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Light Rye Bread
Formula Light rye, 25 lbs.
Flour (clear), 50 lbs.
Flour (patent), 50 lbs.
Water, 56 lbs. (approximately).
Malt, 1 lb.
Yeast, 1½ lbs.
Salt, 134 lbs.
Method Dissolve the yeast and one-fourth of the malt in a little water and place to one side. Put the water, salt and balance of the malt in a mixer and start the machine to dissolve the ingredients. Now add the flour and begin mixing. When partly mixed, add the yeast and continue mixing until the dough is smooth. The dough should be 80 degrees to 81 degrees F. when leaving the machine.
Fermentation First rising, 2½ hours (approximately); second rising, 1¼ hours (approximately); third rising, 34 hour (approximately). Allow the dough to rest 15 minutes, when the dough is ready to be divided.
This is a wholesale bakery formula written in pounds for a mixer, not a bowl: 125 lbs of total flour will yield something on the order of forty 2-lb loaves. Divide every weight by 25 for a home-scale batch of about five pounds of dough.
- Scaling it downDivide by 25 and you get: 1 lb light rye flour, 2 lb clear flour, 2 lb patent flour, about 2 lb 4 oz (roughly 1 litre) water, 0.65 oz malt, 1 oz fresh yeast, 1.1 oz salt. Weigh everything; volume measures will not hold this formula together.
- Clear and patent flourBoth are wheat flours from the same milling stream. Patent is the whiter, finer inner portion; clear is the stronger, darker, higher-protein remainder and is the traditional partner for rye because it carries the loaf. Substitute bread flour for the clear and all-purpose for the patent if you cannot source them.
- Light ryeLight or white rye is sifted rye with most of the bran removed. Modern "medium rye" is the nearest supermarket equivalent; dark or pumpernickel rye will make a heavier, stickier dough at this hydration.
- The maltThe formula says only "malt"; at this rate it is most likely a diastatic malt syrup or extract, the kind sold today as malt syrup or diastatic malt powder. It supplies enzymes and sugar for the yeast rather than sweetness. Keep it at the same ratio; more will slacken the dough and darken the crust.
- YeastThe 1½ lbs is compressed (fresh) yeast. If using instant dry, take about one-third of that weight and add it with the flour rather than dissolving it separately.
- Dough temperature is the controlThe instruction to leave the mixer at 80-81F is the hinge of the whole formula, because the stated rising times assume it. Adjust the water temperature to hit it: subtract the flour temperature and the room temperature from roughly triple your target to estimate the water you need.
- FermentationThree risings with knock-backs between. The second and third times are garbled in the printed text; read as 2½, 1¼ and ¾ hours they total about four and a half, followed by the 15-minute rest before dividing. Treat the times as guides and judge by the dough; rye ferments faster than straight wheat.
- BakingThe formula stops at dividing, as bakery formulas often do, and gives no baking instructions. By modern practice, loaves of this type are proofed until nearly doubled and baked at 425-450F with steam for the first ten minutes, dropping to 400F to finish; a 2-lb loaf takes about 40 minutes and sounds hollow underneath.
- CoolingRye starch sets slowly. Let the loaves cool completely, ideally several hours, before slicing or the crumb will drag and gum.
Bread formulas like this one belong to the era when American commercial bakeries were shifting from hand sponges to mechanical mixers and standardised, published formulas. "Light rye" here means a loaf that is mostly wheat: only one part rye to four parts wheat flour, far lighter than the darker sour ryes of central and eastern Europe. The reliance on clear flour is telling, since clear was the cheaper, stronger by-product of patent milling and rye baking a common outlet for it. Note too the absence of any sour or old-dough sponge: this is a straight yeast dough given three risings, a method that depended on reliable compressed yeast.