Eric Pallant, Ph.D
Author of
Sourdough Culture: A History of Bread Making from Ancient to Modern Bakers (Agate, 2021)
Eric Pallant, Ph.D., is an award-winning endowed professor of environmental science and sustainability at Allegheny College, and two-time Fulbright Scholar, acknowledged for his skill in integrating disparate research narratives into compelling stories for curious audiences. Pallant has published an excerpt from his book Sourdough Culture in Gastronomica. He has written about the Middle East water crisis in Sierra Magazine and Science, reported on impacts of climate change in Central Asia in Grist, and published desert narratives in Heartstone and Whole Terrain. He is the co-editor of one book, (Integrated Water Resources Management and Security in the Middle East; a Springer publication for The NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme, 2007), a contributor to 12 additional books, and author of more than 40 articles. Pallant's widely recognized skills as a public speaker and his active engagement in solving environmental problems have made him a sought-after advisor to the President's Council for Sustainable Development, the U.S. State Department, the Higher Education Network for Sustainability and the Environment, and the American Association for Higher Education. Sourdough bread is his passion.
Website
BOOKS BY Eric
Sourdough Culture: A History of Bread Making from Ancient to Modern Bakers (Agate, 2021)
Sourdough bread fueled the labor that built the Egyptian pyramids. The Roman Empire distributed free sourdough loaves to its citizens to maintain political stability. More recently, amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, sourdough bread baking became a global phenomenon as people contended with being confined to their homes and sought distractions from their fear, uncertainty, and grief. In Sourdough Culture, environmental science professor Eric Pallant shows how throughout history, sourdough bread baking has always been about survival.
Sourdough Culture presents the history and rudimentary science of sourdough bread baking from its discovery more than six thousand years ago to its still-recent displacement by the innovation of dough-mixing machines and fast-acting yeast. Pallant traces the tradition of sourdough across continents, from its origins in the Middle East’s Fertile Crescent to Europe and then around the world. Pallant also explains how sourdough fed some of history’s most significant figures, such as Plato, Pliny the Elder, Louis Pasteur, Marie Antoinette, Martin Luther, and Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, and introduces the lesser-known—but equally important—individuals who relied on sourdough bread for sustenance: ancient Roman bakers, medieval housewives, Gold Rush miners, and the many, many others who have produced daily sourdough bread in anonymity.
Each chapter of Sourdough Culture is accompanied by a selection from Pallant’s own favorite recipes, which span millennia and traverse continents, and highlight an array of approaches, traditions, and methods to sourdough bread baking. Sourdough Culture is a rich, informative, engaging read, especially for bakers—whether skilled or just beginners. More importantly, it tells the important and dynamic story of the bread that has fed the world.