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Bread

Salt Rising Bread

A bread made by mixing flour with warm water and salt, allowing it to rise slowly before baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Salt Rising 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 sponge

  1. Combine warm water and salt in a two-quart bowl.

  2. Stir in flour to make a stiff batter.

  3. Cover the bowl and place it in a kettle of warm water, maintaining the temperature.

  4. After 3 hours, stir in 2 tablespoons of flour.

  5. Let it rise for another 5.5 hours until it is nearly at the top of the bowl.

Make the dough and bake

  1. In a large bowl with 8 quarts of flour, create a well in the center and add 1 quart of warm water and the rising mixture.

  2. Cover with a little dry flour and keep it warm for 45 minutes.

  3. Mix into a stiff dough, making larger loaves.

  4. Let rise for another 45 minutes.

  5. Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C) while the dough rises.

  6. Bake the loaves until they are white with a light brown crust.

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 the starch and gluten structure that holds the bread once baked.
Warm water
Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and lets the sponge ferment.
Coarse sea salt
Controls fermentation pace and adds flavor to the bread.

The step that matters

Keeping the sponge warm and rising fully. The sponge relies on slow fermentation at steady warmth to develop acidity and leavening power. If it cools or is rushed, the rise is weak and the bread turns out dense and flat.

“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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