The book's organization--chapters cover topics from savory yeast breads and sweet yeast breads and doughnuts to pound cakes, layer cakes, cheesecakes, fruit desserts, and more--gives some idea of the arc of American baking, which has changed as kitchen technology has advanced. (The arrival of yeast-displacing chemical leaveners, for example, made the layer cake possible.) But American bakers have always been avid experimenters, Patent maintains, and have produced singular delights like Jalapeño, Cornmeal, and Cheddar Bread; Golden Pumpkin Loaf; Persimmon Cream Cheese Cupcakes; and, of course, brownies, for which the book gives variations including White Chocolate Chunk. With amusing advice from old cookbooks and other historical asides, profiles of cooking teachers, and useful glossaries of ingredients and equipment, the photo-illustrated book makes the re-creation of our charmingly homey baking past practical for modern cooks. --Arthur Boehm

A Baker's Odyssey is a rich collection of recipes and culinary history, all gleaned from Patent's exhaustive research in the American home kitchens of immigrants from around the world. Through his travels across the country, Patent learned the secrets to traditional baked goods originating from thirty-two different nations. From Scotland and Austria to India and Thailand to Mexico, Norway, and West Africa, the recipes represent the best of each culture's beloved culinary traditions. Chapters are organized by categories of baked goods, and include Fried Pastries and Doughs, Flatbreads and More, Savory Pastries, Sweet Pastries, Savory Yeast Breads and Pies, Sweet Yeast Breads, Cookies and Cookie-Like Pastries, and Dessert Cakes, Tortes, and Pies. Patent provides detailed information on the origin of each recipe and its ingredients, and gives a real sense of the cultural heritage behind each dish. Recipes are easy enough for home cooks of any level to master, and include everything from Jewish Matzoh, Eastern European Rugelach, and Sweet Irish Soda Bread to Russian Meat Piroshki, Italian Pignoli Cookies, and Chinese-Style Almond Sponge Cake. The book is accompanied by an hour-long DVD in which Patent provides hands-on instruction in making Strudel, Pretzels, Cannoli, Kransakake, and much more.

If there were only Red and Golden Delicious apples to choose from, there wouldn't be much point. In relating the stories of these two apples, the authors tell a condemning story of modern American fruit production, where marketing has won out over the market. Both the Red and the Golden truly were delicious at one time in their odd histories, but years of selecting for color and shape over flavor has robbed these two apples of their legacy. Fortunately, small-scale farming has found a niche and farmers' markets have grown in every community, so apples in season with names you have never heard of and flavors you have never encountered are available. They may cost a little extra, but they are real.

Though there is enormous pleasure to be had in just eating a ripe apple in season, there's a lot of cooking to be done out there, too. The authors have divided the recipe chapters of A Is for Apple into "Pies and Tarts"; "Desserts"; "Cakes and Cookies"; "Breads"; "Soups and Salads"; "Seafood and Game"; "Poultry"; "Beef, Pork, and Lamb"; and "Side Dishes." There are chapters on basics, growing, and oddball information, too.

There is an apple pie recipe in this book, and then its deep-dish cousin, and then the same with rhubarb, and so on. But there's a recipe for apple-venison sausage, too. And apple rice pudding, and spicy apple dumplings, and oatmeal-apple-nut bars, and cider gingerbread with cider cream, and Latvian pumpernickel and fruit soup; then there's trout with cider, chanterelles, and cream; and duck breasts with cider, orange, and Calvados sauce. You get the idea: the whole big apple kit and caboodle. --Schuyler Ingle