... the starter takes a long time to ferment.
"Sometimes it's 9 hours, sometimes it's 11 hours," says Bardwell. "You have to be really tuned into this bread. You have to kind of know how to recognize it when it's ready. Not an hour before, not an hour later."
Heat is critical. "Salt rising Bread is primarily wild bacteria you're culturing with heat, about 105 to 115 degrees Fahrenheit," explains Bardwell. She believes the different bacteria interact when heated, raising the bread and giving it flavor and texture.
Recipe: Salt Rising Bread
There are a half-dozen or so recipes for the pioneer bread on the Internet. This one is featured on Susan Brown's website and comes from Pearl Haines, a Pennsylvania woman who started making the bread when she was about five years old and baked it for nearly 90 years. (Haines passed away this year.) Her starter, or "raisin," as she called it, uses fewer ingredients than most recipes and has no sugar or salt.
Ingredients:
3 teaspoons cornmeal
1 teaspoon flour
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup scalded
milk
Preparation:
Pour milk onto dry ingredients in an ungreased quart glass jar or metal, glass, or pottery bowl that holds about four cups. Stir. Cover with saran wrap — and punch a hole in the wrap to keep it from sinking.
Keep starter warm, at 105-115 Fahrenheit, overnight until foamy. Three suggestions: 1) Wrap the bowl in a heating pad at the lowest setting, then wrap a towel around it. 2) Set the bowl in an electric
skillet with about half an inch of
water, set at the lowest temperature. 3) Put it in an
oven if there's a
light bulb inside that's about 60 watts and you can keep the bulb turned on, or if the oven has a "proof" setting.
Brown suggests having a thermometer on hand to check the starter's temperature several times during the rise.
After "raisin" has foamed and has a "cheesy" smell, put it in a medium-size bowl. Add 2 cups of warm water, then
enough flour (about 1 ½ cups) to make a thin pancake-like batter. Stir and let rise again until foamy. This usually takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Monitor the temperature during this stage as well.
Next, for each loaf you want to make, add one cup of warm water and 2 to 3 cups of flour (enough to be able to form the dough into a ball). Shape the dough into a loaf and place in a small loaf pan (about 8 1/2 inches by 4 1/2 by 2 1/2) greased with butter, Crisco, Pam or oil.
Let rise 2 to 3 hours. (If it doesn't rise at that point, you'll likely have to start over, Brown says.)
Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the loaf is a light golden color and sounds hollow when tapped.
The bread has a long shelf life. "It can keep on your counter for a good week to ten days without going bad," says Brown, "and if you put it in your refrigerator it'll keep for another couple of weeks."
www.npr.org//bake-bread-like-a-pioneer-in-appalachia-with-no-yeast
3
