Three people can follow the same recipe and end up with three entirely different masterpieces. The way each person measures (or doesn’t measure), the method of mixing ingredients, the length of time bread is kneaded, the method of kneading, the types of pans, the weather, the oven, etc., affects the final product. Each bread is uniquely yours and no one else can make it the way you do!

— Betsy Oppenneer from Breads from Betsy’s Kitchen

I was the first draft editor for The Bread Book, my mom’s grand opus. In one of her recipes, she was trying to convey the idea that the dough should be shaped into strands for the second rise. Unfortunately, she used a phrase like “The dough should be long and flaccid” which is evocative of something quite different from dough. She blamed the thesaurus…