keeper.

Got my copy of this when it first came out, a present from one of my sisters when I was a graduate student in the 1970s-'80s. Bought a second copy for a former student who herself was now in graduate school, and discovering home-made bread baking as Covid shut down her entire university. I've made most of the breads in here, some of them many times, and with one lone exception, they were all great. I've scribbled many marginal notes on those pages I've used, and some pages have almost as much in my notes as in Mr. Beard's original text. The broiled white free-form loaf is my favorite. The only one I didn't like was the Irish Soda Bread - which I felt obligated to give a try, even though the taste of baking soda makes me gag. The bread was ...... tolerable. But I'd never make it again. The broiled free-form loaf, on the other hand, is what I make when I'm trying to impress someone. Once made a double batch, and baked it up in a single giant loaf for a pot-luck get-together. There was nothing left at the end of dinner! :-)

This was my first bread book and while I have collected a few (ok, maybe an entire shelf ) over the years I still reach for this one. (this copy is a gift) All of the yeast breads are excellent. I can't count how many times I've made the no knead whole wheat a completely different bread than Jim Leahy's (also wonderful but needs to be started a day or more before you want to eat it). You can stir together Beard's no knead bread after work and it will be ready to eat before a reasonable bed time. All of the oatmeal breads are great sandwich breads, far superior to commercial bread and not difficult. There are recipes for white, rye, pumpernickel and a few oldies that are not in fashion but still delicious. If you'd like delicious bread in a few hours not a few days, if you don't bake often enough (or can't be bothered) to keep a starter fed and active, if you want bread that is excellent but not precious and if you're not interested in accumulating a lot of equipment this may be the book for you.

If you like cook books with a lot of pretty pictures, this is not the book for you. Instead, what you get are a lot of James Beard tested bread recipes and commentary. Truly it is becoming one of my favorite "go-to" bread books and even if I don't make all, or even most, of the recipes in the book it's great fun and inspirational to browse through all of them and read JB's comments about them. But be forewarned - he's not a big fan of sourdough and thinks that it's overrated as a means of leavening bread.

James Beard is a master baker! His recipes are always trustworthy.

Es un excelente libro de recetas para hacer panes. Yo lo uso con frecuencia y también lo he regalado. Las recetas son sencillas y el resultado es muy bueno.

This is my back-up for a 1970's hard back copy that has been well used and is beginning to come apart. I would have put the condition down as unused as it was so good,but on reading through, it would appear that the previous owner had only tried to make pizza and had even had to annotate the recipe! Very pleased and delighted with book and service. Many Thanks.

Excellent book. Covers the basics of Bread making and easy recipes

I have been looking for a bread book that is focused on classic prep methods and a wide variety of ingredients; this one checks all those boxes and more!😏 James Beard created a wonderful bread collection and offers it here with a friendly, down to earth tone throughout this charming and original book. Everything from simple whole wheat and white loaves to rye, barley, potato, sweet breads, rolls and flatbreads. And all made the way I 💗 to make breads: by hand, yeast DISSOLVED (to actually break down the gases in yeast properly) and with plenty of kneading. Sure, most homemade bread tastes good but that imo is only "half of the story".😏 Without the hands on steps for getting there, it's just not the same. You won't find any fancy photos in this book, it's definitely not the " coffee table variety " . What you WILL find is page after page of well loved and carefully tested classic bread recipes that will keep any home baker busy (and happy) for years to come. I can't wait to get started! 😁 PS: I have now tried two of the recipes. One was for banana bread and one made with cooked oatmeal, both came out great! 😁 Geraldine Helen Hartman author of, The Groovy Green Kitchen cookbook series🍉🍔🍞🍋