Unbolted Wheat Meal Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine warm water and salt.
Stir in enough coarse wheat meal to form a thick batter.
Let the mixture ferment at 80‑90°F for 4‑6 hours or overnight at 60°F.
Shape and bake
Add 2‑3 quarts of warm water and more wheat meal to the batter.
Mould the dough and place it into pans.
Allow the dough to rise for about 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and bake the bread.
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
- Coarse wheat meal
- Forms the bulk of the dough, providing structure and body as it is worked into the batter.
- Warm water
- Hydrates the wheat meal and keeps the dough moist and workable during fermentation.
- Saleratus
- Optional leavening that reacts to lift the dough and give a lighter crumb.
The step that matters
Fermenting the batter. Fermentation needs the right temperature and time. Too cool or too short leaves the batter flat and sour-free, while too warm or too long can over-acidify it and weaken the gluten structure.
“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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