Eating the Past: Cooking With a Conscience

Ingredients

2 cups yellow corn meal
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons buttter
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour milk
1 c. sweet milk
1 c. wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoon soda
1 egg

Directions:

Mix the first seven ingredients in a double boiler and cook over hot water. Cook for about 10 minutes after the mixture has become hot. After it has cooled add the wheat flower and soda, thoroughly sifted together, and the egg well beaten. Bake in a shallow tin. 

Modern adjustment: Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.

Ingredients

1 cup water (warm)
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoon yeast
1 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar or molasses
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter (melted)
1 tablespoon caraway (optional, I prefer it, but Longacre doesn't use caraway in her recipe)
1 cup dark rye flour**
2 3/4-3 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

If using a bread machine, add all the ingredients to your machine (using the lower end of the all-purpose flour measurement), and set on your machine's dough cycle. Add the Extra flour as needed to create a soft and smooth dough ball that initially holds its shape when the kneading is finished.

If using a standing mixer or kneading by hand, mix the first eight ingredients and 1 cup of the all-purpose flour until smooth. Then gradually add the remaining flour. If you are doing this by hand, you'll have to switch to kneading in the remaining flour on a floured counter. Knead for at least 10 minutes. The dough should be a soft and smooth dough ball that retains its shape.

Let the dough rise for one hour or until doubled. The advantage of a bread machine is that this first rising takes place in a temperature control container. Otherwise, let your bread rise in a warm, greased ceramic bowl, covered with a clean towel or plastic wrap. You can pre-warm your bowl by running it under hot water and drying before you grease it.

After the first rising, gently turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. It will deflate but you don't need to punch it down or knead it again. Form your loaf and lay it seam side down in a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan. (For a great tutorial about shaping a loaf, see the King Arthur Flour YouTube video. Using a sharp knife, put a few slashes in the top of the loaf, brush the top with melted butter, and recover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place for 20-30 minutes, keeping a close eye on how quickly it rises. It should just double in size by the time you put it in the oven (coming just to the rim of a regular loaf pan), and it will continue to rise in the oven. Don't let your loaf over-proof because then it will deflate in the hot oven. This careful timing is especially important at high altitudes, so to ensure that the oven is ready when the dough is ready, I usually turn on my oven to preheat to 350 right after I put the dough in the pan.

Bake your bread in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes until golden brown. Turn it out on a cooling rack immediately and brush the top again with melted butter.

If you want to eat it warm, I recommend cutting with an electric knife. This bread makes amazing toast the next day, if cut into thin slices and toasted until brown and crunchy.

*I live at 4700 feet altitude, but if you are at an altitude below 3000 feet, Longacre's original measurements for a single loaf would be 1 1/4 teaspoon yeast, 1 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1 tablespoon of sugar.

**A note about the flours: I buy my flours at the Central Milling Company in Logan, Utah. For this recipe, I used their Organic Whole Rye flour and their Organic Bakers Craft Plus all-purpose flour; they have several other bread flours as well.

For Evelyn's simple rye bread, also adjusted for altitude, exchange milk for all water (1 1/2 cup total), eliminate butter, and trade out plain white sugar for brown sugar or molasses. Caraway seed, however, is not optional.

The USU Student Nutrition Access Center is the location of USU's food pantry and they assist any Aggie who is experiencing food or personal product insecurity. Please consider making a contribution to their important work if you are able. 

Tammy Proctor, Distinguished Professor of History, prepared a recipe from The Farmers' Bulletin, a publication of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. USU has this item in its Government Documents Collection [A 1.9:  NO. 541 (1913)-600 (1914)] but it is also available online via the Hathi Trust. 

Evelyn Funda, Professor Emerita of English, prepared a modified version of rye bread from our copy of the More With Less Cookbook (641.5 L855).