Would you recommend Tartine Bread or Tartine No. 3?
I'm familiar with bread baking and with sourdoughs, but I've not seen either cookbook. I've heard a lot of buzz about #3 but am not sure whether or not I should start with the original or if 3 can stand on its own.
Recommended by Food52
6 Comments
The bread concepts in No. 3 are difficult enough without the designer’s setting up more hurdles, especially after you’ve paid $40 for the book.
Another hurdle in both books is that recipes keep referring back to processes described pages before, so you have to keep flipping back and forth. I fixed it in the first book by sticky-noting page numbers out of the side of the book to make the flipping easier. And now I’ve made the breads so often that I rarely have to refer to the basic procedures.
Just be aware that both these books are heavy on philosophy and bread love and beautiful photography, and light on accurate instruction and ease of use.
Peter Reinhart was my Breads chef instructor in culinary school, and I did recipe testing for The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I didn't think it was possible for a bread book to re-educate me. But Chad Robertson's Tartine Bread did. The recipe and instructions for his basic country bread consume approximately the first 70 pages of the book. Read every single one. And follow the instructions to the letter. His Tartine 3 was not well reviewed. I've not seen or used it, but the consensus among reviewers was that it it is predicated upon processes, such as prolonged fermentation of whole grains, that home bakers simply will likely not have the patience to follow. But Tartine Breads is a true gem.