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Graham Bread
1 pt. Graham flour 1 tsp. salt 1 good tbsp. lard 1/2 cup light molasses 1 yeast cake Mix with milk or water. Makes two loaves.
— Inez B. Curtis
A contributor's shorthand, written for a cook who already knew how bread behaves. Nearly every process detail — liquid quantity, kneading, rising, oven — is left out, so treat this as a flavour formula laid over your usual yeast-bread method.
- The flour measure is the problemA pint of Graham flour is roughly 2 cups, or about 9 oz — nowhere near enough for two loaves. Either the original meant a quart or more, or the loaves were very small; plan on 5-6 cups of flour for two standard pans and scale the salt, fat and molasses up with it.
- Graham flourA coarse, unsifted whole-wheat flour, named for its promoter rather than a variety of wheat. Modern stone-ground whole wheat is the closest substitute; regular whole-wheat flour works but gives a smoother crumb.
- One yeast cake'Yeast cake' could mean a compressed cake or a dried cake, and sizes were not standard. As a working substitute use about 2 1/4 teaspoons of active dry or instant yeast, or one 0.6 oz cake of fresh yeast. Since the strength of the original is unknown, watch the dough rather than a clock.
- LiquidNone is specified. Add scalded-and-cooled milk or warm water gradually until you have a soft, slightly sticky dough — whole-wheat flour drinks more than white, generally 60-70 percent of the flour weight.
- LardUse lard if you have it for the tenderness and faint savour it gives; butter or a neutral oil substitutes at the same volume, about 1 tablespoon.
- Molasses"Light molasses" means the first-boiling syrup, mild and sweet — not blackstrap, which is markedly bitter and may slow the rise. Half a cup also darkens the crust considerably, so check the loaves early.
- Rising and bakingThe recipe specifies neither. Working from usual practice: two rises, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours in the bowl, then 45-60 minutes in greased pans, and a bake around 350-375F for 35-45 minutes; the loaves are done at an internal temperature of 195-205F.
- Expect a dense loafWhole-grain flour with no white flour added and a sweet, fat-enriched dough will not rise high. This is a close-grained, faintly sweet bread meant for slicing thin and buttering, not a sandwich loaf.
Graham bread takes its name from Sylvester Graham, the Presbyterian minister and temperance lecturer whose dietary preaching in the 1830s and 1840s urged Americans away from fine white flour toward coarse, unsifted whole-meal — bread he argued should be baked at home by the mother of the family. By the time community cookbooks of this kind were being compiled, the reforming zeal had faded and "Graham" had become simply a name for coarse whole-wheat flour and the sweet, molasses-darkened loaf made from it, which was also sold commercially and sat comfortably in the bread chapter alongside white rolls and muffins. The molasses is worth noting: it was a cheap sweetener in the American kitchen well into the twentieth century, and its presence here suggests everyday rather than special-occasion baking.