hendricius / the-sourdough-framework

Open source book dedicated to helping you to make the best possible sourdough bread at home.

The Sourdough Framework

The sourdough framework is an open-source book dedicated to helping you to make the best possible sourdough bread at home.

Rather than providing recipes this book intends to provide a framework that enables you to bake bread in your respective environment. Every flour, every sourdough, and every home setup is different. This makes following recipes without background information so hard and a fail-prone endeavor. This book intends to close that gap.

Background

4 years after launching the repositories the-bread-code and pizza-dough I created this project to merge the knowledge together. This project intends to go one step deeper into the workings of natural fermentation. At the same time as many scientific references as possible are provided.

🍞 Baking the book (Docker)

make

Then you can check out the file book/book.pdf

If you want to 🍞 bake all the versions including ebook variants (.pdf, .epub in colour and size optimized Black&White), run:

make bake

You can check the files in the folder book/release/

🍞 Baking the book locally (LaTeX)

Make sure you have biber, latexmk and ImageMagick installed. Refer to your system's installation instructions for LaTeX. To create the serif .pdf format, run:

cd book/
make

If you want to 🍞 bake all the versions including ebook variants (.pdf, .epub in colour and size optimized Black&White), run:

cd book/
make -j bake

You can check the files in the folder book/release/

You can get some help on building various versions with:

cd book/
make help

Compiled versions

The below versions are automatically built on every push to the main branch.

• Download compiled .pdf version
• Download compiled .epub version

There's an additional enhanced accessibility version using a sans-serif font:

• Download compiled sans-serif .pdf version

An additional black and white ebook is provided with a greatly reduced file size. This shrinks the book from more than 50MB down to ~5MB:

• Download compiled B&W .epub version

If you prefer a very short version (about 10 pages) with main flowcharts and crucial information needed while you are in the kitchen, we also provide a "too long;didn't read" version you could print. Having read the full book is highly recommended to understand this leaflet:

• Download a condensed version

Online HTML version

Head over to https://www.the-sourdough-framework.com

To build the website make sure to have the ruby version installed specified in website/.ruby-version.

cd book/
make website

Alternatively you can build the website directly with Docker:

make website

Hardcover version

There is a hardcover version of the book available for purchase. You can read more details here.

Support

Did you find a typo, or feel the wording could be improved? Feel free to open up a pull request at any time.

I believe that the knowledge this book provides is essential to everyone. That's why I decided to open source my knowledge hoping that it will reach more people all over the world without budget constraints.

If you would like to contribute with a small donation you can do so via my ko-fi page. Your donation will tremendously help me to cover costs related to running the-bread-code. It furthermore allows me to dedicate time to continuously update and improve this book.

Links

• My YouTube channel
• Ask a question on Discord

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

the-sourdough-framework's Issues

Translate in other language

Hello,

Is it possible to have other version with different language... Like Spain, French, Italian, etc...

Flowchart 2 vs Flowchart 6

I am wondering a little if they are the same thing or not and why they’re different

thanks

c

Apple Books displays question mark (?) instead of images

For some reason all images except the first one on the cover page are displayed as ? in the book. I re-used the same image. Why wouldn't it display?

The CSS also seems to be the same:

Another issue on SO mentions it could be the file size (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6342605/ibooks-my-epub-doesnt-show-png-images-a-question-mark-is-in-its-place-instead/75770633#75770633). But then I used the same image, made it even smaller. I tried portrait or landscape mode. The image still only displays as ?. Upon clicking you can see the full version of the image.

Maybe a book in iBooks?

ebook does not work on Kobo

As reported on discord:
Kobo Libra H2O and original Kobo H2O from 2014 do not display the ebook correctly.

Confused by bassinage in flow chart

After adding water kneading or wait 15 min?

Create static site that hosts the book content

It would be great if users could read the book content directly in the browser. Maybe we could use (https://github.com/michal-h21/testblog) as a basis somehow. That would make the content even more accessible to everyone.

Add note on carbon exchange

Text:

In addition to this protection, they
also help with water and heat stress, as well as the availability of nutrients.
In exchange for their service to their host plants, these fungi and bacteria
receive carbon for energy.

TODO:

Explain carbon exchange

Add dough temperature to the equation in section "11.4.2 OVERFERMENTED"

I know you've written about dough temperature in other places, but it may be misleading if someone stumbles upon this section on its own. If you have high protein flour dough that's 27C and you let it double in size during bulk ferment and then retard it for 15h, chances are it will overproof as it will take longer to cool completely in the fridge. However I don't have any proof for this, it's just a theoretical suggestion :D

Starter readiness and feeding intervals (Fig. 3.4 vs Fig 3.6)

So reading chapter 3 I'm a little confused as to how often you should feed your starter until it is ready. Figure 3.4 has you feed the starter every 24 hours, whereas in Figure 3.6 it's every 12 hours. Did I miss something? Are these two flowcharts for different situations?

Kneading too much

the-sourdough-framework/book/wheat-sourdough/wheat-sourdough.tex

Line 660 in 4510616

is almost impossible though. Even after kneading for 30~minutes on medium

I've read this comment in the book, but my experience is that is true only with completely refined flour and a starter also containing refined flour. Every mix I tried with whole-wheat flour collapsed to glue after a few minutes of kneading in the mixer. Even a bread-specific, high-gluten 350W flour with a whole wheat starter did the same. I've read that in general the presence of bran makes long kneading process impossible, and I can confirm that.

Possible incorrect percentage range for whole wheat flour ingredient addition

See

the-sourdough-framework/book/wheat-sourdough/wheat-sourdough.tex

Line 190 in 0a3eb3e

\qtyrange{30}{30}{\percent} of whole wheat flour to the mix. You could also

Should this be 20% - 30%? It seems that that was the range used previously.

Add version with smaller, B&W images for Kindle

I'm following The Bread Code tips and managed to bake nearly-awesome bread by using them. I'm excited about this book and while I wait for the hardcover edition, I'm reading it on my Kindle.

There are basically two ways to send an external file to a Kindle: First one is plugging the good n' old USB cable, and the second is sending an email to a specific address with the file attached. The second way is constrained to 50MB attached files.

Today the e-mail method is not possible because the book is bigger than the constraint, due to color images in high resolution.

My suggestion here is to enable the build pipeline to create an ebook with lower resolution images, because all the gorgeous food pictures from culinary books are screwed up in Kindle's B&W screen anyway.

Moreover (and most importantly), that would allow for automation when a new version is pushed to Git - I could then build some dummy robot that checks for updates, downloads the new version and sends it via email.

Thanks for the awesome content!

Lots of repetition in flatbread section

Please have a look at https://github.com/hendricius/the-sourdough-framework/tree/bread-types where I re-ordered the text... i think this is more logical but makes it obvious how much repetition there is between the general flat bread text and the actual receipie.

Let me know what you think..

C

Docker image build should be done before various books compilation

Right they are run in parallel… so guaranteed that a change to the docket image will b not be taken into account before build/release next commit.

Compile Docker image for arm64 architecture

I am on a Mac. When compiling the book I noticed that the Docker image is only built for amd64 architecture. It would run much faster on my M2 (or any ARM-based machine) if it weren't emulating amd64 architecture but was built for multiple architectures.

Add a build on push to branch

Make -j build_serif build_ebook as we had was good… now we only know if we break CI when doing a PR.

Website looks weird on iOS / firefox

and on Firefox/linux

Kobo flowchart overflow

Now that #312 is in, I can confirm that the book can be opened on my Kobo device using the new builds on the site.

One issue that I noticed is that flowcharts are rendering way too big which makes them overflow the device screen. For example flowchart 4 and 5:

Figure 1.2 showing the timeline history is fine though.

Another issue is that the book doesn't display a cover page.

Degree symbol not showing up on website

But it is fine in the text though

Bread -> bred

On page 22:
-- The grains over time have been bread more
++ The grains over time have been bred more

Links broken in bibliography on website

The links redirect to: https://www.the-sourdough-framework.com/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_grain#/media/File:Wheat-kernel_nutrition.svg

Something seems wrong in the build process

No flowcharts on ebooks

No flowchart is showing up on the book built

• Does not work on MacOS
• Does not work on my debian (testing) machine anymore
• Does not work on the CI. It used to...

All svg are empty (debian)
❯ ls -1 --size -h book*svg 0 book0x.svg 0 book10x.svg 0 book11x.svg 0 book12x.svg 0 book13x.svg 0 book14x.svg 0 book15x.svg 0 book16x.svg 0 book17x.svg 0 book18x.svg 0 book1x.svg 0 book20x.svg 0 book21x.svg 0 book22x.svg 0 book23x.svg 0 book2x.svg 0 book3x.svg 0 book4x.svg 0 book5x.svg 0 book6x.svg 0 book7x.svg 0 book8x.svg 0 book9x.svg

No direct links for sub sub sections on webbpage

O the troubleshooting chapter that would be particularly useful to be able to send a link on a particular problem.

Link colors look odd in PDF version of book

Most of the users read the .pdf version of the book on their device. A recent change has made the book look a bit odd in PDF Readers (like my Preview).

Examples:

I suspect it is \usepackage[ocgcolorlinks]{hyperref} that we recently added. What do you think @cedounet?

Do we need sans-serif ebooks ?

The nice thing about ebook is that you can change font size and type of font... pick the one you like even. as we spend most of the build time doing ebooks, my polar bear friend is asking if we should really do it? pdf of course, but for ebooks... ? Had i thought of that before fixing the makefile maybe i would have a strong opinion, but now I am fine with either.

Chemical formula broken on website

Looking weir in text also

Car Tire

7.4 Hydration

-- The stiff dough is a car tire. The yeast has a much harder time inflating the care tire compared to the balloon. That’s because the rubber of the car tire is much more elastic.

++ The stiff dough is like a car tire. The yeast has a much harder time inflating the car tire compared to the balloon. That’s because the rubber of the car tire is much less elastic.

Gluten is a protein mix not a single protein

Just adding this here as something to be included in the book, was noted as a review comment on the hardcover book.

Create aerobic and anaerobic better

Add a footnote, some people don't know what it is.

"The starter has" ocurrence

In sourdough starter types, there's a lot of the starter has. Try to change the style.

Flowchart figure 4.4 and figure 4.7 #234

#234

Sorry for my late reply. Yes that would indeed be better or changed to: extract from regular starter or stiff starter.

I read it as, to make a regular starter or stiff starter, you need to do the following instead of reading as a starting point.

Why are various ebooks rebuilt from scratch in makefile?

the same thing is done 3 times (.tex -> .dvi ->.epub) then converted to .mobi or .azw3.

wouldn't https://sourceforge.net/projects/ebook-tools/ do the job faster for same result ? Did you try and were not satisfied with it ?

Thanks

American or British English?

Do you want the book standardized on American or British English? It seems like mostly American, but I've noticed a few British spellings mixed in and was wondering if I should fix those to American or vice versa.
Is there a better place to gather style notes for proofreading consistency?

Issues with opening up the black & white ebook

With the latest version of the black & white ebook it seems that I can not open it in apple books. However it works fine with calibre.

Attaching this bug report I received from a user:

Does anyone have an ebook reader and test if it can be opened? Here's the link: https://the-bread-code.io/bw-book.epub

Page 22-23, sourdough starter mix numbers are different

In the flow diagram it says to use 50g of the previous day, but in the text you talk about using only 10g of the previous day.

Flowchart figure 4.4 and figure 4.7

Flowchart figure 4.4 and figure 4.7

The start block (pink) of the 2 figures seems accidentally switched up.

I think it should be
4.4 Make a liquid starter
4.7 Make a stiff starter

Thank you for sharing your book!

Need some clarity in starter-type chapter

The liquid on top of your starter is an excellent resource that you could use to make sauces

That could do with a link/reference

The liquid starter conversion is non reversible. So ideally keep a backup of your stiff or regular starter.

Might be true, I don't know but i can’t find the justification for it

Converting to stiff starter flow chart starts with take your regular or liquid starer

Then see above, is that reversible now?

Last I struggle to see a benefit of a liquid starter in the text ?

Thanks

C/

Clarification needed

In sourdough-starter/sourdough-starter.tex around line 173

"But only the fittest microbes fitting the sourdough's niche are going to survive."

Is that niche or needs ?

Also, aoround line 239:

"I~also frequently dry it and use it as a rolling agent for pizzas that I~am making"

What is a rolling agent?

Let me know.. I am rewording that chapter a bit so i can fix it while at it.

what is the export_figures target here for in makefile?

Commit e0d5422 says it is about having nice .png, but .png appears automagically and this is not called anyway.

Any objections I get rid of it?

List of {tables, flowcharts, figures} not in the right order on website

Not a huge deal but that is not the order it is on the website.

Typo on cover

Hi Hendrik,

I like your content and think it is a great initiative to publish the book!

The little guy on the cover has a speech bubble with the text: 'WOW! Deliciously scientiffic'. However the word 'scientiffic' is misspelled, it should be: 'scientific' (only one f). Also see: https://www.wordnik.com/words/scientific

Keep up the great work!

Greetings from the Netherlands,
Jonathan

Why are TikZ pictures built separately?

Is there a reason for that? Tables were the same but looks like this wasn't really needed any more (or I missed the reason) having them built with the tex file would make them searchable.

Thanks

History of sourdough looks gibberish on website

Seems like something is messing up the image generation during the website build:

The flowcharts are not impacted, just the tikz images it seems.

CI that automatically builds the book and publishes it

It would be good to have a CI that tests if the book can be built. Then if all is well upon release maybe automatically send the compiled book to a storage location.

Just adding this here. If someone has time, feel free to go about it. I will have a look at this topic too with a bit more time.

How much starter to use?

When talking about how much starter to use, you normally talk about how much in relation to total flour.

"If you were to use an extreme value of around 90 % starter based on your flour, there would be very little room for the microorganisms to adjust in the main dough. "

"I’d always be using around 100 g to 200 g of starter for around 1000g of flour (baker’s math: 10% to 20%).

But in this instance, you talk about in relation to total dough mass:

"Most bakers use around 20% sourdough starter based on the dough mass. I recommend going much lower, to around 5 to 10%."

Is this last statement an error? Did you mean to use a baker's math percentage here too?

Bibliography not showing up on website menu bar

If you click next from glossary you get there but menu entry is missing.

In amylase section describe malt better

Suddenly malt is mentioned, explain it a bit better.

Add sans serif version of the book

I received some reports that some people have issues reading the serif font in the book. Just adding this as a reminder that I'll add another version to the build process without serifs.

ebook situation

Let's use that as a master bug.

There are several problems with our ebooks.

1. They are too big so nobody uses them on Kindle. There is an action about that #216
2. The whole (sans)-serif thing i think is useless. From my experience the reader opens with last selected font...
   #228
3. We support 3 formats, two of them are outdated. I have no problem keeping them, if they are actually used of course. #242
4. The list of flowchart does not work (despite 2 entries). This might explain why you needed to do ruby magic for the website. #240
5. Some stuff don't show up greatly (degres, some tables, ...) #223

Might sound like a rant, I promise it is not, just me not being a user of ebooks I need guidance on what makes sense to do and somebody testing it.

Opinions/thoughts ?

C/

Typo in "the-sourdough-framework/book/history /sourdough-history.tex"

Just a small typo (I guess):

line 106: "[also] known as your dough."

I assume you wanted to say "sour dough", right?

Thanks for the great book!

Cheers

Andreas