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Bread, Cobbett's Recipe For
Take one pint of good sweet yeast, and the same of slightly warm water; make a hollow in the centre of a bushel of flour and throw it in, and mix it up with the flour lying round it, till it has become a thin batter; then throw some flour over the batter, and a cloth over the pan; draw it near the fire to leaven, and when sufficiently risen, which may be known by the cracks and flowing of the yeast, mix the whole, with the addition of more warm water or milk, and a little salt strewn over, into a stiff dough. Knead it well, shape it into loaves, in tins or otherwise, place them in a warm place for twenty minutes, and then bake in a moderate oven. If the oven is too hot, the bread will not rise well.
This is a bakery-scale sponge-and-dough formula written for a household that baked once a week in a brick oven. Everything about it needs rescaling before it will fit a domestic kitchen.
- A bushel of flourA bushel of flour in English trade was reckoned at about 56 lb. To work at a normal scale, divide the whole recipe by twenty or more: 2 lb 8 oz of flour, with the sponge liquid reduced in the same proportion, is a manageable version of the same method.
- "A pint of good sweet yeast"This means fresh liquid barm skimmed from brewing, not a commercial product, and its strength cannot be converted with any honesty. A pint of barm to 56 lb of flour is a small proportion by modern standards, which is why the sponge is left to work until it cracks. Judge the sponge by its behaviour rather than by any calculated dose.
- The sponge is the hingeThe instruction that matters is to wait for "the cracks and flowing of the yeast" before mixing the final dough. A sponge that has not visibly domed, cracked and begun to fall has not built enough leavening power, and the loaves will be dense no matter how long they sit afterwards.
- Moderate ovenRead this as about 350 to 375F. Cobbett's warning that too hot an oven prevents rising is sound for a large hearth loaf, though most modern bread is better started nearer 425F for the first ten minutes; the original figure suits big loaves that need a long, even bake.
- Twenty minutes is shortTwenty minutes of final proof assumes a warm bakehouse and a very lively sponge. Proof by eye instead: the shaped loaves should be visibly swollen and hold a slow dent when pressed, which at ordinary room temperature usually takes an hour or more.
- Salt"A little salt strewn over" is unquantified. Standard modern practice is 1.8 to 2 percent of the flour weight.
- Water or milkThe choice is left open. Milk gives a softer crumb and a browner crust; if you use it, scalding is unnecessary with pasteurised milk.
- DonenessNo baking time is given at all. A 1 lb tin loaf takes roughly 30 to 35 minutes, and is done when it sounds hollow tapped underneath, around 200F internally.
The recipe is William Cobbett's, from the bread chapter of Cottage Economy (1821), a book written to persuade English labouring families to brew, bake and keep pigs rather than buy from tradesmen. Cobbett was blunt that baker's bread was both dearer and worse, and he set out the sponge method in the plainest terms he could manage for readers who might never have baked. It was reprinted in later Victorian cookery compilations, which is why it still carries his name and his bushel-sized quantities: a bushel was a plausible unit for a family baking a week's supply at once. The advice about too hot an oven reflects the difficulty of controlling a brick oven, whose heat could not readily be adjusted once the fire was drawn.