No. 3417

Loaves in Boxes and Pans of Two, Seven and Twelve Pounds Each

(Pains en Boites et en Plaques de Deux, Sept et Douze Livres Chaque).

For sixteen pan loaves, two pounds each, lay on the table thirty-two pounds of dough; cut it into sixteen pieces of two pounds each, and mold them into balls; flatten and range them in lightly floured boxes to rise for one-half hour; flatten again and lift up the four corners, fold the dough in two, and again in such a way as to form a roll or stick, eight inches long by four inches in diameter; lay these as soon as done in pans sixteen by eight inches with raised edges (No. 3406), previously greased over with lard; lay four in each, very close, one beside the other, and leave them one hour to rise, then push them into a moderate oven to bake for three-quarters of an hour; as soon as they are done remove and turn them out at once.

For seven-pound loaves to cut up for sandwiches and croutons, and for twelve-pound loaves for large croustades and bread-crumbs, roll them out, and prepare the same as the two-pound bread, putting seven or twelve pounds of dough into each, according to the size of the mold. Butter or grease the molds, close the lids, and let rise for one hour, then push them into the mildest spot in the oven.

To bake a seven-pound loaf of bread it will take an hour and a quarter; a twelve-pound loaf takes about two hours; when done, remove from the oven and unmold.

← No. 3416 Jockos—French Loaves Bakery & Breads No. 3418 Paste for Finger Rolls and Small Rolls →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a bakery-scale shaping and panning method rather than a formula — the dough itself is made elsewhere in the book (see the French loaf entries preceding it). What follows is how to translate the quantities, vessels and oven language for a home kitchen.

Scale down firstThirty-two pounds of dough fills sixteen two-pound pans, far more than a home kitchen can handle. Four 2 lb loaves need 8 lb of dough, which is roughly 5 lb flour plus water, salt and yeast.
"Moderate oven"Conventionally read as about 350°F, though the book gives no temperatures. For the 7 and 12 lb loaves the instruction to use "the mildest spot in the oven" implies cooler still — perhaps around 325°F, so the centre sets before the crust hardens.
The pansThe 16 by 8 inch pan with raised edges holds four 2 lb sticks pressed together, so they rise into each other and bake as a joined block with soft sides. A standard quarter-sheet or a large roasting pan approximates it.
Lidded moldsThe 7 and 12 lb loaves go into closed molds — what is now sold as a Pullman or pain de mie pan. The lid is the point: it forces a square, tight-grained crumb that slices cleanly for sandwiches and cubes for croutons without crumbling.
Grease with lard, or notLard is what the recipe calls for here. Butter or a neutral shortening works; oil alone tends to pool in the corners of a lidded mold.
Judging donenessThe stated times assume a full oven and dough proofed in a warm bakehouse. Go by internal temperature instead: 200–210°F at the centre, which for a 2 lb loaf will usually arrive before the full forty-five minutes.
The double flatteningFlattening after the first half-hour rest, then folding corners in and rolling to a tight cylinder, is what gives the even crumb the book wants. Degas thoroughly at that stage — large holes ruin a sandwich slice.
Unmold at onceRanhofer is emphatic about turning the loaves out the moment they leave the oven. Steam trapped in a hot metal mold softens the crust and can make the base gummy.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years running the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry shows the restaurant's bread program as a large-scale operation: loaves were baked not to be served whole but to be cut down into the sandwiches, croutons, croustade cases and breadcrumbs that many other numbered recipes in the book depend on. The 7 and 12 lb lidded loaves correspond to the pain de mie of French bakery practice — mie meaning the crumb rather than the crust, since the crumb was the useful part.