Recipe: Salt-Rising Bread

There’s nothing like the scent of freshly baked bread filling your home, especially on a crisp morning. This winter, I invite you to try an American baking custom that can be traced back to the late 1700s: salt- rising bread. The pioneer women of early America discovered they could raise bread dough without yeast, and now you, too, can perfect the craft with this step-by-step recipe.

A Nostalgic Bake

My fascination with salt-rising bread stems from my introduction to the “Little House” books. Ma would make salt-rising bread when times were good — no need for a sourdough starter or wheat berries to be ground in the coffee grinder.

A Long-Held Tradition

If you read James Beard’s introduction to this recipe in his cookbook “American Cookery,” you may be disinclined to make salt-rising bread: “The flavor is distinctive and the smell rather startling.” Yet, the glowing descriptions of the texture and flavor of this bread are universal. Moreover, this recipe could be a way to connect to generations past.

Salt-rising bread is uniquely American; most research has yet to show versions outside this country!

Given the small amount of salt in these recipes, one might question where the name came from. Evidently, pioneer women in Appalachia used to keep a bag of rock salt by their cooking fire. They found that putting the starter on a bed of rock salt by the hearth kept it at the right temperature — hence the name “salt-rising bread.”

So, join me, take a step back in time, and bring this fascinating bread to your present-day dinner table.

JAMES BEARD’S SALT-RISING BREAD RECIPE

Ingredients

For the Starter:
1 1/2 cups hot water
1 medium potato, peeled and sliced thin
2 tablespoons white or yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Swap your starter: “Joy of Cooking” gives two different versions of salt-rising bread, one using cornmeal and the other using potato in the starter.

For the Bread:
Liquid from starter (above)
1/2 cup warm water (100-115 F)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup lukewarm whole milk (90-110 F)
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon salt
4 1/2-5 1/2 cups all-purpose or hard-wheat flour

Method

For the Starter:
In a 2-quart oven-safe bowl, mix all ingredients for the starter. Cover with oven-safe plate. Heat oven to 250 F, turn off when temperature is reached, and add covered starter to oven for 20 minutes, or until top is covered with 1/2 to 1-inch of foam. Keep warm.

For the Bread:
Strain liquid from starter into mixing bowl, pour the 1/2 cup warm water over the remaining potatoes, pressing out as much liquid as possible. Discard the potatoes. Add baking soda, milk, melted butter, and salt to the starter liquid. Mix well. Stir in 2 cups of flour and beat until very smooth. Stir in remaining flour, one cup at a time, until all 4 1/2 cups are used and soft dough is formed. Add 1 cup of flour to breadboard, add dough, sprinkle some flour on top, and knead lightly for 10-12 minutes, or until dough is smooth but still soft. Divide dough into two loaves. Place into well-buttered bread pans, brush top of each loaf with melted butter, cover, and place in warm, draft-free spot to rise for 4-5 hours or until doubled in size. Bake in preheated oven at 375 F for 35-45 minutes or until loaves shrink from sides of the pan. Remove from pans to cool.

Once cooled, enjoy your salt-rising bread with:

• Butter and cheese.
• Berry compote.
• Soups and stews.

There’s nothing better than using freshly baked bread to sop up the last bits of soup or stew. Check out soup recipes to warm your weeknights this winter.