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Graham Bread with Raisins & Soda
1/2 C corn meal. 1/2 C sugar. 1/4 C molasses. 1/2 t salt. 1 t soda dissolved in. Bake 45 minutes in medium oven. ½ t soda dissolved in 2 C sour milk 1/2 C chopped raisins 1/2 C nut meats Mrs. Paul Ray. 12 t baking powder Clara Osborne. 2 C graham flour 1 C white flour 1 t baking powder 1 C sugar
The text has come through with two contributors' entries collided into one another, so read it as a skeleton rather than a sequence. The workable core is a sour-milk quick bread: 3 cups graham flour, 1½ cups white flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon soda dissolved in 2 cups sour milk, 1 teaspoon baking powder, and a half cup each of raisins and nut meats.
- Two recipes, one paragraph"Mrs. Paul Ray" and "Clara Osborne" are separate credits that have been shuffled into the ingredient list, and the stray "12 t baking powder" almost certainly belongs to a neighbouring recipe or is a mangled "1/2 t." Twelve teaspoons of baking powder in this quantity of flour would be inedible; use the single teaspoon that appears with the soda-and-sour-milk pairing.
- Medium ovenRead "medium" as roughly 350F. Forty-five minutes is the stated time; if the batter is divided between pans, start checking well before that.
- Sour milkThis meant naturally soured raw milk, which no longer exists in a supermarket. Pasteurised milk spoils rather than sours cleanly, so use buttermilk, or stir 2 tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar into 2 cups of milk and let it stand ten minutes.
- Why soda and powder togetherThe soda neutralises the acid in the sour milk and gives the initial lift; the teaspoon of baking powder is insurance for a heavy graham batter. Dissolve the soda in the milk as directed and get the batter into the pan promptly, since most of the gas is released on contact.
- Graham flourCoarse whole-wheat flour, stone-ground with the bran and germ left in. Modern whole-wheat flour is the closest substitute; it is usually milled finer, so the loaf will be slightly less crumbly than the original.
- Nut meatsPeriod shorthand for shelled nuts. Black walnuts and hickory nuts were both common in the Midwest; English walnuts or pecans work and are milder.
- MixingNo method is given: combine the dry ingredients, add the soured milk, stir only until no dry flour remains, and fold in the fruit and nuts. Beating a graham batter smooth toughens it.
- Yield4½ cups of flour with 2 cups of milk makes a large quantity of batter, more than a single 9x5-inch pan will hold comfortably; expect two loaves. It cuts better the day after baking, and keeps well wrapped for three or four days.
Graham flour and the loaves made from it carry the name of Sylvester Graham, the temperance preacher and dietary reformer of the 1830s who argued that unbolted whole-wheat flour was healthier and more wholesome than the fine white flour then becoming fashionable. By the time a Presbyterian congregation in Libertyville, Illinois was gathering recipes, his crusading edge had worn off entirely and graham flour was simply an ordinary pantry staple, sold in sacks and used for bread, gems and muffins. This version, with sugar, raisins and nuts and no yeast at all, is really a sweet quick bread rather than the austere loaf Graham had in mind: it belongs to the great age of chemical leavening, when sour milk and a teaspoon of soda let a cook put a loaf on the table in under an hour. Church cookbooks like this one were compiled by subscription, each contributor sending in a favourite.