In his epic saga of a culinary endeavor, Today I Ate a Biscuit, author Justin M. Davis explores in great detail every aspect of thinking about, preparing for, assembling, consuming a solitary biscuit, as well as and the assessment of the experience afterward. And then, after much reflection and inner debate, he does it all again with a second biscuit.

In the author’s kitchen that fateful day, and perhaps more so, in his mind, this ode to flour, salt and milk is, in fact, a metaphor for the hesitancy and regret of life and the struggle to make peace with what is: “They say the moment before a thing happens holds more power than the thing itself,” Davis writes.

The author clearly has a gift for description and setting a mood. His simple word choice and attention to the smallest detail is remarkable as he mines the depths of the textures and taste of his biscuits with droll moments of humor: “The butter didn’t respond,” he writes, “It never does.”

The story’s greatest strength is an understated yet inescapable wistfulness: “It reminded me of the way certain moments in life that on a greater weight than we ever intended. […] Entire relationships, careers, even lifetimes can be shifted by things that, at the time, seemed as trivial as…well, an unassuming crumb of an otherwise unremarkable biscuit.”

Sadly, though, the sheer volume of this musing about a biscuit and all it represents can be hard to plow through. The author is, after all, writing about a baked good. The narrative quickly becomes repetitive and excessive (there’s an entire chapter centered on preheating the oven). Editing the book into a short story—half its current length—would have sufficed and still captured his theme that sometimes a biscuit is more than a biscuit. That’s unfortunate because Davis has undeniable talent.

As is, this baking oeuvre would be much more successful if served in a smaller bite.