It has been a summer of experiments. As noted in two blogs, we have been working on mastering salt rising bread, and we are happy to report it has been accomplished! Well, at least for this week. You never really know with this bread. All three stages have their possibilities to go awry.
It was especially gratifying to hear from Susan Brown, coauthor of the book, Salt Rising Bread. She read our Grit blog concerning the bread conundrum and responded in a very encouraging email. After taking her advice about timing of sponge to dough, it worked out to two lovely loaves today.
One loaf went to Mr. J. Brown of Enon for his approval. Both he and his wife said it was as close as anybody has come, so we took it as a success in Salt Rising Bread 101. When a photo of the bread was sent to Susan Brown, she agreed it looked like we had been baking salt rising bread for years.
Our gratitude goes out to her and her coauthor for their hard work on the book. My copy is now full of notes and placed in with other essential recipe books. This bread stirs memories and starts conversations. It is an heirloom, as important as dried apples, sorghum molasses, strings of leather britches, stack cake, and corn cob jelly.
Send comments to Connie at mooredcr@Juno.com
