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Bread

The Reverend Mr. Hagget’s Economical Bread

A simple bread made with flour, water, yeast, and salt, baked at 400°F for 2.5 hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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The Reverend Mr. Hagget’s Economical 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 dough

  1. In a large bowl, mix the flour with 4 to 5 quarts of warm water and the yeast until it becomes tough.

  2. Let the mixture rise for about 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until it rises quickly.

  3. Before it falls, add 4 more quarts of warm water and the salt, then mix well and cover with a cloth.

Shape and bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Shape the dough into loaves weighing about 5 pounds each.

  3. Clean the oven thoroughly and place the loaves inside.

  4. Bake for 2 hours and 30 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

Good flour
Provides the gluten-forming protein that builds the structure of the bread.
Good yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Warm water
Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and activates the yeast.
Coarse sea salt
Controls yeast activity and strengthens the gluten for a better crumb and flavor.

The step that matters

Let the mixture rise before it falls. Yeast gas fills the dough while it rises; if it collapses first, the structure weakens and the loaves bake up dense. Adding the salt and extra water at the right moment keeps the dough workable.

“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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