Graham Bread

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Nov 26, 2016
Location
central NC

Graham bread is named after Reverend Sylvester Graham. He invented the bread in 1829. Graham bread was promoted as ‘health bread’ since Victorian white bread wasn’t made with white flour but with bleached whole wheat flour. Reverend Graham also propagated a vegetarian Graham diet, alcohol abstinence, daily tooth brushing and frequent bathing. His followers were called Grahamites.


I found this recipe for Graham Bread, but it would take a lot of modifications if we were to make it today.


Mrs Putnam’s 1850s Graham Bread

4 qt unbolted wheat (unsifted whole wheat flour)
teacup good yeast
1/2 cup molasses
1 tbsp salt
enough warm water ‘to make a stiff dough’


Note: There are many difficulties in recreating this bread recipe.

· We don’t know what teacups and cups Mrs Putnam might have used.

· In the Victorian era, yeast was usually brewers’ yeast, bought from a local brewer, or yeast made at home with hops or potatoes.

· We’ll also be using a modern oven. According to Mrs Beeton’s Household Management book (published in 1861): ‘Brick ovens are generally considered the best adapted for baking bread […] Iron ovens are more difficult to manage’ and it might be necessary for the bread to bake evenly to leave the oven ‘door open for a time’.

· Wheat grains are different than they were in the Victorian era.
 
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Graham bread is named after Reverend Sylvester Graham. He invented the bread in 1829. Graham bread was promoted as ‘health bread’ since Victorian white bread wasn’t made with white flour but with bleached whole wheat flour. Reverend Graham also propagated a vegetarian Graham diet, alcohol abstinence, daily tooth brushing and frequent bathing. His followers were called Grahamites.


I found this recipe for Graham Bread, but it would take a lot of modifications if we were to make it today.


Mrs Putnam’s 1850s Graham Bread

4 qt unbolted wheat (unsifted whole wheat flour)
teacup good yeast
1/2 cup molasses
1 tbsp salt
enough warm water ‘to make a stiff dough’


Note: There are many difficulties in recreating this bread recipe.

· We don’t know what teacups and cups Mrs Putnam might have used.

· In the Victorian era, yeast was usually brewers’ yeast, bought from a local brewer, or yeast made at home with hops or potatoes.

· We’ll also be using a modern oven. According to Mrs Beeton’s Household Management book (published in 1861): ‘Brick ovens are generally considered the best adapted for baking bread […] Iron ovens are more difficult to manage’ and it might be necessary for the bread to bake evenly to leave the oven ‘door open for a time’.

· Wheat grains are different than they were in the Victorian era.
Even a small teacup would be a lot of yeast.the bread will blow up like a ballon.
 
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Ellie. Thanks for posting this very interesting and delicious looking recipe for basically whole wheat bread. It seems that Rev. Graham is a man after my own heart with all of the hygiene stuff. David.
 

Graham bread is named after Reverend Sylvester Graham. He invented the bread in 1829. Graham bread was promoted as ‘health bread’ since Victorian white bread wasn’t made with white flour but with bleached whole wheat flour. Reverend Graham also propagated a vegetarian Graham diet, alcohol abstinence, daily tooth brushing and frequent bathing. His followers were called Grahamites.


I found this recipe for Graham Bread, but it would take a lot of modifications if we were to make it today.


Mrs Putnam’s 1850s Graham Bread

4 qt unbolted wheat (unsifted whole wheat flour)
teacup good yeast
1/2 cup molasses
1 tbsp salt
enough warm water ‘to make a stiff dough’


Note: There are many difficulties in recreating this bread recipe.

· We don’t know what teacups and cups Mrs Putnam might have used.

· In the Victorian era, yeast was usually brewers’ yeast, bought from a local brewer, or yeast made at home with hops or potatoes.

· We’ll also be using a modern oven. According to Mrs Beeton’s Household Management book (published in 1861): ‘Brick ovens are generally considered the best adapted for baking bread […] Iron ovens are more difficult to manage’ and it might be necessary for the bread to bake evenly to leave the oven ‘door open for a time’.

· Wheat grains are different than they were in the Victorian era.
This is a recipe for graham bread from Mrs.Wilson's Cookbook (1920)
Mary A.Wilson was of Mrs.Wilson's Cooking School,Philidelphia,Pa..she was formerly Queen Victoria's Cuisinere.
GrahamBread
2 cups water 80° Fahrenheit
4 Tbs of syrup
2 tsp of salt
Stir and disolve and then crumble in 1 yeast cake,disolve thoroughly,and then add
4 cups White Flour
3 1/2 cups graham flour
3 Tbs of shortening.
Work innto a dough and then bake as a straight dough method.
 
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Graham bread was promoted as ‘health bread’ since Victorian white bread wasn’t made with white flour but with bleached whole wheat flour.

It wouldn't have been bleached quite this early. More the color of modern whole wheat pastry flour, I would guess.

Even a small teacup would be a lot of yeast.the bread will blow up like a ballon.

I'm guessing it's like Sour Dough or Amish friendship bread, in which case the "yeast" would be the equivalent of a modern-day "starter" (a mix of yeast and flour and sugar that must be tended every day). You use about a cup of starter to a loaf of bread.
 
I thought the practice of making white flour by the process of roller milling was introduced about 1870.

You are correct about roller mills, but they didn't bleach flour (or at least no one had noticed) until the early 20th century. One of the earliest mentions of bleaching I've seen is about 1904, and it wasn't about making the best flour white, it was about making the cheaper flours look like the better ones!
 
You are correct about roller mills, but they didn't bleach flour (or at least no one had noticed) until the early 20th century. One of the earliest mentions of bleaching I've seen is about 1904, and it wasn't about making the best flour white, it was about making the cheaper flours look like the better ones!
Bleaching flour really did not come into its own until 1940 just before thevwar.
 
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