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Bread

Cottage Bread and Split Bread

A loaf of bread made with ferment, water, lard, sugar, and coarse sea salt, baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Cottage Bread and Split Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the dough

  1. Set a sponge with the ferment.

  2. Take the sponge at the first drop.

  3. Add water, sugar, salt, and lard to the sponge.

  4. Make a firm dough.

  5. Let the dough rise.

  6. Work the dough over.

  7. Scale the dough.

Shape and prove

  1. Mold the dough into two pieces.

  2. Shape the pieces round on the bench.

  3. Press the two pieces together.

  4. Dust the pieces with flour.

  5. Place the pieces in a cloth-lined box to prove.

Bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Line the oven with wood.

  3. Place two loaves close together in the oven in a square shape.

  4. For split loaves, mold the dough into a pan shape.

  5. Dust the split loaves with flour.

  6. Press the split loaves with a rolling pin.

  7. Set the split loaves to prove.

  8. Place the split loaves in the oven close together.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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

Ferment
Starts the sponge, giving leavening and flavor development before the dough is mixed.
Lard
Adds fat, giving the bread a tender, short crumb.
Sugar
Feeds the fermentation and adds a little sweetness and browning.
Water
Hydrates the flour so the dough can develop structure.

The step that matters

Take the sponge at the first drop. Taking the sponge too early or too late changes how far fermentation has progressed, which affects rise, flavor, and the final texture of the loaves.

“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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