Salt rising bread recipe

Have you heard of salt-rising bread? Probably not, if you're neither a passionate bread baker, nor a resident of certain parts of the country – the southern and western portions of the Appalachians, western New York down into western Pennsylvania, and parts of Michigan. This traditional American bread remains popular in these regions, where it's often sold in bakeries. But if you're living in, say, Colorado, or Connecticut? You probably never heard of salt-rising bread.

Bacteria can make a bread rise and give it a cheesy flavor. That's the secret ingredient in salt rising bread, which dates to the late 1700s in Appalachia, when bakers didn't have yeast on hand.

"This recipe is a conglomeration of about 8 recipes from the early to mid-1900s from Pocahontas County, West Virginia. This rising bread was made frequently before yeast became commercially available. It was the bread I always ate at my grandmother's house. I use it mainly as a thinly-sliced, toasted, buttered bread."

This recipe comes to us courtesy of the late Bernard Clayton, a fine gentleman and author whose books we've long admired. We've made a few minor changes, but a very similar version of this recipe appears in Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads. Clayton, in turn, cited its publication by the Ladies Aid Society of the First Presbyterian Church of Polson, Montana, in 1912. Now, we're pleased to pass it along to you. This traditional American bread recipe, made without yeast, is worth…

Take yourself back in time with this irresistible salt-rising bread recipe.

Salt rising bread stars in two new cookbooks | Smells like sour socks but tastes great as toast

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The salt rising bread recipe I use starts with sliced potatoes in the starter. It’s a bit tricky. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t and I have never found any rhyme or reason …

Salt rising bread is a uniquely fermented, old-fashioned artisan bread with a cheesy flavor and dense crumb.

What is salt rising bread? I remember reading about it as a small girl in various books, such as Little House in the Big Woods and Old Squires Farm where it featured under the homely title of "Mug Bread". Mug Bread was a reference to the beginnings of the dough and the somewhat uncertain process of capturing wild yeasts from the air, into a mixture of cornmeal and milk. From what I understand, this bread was invented as a substitute for yeast-risen bread and was baked in areas where…