Brown Bread
One quart of light bread sponge, one-half teacup of molasses. Stir into the above, with a large spoon, unbolted wheat meal, until it is a stiff dough. Grease a deep pan, put the mixture in; when light put the pan over a kettle of hot water (the bread well covered), and steam for half an hour. Then put in the oven and bake until done. Especially good for dyspeptics.--Mrs. D. Cone.
A yeast-raised whole wheat loaf that is steamed first and then baked — an unusual hybrid of Boston-style steamed brown bread and an ordinary risen loaf. The measurements assume a cook who already keeps a sponge going.
- Light bread spongeA quart of sponge is the wet, bubbly pre-ferment set the night before for white bread: flour, water and yeast worked to a batter-like consistency, though the proportions varied from cook to cook. A quart is 4 cups by volume. A poolish or a well-fed sourdough starter of pourable-batter consistency stands in for it; if using commercial yeast, allow the sponge a full 8-12 hours so it is domed and smells sharp.
- Unbolted wheat mealBolting means sifting out the bran, so unbolted meal is whole wheat flour, coarser than most modern grinds. Graham flour or a stone-ground whole wheat comes closest. Expect to work in something on the order of 3 to 4 cups to reach a stiff dough, but go by feel — the sponge's hydration governs it.
- TeacupNineteenth-century teacups were smaller than a modern measuring cup and are commonly reckoned at about six fluid ounces, though the book gives no definition and period usage varied. On that reckoning half a teacup is about three fluid ounces, a generous third of a cup, of molasses. Use unsulphured molasses, not blackstrap, which is bitter and may slow the yeast.
- When lightThe dough is ready to steam when it has visibly risen and springs back slowly to a fingertip — an hour to ninety minutes in a warm kitchen with a stiff whole-meal dough. Whole wheat rises less dramatically than white; do not wait for a doubling that will not come.
- The steaming stepThe pan sits above, not in, the water, covered so condensation does not drip onto the loaf. Foil crimped over the pan works. Half an hour of steam sets the crumb gently and keeps the crust soft while the interior finishes rising, which is what gives this bread its close, moist texture.
- Oven and donenessThe recipe gives no oven temperature, only "bake until done"; 350F suits it. Uncovered, a deep loaf pan needs roughly 35 to 45 minutes to colour and firm; the reliable test is an internal temperature of 200-205F. The crust will stay darker and softer than a dry-baked loaf because of the molasses and the steam.
- YieldOne deep loaf pan, about 8 to 10 slices. It keeps better than white bread and is at its best the second day, toasted.
The note that it is "especially good for dyspeptics" is the tell: this is a bread of the nineteenth-century whole-grain health movement, generally traced to Sylvester Graham, whose preaching in the 1830s against fine white flour made unbolted wheat meal a mark of virtue as much as of economy. Dyspepsia — a catch-all for indigestion, heartburn and general internal complaint — was one of the great preoccupations of the American middle-class household, and bran was widely prescribed for it. Housekeeping in Old Virginia, compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree and first published in 1878, gathers contributions from named Virginia housewives, which is why the recipe arrives signed and why it assumes so much: its brevity suggests Mrs. Cone was writing for a reader who already had a sponge working on the back of the stove and needed only to be told what to do differently with it.