Text Box: "To render bread easy of digestion, it ought to be well fermented and baked, and it never should be used until it has stood twenty-four hours after being taken out of the oven, otherwise it is apt to occasion various complaints in those who have weak stomachs; such as flatulence, heart-burn, watchfulness, and the like. The custom of eating butter with bread, hot from the oven, is compatible only with very strong digestive powers." "Mackenzie's Five Thousand Receipts in All the Useful and Domestic Arts" Mrs. Bruce's recipe: "Set your rising in a pitcher, a sugar bowl, or a new tin dipper. Either must be sweet. Have ready a crock or pot with warm water enough to come even with the rising and just hot enough not to burn the finger. Put a plate in the bottom of the crock, so the rising does not scald. Set on the back of the stove or anywhere to keep an even heat. I set my rising by 5 o'clock in the morning, and about 10 o'clock I add a table-spoonful of flour and stir. If successful, your rising will be ready to make loaves about 2 o'clock in the afternoon. To set rising, take 1 table-spoonful of sifted corn meal, scald it by pouring over it 1 pt. of boiling water and stir quickly. To this add cold water until just cold enough not to scald. Then add a large tea-spoonful of coarse salt, a pinch of soda, a pinch of sugar, and flour enough to make a stiff batter. When risen, sift 4 to 5 qts. of flour into the bread bowl. Make a hole in the center and put in a table-spoonful of sweet lard or butter. Pour over this 3 pts. of warm water. Then add your rising. Mix and work in loaves; grease the top. This makes 3 large loaves. When risen to top of pan, bake. Bake in long, deep tin pans, and from 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour. When done, let it remain in the oven for about 10 minutes to soak. Do not wrap it up, but lay on the table to cool. Then put away in a large stone jar. Cover closely, and you will have nice, moist, sweet bread. I use coarse flour to set rising and fine to make it up when I can get both. I have had 18 year's experience, and my bread is No. 1." "Dr. Chase's Third, Last and Complete Receipt Book and Household Physician" Some latter-day theorist has declared salt irrelevant to the bread-making process; per that individual, the starter (rising) was kept warm by embedding its container in a mass of heated salt from which the name derived. A 1981 chance discussion with the head of the bakery department at the local technical high school provided insight for me to devise a reliable method for salt-rising bread. The bakery instructor, hearing my account of the Bruce recipe, opined that the "large tea-spoonful" of salt would suppress any yeast in the rising. That fact and the boiling water bath implied that yeast was being deliberately destroyed or suppressed in preparing a rising. Success with the Bruce recipe argued significance for salt in the pot rather than around the pot.

 

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