Baking Powder Wars is a highly recommended read!

[KrisM]

Baking Powder Wars by Linda Civitello is one of the most interesting books I've read and full of a lot of unexpected and little known information about the history and evolution of baking. What women went through 200 years ago just to keep the family in bread! No standardized yeast, baking powder hadn't been invented....it was a long and tedious process. Then the wild and wooly history of baking powder itself! I had no idea! About a 250 page book, so an easy read but packed with information and historical facts. Makes me want to hug my Cuisineart bread machine, write a thank you note to the Rumsford Baking Powder and Fleishman's yeast companies !

 

[retired baker]

Baking Powder Wars by Linda Civitello is one of the most interesting books I've read and full of a lot of unexpected and little known information about the history and evolution of baking. What women went through 200 years ago just to keep the family in bread! No standardized yeast, baking powder hadn't been invented....it was a long and tedious process. Then the wild and wooly history of baking powder itself! I had no idea! About a 250 page book, so an easy read but packed with information and historical facts. Makes me want to hug my Cuisineart bread machine, write a thank you note to the Rumsford Baking Powder and Fleishman's yeast companies !

They had to acquire the skill to make ingredients,
jam ? make it.
Almond paste? grind your own.
Eggs ? get some chickens.
Sugar ? cut it from the sugarloaf.