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Graham Bread (Mix three quarts Graham flour)
Mix three quarts Graham flour, one quart warm water, half pint yeast, a quarter-pint molasses, and one table-spoon salt, thoroughly ; put in well-buttered pans, and leave in a warm place to rise, or let it rise over night at 60°. If left to rise slowly, let it remain in the bowl in which it was mixed, and unless very light when put in pans, let it stand fifteen or twenty minutes before putting in the oven.
A plain yeasted whole-wheat loaf with no kneading step specified and no oven temperature given. Two conversions carry the whole recipe: the flour and the yeast.
- Graham flourCoarsely ground whole wheat with the bran and germ left in, not a sweetened cracker flour. Modern stone-ground whole-wheat flour is the closest match; commercial "graham flour" sold today is usually the same thing under an older label.
- Three quarts of flourTwelve cups, roughly 3 lb. This is a large batch that fills two 9x5 pans generously, or three smaller ones. Halving it is sensible for a first attempt.
- Half pint yeastOne cup of liquid homemade yeast or barm, not dry yeast. Substitute about 2 1/4 teaspoons instant or active dry yeast and add an extra cup of warm water to make up the missing liquid, or the dough will be far too stiff.
- Quarter-pint molassesHalf a cup. Unsulphured dark molasses is the closer match to ordinary period molasses; blackstrap is markedly more bitter and may slow the yeast at this quantity.
- Rising at 60 degreesThe overnight option assumes an unheated kitchen. In a modern room at 68-72F the dough will be ready in far less time, so watch the dough rather than the clock; a cool larder or the refrigerator reproduces the slow rise better.
- No oven temperatureBake at 375F for 40 to 50 minutes for full-size loaves. The interior should read 200-205F; whole-wheat loaves this wet read gummy if pulled early.
- The hinge"Unless very light when put in pans, let it stand fifteen or twenty minutes" is the only proofing guidance given. Graham flour has little gluten strength and collapses if overproofed, so go into the oven when the dough has domed above the rim and still springs back slowly to a light press.
- Texture to expectWith no kneading and no white flour, this bakes dense and close-crumbed by design. It slices best fully cooled, and keeps better than a white loaf because of the molasses.
Graham flour and graham bread take their name from Sylvester Graham, the Presbyterian minister and dietary reformer of the 1830s who preached against fine white flour, arguing that bread should be made at home from coarsely ground whole wheat and eaten a day old. By the time The Dixie Cook Book appeared late in the century, the moral campaign had faded but the flour and the name had stuck: graham bread was simply the household whole-wheat loaf, valued for cheapness and for the digestive virtues the period attributed to bran. The recipe's assumptions are worth noting on their own account: liquid yeast measured by the half pint, molasses rather than sugar as the sweetener, and a 60-degree overnight rise that only makes sense in a kitchen that went cold after the fire died.