I agree, what a chore to read.

I resorted to getting chatgpt to make a summary... Which I am loathe to do:

"Chorleywood replaced long fermentation with intensive mechanical mixing, allowing Britain to turn its previously unsuitable low-protein wheat into cheap mass-produced white bread and substantially reduce its reliance on imported Canadian grain."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorleywood_bread_process is a more focused article about it.

I at least appreciate he was up front about advertising his book.

But, yes, after about seven paragraphs I could no longer read on, and I had completely lost any interest in his book.

This should be given as an example how marketing can actively damage your product.

I can't believe how high this is on hackernews. It feels odd.

This word bloat is why I can rarely read non-fiction books even if their topic is interesting. I want the summary and then option to read more detail if I want, not have to go through pages and pages of padding before getting to the interesting ideas or facts. There was interesting information in the article but the idea that it takes up a third of his book, with multiple interviews about the process is the opposite, is exactly what I'd avoid reading.

You were half way there!

> The guiding principle of the Chorleywood Bread Process (I’m paraphrasing, of course) is that instead of depending for the most part on fermentation to generate all those bubbles of CO2 that later become the “cell structure” of microscopic holes in a loaf of bread, something similar could be achieved by beating that dough to within an inch of its life in a massive mechanical mixer.

It's much the same for all soft (tin) loaves sold across Europe. The exception being breads with crusts - baguettes and rolls etc. and rye bread.

I lost interest too. I could grow grain grind it, and make bread before I finished the article.

I think this is a result of click-bait titles. The title primes you to find out about the "little holes in your bread", so you start reading to find out about that and of course they leave that info to the end. It reminds me of the way so many YouTube videos will talk round and round the subject before getting to the actual point.

Indeed, what an arduous read.

Absolutely. I will never waste my time with slop that doesn't get to the point. This is a lousy blog post about bread, not a great novel.

YouTube is infested with lede burying as well. I hate it.

This is the kind of writing that I assume the people who read the NYT or Atlantic enjoy.

The content is good but yes it's like there is a different class of people that really want to FEEL like they are reading. They are doing THE WORK.