Rye bread

“ The people of South Britain generally prefer bread made of the finest wheat flour, while those of the Northern countries eat a mixture of flour and oatmeal, or rye bread. The common people of Scotland also eat a mixed bread, but more frequently bread made of oatmeal only.
In Germany the common bread is made of rye. The flour of millet is made in France, Spain, and Italy, into wholesome and nourishing pastry and puddings. The American and West Indian labourer thinks no bread so strengthening as that which is made of Indian corn. ”

“ Pinhead oat meal, pearled barley, and corn grits, well cooked and made into bread by adding whole wheat flour, can be baked in muffin pans, or rolled thin and baked in crisp rolls.
Rye Bread.—The method of making rye bread is almost identical with that for making wheat bread—from three to three and a half measures of flour to one measure of “wetting” being required. More time is necessary for it to ferment or rise, and it will not become so light, spongy and elastic as wheat. ”

“ Where rye bread is not made every day, or where sour dough is kept over from Saturday to Monday, we used to work plenty of rye flour with some salt in the piece of dough kept over, and make a very stiff dough, and rolled this in a well-dusted flour bag and kept in a cold place till required. (In southern Germany the sour dough is kept in a liquid state, it is thinned with cold water and kept in a cold place.) ”

“ Take a pint of water, and a large spoonful of fine Indian meal, and make it into gruel. Add a pint of milk, and when cool enough, a small gill of yeast, and then the flour. Fine, bolted rye flour is necessary to make this bread good. Knead it about as stiff as white bread. Let it rise over night, and then mould and put into three pans to rise again. When light, bake it about an hour. Rye is very adhesive, and a young cook will be troubled with its sticking to her fingers, but practice will make it easy to manage it. ”

“ Rye bread was held of very little value, although in certain provinces, such as Lyonnais, Forez, and Auvergne, it was very generally used among the country people, and contributed, says Bruyérin Champier in his treatise "De re Cibaria," to "preserve beauty and freshness amongst women." At a later period, the doctors of Paris frequently ordered the use of bread made half of wheat and half of rye as a means "of preserving the health." ”

“ The term “Bread” when used alone is understood in this country to apply to bread made from wheat flour or some form of wheat. If made from other cereals a prefix is used to distinguish this fact, as Indian corn bread, rye bread, etc. The term bread includes also the materials which are used necessarily therewith in the ordinary process of baking. Thus, the term bread would apply to a loaf which contains not only the wheat flour as the base and chief part of its mass but also the yeast or other leavening agent employed, together with salt, lard, or butter used in its preparation. ”

“ In other bakeries where only a small quantity of rye bread is required, bakers do not set a separate sponge for rye; they dip out of a broken-up wheat sponge and make the dough with rye flour; a piece of sour dough is added by some bakers, which gives better flavor to bread made by this method. The sour dough process consists of a succession of sponges; every day a small piece of sour rye dough is left over for this purpose to begin with. It is important in this process to keep the sour dough from getting too old, because when too old it becomes putrid and loses strength. ”

“ When roasted it is occasionally used as a substitute for coffee. It furnishes an excellent malt for the distillation of spirit, and is much used in the making of Hollands.
Rye bread is very likely to cause diarrhœa in those unaccustomed to partake of it. By continued use, however, this inconvenience disappears. Rye bread is acid and dark in colour. It is about equal in nutritive power to wheat. It is less abundant than wheat in fibrin, but richer in casein and albumen. ”

“ Rye is a grain whose cultivation is not much encouraged in this kingdom, but in the northern parts of Europe it is in very extensive use as a nourishing food for mankind. When made into bread alone, it is of a dark brown colour, and sweetish taste, and if eat by people unaccustomed to its use, it is found to have a laxative effect. In some parts of this kingdom, a mixture of rye and wheat is reckoned an 113excellent bread. ”

“ In Denmark, too, rye bread is the rule among the74 peasantry and small farmers—wheaten bread being to them a luxury, and used as cake is with us. In Russia, although its chief export is wheat from the Black Sea, and oats and rye from the Baltic, the peasant eats but rye bread dipped in hemp oil, and even then, as but a few years since, famine visits this granary, and the hapless peasants being reduced to mix orach and bark with their wretched bread, have at times been unable to procure even this, and have died in thousands of starvation. ”

“ Regarding the blending of flour, gentlemen, everybody knows the blend of flour to make the loaf that his trade demands. Some places they demand a big loaf and the baker uses more spring; some places they do not trouble about size, and the baker used less spring and more rye.
I think I have said sufficient, so in conclusion let me remind you: Keep your sponge cool, use plenty of good yeast, do not let your sour get too old, keep your dough cool, use plenty of salt, and do not have it wait when you know it is ready and you will have no trouble in making Genuine Rye Bread. ”

“ Rye bread comes next to wheaten bread; it is not so rich in gluten, but is said to keep fresh longer, and to possess some laxative qualities.
Barley bread, Indian-corn bread, etc., made from barley, maize, oats, rice, potatoes, etc., "rise badly," because the grains in question contain but little gluten, so that the bread is heavy, close in texture, and difficult of digestion; in fact, wheat flour has to be added before panification can take place. In countries where wheat is scarce and maize abundant, the people make the latter a chief article of sustenance, prepared in different forms. ”

“ Bread Sluffs.—As compared with wheat-flour, all other materials used for making bread are of secondary importance. Rye bread is largely consumed in some of the northern parts of Europe, and cakes of maize meal are eaten in the United States. In southern Europe the meal of various species of millet is used, and in India and China durra and other cereal grains are baked for food. Of non-cereal flour, the principal used for bread-making is buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) , extensively employed in Russia, Holland and the United States. ”

“ According to Count Rumford, the Bavarian wood-chopper, one of the most hardy and hard-working men in the world, receives for his weekly rations one large loaf of rye bread and a small quantity of roasted meal. Of the meal he makes an infusion, to which he adds a little salt, and with the mixture, which he calls burned soup, he eats his rye bread. No beer, no beef, no other food than that mentioned, and no drink but water; and yet he can do more work and enjoys a better digestion and possesses stronger muscles than the average American or Englishman, with their varied dietary. ”

“ Wheat-bread is neutral, a most excellent though not all-sufficient article of food, and, like a blank sheet of paper, serves as a foil to whatever you may combine it with, while sour rye-bread is a tonic and reacts on the temper in a feeble way. ”

“ One of the simplest ways is to take a loaf of ordinary rye bread, which is at least two days old, cut off the crust, and trim the crust also from around the edge, place on the floor sheets of newspaper or cloths to catch the crumbs, and then go over the whole surface of the paper, rubbing it with the loaf from top to bottom in regular strokes. When the end of the loaf becomes dirty cut off a very thin slice with a sharp knife, trim back the edge again, and proceed as before. Even better than the loaf is baker's dough, or flour and water mixed to a stiff dough answers equally well. ”

“ If the oven is too hot and the crust is hard, wrap the loaf in a wet cloth and over that a dry one.
For the wheatless days use rye flour to knead instead of the whole wheat.
Raised Cinnamon Roll
When making the corn and rye bread, take half the dough, enough to make one loaf, roll it out half an inch thick, spread half a cup or more raisins over it, one teaspoonful of cinnamon and two tablespoonfuls of sugar. Roll up and put in a bread pan to rise. Bake in a moderate oven. ”

“ In North Germany leaven is generally used for making rye bread, and loaves baked from a mixture of wheat and rye flour. In the bakery of the Krupp works at Essen, each batch of the so-called Paderborn bread is prepared entirely with leaven from 270 kilos of rye flour (patent quality) , 100 of wheat flour (seconds) , 2 of buckwheat meal, 6 of salt, 5 of leaven, and one litre of oil. In Vienna leaven is never used for making the rolls and small goods for which that city is famous. ”

“ CHERRY PUDDING Grate one-half pound of stale rye bread and wet this with a wineglass of red wine. Pound two tablespoons of almonds, stir the yolks of four eggs with half a cup of powdered sugar, flavor with cinnamon, and add the grated bread and almonds. Stone one-half pound each of sweet and sour cherries. Mix all thoroughly with the beaten whites added last. Do not take the juice of the cherries. Butter the pudding mold well before you put in the mixture. To be eaten cold. ”

“ Boil a pint of rice till soft, then mix it with two quarts of rice flour, a tea cup of yeast, two tea spoonsful of salt, and milk enough to render it of the consistency of rye bread. When light bake it in small loaves. ”

“ Avoid buying much at a time, unless you can keep it in a very cool place. When sour, it is unfit to eat. Common indian meal is much the best for use.
INDIAN RYE BREAD.— Two quarts of indian meal, two quarts of rye meal, three pints of milk or water, two tea-spoonfuls of salt, half a pint of strong fresh yeast. Having sifted the rye and indian meal in a large pan, mix them well together, adding the salt. Boil the milk or water in a sauce-pan, and when scalding hot pour it on the meal, and stir the whole very hard. If too stiff, add a little more warm water. ”

“ Home-made plum jam made with very little sugar is often eaten instead of butter by the women of the family; and the servants, where white rolls are regarded as a luxury, have rye bread. No one need pity them on this account, however, as German rye bread is as good as bread can be. Ordinary London household bread is poor stuff in comparison with it. The white rolls and butter are always excellent too, and I would even say a good word for the coffee. ”

“ Barley, rye and oats may be grown much farther north, but are less digestible. Oatmeal cannot be made into bread, rye bread is rapidly being displaced by wheat, and barley has almost entirely fallen into disuse, except for the purposes of the brewer and distiller. ”

“ He says of the griddle cakes that they would keep good for twenty or more years, by which time they would be reasonably stale.
Scarcely two centuries have passed since rye flour, by itself, or mixed with wheat, furnished nearly all the bread consumed by the labouring classes of England. With the exception of wheat, rye contains a greater proportion of gluten than any other cereal, to which fact it owes its capability of being converted into a spongy bread ”

“ Irish potatoes do not grow well here. The ones that you buy at the store now are not worth the money, so I buy rice instead. Another year I should get a few hives of bees.
Reading of the bread-making at Mott St. and of Cobbetts old-fashioned way of bread making, and of Catherine de Heuck's rye bread encouraged me to persevere until I can now say that I make as good bread as I have ever tasted. Here is my method, developed at last after getting the yeast too hot, the oven too hot, and the dough raised too quickly. At noon I put 13 cups of whole wheat flour in a pan. ”

“ The science which gave an insight into the cause of the ‘rising’ of bread, and suggested substitutes for the ordinary fermenting materials, is but of recent date. These ferments operate by generating an infinity of gas bubbles, which honeycomb the dough. The earliest process was to employ leaven, which is still largely used in the manufacture of the black rye bread of the Continent, and consists of dough which has become more or less sour by over-fermentation. ”

“ Bread that is made of rye which contains even a great quantity of this bad corn, is not distinguishable by the taste, from other rye bread; and it seldom produces its ill effects till some time after it has been eaten, it is then said to occasion gangrenes in the legs and other parts of the body, and dangerous fevers. The poorer people, however, are those chiefly who are subject to these diseases, as many of them have little other substantial food to subsist upon than bread made of this species of corn. ”

“ With us, wheat is chiefly employed for the fabrication of bread. It is, in fact, the only grain of which light porous bread can be made; but rye and barley are also used as bread-corn. The farina of the other cerealia afford also a nutritive and wholesome bread; though their flour is not so susceptible of the panary fermentation, it cannot be made into the white texture of the wheaten loaf. The bread formed from them is consequently much inferior to that prepared from wheat. ”