Salt-Rising Bread

16 years ago

Does anyone ever attempt to make this bread? I love it and I can only get it in the mountains of N.C. I live 3 hrs. away. My Mom always got it when we lived in Kentucky and South Florida.

I am off this week, and am attempting a started with potatoes, baking soda, salt and water. I am using my crockpot to keep the starter warm at 100 or so degree (outside on top of crockpot on towels-suggestion on internet. I attemtped many batches and maybe once, I had success. It does take time and patience.

Any tips or ideas?

June Lynn

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Comments (9)

wizardnm
16 years ago
June, after years of trying I found a recipe that works for me. I'm at work right now, but I can post it this evening.

I love salt rising bread!

Nancy
jimster
16 years ago
I also grew up in one of the strongholds of the unique bread called salt rising. I haven't made any yet, but I intend to.

The link below will take you to an excellent salt rising bread site. Be sure to read the long article, SALT RISING BREAD - A Continuing Conundrum By Reinald S. Nielsen. It takes a bit of the mystery out of salt rising bread, which is notoriously tricky to make. You will find that salt rising is not a yeast bread. The leavening agent is bacteria, which explains a lot.

Jim

Here is a link that might be useful: Salt Rising Bread Project
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Searching the web for salt rising bread again, not having done it recently, I was surprised to find a lot of good information. I am constantly surprised at how web content is growing exponentially. One site (linked below) was particularly rich in information. I won't try to even summarize it. But one author, who claims SRB is a conundrum, has largely removed conundrum by some extensive and smart experimentation. His experiments overthrow some of the main myths about making SRB. There is a page telling where SRB can be bought. Basically it is prevalent in the Appalachians and the Western New York (not Central NY, as she says) county where I grew up, plus a few other scattered places. I'm very familiar not only with all the NY towns where SRB is sold, but with some of the specific stores. So I can vouch for the accuracy of this information. The origin of SRB is more of a mystery than I thought. No one seems to know, other than it predates the availability of commercial yeast or baking powder. It requires no yeast and, since it is started from scratch each time, there is no need to maintain a starter. In fact, someone tried to keep a starter in order to maintain an especially good strain but failed. As one of the resident fermented food geeks, I found this extremely interesting reading. Jim Here is a link that might be useful: Salt Rising Bread Project
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Another Oklahoman here. Familiar with Porter peaches, though I grow my own. In Bartlesville there's a little restaurant where people love to eat. It's nothing fancy. Last time I was there, the surfaces of the tables were worn looking and mine even had a hole in it. But people wait in line at noon to eat. What do they order? The Hot Hamburger. It's a hamburger, what can I say? The difference in the dish is that it comes with a huge plate of french-fries covered in brown gravy. Now, I never saw the charm of this dish because I don't like gravy on my fries. In Tulsa, there's a little cafe-style restaurant called "Claud's" that was written up several times in the local newspaper as making the "best burger in Tulsa". Claud is now deceased and his wife Wilma is in a nursing home with Alzheimer's. But some of the kids run the place, and use the same methods and recipes. The favorite dish from there is an onion hamburger. They grind their own beef, pat it out thin, smear one patty with chopped onion and top with another patty. Throw it on the grill and fry it up. The grill is where you can watch, if you want. The NE section of Oklahoma is known for beef, peaches, pecans, all what David said (lakeguy). We have a lot of lakes and boy do I love that crappie! Biscuits and what "northerners" call "cream gravy" is standard breakfast fare in every restaurant. You also cannot have a meal that includes any kind of fried meat unless you also have gravy and mashed potatoes. Chicken fried steak is big here, though I don't really care for it. We like sour cream on lots of things. And we put cheese in and on almost everything. Yes, I too remember getting Frito chili pie at the concession stands during ballgames. Ever since, whenever I make chili I always want Fritos in mine instead of crackers. Does anybody remember the potato bars that were so popular in the '80's? We had a restaurant downtown that catered to the office workers there. Huge baked potato with your choice of all sorts of toppings. My favorite was bacon, sour cream, lettuce, shredded cheddar. Now we have a Starbuck's. I notice lots of cars in the parking lot.
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Bejay- "Best method" is subjective. It's more important to understand what characteristics each method brings to your bread and let you decide "best". As Shirley Corriher says in her excellent book "CookWise", "Give ten bakers the same flour, yeast, salt, and water and have them make bread with just these ingredients and they will make ten different loaves of bread." There are three basic methods of breadmaking: -Straight or direct-mix method (relatively fast method most often used today) -Sponge Method (all of the liquid, yeast, and part of the flour are beaten together and allowed to ferment - anywhere from 30-minutes to 12-24 hours) -Naturally-leavened (sourdough or starter) As a bonus not normally lumped into these standard bread methods, I'll add the No-Knead Bread Method - a modern version of the sponge method made by retarding the mixture in the refrigerator. Each of these methods impart their own "stamp" on breads. If I want to make light, high-rising loaves of 100% Whole Wheat Flour Bread, and avoid those whole wheat "bricks", I'll use a sponge method which is better suited for this type of bread than using the straight-dough method. Even as little as a 30-minute sponge will improve your bread. "Experts" say the optimum amount is 2-1/2 hours for a sponge. For whole wheat bread I prefer an overnight sponge, but 2-1/2-hours works well enough. When dough is chilled (retarding the dough), it influences the dough in three ways: -Enhances the flavor (the yeast goes into dormancy so it no longer consumes all the available sugar and the bacteria present can feed and produce flavorful acids. -Reduces ovenspring and loaf volume -Opens texture slightly There are those wonderful recipes for Cool Rise Bread that helped the busy homemaker in the 1950's. The recipe from Kitchen Aid for "Quick Mix Cool Rise Bread" was very popular. When it comes to the sourness of your starter, that can determined by the amount of hydration in your mixture. It gets more acidic the less water is in the mix. Once the yeast has consumed the sugar, the yeasts die off. The bacteria have a chance to develop that "sour" taste and will consume the dead yeast and produce lactic acid - the same souring acid found in yogurt and kefir. Adding yogurt is a modern adaptation, but when it comes to starter, they are about as varied as the people making them ;-). In my grandmother's day, they used starter all the time and never called the bread "sourdough". When the bread took on an acidic flavor we think of as "sourdough" bread, they did what was called "sweetening the pot". They took a tablespoon of the starter, and with consecutive feedings, developed that small into their usual amount of starter for the typical mild-flavored breads they made back then. Before the advent of fresh and dried yeast products, there were any number of methods for making naturally-leavened bread. "Old dough" (a lump of dough packed into flour and kept cool until the next baking day when it was used to make a starter), homemade yeast products made with hops and cornmeal, dry homemade yeast as well as liquid homemade yeast and starter.... I can make a naturally-leavened bread by using my homemade kefir + flour for the starter. There are lots of friendly bacteria in the kefir and lots of yeast in the whole wheat flour - more than enough to make bread rise. -Grainlady
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Salt rising bread. Do you like it? Publix used to sell it on certain days but doesn't anymore around here at least. It makes the best toast ever! However, it smells to high heaven--but it tastes so good. You have to have a starter and you can buy it on-line. Pretty pricey, though.
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patti43
16 years ago
It's my favorite bread in the whole world. Publix used to have it occasionally years ago and I'd buy 4 loaves at a time and freeze it. I love SRB toast with V-8!
wizardnm
16 years ago
Here is the recipe that I finally got to work.

Salt-Rising Bread

Source of Recipe

southernfood.about.com

This makes the most incredible toast.

Recipe as written makes 4 loaves. I was successful with cutting it in half.

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sifted cornmeal
4 cups milk
1 tablespoon sugar
14 to 16 cups sifted all-purpose flour
3/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon salt
melted butter to brush tops of loaves

PREPARATION:
Scald 1 cup milk. Add sifted corn meal and cook until thick. Place in a quart jar with top and place in warm place to sour overnight. (Starter can be stored in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 weeks.) When bubbles form, it is ready to use. (I placed it in the oven with the light left on overnight, about 12 hrs)

In a saucepan, combine 4 cups of milk and 1 tablespoon sugar and heat to scalding. Cool slightly and add to the cornmeal mixture in a large mixing bowl. Gradually stir 6 cups of flour. Set in warm place to rise until double (approximately 2 hours). Next, add shortening, 1/2 cup sugar and salt. Mix well. Gradually add 6 cups of (warmed) flour and work in. Put a generous dusting of flour on board and turn dough mixture onto board. Work in more flour and knead for about 20 minutes. Divide into four equal parts and put in greased and floured 9 1/2 X 5 1/2 X 2 3/4-inch loaf pans. Brush tops of loaves with shortening and place in warm place to rise double (takes approximately 2 hours). Place in preheated 200Â° oven. Gradually turn heat up to 300Â°. Bake for 45 minutes. Take loaves out and brush tops with butter. Continue baking until done. Loaves will sound hollow when lightly tapped on bottom. Turn out on rack to cool. Total cooking will be approximately 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes.

My Notes: I had success using Bob's Red Mill organic corn flour and the AP flour I used was King Arthur's Unbleached.
Somewhere I read that making sure you used corn meal with the germ was important, much of the corn meal today is degermed.
I warmed the flour before adding it in the last part by placing it in a pan on the stove after measuring it.
The cooked corn flour was very thick, I placed it in a qt. jar with lid, then in to the oven right away for the night. This develops the wild yeast and it is important to keep between 80Â° and 120Â°. .................................

I have a couple of other recipes, glad to share if you want them.
Nancy
junelynn
Original Author
16 years ago
Thank You so much Nancy. I do know a bit about it, such as it's not yeast based, how that evolved, etc, but of course, I have problems getting the starter going. I am trying it with potatoes at the moment, but I will try yours as well. I have heard you can use both germinated and ungerminated corn meal, so I am still not sure about that.
One web site quoted a gentleman back in the olden days stating, "Indeed it is, when at it's best as if a delicately reared, unsweetened plain cake had had an affair with a Pont l'Eveque cheese".
My starter is holding it's own. Water in a crockpot, , on medium, with 2/3 water, upside down lid with a cloth over it, then cotton potholders stacked, the starter is sitting on top of the potholders, lid sealed with plastic, with a probe in it, and I added a kitchen towel around the canning glass. It's been hold 105 degrees.
I may let it set overnight as I started it somewhat late in the day.
I may try your starter within the next few days (have the week off from work), so I will let you know how it goes and if I need to try any other of your recipes. But if you got it to work, that is what I am after!! Thank you so much!
June Lynn
junelynn
Original Author
16 years ago
Jim and all...thank you for your replies. I did go to the website earlier, but thanks for the link. I did read part of the long article. Clostridium perfingens and all! Very intersting.
WHAT with or WHEN do you like to eat S.R. Bread? I like it with eggs for breakfast.
Patti, V8 juice...hmmm...interesting combo!
Funny how we can 'hanker' for something from the past. I could care less about Hostess cupcakes or fair food, but give me salt-rising bread any day and I'll be in food heaven!
Strangly enough, here in the Piemont of N.C. (center of N.C.) no one has ever heard of it that have lived here all their lives. But bakeries in the N.C. mountains carry it. I take it that it was, and still is popular with apalachia and not other areas.
June Lynn
kathleenca
16 years ago
I LOVE SALT RISING BREAD, & miss it a lot. I've never made bread, but have made a resolution to try SRB this next month. My daughter & brother are rooting for me.

I have a whole file & some bookmarks, but thank you, Jim, for the SRBProject link, & thank you Nancy, for the recipe. More ammo to spur me on.
jimster
16 years ago
"WHAT with or WHEN do you like to eat S.R. Bread?"

I eat it toasted with butter for breakfast. That's it. There may be other good ways to eat it, or things to eat it with, but this is so good that anything else would be gilding the lily IMO. The aroma of toasting salt rising bread is comforting like no other and butter is the perfect accompaniment.

Jim
junelynn
Original Author
16 years ago
I had no luck with your starter Nancy, I'm sad to report. It just gelled all together very tightly and was cakey. I even got fresh ground germinated cornmeal that a farmer friend gave me. I've tried cornmeal a couple of different way with no fermentation at all. It stays warm, about 107 degrees. Would the oven light just be a bit cooler, maybe? I could try that.
I did have luck with sliced potato peels, a bit of sugar, soda and salt. I'm trying it again tonight, will check it tomorrow.
I did get 3 batches of bread out of the potato peel fermentation, but the bread was heavy. Almost like an English Muffin (I used fresh bread flour).
When I try it again, I may go ahead and add yeast. I hope it still has it's smell.
Just wanted to update you.

June Lynn

Salt-Rising Bread

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Salt-Rising Bread

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