Salt-rising Bread

The real formula for making salt-rising bread, as set down by the

daughter of Governor Stubbs, of Kansas, and by him communicated to

Theodore Roosevelt, is as follows, according to the Saturday Evening

Post:



On the night before you contemplate this masterpiece of baking take

half a cupful of corn meal and a pinch each of salt and sugar. Scald

this with new milk heated to the boiling point and mix to the t ickness

of mush. This can be made in a cup. Wrap in a clean cloth and put in a

warm place overnight.



In the morning, when all is ready, take a one-gallon stone jar and into

this put one scant cupful of new milk. Add a level teaspoonful of salt

and one of sugar. Scald this with three cupfuls of water heated to the

boiling point. Reduce to a temperature of one hundred and eight degrees

with cold water, using a milk thermometer to enable you to get exactly

the right temperature. Then add flour and mix to a good batter; after

the batter is made, mix in your starter that was made the night before.

Cover the stone jar with a plate and put the jar in a large kettle of

water and keep this water at a temperature of one hundred and eight

degrees until the sponge rises. It should rise at least an inch and a

half. When it has raised mix to a stiff dough, make into loaves and put

into pans. Do not let the heat get out of the dough while working.

Grease the loaves well on top and set your bread where it will be warm

and rise. After the loaves rise bake in a medium oven for one hour and

ten minutes. When you take the loaves from the oven wrap them in a

bread-cloth.