A treatise on the art of making good wholesome bread of wheat, oats, rye, barley and other farinaceous grains / Exhibiting the alimentary properties and chemical constitution of different kinds of bread corn, and of the various substitutes used for bread, in different parts of the world

by Friedrich Christian Accum

Leavened Rye Bread.

Take a piece of dough, of about a pound weight, and keep it for use—it will keep several days very well. Mix this dough with some warm water, and knead it up with a portion of flour to ferment; then take half a bushel of flour, and divide it into four parts; mix a quarter of the flour with the leaven, and a sufficient quantity of water to make it into dough, and knead it well. Let this remain in a corner of your trough, covered with flannel, until it ferments and rises properly; then dilute it with more water, and add another quarter of the flour, and let it remain and rise. Do the same with the other two quarters of the flour, one quarter after another, taking particular care never to mix more flour till the last has risen properly. When finished, add six ounces of salt; then knead it again, and divide it into eight loaves, making them broad, and not so thick and high as is usually done, by which means they will be better baked. Let them remain to rise, in order to overcome the pressure of the hand in forming them; then put them in the oven, and reserve a piece of dough for the next baking. The dough thus kept, may with proper care, be prevented from spoiling, by mixing from time to time small quantities of fresh flour with it.

It requires some attention to be able to determine the exact quantity of leaven necessary for the proper fermentation of the dough. When it is deficient in quantity, the process of fermentation is interrupted, and the bread thus prepared is solid and heavy, and if too much leaven be used, it communicates to the bread a disagreeable sour taste.