August 21, 2012 - 4:47pm
Loving Hamelman's Bread Book
I just received Hamelman's Bread book in the mail today--bought it from Amazon.
I was immediately impressed with it after pulling it out of the box. The dust cover for starters looks and feels great. I'll be covering this dust jacket (as I do all my books) with plastic--I use the 12x12 inch plastic scrap book protector sheets.
I'm impressed with the content, diagrams, photos and the quality of the paper used for the pages as well--nice texture as well.
Also, I'd like to mention the quality of the spine: it's sewn and looks like it will hold up for a long time unlike many spines that are glued (e.g. Joy of Cooking, Rick Bayless cookbook, etc..)
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Yeah, it's a great book, isn't it
I've wanted to cover my cookbooks to protect the dust jackets. Can you explain this further how it works? I'm not clear...is there some kind of adhesive?
To cover a book you just take a large piece of clear, non-adhesive, plastic and make two folds along the horizontal (each fold equal distances from top/bottom of book). When folded it should be slightly taller than the book so the book cover/back can slide into the fold. Start with say the back of the book: slide it in and pull it tight. Then wrap the other end around to the front of the book and slide the cover in. Pull the plastic cover so it's tight when closed. Then take a small piece of double sided tape (or single sided tape rolled over on it's self) and tape together the plastic cover. This holds it in place when you open and close the book. The tape should be on the inside and only touching the plastic cover--so it looks neat from the outside when you look at it. It takes a little used to taping it as the cover wants to twist out from the inside due to the fold; just tuck it in and once tucked appropriately press down on the cover to adhere it in place.
Where do you buy this kind of plastic? I'd like to get some nice transparent covers for my bread books too, like the kind the public library uses.
I researched this and it appears you can only really buy it online, in a large expensive roll.
So I got creative and went the much less expensive route. I bought some 12 x 12 inch scrapbook protective sheets and slit two ends of that make a flat sheet with a crease. When I put the cover on I make it so the crease on this scrapbook protector sheet lines up with the edge of the front of the book.
I just covered this Hamelman book about 15 minutes ago using a scrapbook protector sheet. I left the crease in the middle of the spine this time (it doesn't bother me really at all)--I left it this way so the plastic cover could cover the entire dust jacket on the sides, but this isn't necessary really.. as long as it folds in at least a couple inches.
That's the finished book--you can see the crease on the spine if you look for it (this crease gets smoother over time).
Here is a pic of the expandable scrapbook I have that I pulled the sheet from (you can buy a pack of 10 sheets for a few dollars on 1/2 off sales at michael's at times).
Here is the Hamelman book again that I just covered. I am pulling it to show you how I tape together the plastic cover from the inside (make sure your tape only touches the plastic and not dust cover.
Brodart makes quality plastic covers that libraries use:
http://www.shopbrodart.com/Book-Jacket-Cover/
Not cheap, but good quality.
Hey thanks for that link -- that doesn't look bad at all. 12" x 24" (size of the scrapbook sheets i currently use) : 25 of them for 8 dollars? That's an excellent deal. I might switch over and recover some of my books :) I have about 25 books at the moment.
Found out is $6.75 to ship them. so $14.75 for 25 sheets of 12 x 24" . This works for most books but it'd be better to get a roll and cut them to length of dust jacket.
I paid $3 for 10 scrapbook protector sheets from Michael's on 1/2 off sale -- that's why I've been using them. Bought like 3 packs of them (or 30).
I'm waiting for the 2nd edition of Hamelman's Bread book. It's supposed to come out in November. Or is it shipping already?
I was going to wait and get the new edition instead -- but I just couldn't wait 3 months! I'm kind of in bread baking mode now that I am trying to control my diabetes. Sourdough rye is supposed to be especially good for diabetic diet and Hamelman cover's it very well from what I've researched. I can't think that much will have changed with the new edition but I might end up buying it as well and just selling the edition I don't want to keep on ebay.
You won't lose much selling this copy used if you ever need to, is what I figure. So I got it. This book has good resell value. It will be worth a lot if you keep it like new (covering it in plastic, etc..)
BTW: Has anyone notice a lot of blue smudges on the pages? I just noticed there are several places where the blue ink on the rollers got on the pages in the white areas of the page.. It's faint but annoying. I might return this copy and order another one.
I'm waiting for the 2nd edition largely because there were a lot of errors in the 1st edition, according to lots of reviewers on this forum and elsewhere. I'd rather wait a few months to get a hopefully better edited version. In the mean time, I have several other bread books, and because I'm a beginner too, I've only been focusing on about three different loaves and making them over and over. My multigrain straun (Reinhardt) and whole wheat bread is turning out really quite nicely :)
There will be errors in the 2nd edition too. You just won't know what they are for a while. There needs to be a public place to put up suspect errors for all books. Somebody could make that into a for-profit site.
Doc
Before you get frustrated with this otherwise great book, here is the errata list: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/27312/errata-sheet-bread-bakers-book-techniques-and-recipes
Happy baking,
Karin
This is exactly what I've been looking for thanks!
Hello:
I contacted my library and asked the service desk if they would cover many of my cook books with their special plastic jackets. Since they are looking for some way to raise fund for the library, they said yes and charged me .10 cents for each of the book. I gave them $1.00 for each book and am very happy with a wonderful professional cover. Perhaps, your public library will do the same?
mantana
I'd like to ask my library to do that too! I'd be happy to pay $2 for each book! Let me ask them when I go tomorrow.
Hi, ibake.
All of the formulas in Mr. Hamelman's book use either yeast or levain, except for Aloo Paratha, a flat bread.
It's a great education, ibake - and IMHO, money well spent!
Lindy