Batter, grease, knock back, pain, paste, slash. If you saw those words out of context, you would probably associate them with lurid crime headlines. But the sinister, shifting language of the underworld also provides key words for the glossary at the back of Bread, an inspirational new book in celebration of that most enduring and integral staple.
"I don't consider I've really cooked a meal until I've made the right bread to go with it," says Italian-born cook and author Ursula Ferrigno. Not just bread, but the right bread. That comment could have many of us shuffling in our seats, feeling hopelessly inadequate, but the last thought in Ferrigno's mind is to put anyone off one of her great passions in life - bread.
Eric Treuille is from Cahors in south-west French: as a child, he was fascinated by the mysteries of his uncle's boulangerie, where he was encouraged to learn by helping out. "In France, children come from the schools to look around the local bakeries as part of their education," he explains. No wonder the French have such a reputation for their knowledge and appreciation of food, if they start with such early introductions.
Apprenticed to a charcutier at 14, Treuille went on to train as a chef, working in London, New York, and California. When he returned to London, he worked at the Cordon Bleu cookery school, and has coauthored The Complete Guide to Cooking Techniques. He's currently running the cookery school at Books for Cooks in London's Notting Hill.
Books for Cooks, which was set up in 1983, has an international reputation and a huge cult following. It not only contains 8,000 books to do with food and drink, but also has a test kitchen in which recipes from the books in stock are tried out. The dishes are then served up at the five-table restaurant in the shop. "Every day there is a different chef and a different menu," Treuille explains. Ursula Ferrigno gives classes on bread-making in the school, and it was only a matter of time before their own books joined those already on the shelves.
Ferrigno has a holistic approach to life, of which bread is one of the day's lynchpins. To her, the smell of bread is not a mere oleoforic prop, as in the cliched method recommended by estate agents to charm potential buyers. If anything, nobody in this current climate of property madness need ever again look for buttermilk or yeast to help them offload their houses. "The smell of bread baking goes through the house," she says. "It unites a house, the happy smell of bread baking. I've never met anyone yet who didn't like to eat bread. And it's a great therapy, working with your hands like that. It's not just good for your mind, but it's good physically too. Kneading pumps blood to your heart, and all that rhythmic kneading is a way of releasing tension and stress."
Bread contains over 100 recipes. Several were sent by the authors' friends abroad or sourced by them through students at the school. The recipes are divided into sections, all illustrated with photographs which are both alluring and informative. There are basic breads, such as country oatmeal, baguette and bagels. Then there are the sourdoughs and other starters, like ciabatta, French rye bread and the German country-style rye bread. The flavoured breads section is where you can attempt to emulate posh restaurants and come up with tomato and red onion bread, focaccia with olives, and rolled hearth bread filled with smoked mozzarella and basil.
Enriched breads include butter, oil or eggs with the basic ingredients. In this section, there are instructions on how to make brioche, and the German party bread which you make like Lego: sticking little rolls together to make a big round and then breaking them off one by one.
"The more times you make bread, the better you will get at it," Treuille points out. "There's something magical about making bread; watching the yeast rise," Ferrigno says.
In Bread, even the flat breads of Asia and the Middle East look as if they really could emerge from the oven of your kitchen. There's recipes for the Punjabi naan, pitta, the Persian sesame bread, barbari, and an extraordinary Sardinian creation called Carta di Musica - Music Paper Bread. Wafer thin, it crackles when you break it.
With every recipe, there is also a useful and interesting accompanying piece of text which tells you something about the cultural context of this particular bread. And there are some great yarns too, like the story of panettone, the absurdly tall Milanese Christmas bread.
"Once upon a time, a Milanese baker named Toni fell in love with a very beautiful woman who walked past his bakery every day. The baker, determined to create a magnificent bread to tempt her inside, laboured for six months and finally created a tall, domed loaf that lured her in. But when their eyes met, he fell out of love with her. However, his toils were not in vain; his new creation, called Pan di Toni is now renowned throughout Italy as a favourite gift, especially at Christmas."
In addition to the recipes, there are also some chapters on basic techniques, essential ingredients and equipment, and a page which will probably be more used at the beginning of your career as a master baker than at the end, called Problem Solving. It took nine months to shoot all the photographs for Bread, and yes, they made all the bread themselves, often trying out new recipes at least four times. "They're my hands in the pictures," Treuille confirms.
"We wanted to show people making bread isn't a difficult thing to do," Ferrigno insists. It's definitely time to visit the legendary Irish Yeast Company on College Street and begin the adventure of baking bread.
Bread, by Eric Treuille and Ursula Ferrigno, is published by Dorling Kindersley, at £16.99 in UK.