Good Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Make the starter
Dissolve the salt in 3 gallons of warm water.
Add a little flour and the whole yeast to the mixture.
Keep it in a warm place until it rises.
Build the dough
After it rises, add more flour and warm water.
After 3 to 4 hours, add the remaining flour and enough water to form a proper dough.
Shape and bake
Cut the dough into loaves and bake.
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 the gluten network that gives the bread its structure and chew.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugars in the dough, producing gas that makes the bread rise.
- Coarse sea salt
- Adds flavor and slows yeast activity so the dough rises at a controlled pace.
The step that matters
Keep the mixture in a warm place until it rises. Yeast works fastest in warm conditions. If the mixture is too cold, fermentation slows and the dough rises slowly or not enough. If it is too hot, the yeast can be killed. Letting the dough rise fully before adding more flour gives the gas needed for a light loaf.
“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.
You might also like
Cornbread345 recipes
Bread Pudding336 recipes
Milk Bread Rolls242 recipes
Potato Bread124 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.