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Rye and Indian Bread
One quart of rye meal or rye flour, two quarts of Indian meal, scalded (by placing in a pan and pouring just enough boiling water over it, stirring constantly with a spoon, to merely wet it, but not enough to make it into a batter), one-half tea-cup molasses, two teaspoons salt, one of soda, one tea-cup yeast; make as stiff as can be stirred with a spoon, mixing with warm water, and let rise all night; then put in a large pan, smooth the top with the hand dipped in cold water, let it stand a short time, and bake five or six hours. If put in the oven late in the day, let it remain all night. Graham may be used instead of rye, and baked as above. In the olden time it was placed in kettle, allowed to rise, then placed on the hearth before the fire, with coals on top of lid, and baked.- Mrs. Charles Fullington, Marysville, Ohio.
This is the New England "thirded" loaf in its Ohio form: a dense, moist, slow-baked bread that behaves more like a steamed pudding than a sandwich loaf. The long bake is not a misprint, and it is the whole point.
- Indian mealCornmeal, ideally stone-ground and medium grind. Scald it exactly as directed o a crumbly damp mass, not a porridge, or the dough will never take up enough water later without turning to slurry.
- VolumesOne quart rye meal is roughly 4 cups, two quarts cornmeal roughly 8 cups. A tea-cup in books of this period is usually reckoned at about 6 fl oz (3/4 cup), which puts the molasses at about 1/3 cup and the yeast at about 3/4 cup. This makes a very large loaf; the recipe specifies only "a large pan."
- The yeastA tea-cup of yeast means liquid homemade or brewer's yeast, mostly water. Substitute about 2 teaspoons instant or active dry yeast and add roughly 3/4 cup extra warm water to compensate for the lost liquid.
- Soda plus yeastThe soda most likely served to neutralize the acidity of an old, sour house yeast and of the molasses as much as to lift the loaf. With modern commercial yeast you can reduce it to 1/2 teaspoon or leave it out; a full teaspoon may leave a faint soapy taste and darken the crumb.
- Oven heatThe recipe gives no temperature. A low oven suits the long bake: roughly 300F for the first hour, then 250-275F for the remaining four to five hours. Cover the pan with foil once the top has set so it steams rather than crusts.
- DonenessTime alone is a poor guide with a loaf this wet. It is done at an internal temperature of 200-205F; a skewer should come out clean and gummy-free.
- Overnight riseLet it rise at cool room temperature rather than in a warm spot. Twelve hours in a warm kitchen with modern yeast can overproof it, and the loaf may collapse or turn sour.
- ServingSlice thin with a serrated knife, ideally the day after baking when it firms up. Breads of this type were commonly eaten with butter, baked beans, or salt pork; the recipe itself says nothing about serving or storage.
Rye and Indian is the frugal two-grain loaf New Englanders called "rye an' injun"; add a third grain, wheat, and it becomes "thirded" or "thirds" bread "" so named because wheat was the expensive one. Cornmeal ("Indian meal," so named because maize was the grain the colonists learned from Native farmers) contributes no gluten, which is why the dough is stirred stiff with a spoon rather than kneaded and why it needs hours of gentle heat to set. Mrs. Fullington's closing note is the more interesting half of the entry: the older method she describes dough risen in a covered iron kettle, set on the hearth with live coals heaped on the lid is Dutch-oven baking, a common technique in American households before cast-iron cookstoves became widespread in the middle of the nineteenth century. Buckeye Cookery (1877) is full of such recollections, recorded by Ohio women who had cooked both ways within one lifetime.