Growing up in West Virginia in the 1960s and ’70s, Susan Brown would have a slice of salt rising bread, toasted, for Saturday morning breakfast. Her grandmother baked the bread with the mysterious and misleading name.
There’s little or no salt in the recipe. No yeast, either. The bread rises because of bacteria in the potatoes or cornmeal and the flour that goes into the starter. Furnas in The Americans: A Social History of the US, 1587 1914.
Today, Brown herself bakes the bread. So does her friend, Jenny Bardwell, who owns Rising Creek Bakery in Mt. Morris, Pa. And the two have become experts on this unusual loaf.
Like the neo butter churners and the cacao bean grinders, Bardwell and Brown are keeping a labor intensive culinary tradition alive. And they’re giving some members of their community who grew up on the bread a nostalgic taste of childhood.
canada https://www.rheingoenheim-info.de goose uk shop Their research hasn’t yielded the definitive origin story. The best guess is that salt rising bread dates to the isolated Appalachian region in the late 1700s, where canada goose stockists uk enterprising women who did not have access to yeast figured out a way to make a yeast free bread. canada goose uk shop
The origins of the name are also unclear. One explanation is that pioneer women who crossed the country kept their starter dough warm in the salt barrel, kept atop canada goose outlet vancouver the wagon wheel.
canada goose store By day the sun would warm the salt, which would warm the starter. The bread could be cheap canada goose bomber made in the evening. canada goose store
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canada goose black friday sale Another possibility: The starter canada goose outlet in winnipeg was placed on a bed canada goose outlet in usa of rock salt in a box by the hearth. canada goose black friday sale
canadian goose jacket Either way, the starter takes a long time to ferment. canadian goose jacket
“Sometimes it’s 9 hours, sometimes it’s 11 hours,” says Bardwell. “You have to be really tuned into this bread. You have to kind of know how canada goose online uk to recognize it when it’s ready. Not an hour before, not an hour later.”
canada goose factory sale Heat is critical. “Salt rising Bread is primarily wild bacteria you’re culturing with heat, about 105 to 115 degrees Fahrenheit,” explains Bardwell. She believes the different bacteria interact when heated, raising the bread and giving it flavor and texture. canada goose factory sale
To find out more about the process, Brown and Bardwell headed to a lab at the University of Pittsburgh to visit pathologist Bruce McClane, who studies Clostridium perfringens one of the microbes that makes the bread rise.
“We walk in and [the lab] smelled just like salt rising bread!” Bardwell says, referring to the strong smell cheap canada goose outlet of the starter, which some people liken to rotten cheese.
Canada Goose Online The microbe is ubiquitous, they learned and McClane told them it can be responsible for medical conditions such as gangrene and diarrhea. But the strains in the bread do not usually cause food poisoning, he says. And baking the microbes “significantly” reduces their number, “to the point where they should not be a threat.” Canada Goose Online
uk canada goose outlet The two bakers collaborated with McClane and family medicine professor Greg Juckett on an article for cheap canada goose uk the West Virginia Medical Journal to highlight how SRB has canada goose ladies uk no history of canada goose baby uk causing any problems. uk canada goose outlet
buy canada goose jacket cheap Meanwhile, the small bakery on the bank of Dunkard Creek is one of the only places in the country that produces the bread, selling it in the shop and shipping out hundreds of loaves each week. Customers surveys reveal that they like to toast the bread and eat it with butter, or drizzle milk and brown sugar on top, or dip it in sweet coffee. buy canada goose jacket cheap
canada goose uk black friday And for many who grew up with salt rising bread, the bakery offers a welcome taste of the past without having to prepare the time consuming loaf. canada goose uk black friday
Recipe: Salt Rising Bread There are a half dozen or so recipes for the pioneer bread on the Internet. This one is featured on Susan Brown’s website and comes from Pearl Haines, a Pennsylvania woman who started making the bread when she was about five years old and baked it for nearly 90 years. (Haines passed away this year.) Her starter, or “raisin,” as she called it, uses fewer ingredients than most recipes and has no sugar or salt.3 teaspoons cornmeal
1 teaspoon flour
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup scalded milkPour milk onto dry ingredients in an ungreased quart glass jar or metal, glass, or pottery bowl that holds about four cups. canada goose outlet Stir. Cover with saran wrap and punch a hole in the wrap to keep it from sinking.
