Salt Rising Bread

donna

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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May 12, 2010
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Now Florida but always a Kentuckian
Salt Rising Bread is white bread that was made by early settlers in the Appalachian Mountains areas. It is bread that uses no yeast. Yeast was not available commercially until the 1860s. Early pioneer women figured a way to make this bread without any rising agent. The tradition of making Salt Rising Bread is kept going by a relatively few individuals and bakeries in the mid eastern United States. It is popular in some parts of Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee and Western Pa.

My Granny (from Kentucky) made the best salt rising bread. I remember smelling it as she prepared it and then baked it. We could make a lunch off her bread with butter on top. It was delicious.

Here is an old Kentucky recipe for making this bread.

Sponge: 1 cup milk
2 tablespoons cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar

2nd Sponge: 1 cup lukewarm water
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons shortening
2 cups sifted flour

Dough: 2 1/4 cups sifted flour

Scald milk, then cool to lukewarm; add cornmeal, salt, and sugar. Pour into bowl. Cover and place in warm place. Let stand 6 to 7 hours, or until signs of fermentation (gas bubbles) appear. Then add ingredients of 2nd Sponge. Beat thoroughly and again cover and place in pan of hot water (120 degrees). Let rise until very light; then add remaining flour gradually, until dough is stiff enough to be kneaded.. Knead 15 to 20 minutes. Shape into 2 loaves. Place in greased pans. Brush tops with melted shortening. Cover and let stand until more than doubled in size. Bake in moderate oven (375 degrees) 10 minutes; then lower heat to 350 degrees, and bake 25 to 30 minutes.
 
I have been asked question about how I determine if recipes are authentic. Satl Rising Bread does go back to early days but it is obvious this recipe has been recreated because of use of measurements. Thus, I should have used prefix of history or recreated. Hope this clarifies this recipe. Thanks for your understanding.
 
Salt Rising Bread is white bread that was made by early settlers in the Appalachian Mountains areas. It is bread that uses no yeast. Yeast was not available commercially until the 1860s. Early pioneer women figured a way to make this bread without any rising agent. The tradition of making Salt Rising Bread is kept going by a relatively few individuals and bakeries in the mid eastern United States. It is popular in some parts of Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee and Western Pa.

My Granny (from Kentucky) made the best salt rising bread. I remember smelling it as she prepared it and then baked it. We could make a lunch off her bread with butter on top. It was delicious.

Here is an old Kentucky recipe for making this bread.

Sponge: 1 cup milk
2 tablespoons cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar

2nd Sponge: 1 cup lukewarm water
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons shortening
2 cups sifted flour

Dough: 2 1/4 cups sifted flour

Scald milk, then cool to lukewarm; add cornmeal, salt, and sugar. Pour into bowl. Cover and place in warm place. Let stand 6 to 7 hours, or until signs of fermentation (gas bubbles) appear. Then add ingredients of 2nd Sponge. Beat thoroughly and again cover and place in pan of hot water (120 degrees). Let rise until very light; then add remaining flour gradually, until dough is stiff enough to be kneaded.. Knead 15 to 20 minutes. Shape into 2 loaves. Place in greased pans. Brush tops with melted shortening. Cover and let stand until more than doubled in size. Bake in moderate oven (375 degrees) 10 minutes; then lower heat to 350 degrees, and bake 25 to 30 minutes.
Truly amazing. Thanks.
 
Interesting. And far more detailed than most salt-rising bread recepies I've run across. Now I just need to work up the nerve to try it!

Salt-rising bread was apparently known further north as well. Grace Livingston Hill talks about it in her historical Marcia Schuyler, which was based on an event in her own family's past, and, memory serves, was set in upstate New York. The salt-rising bread recipes I've seen that hail from New England and points north use potatoes in their sponge rather than corn meal.

There's modern debate over recipes like this about whether the yeast comes from the starter itself or the air -- the distinctive taste of San Francisco sour dough seems to make it more likely that the yeast is from the air, but there's also some evidence that nineteenth century milling methods (or cleaning and harvesting methods) left live yeast strains on the grain or potato from where ever they were grown.

Still wondering how "salt-rising bread" got "Salt" in its name, since the recipes I've seen don't use a lot of it. You really can't use much salt in a sponge -- past a low point, it starts to inhibit the growth of the yeast, or at least that's what I was taught.
 
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