Sift: The Elements of Good Baking by Nicola Lamb

  

I have a lot of cookbooks in my TBR, and there is nothing my husband loves more than for me to cook. To inspire me, I took photos with 24 cookbooks I have and I've prescheduled one post a month for the next two years. I'll plan to link up with In My Kitchen, hosted by Sherry's Pickings, and Weekend Cooking, hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader (and Baker). To further inspire me, I've created a Cooking/Baking Challenge for me for 2026 in which I read and bake from and post about one cookbook a month.

I'm not a math-y person. I forced myself to take every math class I could find when I was young. I always had high hopes that one day I would find a math class that was just for me. It never happened. 

Sift is a baking book for math-y people. I've been told over and over that it is important to measure precisely when baking, but I just can't make myself do that. After all, my grandma baked biscuits and pies and cakes all ninety-eight years of her life without owning measuring spoons or cups. 

So, I read Sift and numbers and percentages and ratios floated through my brain. Nothing stuck. I didn't try making anything in the book. Why? Because I didn't want to. 

You, though, you who weigh your flour and carefully follow all directions? You who read math books for fun? This is a book for you. I will not rate this book because it is more a measure of my incompetence than of this baker/author's skills.

Be a part of the friendly In My Kitchen (IMK) community by adding your post at Sherry's Pickings each month - everybody welcome!  We'd love to have you visit.  Tell us about your kitchen (and kitchen garden) happenings over the past month.  Dishes you've cooked, preserves you've made, herbs and veg. in your garden, kitchen gadgets, and goings-on.  And one curveball is welcome - whatever you fancy; no need to be kitchen-related. The link is open from the first of the month to midnight on the thirteenth of the month, every month.

Weekend Cooking was created by Beth Fish Reads and is now hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader (and Baker). It is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.  

For more photos, link up at Wordless Wednesday, Comedy Plus, Messymimi's Meanderings, Keith's Ramblings, Image-in-ing, Soul and Mind and So On, Wild Bird Wednesday, and My Corner of the World.