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Bread

Straight Dough, or Off-hand Doughing

A dough made by mixing flour, yeast, salt, and hot water, then kneading and resting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Straight Dough, or Off-hand Doughing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place flour in a large trough, leaving room for liquid.

  2. Heat 1½ gallons of water to 100°F (38°C).

  3. Dissolve yeast in ½ gallon of hot water and set aside.

  4. Dissolve salt in 1 gallon of hot water and set aside.

Make the dough

  1. Pour the remaining hot water into the trough.

  2. Add dissolved yeast and salt to the flour and mix well.

  3. Knead the dough by hand or with a mixer until smooth.

Rest and shape

  1. Let the dough rest for 1½ hours.

  2. Cut the dough to release gas and let it rest for another hour.

  3. Transfer the dough to a table and let it rest for 10-15 minutes before shaping.

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

Flour
Forms a gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide gas that makes the dough rise.

The step that matters

Heat the water to 100°F (38°C). Yeast is most active in warm water. Water that is too hot can kill it, and water that is too cool slows the rise, so the temperature sets how well the dough rises.

“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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