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Bread

To Make Bread From Home Made Yeast

A loaf of bread made with homemade yeast, flour, water, and lard, baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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To Make Bread From Home Made Yeast

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. Mix homemade yeast with enough flour to create a moderately stiff sponge.

  2. Let the sponge rise until bubbles form and break.

  3. If the sponge is not at the right temperature, add water to adjust.

Make and knead the dough

  1. Incorporate ½ pound of soft or melted lard and mix well.

  2. Add enough flour to form a good dough.

  3. Knead the dough for 10 to 20 minutes until firm and smooth.

  4. Return the dough to the bowl and let it rise.

Shape and bake

  1. When the dough has risen, shape it into loaves and place in a pan.

  2. Let the loaves rise in the pan for 1 to 1.5 hours, until nearly doubled in size.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 45 to 60 minutes, depending on loaf size.

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

Homemade yeast
Ferments the sponge, producing gas that makes the dough rise and become airy.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough structure and holds the gas bubbles.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture of the bread.

The step that matters

Judging the sponge before kneading. Yeast works best at a moderate temperature, and the sponge must bubble and break before kneading. A sponge that is too cold rises slowly and weakly, while one that is too warm can overferment, so adjusting it with water matters for a good rise.

“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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