To many Amer­i­cans, rye bread is a bland, store-bought loaf with an oval cross-sec­tion and, some­times, a sprin­kling of car­away. But true rye bread — the kind that stands at the cen­ter of north­ern and east­ern Euro­pean food cul­ture — is so much more. In The Rye Bak­er, Stan­ley Gins­berg brings this over­looked grain into the culi­nary lime­light, intro­duc­ing read­ers to the rich and unimag­in­ably diverse world of rye bread.

Read­ers will find more than 70 clas­sic recipes that span rye’s regions and ter­roir, from dark, intense Russ­ian Borodin­sky and orange-infused Swedish Got­land Rye to near-black West­phalian Pumper­nick­el (which gets its musky sweet­ness from a 24-hour bake), Spiced Hon­ey Rye from France’s Auvergne, and the rye breads of Amer­i­ca’s melt­ing-pot, such as Boston Brown Bread and Old Mil­wau­kee Rye. Chap­ters detail­ing rye’s his­to­ry, unique chem­istry, and cen­turies-old bak­ing meth­ods round out this defin­i­tive resource for pro­fes­sion­al and home bak­ers alike.