Like many I caught the sourdough craze during the pandemic. I dropped that ball and am eager to get back to it. This book is surely a very informative and helpful guide.

This book is very detailed in all aspects of making sourdough. The information is easy to understand and the photos are black and white. There is a section on equipment available to make the sourdough bread easier and recipes of variations to the dough. An interesting book.

So much good information in this book. Author is easy to understand and seems to have lots of experience. A great book to have a a reference. I learned so much.

I received a free electronic copy of this sourdough bread-making guide from Netgalley, Mark Shepard, and Shepard Publications. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this work of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of Smart Sourdough. This is a very interesting, very technical book and I learned a lot about something I thought I had already conquered. I am pleased to recommend it to friends and family.

I did learn a lot from Smart Sourdough. A long-time breadmaker, I have ventured into sourdough a couple of times over the years but was mostly disappointed. I love sourdough but that may just be because the smell brings back that perfect sourdough sampled on the pier in San Francisco. In my kitchen, I find I prefer using my mother's recipes for yeast doughs of all sorts.

That said, I have tried this concept a couple of times. It is fast, it is good bread, a nutty flavor I enjoyed, but I didn't like the texture of the bread. I will use the recipe more, as with my instant pot it is simple, and perhaps time will take care of the density of the bread, but when I want a good sourdough, I will probably continue to go to my local bakery.

I went into this book thinking it would be for a beginning bread maker. After reading it and making the basic recipe, it isn’t. I originally planned on making two or three of the recipes in the book but the initial attempt convinced me not to.
I’m a home bread baker and regularly bake twice a month, sometimes more. I’m open to try new ideas, but after using the authors preferred method for maintaining temperature during the fermenting process, I feel that this was way more work than I would want to put into bread baking.
I do understand and agree with his assessment that starting out on the path of baking bread can be quite frustrating. I also agree that the fermentation process is the most critical component to baking great bread. But there are many methods, and tools, that are much easier to understand and use. As with anything worthwhile, it takes time, patience, and practice to get it right. I also disagree with some of his reasons for not making and baking bread the “traditional” way.
Once a starter is active there really isn’t any reason to feed your starter every day unless you bake every day. And with proper planning, discard starter can be used in a variety of other items. To the fermentation process, the author focuses on a constant temperature of the dough mix. I feel this can be replicated more easily by other methods. The big difference is the time it takes to complete fermentation. The author states that once your dough has fermented the proper amount of time using his method, it’s ready to form and bake. Unless I’m in a hurry to get somewhere, an extra half-hour or hour, isn’t that big of a deal.
If I had the time to spend working on this method as the author clearly has, I’d be willing to keep at it and see where it leads. But I’ve found a method that works for me and creates great tasting bread. I can’t say I’d recommend the book to anyone other than that person that loves to experiment and fiddle with things.

Pros: Like almost everyone else in America, I attempted to bake bread during the pandemic. A friend made a sourdough starter and shared it with me, and I got special flour to feed it . . . and my attempt at sourdough baking ended there. I could never get the sourdough starter to rise enough to bake a loaf of bread. I wanted to read this book to learn where I went wrong and see if I might give sourdough baking another chance. I appreciated that this book did not require a starter, because that’s where I failed in my previous sourdough attempts. I found this book to be very approachable to bread baking novices but also very detailed.. I was surprised at how many ways there are to customize your sourdough and enjoyed learning the science behind how changing the recipe changes the bread.

Cons: I did not love the photography in this book. I’m not sure if the printed version will have color photos, but the black and white photos in the ARC fell flat.

Thank you to NetGalley and Shepard Publications for the opportunity to read this book!

I always like trying new recipes and ways of doing things, so this was fun. It turned out different from the sourdough I usually make (with a refrigerator starter) but was good and fairly easy! Plus I learned a lot about sourdough science from this book!

This book has more information on making sourdough bread then I could have ever dreamed. I have never had much luck with it and I was hoping to up my game. This book was definitely sourdough overload it had so much information I felt somewhat overwhelmed. This book is perfect for anyone truly serious in perfecting sourdough techniques. I think my entire problem was I was truly not fully invested in the amount of tending starters take and lacking proper temperature control.

If you wish to master sourdough this book is for you. It lists every tool, technique and handy hint one could ever want. If you love sourdough this book is for you. I recommend this book for a truly dedicated sourdough maker.

A very detailed approach to making sourdough bread, covering equipment types, proofing, ingredients, etc. This is not for the casual sourdough baker, and may intimidate some readers. I am a sourdough baker myself and have found other, more approachable sources to help in my baking. But for a particular type of baker, this book will appeal.

I have concerns about some of the "scientific" claims made in this book, for which the author cites no sources. For example, he says in the fermentation chapter that since he began drinking a small amount of sauerkraut juice daily (in orange juice!), he has not had any cavities. This unfounded claim makes me wonder what other pseudoscience in the book may be harmful to readers. For that reason and others, I will not be purchasing this book for our public library collection.

I love Sourdough Bread, and for the foodie that wants to make it, this book will be right up your alley! The book is technical, and goes into quite depth. I suggest a good sit down with this book, maybe a couple of times before getting started!

Smart Sourdough was a very scientific and accessible read. While sourdough will never be quick Mark's methods make it seem easier to manage.

Sourdough in 24 hours? NO WAY. But YES, you can! yes, it may not be the sourdough you know, but come to find out, what we tend to think of sourdough, may not be true fermented yeast making it so, but the bacteria. And THAT can be fast tracked, WHO KNEW? If you survived the pandemic without making sourdough, then THIS is your book- you can get ahead of everybody else, with the quickest recipe possible for amazing bread, pizza dough, pancakes and dosa! There are 3 different set ups you can use, based on your preferred method, and with different types and flavors, the end result is whatever you want it to be!

As a homeschool mom, I'd also say that since you're basically growing bacteria, and watching for reactions, it would also be a great book to use for a Kitchen Chemistry or Biology class!

I am not a bread baker outside of the occasional banana bread when there are those browning nanners sitting there looking sad. Or using my bread maker when I first got it.. That thing has been collecting dust in my cupboard ever since.

I have always wanted to be able to make yummy, inexpensive and pretty bread to have at home and especially to give as gifts. My bread machine makes some tasty bread, but those are far from pretty.

Instant Pot? I ADORE my pot! Sourdough bread? What?!?! I have to check this out!

Whoa! Sourdough is some serious science! And Mark Shepard knows his fermented bread science! I had heard about starters and how people protected these years old things more than they did their children. I never wanted to be a part of that madness. Now there is a method to do this in the Instant Pot. There is some very in depth stuff this book that teaches you everything you ever wanted to know about sourdough.

I was hoping for something a little quicker than 24 hours to make bread, but now that I realize how long and difficult it is to actually make sourdough, this is a pretty cool method.

I’m really hoping to make a bunch of sourdough bread gifts that people will be begging for for years to come!!.

Thanks to NetGalley and Shepard Publications. #SmartSourdough #NetGalley

I found the book to be extremely helpful in coming up with new ways to make sourdough bread. The instructions are straightforward and easy to follow.

This book is a good tutorial on how to make sourdough bread. The book gives you information on how to make sourdough bread easier for the layman. This book was helpful to me because sourdough bread is supposed to be better for diabetics.thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

I am a big fan of sourdough. When we lived in another state, I had used original San Francisco sourdough starter to make sourdough. I would keep it in the older refrigerator downstairs instead of taking up the room in the often-used one. When we moved out, I didn't have room to take it with us for the several hours' drive. I was devastated to throw it out when none of the neighbors wanted it.

After we moved, I bought another book and started another sourdough from scratch. Unfortunately, we only have one refrigerator. With two hungry teens, I didn't have a lot of extra space to hold the starter. Still, I persisted.

I don't know if it was the humidity in the south or what, but that batch of starter grew mildew or mold. I wasn't taking a chance. It was thrown out as well. I've been buying sourdough instead.

When I saw this book, I thought, Third time lucky! The author makes it look so much easier than my prior two tries. I have bought the necessary supplies to give it a try using the Instantpot. I'll update this review or leave another one after I try this process and the loaf. I'm hoping that this author's book is the smarter, easier solution to homemade sourdough.

Thanks so much to Net Galley and the publisher for this book in exchange for an honest review. This book was great, and I’m glad that I had the opportunity to review it. I was really happy with the beginning of this book. It was more than just a regular cookbook with recipes and a few tips. This author is IN LOVE with sourdough and wanted to perfect it. It was quite inspirational too. Although I couldn’t dig in as deeply as I wanted to and truly devour this book to the very end and try out all of the recipes, I did enjoy the parts for the book that gave us actual reasons and explanations of what we should and should not do. That made this a different type of cookbook and I liked that. It was also very cool to see how sourdough can be cooked using various methods. I have a few notes scribbled to use in the future to try to perfect my own sourdough. Enjoy!

This is a curious book. The author has devised a way to make sourdough without a starter with the finished result ready on 24 hours. However, to achieve this you need equipment that will keep the mixture at a constant temperature. He's obviously put a lot of research into this method, but it seems to over complicate things.

In my experience, sourdough is not complicated and can be realised within the 24 hours and without special equipment.

The author also adds commercial yeast to the recipe, so it is not true sourdough. He also insists on weighing the flour, which is a good thing. But does not weigh the water, relying on cups which is frustrating.

If you're curious and want to try a different method of sourdough baking and love gadgets, this book is for you.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am intrigued with sourdough and this book helps to make sense of it all. recommended.

This is a book I can easily recommend to customers. The techniques are easy to follow and prepare. So many people I know have bought sourdough starters again and again, only to lose each one as they required constant care. This book solves that constant care issue while providing a method to get real sourcough taste and health benefits consistently