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Graham Bread Steamed
3 cups graham flour 2 cups sour milk 1/3 cup molasses 1 teaspoon salt 1 rounding teaspoon soda Mix the dry ingredients, add the sour milk and molasses, beat well and steam three hours in one tall mould or two coffee cans well buttered; set in oven to dry for fifteen minutes.
Christmas Bread Dough enough for one loaf 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup lard 1 cup raisins seeded 1/2 cup currants 1 egg 1 teaspoon mixed spices 1/4 teaspoon soda Beat the sugar, spices and soda into the lard. Fold the mixture into the dough, beat again slightly and cut into the dough; fold in the raisins and currants slightly floured. Bake in two loaves in a moderate oven.
Two entries share this page: a steamed graham loaf leavened with soda and sour milk, and a fruited "Christmas bread" built on a batch of plain yeast dough taken from elsewhere in the book. Both assume knowledge the original does not spell out.
- Graham flourCoarse-ground whole wheat, including the bran and germ, milled to Sylvester Graham's specification. Ordinary stone-ground whole wheat flour is the nearest match; standard fine whole wheat gives a denser, tighter crumb.
- Sour milkIn period usage this generally meant milk that had clabbered on its own, which today's pasteurised milk does not do reliably. Buttermilk is the usual substitute, cup for cup, and supplies the acid the soda needs.
- Soda, roundingA "rounding" teaspoon is a level teaspoon plus the dome above the rim, so somewhat more than level. With 2 cups of buttermilk that is in the right range; much more will leave a soapy, metallic taste in a loaf this dark.
- The mouldA tall covered pudding mould or two 1-quart ceramic basins, buttered and covered with foil or a tied cloth, gives the same result. Modern coffee containers are not made to the same specification as the tinned cans the book assumes, and a pudding mould or basin is the safer choice.
- SteamingSet the covered mould on a rack in a deep pot, add boiling water to reach halfway up the sides, and keep it at a bare simmer for the full three hours, topping up with boiling water as it drops. The batter must be no more than two-thirds up the mould.
- Drying in the ovenFifteen minutes in a moderate oven, uncovered. This sets the sticky surface left by steaming; it is not further baking.
- YieldOne tall loaf, or two smaller cylinders. Steamed brown breads slice cleanly with a length of thread rather than a knife, and are best eaten warm.
- Christmas bread: the missing dough"Dough enough for one loaf" points back to a plain bread dough given elsewhere in the book. Work the enriched sugar-lard mixture in after the first rise, then let the shaped loaves prove again before baking; the recipe assumes the reader knows this.
- Moderate oven350°F. A sweet, fruited dough this rich browns early, so tent it with foil if the crust colours before the centre is set — about 35 to 40 minutes for two small loaves.
- Lard and mixed spicesLard gives a soft, short crumb; unsalted butter or shortening works, though butter browns faster. "Mixed spices" of the period usually meant some combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and often allspice, in proportions that varied from cook to cook.
Steamed brown breads belong to a New England habit older than the reliable home oven: a covered mould set over water on the stovetop cooked a loaf through without heating a bake oven, and the long, wet heat suited coarse meals and molasses, both of which scorch in dry heat. Graham flour takes its name from Sylvester Graham, the Presbyterian preacher and dietary reformer of the 1830s who argued that unbolted wheat, bran and all, was the wholesome food and white flour a debasement; by the time this book was printed the name had detached from the crusade and simply meant coarse whole wheat on the grocer's shelf. The Gold Medal Flour Cook Book was issued by the Washburn-Crosby milling company of Minneapolis, and pages like this one did double duty as instruction and advertisement — sour milk, molasses and soda were what was actually in the pantry, and the fruited Christmas loaf, leaning on a batch of dough already made for the week's bread, shows the same thrift dressed for the holiday.