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Water Bread
2 cups boiling water 1 tablespoon butter 1 tablespoon lard 2 tablespoons sugar 2 1/2 teaspoons salt 1/4 yeast cake dissolved in 1/4 cup lukewarm water 6 cups sifted flour Put butter, lard, sugar, and salt in bread raiser, or large bowl without a lip; pour on boiling water; when lukewarm, add dissolved yeast cake and five cups of flour; then stir until thoroughly mixed, using a knife or mixing-spoon. Add remaining flour, mix, and turn on a floured board, leaving a clean bowl; knead until mixture is smooth, elastic to touch, and bubbles may be seen under the surface. Some practice is required to knead quickly, but the motion once acquired will never be forgotten. Return to bowl, cover with a clean cloth kept for the purpose, and board or tin cover; let rise over night in temperature of 65 degree F. In morning cut down: this is accomplished by cutting through and turning over dough several times with a case knife, and checks fermentation for a short time; dough may be again raised, and recut down if it is not convenient to shape into loaves or biscuits after first cutting. When properly cared for, bread need never sour. Toss on board slightly floured, knead, shape into loaves or biscuits, place in greased pans, having pans nearly half full. Cover, let rise again to double its bulk, and bake in hot oven. This recipe will make a double loaf of bread and pan of biscuit. Cottolene, crisco, or beef drippings may be used for shortening, one-third less being required. Bread shortened with butter has a good flavor, but is not as white as when lard is used.
A plain overnight white loaf of the sort that filled American bread crocks before packaged bread took over. The proportions are sound; only the yeast, the shortening and the oven need translating.
- The yeastA yeast cake here is a compressed fresh cake; the small commercial cakes of the period ran about 0.6 oz. A quarter of one is on the order of 1/2 teaspoon of instant or active dry yeast, which suits the slow, cool, overnight rise the recipe depends on. Do not substitute a whole packet unless you intend to shorten the rise drastically.
- Temperature of the rise65F is deliberate, not incidental: a cool room lets a tiny amount of yeast work all night without over-fermenting. A modern kitchen at 72F or warmer will blow the dough past its peak by morning; use an unheated room, or the refrigerator with a longer schedule.
- "Hot oven"The recipe gives no temperature; period usage generally puts a hot oven somewhere in the region of 400-450F. Bake loaves 35-45 minutes, until the crust is deep brown and the interior reads 195-205F.
- Flour by weightSix cups of sifted flour is roughly 24 oz / 680 g. Sifting before measuring matters here; scooping unsifted flour can add 20 percent or more and give a dry, tight crumb. Hold back the last half cup and judge by feel.
- Scalding the fatThe boiling water is poured over butter, lard, sugar and salt to melt and dissolve them. Let the mixture come down to genuinely lukewarm, under 110F, before the yeast goes in.
- "Cut down" and "case knife"Cutting down is a deflation: a case knife is an ordinary table knife, used to slash through the risen dough and fold it over several times. It has the same effect as a modern punch-down and redistributes the yeast.
- Shortenings namedCottolene was a cottonseed-oil-and-beef-suet shortening and is long gone; Crisco is still sold but reformulated without trans fats. Lard, butter or any solid vegetable shortening works. The note that a third less is needed applies to those named substitutes.
- Vessel and yieldA "bread raiser" is a deep covered crock or tinware pail; any large straight-sided bowl with a cloth and plate over it will do. The batch gives one large loaf plus a pan of small rolls, or two standard 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 in loaves.