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Salt Rising Bread

A bread made by fermenting a batter of water, salt, baking soda, cornmeal, and flour, then baking loaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Salt Rising Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the starter

  1. Scald a quart dish.

  2. Add 1 pint of warm water.

  3. Stir in 1 tablespoon of salt, a pinch of baking soda, 2 to 3 tablespoons of cornmeal, and enough flour to make a thick batter.

  4. Place the dish in a kettle of warm water, maintaining a temperature you can comfortably bear your hand in.

  5. If water rises on top, stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons of flour.

  6. Return to the kettle.

  7. After 3 to 4 hours, when the mixture is light, take enough flour in a bread pan to make 3 to 4 loaves.

Make the sponge

  1. Make a hole in the center.

  2. Add the light mixture.

  3. Fill the dish with warm water.

  4. Add a little salt.

  5. Mix to form a thick sponge.

  6. Cover with some flour.

  7. Set the sponge in a warm place to rise.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape into loaves.

  2. Let rise again.

  3. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes.

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

Cornmeal
Provides starches and sugars that feed the fermentation that leavens the starter.
Baking soda
Gives a small early lift to the batter before the fermentation takes over.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that traps gas and gives the loaves their structure.
Salt
Controls the fermentation rate and adds flavour to the dough.

The step that matters

Keeping the starter at blood-warm temperature. Salt rising bread relies on wild bacteria rather than yeast. If the starter gets too hot, the bacteria die or sour the mixture, and if it is too cool, fermentation stalls and the mixture never becomes light.

“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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