Bread Science: The Chemistry and Craft of Making Bread

by Emily Jane Buehler

Bread Science is the complete how-to guide to bread making. It covers the entire process in detail. With over 250 photos and illustrations, it makes bread making approachable and fun. Learn how to… In addition to the craft, Bread Science explains the science behind bread making, from fermentation reactions to yeast behavior, gluten structure, gas retention, and more. If you like to understand why things happen, Bread Science is for you. The 15th anniversary edition contains all the great content of the original edition, with a beautiful new cover.

Genres: Food, Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Cooking, Science, Culinary

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Subscribe to my romance mailing list at https://janebuehler.com

Subscribe to my very sporadic other news: http://emilybuehler.com

Here's my short, third-person bio: "When asked what she'd be when she grew up, Emily always answered, an artist. An enthusiastic high school chemistry teacher, however, led Emily to study chemistry in college. After earning her PhD, Emily became a bread baker, which led to her first book, Bread Science. While writing Somewhere and Nowhere, the memoir of her cross-country bicycle trip, she realized that her childhood inklings were correct, and she was meant to be a writer. She currently writes cozy romantasy as Jane Buehler."

I only rate books if I can give 4 or 5 stars. If I feel compelled to review a book I didn't like, I leave off the star rating. I wish the rating meant "is a good fit for Emily" but because it seems to be taken as "is good or bad" I just don't feel comfortable giving another author 3 or less stars.

I'd love you to reach out to me on Goodreads, but I'm slightly technologically confused, so if I don't reply in the proper way, it's probably because I don't know what I'm doing.

Reviews

[Anand Mandapati · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Bread, but not Perfect

This is not a cookbook, it’s a science book. But, if you’re willing to read through the science in chapter 2, you’ll be rewarded with a much better understanding of why you should or shouldn’t do the things mentioned in chapters 3-8. Emily Buehler does a great job delving into the science and translating it into real world example much more than the brief descriptions in Harold McGee’s “On Food and Cooking” and even a bit more detail than Shirley Corriher’s “CookWise”. As excellent as those books and introductions into bread baking were, I knew I wanted to learn even more detail and this book delivered. As I’m just starting on my bread baking journey, we’ll see if all this knowledge really ends up translating into better bread than I’ve made so far, but I’m optimistic I’ll know how to fix things that go wrong.

With that said, I wanted to understand why some popular recipes work and was disappointed it didn’t touch too much on those. For example, Chad Robertson favors higher hydration than the basic recipe in this book and I’d love to understand why it works. Or, another example is Jim Lahey’s no knead recipe which is very briefly mentioned in chapter 8. I’d love to know if there are intermediate stages between fully kneading the bread with a 2 hour ferment and not kneading at all with a 12-18 hour ferment. The book really only focused on the first end of the spectrum. I could (and will) experiment and find my answers, but I’d love to understand the science of what to expect before I do things which was the point of reading the book.

[Ben Labe · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Bread Science" is distinguished by its outstanding second chapter, which occupies about a third of the book's main text. There, author Emily Buehler details the chemistry of bread making at every stage of the process. She begins by covering bread's major ingredients--flour, water, salt, and yeast, as well as a few popular additions like fat and sugar--in isolation, and then explains how those ingredients all interact and contribute to the total bread making process. The entire chapter is meticulously researched, including references and citations, by Buehler, who has a PhD in Chemistry. What it amounts to is a welcome review of the scientific literature on bread for the layperson.

For the serious bread aficionado, this is not a book to pass up. I plan to read that second chapter at least two more times in full and expect that I will refer to its most important sections sporadically.

[Julie Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is extremely science-heavy, but written clearly enough for a baking/science novice to still understand and benefit from most of the book. For those that want to know the science and "why"s behind the baking, there is no better book. For those that just want a recipe to follow - this is not your book. My only criticism - the book often would explain a potential obstacle or fact of baking, but omit the steps the baker should take to avoid/overcome the obstacle or make use of the fact.

[Guilherme Stoll · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those who are starting to bake, this book should bring a lot of new information. However, I don't think the book brought me as many answers as I expected. The flour section is undoubtedly the best part of the book, very scientifically dense. However, I expected the same level of detail for the other parts, especially the yeast part.

[M.A. Kropp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like baking. I like baking far better than I like cooking meals. One of the things I bake with relative frequency is bread. I make decent bread, but there are some things I still struggle with. Working with a more sticky, slack dough is one of those. I've read countless articles and online postings about baking bread, but there has still been something missing.

Cue my youngest daughter. My birthday was this month, and she gave me this book as a gift. I started reading it and immediately thought: This is going to be really help. And it has. I tried the basic recipe from the book this week, and while I did over bake the loaves a bit (I'm not used to preheating the oven so high and forgot to turn it down when I put the loaves in), the taste and texture are really good. And I got nice oven spring, something I'd not with some breads before.

The book is a bit textbook-like, and that may put some people off. I will admit that the first couple chapters on the chemistry part did make my head spin a bit. I have never been the science-y, math type. But there was a lot of interesting information on the why and how of what happens with the simple ingredients that bread is made up of. And who knew there was so much research done on bread? I sure didn't!

The book startst with the basics: ingredients, measuring, and an overview of the process. Then it delves into the science with chemical reactions described and explained, and how different ingredients and reactions affect the dough either positively or negatively. There are chapters on preferments and starters, mixing, fermentation, shaping (really good tips here), proofing and baking, as well as a few recipes and storage information. It has a bibliography that lists the sources for the research cited, an appendix of units and conversions, and a glossary of terms.

This is not a cookbook, as such. It is more of a class in bread making. Some of it is a bit hard to get through, especially if chemistry isn't your strong point, but I picked up some valuable information anyway. If you want to improve your bread making, and learn a bit more in depth about the whole process, this book is quite an interesting read.

[Emily Buehler]

Well, it's my book, so of course I'm a fan! I wrote this book to share all the lessons I learned both in the bakery and teaching bread-making classes. I also wanted to share the different aspects of the relevant science, and to "translate" academic research into language for everyone.

This books sticks to the basics of bread made with flour, water, salt, and a rising agent (yeast or sourdough starter). Of course there is a lot more out there, but even just covering this simple recipe took years of research, and it was enough material for one book.

I hope you enjoy it.

[Jenifer Perry]

This book made me feel like I was in high school chemistry class, except that it was much more interesting. Buehler takes very cute pictures and has helpful drawings. I really want to go to her community bread night in Chapel Hill.

[Jessica (too shy to go out and socialize) · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a food scientist myself, I already knew some knowledge of the science of bread baking. Even so, I learned more about the practical uses so it was a great read.

[Joanna Mounce · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved every second of reading this book, it was relaxing and informative and interesting all at the same time. The author's voice is very pleasant and conversational. She neither speaks down to nor above the reader, she simply expects that the person reading is intelligent enough to follow, and she admits when she doesn't know something and wonders about the things that she's curious about, which made me curious too. It nettles me that bread is the main grain in my culture, but I don't know almost anything about it. I'm grateful to the author for explaining it to me! Especially right after reading "Tartine Bread", which made me feel really poetic about bread and excellence and artisanry, this book really made me feel like now I have some knowledge to back up my feelings. No, I'm still not a good baker, but I do have a ton of bread facts, so there's something!

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

If half stars were allowed, I would give this 2.5 stars. I rounded it up because of much of the detail in chapters 3-7. (At first I rounded it down because the recipes are lacking, with scant directions. Only seasoned bread bakers would be able to follow them - many beginners would quickly be lost and lose heart....)

The book is oddly laid out, with an invitation to pick and choose. Alas, it is terrible to read in e-form (epub version), or at least it is terrible on my kobo. The images are giant and cannot be viewed unless the font is reduced to its smallest size ie: unreadable. Sadly, the recipes are in image form rather than text.

The Chapters link only goes up to Chapter 5, leaving out Chapters 6 to 8, as well as the link to the table of contents, and the index. The only way to access these is to use the search, or suddenly notice the note to "return to the table of contents" at the end of each chapter. Happily, the table of contents does indeed list all the chapters and their sub-headings.

Some of the images are cutesy (showing that scientists aren't all serious all the time?) which, if it weren't necessary to reduce the font to its smallest in order to see the images wouldn't have been an issue.

The obvious way to make bread is to find a recipe in a book and follow it. Chances are it will work well enough, but making bread this way confines the baker to one recipe, gives him or her no understanding of how to fix problems that arise, and perpetuates the myth that he or she needs a "good recipe" to begin with. In short, following a recipe is not an empowering way to make bread. [...] [E]ach time you make dough you see what happens to it and learn something new about the process. [Introduction]

There definitely are many new things to learn and many really interesting sections in the book. But it is not at all a book for the beginner. It's arguably not even a book for the person who is relatively experienced in bread baking.

I did not follow the suggestion to "open to a section of interest without needing to read the whole book that appears at the beginning of the book in the "Note to the reader on the organization of this book". I read it from start to finish. Well, actually, I didn't. I read to the first third of 'Chapter 2: Bread Science Basics', got very annoyed at having to change the size of the font to view the images of molecules and chemical equations and switched to chapter 3. I returned to chapter 2 after finishing chapter 4.

The most important characteristic of flour for a bread baker is the protein content. Basically, when dough is mixed, protein in the flour forms gluten, a stretchy material that gives dough strength and enables it to rise. [1.2 the four main ingredients | Flour]

Am I reading this correctly? While rice flour does contain very little protein in comparison to wheat flour, it is still gluten free. The same goes for corn flour, buckwheat flour, and potato flour. The protein in those will form zero gluten.... Buehler neglects to say that for her, "flour" means "wheat flour". It's possible that she may also include "rye flour", although its protein content is lower..

Also missing from this section on flour is any mention of the arguably needless standard flour additives labelled "improvers", such as Bromate, Azodicarbonamide (ADA), Ascorbic Acid, Glycerides, etc. etc.

Emily Buehler's largely unsubstantiated pronouncement that Active Dry Yeast is killed by cold water makes other statements suspect.

[Active dry yeast] is sensitive to cold — adding it directly to cold water can kill it. Because of the harsh drying process, many of the yeast cells are dead. Dead yeast cells release a chemical called glutathione that has a bad effect on gluten. [1.2 The four main ingredients | Rising Agent]

I knew that too hot water could instantly kill yeast. But how is it that this is the first time I've seen that anyone has ever said that rehydrating active dry yeast in cold water will kill it? As I read, I began to feel that the title should be Bread Pseudo Science. More documentation please....

Looking at the internet (and of course, if it is on the internet, it must be true ;-) )
re: somewhat bizarre statement that Active Dry Yeast is killed with cold water

Water below 70°F may not be warm enough to activate the yeast, but rising the dough in a warm room will activate it-it just might take several hours. Water that's too hot can damage or kill yeast. The damage threshold is 100°F for cake yeast, 120°F for active dry, and 130°F for instant. All yeasts die at 138°F. [- Fine Cooking Editors, The Science of Baking with Yeast (finecooking.com/article/the-science-o...)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
At cooler soaking temperatures, the yeast cells recover poorly and release substances that interfere with gluten formations (glutathione) [- Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking (2004), p533]

I continued to read:

Is it necessary to make bread with bottled water? It depends on the tap water. If it smells and tastes like chemicals, it might give odd flavors to your bread. In addition, chemicals in the water might interfere with the chemical reactions of the dough. Filtered or bottled water costs extra, though, and there is a good chance that your tap water will work just fine. Try using each and see if you notice a difference. [1.2 The four main ingredients | Water

Hmmm. How about a little more depth with which chemicals will inhibit yeasts? Say, chlorine, for instance. Other resources talk about this. Other resources also talk about letting water stand overnight to allow any chlorine in it to dissipate. However, this method does not work to remove chloramine.

The simplest way to remove chlorine is to simply let it evaporate from the water. Chlorine is a gas at room temperature, and in water it's a "volatile solute" meaning its molecules are diffused in the water, and it will escape into the air over time. The amount of time needed varies with air and water temperature. Heating or boiling the water will speed the process. Another factor is the amount of surface area for the volume of water; a wide-mouth container will allow the chlorine to dissipate more quickly because it exposes more of the water's surface to the air. This method will only remove chlorine, though, and many modern water treatment systems use chloramines [a combination of chlorine and ammonia]. You cannot rely on evaporation to remove chloramines [...] Chlorine can be removed by running the water through a filter with activated charcoal, in granular or particle form. [...] To remove chloramine, an extensive carbon filter (to remove the chlorine part of the chloramine molecule) followed by a reverse osmosis or cation filter (to remove the ammonia) is necessary - Alex Silbajoris, Sciencing | How to Remove Chlorine From Water (sciencing.com/remove-chlorine-from-wa...)

If it's true that chlorine adversely affects yeast and/or bread dough, it is quite surprising that neither chlorine nor chloramine is mentioned even once by Emily Buehler (unless the search mechanism on the e-reader is faulty).

"Yeast, being a natural microorganism, is chlorine sensitive. Tests have shown that at a level of 10 PPM of chlorine in the water the yeast performance will be negatively affected in a dough system. A high level of chlorine could also affect the function of some flour components like enzymes." - Didier Rosada, Red Brick Consulting, bakemag.com/articles/11985-the-import...
==================
"Flour chlorination [...] alters the surface properties of starch and flour lipids and inhibits the gluten proteins from associating" - Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking (1984), p325

However, reading on through the book (sometimes slogging on - it has been a long time since I was looking at chemical equations, and diagrams showing polarity of various molecules), there were a number of really fascinating things. I decided to retract the "Pseudo Science" label, and pin the comments against active dry yeast as author's prejudice.

The sections on polarity of molecules and how their polarity affects gluten development or deterioration is particularly interesting.

There are volume measurements as well as weight measurements in the recipes, and Buehler valiantly gives advice for those unwilling to switch from their cups and spoons. However, she nicely sets out a convincing argument for using a scale:

Salt crystals come in differenct sizes; bigger salt crystals have bigger air spaces between them, in effect giving less salt per teaspoon than salt with small crystals. Also volume measurements are less accurate — a teaspoon might be slightly heaping or depressed—while weight measuremtne are consistent. [1.3 Weight versus volume]
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A volume of starter is meaningless, since it changes constantly as gas is produced. It also depends on the temperature of the starter and its surroundings. (On a hotter day, a gas bubble will take up more space, because the gas molecules are more active.) [3.11 working with starter using volume measurements]

Still, the book is full of opinions that are not substantiated by other sources (this is a-okay in many books, but for a book entitled "Bread Science", opinions should be clearly labelled. There are also a few things glaringly missing and/or confusing.

Fresh yeast comes in blocks. It consists of active yeast cells in a sugar-water casing. [...] Two to four times the weight of dry yeast must be substituted in a recipe if fresh yeast is used, to account for the weight of the sugar. (So, if your recipe requires two grams of dry yeast, use four to eight grams of fresh yeast.) [1.2 The four main ingredients | Rising Agent]

This isn't particularly helpful for people wanting to use up their fresh yeast. Of course, it's completely understandable that not everything can be included in one small book. The extensive bibliography at the back is annotated but it would be handy if there was a link or footnote to the relevant articles included for those who would like to study various sections in more depth.

The enzymes that convert starch are called amylases and are conveniently found in flour. [...] It may seem strange that the ingredients of bread happen to contain all the enzymes they need for bread-making reactions — amylases to convert starch, maltase and invertase to break down sugars. [2.1 starch and sugar]

The missing words here are "naturally occur" after "enzymes" and something along the lines of "there is no need for flour companies to add amylases artificially" and "check your flour's ingredients list".

The recipe for creating and feeding a sourdough starter claims to require 10 days! It also calls for using bottled water, starting with rye flour and then transitioning to white flour, as well as the insistence that the container and spoon must be clean at all times. This makes sense in a lab situation, where several starters are being studied. But is it really necessary in a home kitchen?

Another oddness is the use of kilograms rather than grams as the measures for in the recipe. Surely it is easier to comprehend 116 grams, rather than 0.116 kilograms. While the starter recipe probably produces a perfectly viable starter, it seems unnecessarily complex, and calls for an excessive amount of total flour, especially considering how much flour is thrown away (each day calls for feeding just 116 grams of the existing starter). Buehler glibly says "[E]ach day's recipe calls for half of the starter created the previous day. The other half is discarded." How wasteful!

It isn't until Chapter 8 that bread recipes appear: "Recipes, Storage, and Trouble-shooting". In the recipe for 'French bread made with a poolish' and 'Ciabatta made with a poolish', surprisingly there is no hint about how to know when the poolish is ready. Each recipe merely says "Cover the poolish and keep it at room temperature. When the poolish is ready, mix the dough."

The recipe chapter also includes one for 'Lazy Baker's Bread (now known as No-Knead Bread)', a very good section on bread storage, as well as a brief but helpful troubleshooting section.

+++++++++++++++
I do like Emily Buehler's conclusion though:

Authentic artisan bread cannot be corrupted. It cannot be co-opted by the greedy. It is a gift for everyone. Slow down your busy life. Breathe deeply and exercise your arms. Learn to be more patient. Get in touch with your food. Teach your children how to knead. Eat healthily. In other words, make bread! [Conclusion]

[thuys]

This is kind of classic book with very simple way of telling things and hand-drawn pictures for illustration. The chapter on science is what you expect if you are a science nerd. I was really hopeful to find solutions for yeasty smell bread but find no such a thing in the troubleshooting part. And actually things about hand movement when working with dough would be much more intuitively demonstrated by video rather than a book, so though the author provides lots of pictures I recommend check some other tutorials on YouTube. That to say this is quite an ok book.

[Evelien · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this one up after I heard the author on The Sourdough Podcast. Very decent read with a whole chapter dedicated to the science behind the bread. But it is a lot to take in at once when you really would like to understand the whole process. I feel like I need to read it again to understand more of it (and maybe even a couple of times more). It would have worked better for me if the science was incorporated in the other chapters.

[Harry Rook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really informative and helpful

A great book, the first third is pretty dense chemistry and science which I only partially understood but it gives a great background knowledge of how and why things happen when you make bread.

The rest of the book is really great though. Going into lots of easy to follow details about why you do each step when making bread and the recipes are really easy to follow.

[Spencer Pullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been baking bread for many years. I've always enjoyed the chemistry behind how a powder can become something that you can put on the table. Bread Science breaks down the science and chemistry on bread baking. I really enjoyed how Emily organized the book and the illustrations. Chapter two, dives deep into atoms and chemistry. I read part of it, but soon realized that I may have to reread at another point. Overall, it's a great read and I highly recommend it!

[Mark Zodda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, but not exactly for a layman as it goes into more depth in the chemistry than I was expecting, but that makes it more of a resource than it would otherwise be. Focused really only on artisan breads with little consideration of other types of breads. The pictures in the kindle version don't scale up to where they add much to the text.

[Taylor Rollo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful book for bakers: any but especially amateurs like me.
The scientific description of reactions in bread is very technical. I liked that but some might find it dull. The author even admits some might need to skip that chapter.
The explanation of each stage is very helpful and has showed me a number of things I need to correct in my baking.

[Shana D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent read on the science of bread making. There is a significant chapter on raising your own sourdough/baking with it which did not interest me, but otherwise this is an amazing read on what's going on inside your bread. Definitely recommend.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very technical book about bread science. Used it as a reference for a work project.

[Greg E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Science

Wonderful but complex explanation of bread making process Can be dry at times due to chemistry, very useful! Authors sense of humor comes out later in the book.

[Michael D Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

Complete

Have read a number of books on breadmaking. I appreciated the complete, in-depth approach to explaining all aspects of this art.

[Lorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an information-filled book that improves my bread-making knowledge and skills each time I pick it up. I highly recommend it for any bread bakers.

[Apamnapat · Rating 2 out of 5]

At first it was too much information and big terms that would just be confusing
Then too little real info.

[Lucas · Rating 5 out of 5]

look if you want a better book on baking bread, you aren’t gonna find one. its not a page turner by any means, or even one you sit down and read really, but that’s not exactly the purpose ya know

[Lennart · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of a kind. Written by a chemist, it's not your ordinary bread book with recipes. It tries to explain everything that happens with the bread from that you start to mix it until you take it out of the oven - and then even a chapter on how to store bread.
To make the book easier to read for the average reader all the uber nerdy chemistry is collected in the second chapter. Knowing details about maillard reactions, all the different things yeast does, what the salt does in the dough, is not strictly required for baking, so the nerd chapter is very theoretical and optional. The remaining chapters are more practical and will help you get your poolish right, advice on how to mix the dough, fermentation, shaping, proofing and baking. The practical chapters still often explains why things are, but without resorting to explaining the chemistry behind it.

I've found advice in this book that I haven't seen elsewhere and which haven't been part of any of the recipes I've read. I've read recipes that say the poolish should be left for 18 hours but without explaining what signs to look for to know it's done, or what factors I can change in order to alter the speed. Now I know.

The book is also full of amusing notes and humorous bread pictures/cartoons.

I recommend the book to anybody who want to excel their bread baking (know more details than what's written in the recipes), or just want to know some of the science what happens in a dough.

Since the book is so full of advice and I've read it faster than I've been able to bake, I will have to go back again and again to pick up some more details.

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an enjoyable and useful book if you're the kind of baker who likes to experiment, work with ingredient ratios instead of set recipes, and...understand the world at a molecular level. That is, if you're interested more in the craft of bread baking than the scientific reasons why we prepare and bake bread as we do, you'd be better served by the front half of Peter Reinhart's "Bread Bakers Apprentice".

"Bread Science" is a lot more readable than many of the food science textbooks offered by science publishers like Wiley. Its appearance is also a little less polished, given that many of the diagrams are hand-drawn. The text and figures are clear, though, and that's ultimately what counts.

That said, you'll probably enjoy this book much more if you're taken some college-level general chemistry and maybe some cell biology or biochemistry. There's no reason why a reasonably motivated person couldn't blast through the basic science with Wikipedia, but I've heard of people getting overwhelmed by the onslaught of new concepts.

[Stephen Simpson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid enough book, but there are better books out there (Reinhart's in particular). There is a lengthy discussion of chemistry and bread science/research that I suspect many people will just skim/flip past - you really don't need to know about the Krebs cycle or Van der Waals forces to make very good bread.

The book is also sparse on recipes, though the author emphasizes the point that once you understand the fundamental principles of breadmaking, you can go in almost infinite directions with it. Still, for the average home baker, the lack of recipes will probably be a drawback.

One thing I particularly enjoyed - the section on shaping is probably the best/most complete of the breadmaking books I've read (which is a lot). This is a tricky thing to learn/teach through a book, but I think she did the best job here of anybody I've seen so far.

[Jarkko Laine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bread Science is a great little book for anyone wanting to go a bit deeper into the science behind bread making. I loved the chapters on the science and the level of detail in them, and recommend the book because of that part.

The part on the craft of baking bread is good too, but not quite as good. There are places where I disagree with Buehler, but not too many. And I did learn new things from that part too. I really need to work on my bread shaping!

In short, this should not be your first introduction to bread making, but if you have already read some of the more introductory bread books and want to understand the processes better, get this book. It's well researched and written.

[Nathanial · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book as a gift, and really enjoyed it. Simple descriptions of why and how bread-making works, with tips and a few recipes. It was fun to learn about poolishes, and after trying it out, also delicious.

[Slugs Youth]

Highly recommended by Karen, our sourdough bread expert!

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bread-ucation. Lots of good info in here. A good edition to the bread bakers library but the gold standard is still Jeffrey Hammelman's book.