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Breads/Biscuits Rye and Indian Bread

rye and indian bread
(from A Poetical Cook Book by Maria J. Moss, 1864)

"Of wine she never tasted through the year,
But white and black was all her homely cheer,
Brown bread and milk (but first she skimmed her bowls),
And rasher of singed bacon on the coals."
-Chaucer

Ingredients:

2 quarts of rye​
2 quarts of Indian meal​
3 pints of milk​
2 tablespoons of salt​
1/2 pint of good, fresh yeast; if from the brewery and quite fresh, a smaller quantity will suffice.​

Instructions:

Sift the rye and Indian meal, and mix them well together. Boil the milk; pour it boiling upon the meal; add the salt, and stir the whole very hard. Let it stand till it becomes of only a lukewarm heat, and then stir in the yeast. Knead the mixture into a stiff dough, and set it to rise in a pan. Cover it with a thick cloth that has been previously warmed, and set it near the fire. When it is quite light, and has cracked all over the top, make it into two loaves; put them in a moderate oven, and bake them two hours and a half.​


Here is another recipe from "A Poetical Cook Book". It starts with a verse as did the other recipe.
 
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Donna,

What was the original publication date? I'm curious because of the exact amounts specified in the recipe. Thanks,

Gary
 
The date for book is 1864. I found i(the book)t when looking up recipes for Emily Dickinson. She liked to make this bread. I am trying to find her recipe but found this one. This book has lots of great recipes. Each recipe starts with a verse. I would like to find out about the author but haven't as yet. She is on my search list.
 
Recipe used by Emily Dickinson for Rye and Indian Bread. This recipe was from a distant cousin of Emily's. He was Joseph Lyman. He spent much time in the Dickinson home on Pleasant Street in the 1840s and 1850s.He always enjoyed the cooking of Mrs. Dickinson and her daughters and claimed he learned much from them.

Lyman's Rye and Indian Bread

3 cups corn meal
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup molasses
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
4 cups rye flour
2 teaspoons soda
1/2 cup stewed Irish Potato

Add salt and molasses to corn meal. Pour boiling milk over it. Add cold buttermilk to the rye flour, plus baking soda. Mix entire ingredients together, adding the stewed potato. No rising time is needed. When firm, place in a round bread pan; bake at 440 degrees for 2 1/2 hours. When done, cover loaf with butter and a towel to help retain moisture.

makes 1 loaf.
 
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