52 loaves : one man's relentless pursuit of truth, meaning, and a perfect crust

Obsession takes many forms. Alexander, already a seasoned horticultural adept, now turns his attention to producing the ultimate loaf of bread. To achieve perfection in so simple a creation (yeast, water, flour), Alexander husbands his own field of wheat. He learns to raise this ancient grass, harvest it, prepare the grain, grind it to flour, knead it with the purest water, generate the active microorganisms to puff up the dough, and then bake that dough to produce a properly satisfying crumb within a flawless crunchy brown crust. He researches his topic thoroughly, but realizes he needs more hands-on tutelage. Moreover, the definition of a perfect loaf changes both by place and time. Alexander travels the world to learn from masters of bread baking in various styles, ending up in a Norman monastery. Impressed with the monks' daily spiritual discipline, Alexander structures this account of his quest according to the ancient canonical hours Charts The Author's Attempts To Bake The Perfect Loaf Of Bread, Including Growing, Harvesting, And Milling His Own Wheat. Prologue -- I. Vigils. The Previous October : Rarin' To Go -- Ii. Lauds. Week 1. Bake Like An Egyptian -- Week 2. Naturally Pure And Wholesome -- Week 3. The Winter Wheat Of Our Discontent -- Week 4. The Purloined Letter -- Week 5. To Die For -- Week 6. Steamed -- Week 7. Old Believer -- Week 8. The Rest Of The World Will Be Dead -- Week 9. Gute Recipes -- Week 10. Born To Run -- Iii. Terce. Week 11. Goddisgoode -- Week 12. Choreography -- Week 13. Note To Self -- Week 14. Metric Madness -- Week 15. We Make Biomass -- Week 16. A Chill In The Air -- Week 17. The Short, Unhappy Life Of An Assistant Baker -- Week 18. Waffling -- Week 19. Playing The Percentages -- Week 20. Feed It Or It Dies -- Week 21. With Friendships Like This... -- Week 22. Kneadin' In Skowhegan -- Week 23. Powerless -- Iv. Sext. Week 24. White-bread Diet -- Week 25. Sweeney Todd -- Week 26. Pane Toscano -- Week 27. The Sound Of One Hand Kneading -- Week 28. A Mind Is A Terrible The Waste --^ Week 29. Kneadless To Say -- Week 30. Bread Shrink -- Week 31. State Fair -- V. None. Week 32. Don't Fear The Reaper -- Week 33. Miller's Crossing -- Week 34. Blown Away (by An Unusual Destiny In The Blue Sea Of August) -- Week 35. Lecture To Young Men On Chastity -- Week 36. Terror Firma -- Week 37. Indian Giver -- Week 38. Terror Firma Redux -- Week 39. A Lot Of 'splainin' To Do -- Week 40. Feeling Like Manure -- Week 41. Nous Acceptons Votre Proposition -- Vi. Vespers. Week 42. God Bless The Tsa -- Week 43. Puttin' On The Ritz -- Week 44. The Count Of Asilah -- Week 45. The Trials Of Job : Travel Edition -- Week 46. A Time To Keep Silence -- Vii. Compline. Week 47. What Would Bruno Do? -- Week 48. Half-baked -- Week 49. A Levain Of My Own -- Week 50. Cracked -- Week 51. Let Them Eat...brioche? -- Week 52. The Perfect Future In The Present -- Recipes. A Note About The Recipes -- Building A Levain -- Peasant Bread (pain De Campagne) -- Pain Au Levain Miche --^ Baguette à L'ancienne -- Pain De L'abbaye Saint-wandrille -- A Baker's Bookshelf. William Alexander. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [335]-339). William Alexander is determined to bake the perfect loaf of bread. He tasted it long ago, in a restaurant, and has been trying to reproduce it ever since. Without success. Now, on the theory that practice makes perfect, he sets out to bake peasant bread every week until he gets it right. He bakes his loaf from scratch. And because Alexander is nothing if not thorough, he really means from scratch: growing, harvesting, winnowing, threshing, and milling his own wheat.

An original take on the six-thousand-year-old staple of life, 52 Loaves explores the nature of obsession, the meditative quality of ritual, the futility of trying to re-create something perfect, our deep connection to the earth, and the mysterious instinct that makes all of us respond to the aroma of baking bread.

Charts the author's attempts to bake the perfect loaf of bread, including growing, harvesting, and milling his own wheat. Abstract: Charts the author's attempts to bake the perfect loaf of bread, including growing, harvesting, and milling his own wheat "The author embarks on a gastronomic odyssey--spanning three continents, a backyard wheat field, two exploding ovens, one herniated vertebra, a crisis of faith, and a thirteen-hundred-year-old monastery--in his quest to produce a perfect loaf of bread."--Cover