Lime Water in Baking
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lime water
Stir 1 pound of fresh dry slacked lime with 12 quarts of water in a large container.
Let the mixture settle, then draw off the clear liquid without disturbing the sediment.
Use it in the dough
Use 1 to 2 quarts of the clear lime water in your dough, not in the sponge.
Increase the yeast in the sponge when using lime water.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Fresh dry slacked lime
- Dissolves into alkaline lime water, which changes how the dough ferments and how the crust browns.
The step that matters
Draw off only the clear liquid. Slacked lime does not fully dissolve, so the sediment is undissolved solid. Stirring it up would carry grit and extra alkali into the dough, making the result harsher and less even.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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