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Re:{salt-rising bread}

fred smith <fredex@fcshome.stoneham.ma.us>
Sun, 15 Oct 2000 16:15:24 -0400
v100.n067.8
 > From: JFertig299@aol.com
 > Subject: Re: Salt-rising bread
 > Date: Wed, 4 Oct 2000 11:15:44 EDT
 >
 > More tips for salt-rising bread.
 >
 > I'm currently working on Prairie Home Breads, which will be out next year.
 > I've been baking and testing bread recipes for the past year, and 
salt->rising is one of the trickiest. Even the late great James Beard had 
trouble >with it.

I'm no expert (I must admit that up front) and haven't made TONS of 
salt-rising bread, but... Here's what little I've gleaned about it the 
dozen or so times I've made it.

I work from the first edition of Bernard Clayton Jr's "The Complete Book of 
Breads" (which I believe is a better bread book than the current edition, 
which I recently perused at a local bookstore).

however I've never been able to get the cornmeal mixture he recommends to 
ferment on its own using "wild yeast". After a few experiments, though, 
I've found a method that seems to work pretty well: By hand separate out 
ONE SINGLE grain of yeast particle from a package or jar of yeast and use 
that to "seed" the mixture. Keep it warm and otherwise process/treat as 
recommended in your recipe. After it ferments in its warm place overnight 
it does have the aroma of a strong cheese and oh what a wonderful aroma 
when baking and flavor when being eaten!

 > Maintaining the necessary fermentation temperature of 100 to 105 degrees is
 > the tricky part. I found that sitting the bowl of batter on a heating pad
 > turned to the medium setting did the trick. But you also need an instant
 > read thermometer to accurately gauge the temperature of the cornmeal and
 > milk batter. (Your heating pad might be different than mine.) If the batter
 > gets too hot, it curdles, and you have to start all over again. (I use a
 > batter that ferments naturally, not the King Arthur product).

I used to keep it warm in my gas oven, when my gas oven had a pilot light, 
which they no longer have. I don't think I've made it since those olden 
days, so I'll have to try the bit with the heating pad. Thanks for the hint!

(I used to make yogurt, by the half-gallon, in that oven too. Oh how I miss 
it. Some fresh yogurt with a spoonfull of my homemade rhubarb jelly was 
just out of this world.)

Fred
--
---- Fred Smith -- fredex@fcshome.stoneham.ma.us ----------------------------
                     The Lord detests the way of the wicked
                   but he loves those who pursue righteousness.
----------------------------- Proverbs 15:9 (niv) -----------------------------