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maxi

maxi@wyrms.de

Joined 1 year, 8 months ago

The few books that @maxi@todon.eu reads. Mostly about #bread #science #anarchism

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maxi's books

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Sourdough: A Novel (2017, MCD) 4 stars

Lois Clary is a software engineer at General Dexterity, a San Francisco robotics company with …

A happy romp through a weird and wonderful high-tech food-science future, with a sprinkling of magic realism

3 stars

As I've become a sourdough enthusiast myself, I found the existence of this book intriguing; a story about a woman robotics worker living in Silicon Valley, who starts experimenting with sourdough, obtains a 'mother' from an exotic ex-boyfriend, becomes involved with privately-funded underground project based in an abandoned military base, where various 'mad scientist' types research their bleeding-edge food technology, working towards the opening day of the ultimate exotic food market - sourdough, but also crickets, slurry grown from fungus, etc.

I enjoyed it, but on reflection, the fact that the plot could be encapsulated as "woman programmer discovers that actually she prefers baking" left a sour taste. And that was before I discovered that the author, Robin Sloan, isn't a woman as I had assumed.

stopped reading Animal Liberation by Peter Singer

Animal Liberation (EBook, Harpercollins) 5 stars

Since its original publication in 1975, this groundbreaking work has awakened millions of concerned men …

I stopped reading this book because of <a href="https://todon.eu/todon.eu/ href="https://wyrms.de/user/maxi">@maxi/109341829655806827 Actually, I didn't really start reading this book anyway

Nice introductory book on bread science and baking

4 stars

The book starts with an introduction to the chemical reactions in bread baking on the molecular level (chapters 1 & 2). The book also outlines the history of bread science, e.g. how models of the gluten structure have developed, and which studies and experiments contributed to the progress.

The second half of the book dedicates a chapter for each step of baking: pre-fermentation, mixing (kneading), fermentation, shaping, proofing, and baking. The chapters explain what (roughly) happens during these steps and makes references back to the first half of the book. Thus, the book explains not only how to bake, but also why to do certain things.

I think I -- a beginner at baking -- learned a lot from this book. As an introduction to the science of bread making (and to baking in general), it is really accessible and sometimes even a bit funny (e.g. due to some hand-drawn …

The Conquest of Bread (Paperback, 2015, Penguin Books) 5 stars

"Le titre du livre : La Conquête du Pain doit être pris dans le sens …

The self-published book is aimed at hobbyist and professional bakers alike, who want to learn more about the chemical processes during every step of baking. Bread science is interesting on its own, but it can of course also be applied to baking better artisan bread (although a large part of bread research is probably aimed at industrial-scale production).

The book doesn't go into too much details (which is probably a good thing given the audience), but makes use of citations, so curious readers can dig further into research papers.

What I particularly found interesting so far is that the book often explains the history of various aspects of bread science. Like every science, bread science is a process. For example, models that explain how gluten is structured, and how dough captures gas, evolve over time. The still common myth (or oversimplification) that gluten traps gas like a balloon, for example, …

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