Text Box: From a bit of experience in beer-making, I knew that sulphur dioxide evolving from Campden tablets (sodium or potassium metabisulphite) was a yeast killer. Two starters were prepared following the Bruce recipe with one receiving a half Campden tablet in place of salt. Satisfactory bread arose from each with somewhat more odor apparent from the Campden loaves. During succeeding weeks, many variations on starter recipes were prepared; an unused camper's icebox was fitted with an electric lamp to provide reliable heat; temperature was adjusted with bulbs of varying wattage. Boiling water, lukewarm water, scalded whole milk, skim milk, half-and-half cream, etc. together with corn meal and varying quantities of sugar, honey, malt sugar, potato, Campden tablet, and baking soda became starters. Starters failed when temperature was below 70F or above 125F. With box temperature near 90F-100F, every starter recipe fermented properly with some working up faster than others. Oatmeal from the breakfast box was the first deviation from corn meal in a starter; it worked fine and made good bread. On subsequent days, barley, cracked wheat, and corn grits all became the base of starters. Bread from a barley starter is almost acceptable but for the bullet-like pieces of barley in the crust. Retirement and movement to Maine interrupted salt-rising bread (SRB) experiments. A September, 2001, encounter with Susan Ray Brown's Web site "The Salt Rising Bread Project: Keeping the Tradition Alive" stirred an e-mail from me. Since then, we have been encouraging one another into new SRB experiments. Susan expanded my mental horizon with copies of papers published by H.A. Kohman in the 1900s. Kohman studied salt-rising bread and identified Clostridium perfringens as the active agent. He developed a process for producing a so-called "yeast" for the bread. The yeast is still in production and available from several sources accessible on the Web.

 

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