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Graham Bread
1 cake compressed yeast 4 level tablespoons brown sugar 1 cup milk, scalded and cooled 1 cup lukewarm water 2 level tablespoons lard 4 cups graham flour 1 cup sifted white flour 1 teaspoon salt Dissolve the yeast and sugar (or molasses) in lukewarm liquid. Add lard (or butter), then flour, gradually, and last the salt. Knead thoroughly, being sure to keep the dough soft. Cover and set aside in a warm place to rise, for about two hours. When double in bulk, turn out on kneading board; mold into loaves; place in well-greased pans; cover and set to rise again for about one hour, or until light. Bake one hour, in a slower oven than for white bread.
If wanted for over night, use one half cake of yeast and an extra teaspoon of salt.
A straightforward yeasted whole-wheat loaf whose only real puzzles are the yeast cake and the deliberately vague oven. Note also that the page is filed under "Frozen Desserts" — a loose-leaf binding artifact, not a clue about the bread.
- The yeast cakeOne cake of compressed (fresh) yeast is about 0.6 oz. Substitute one packet of active dry or instant yeast, roughly 2 1/4 teaspoons. For the overnight version, halve it to about 1 teaspoon.
- Graham flourCoarsely ground whole wheat, milled with the bran and germ left in. Modern stone-ground whole-wheat flour is the nearest thing; flour sold as graham today is broadly similar, though milling and coarseness vary by brand. It absorbs liquid slowly, so the dough will firm up after the first few minutes of kneading.
- "A slower oven than for white bread"The recipe gives no numbers; period bread ovens were judged by feel. As a modern working figure, if white bread is taken at roughly 400-425F, "slower" here suggests something around 350F. Whole-grain doughs with sugar or molasses in them brown fast, and the lower heat lets a dense loaf cook through without a scorched crust.
- Baking timeOne hour at 350F is right for two good-sized loaves. Judge by internal temperature rather than the clock: 195-200F at the center, and the bottom should sound hollow when tapped out of the pan.
- Lard and molassesThe recipe offers butter for the lard and molasses for the brown sugar, and both swaps work. If using molasses, measure about 1/4 cup and expect a darker crumb and a slightly slacker dough.
- Keep the dough softThis is the hinge. Graham flour drinks up water as it hydrates, and a dough that feels correct at the start of kneading will be too stiff by the end. Err wet; a soft, slightly tacky dough gives a loaf that is not a brick.
- Salt added lastNot superstition — salt slows yeast, and the older practice was to keep it away from the dissolving yeast until the flour was in. It makes no great difference with modern instant yeast, but following the order does no harm.
- YieldRoughly 2 1/2 lb of dough, enough for two modest loaves in 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 in pans, or one large one.
- The overnight loafLess yeast and more salt both slow fermentation so the dough can sit through the night at room temperature. A cool kitchen is assumed; in a warm modern house the refrigerator does the same job more reliably.
Graham flour and graham bread are named for Sylvester Graham, the Presbyterian minister and dietary reformer whose lectures in the 1830s urged Americans to eat coarse, unbolted wheat rather than the fine white flour of commercial bakers. His argument was moral as much as nutritional — refined bread was adulterated, overstimulating and part of a general softening of American life — and his followers were known as Grahamites. By the time this book was compiled the crusade had faded into ordinary domestic practice: graham flour was simply something a household bought, and graham bread was a plain everyday loaf made exactly like white bread with a cooler oven and a softer dough. The instruction to compare it to white bread rather than describe it on its own terms shows how thoroughly the reform had been absorbed into the routine of the kitchen.