Salt Rising Bread

Yesterday I made Salt Rising Bread. I’m not sure what it is about Fall that makes me want it. Maybe it’s because it’s so time consuming and finicky to make and after the summer’s garden and canning, I feel like I need a challenge. Maybe because Salt Rising Bread makes the best croutons and I love soup in the Fall. I don’t know the reason but you can bet that at some point in October, there’s going to be Salt Rising Bread in our home. I probably only make it 3 or 4 times a year. The weird thing is that during the heat of summer is when it would be easiest to make because it needs much warmth for the starter and much warmth to rise. Our sun room (no a/c and lots of glass) is the perfect place for keeping bread dough warm during the summer. Any other time, I have to keep the oven on “proof”. I do have a folding proofer that I can use but usually don’t get out. Older ovens may have lights that generate heat and leaving the light on gave off enough warmth to keep the starter and dough warm enough but today’s oven lights don’t give off much heat – maybe none.

The history of Salt Rising Bread is interesting. There are many articles written about it. This one mentions the “salt” and the “rising”, which I find interesting. Hint: It isn’t the salt that makes the bread rise.

I had never heard of Salt Rising Bread until Vince worked with a guy in Kentucky who loved it. His family had come from the Appalachian area and his grandmother made it often and he loved it! Vince once mentioned to him that I was in Paducah, KY and Tom asked Vince if I would go by Kirchhoff’s Bakery and get him two loaves of Salt Rising Bread. He said I had to get there early because they run out fast. Having never heard of it, I went there first thing, got three loaves of the bread (two for Tom and one for us) and left it in my car all day. If you’ve ever smelled Salt Rising Bread, you can imagine the smell we were met with when we opened the car doors. It was terrible. I seriously considered dumping those loaves of bread in the nearest trash can and telling Tom they were already out of bread when I got there.

As soon as Vince tried it, he was in love. It smells a lot like stinky cheese and Vince, being Italian, love stinky cheese – the worse it smells, the more he likes it. There were times Chad would leave the table because of Vince’s cheese (but probably more because he didn’t like what we were having and he was big on drama).

Tom lived in Georgia and every time I would make Salt Rising Bread, Vince would call Tom and he would give me a hard time about making it and not sending him some. Hey dude – you have an oven in your home! Tom has now passed away and every time I make it, Vince says “I wish I could call Tom and tell him you’ve made this.” I think Tom would be happy (1) to be remembered every time I make his favorite bread and (2) that we’re still making and loving Salt Rising Bread.

According to this blog post, I started making Salt Rising Bread in 2003 so that’s over 20 years we’ve been loving this same recipe. There are many recipes but this is the one I found first and it’s the one I’ve continued to use.

This photo is from the an older blog post and, the phone on the wall tells me we lived in this house from about 2002 – 2006. I’m guessing the knife standing in the cooling rack was for reference – to show that it doesn’t get very tall. Another funny thing – there’s a bowl of tomatoes behind the bread. That house had the tiniest little lot and I had cherry tomatoes growing in buckets on the patio. Speck, our dachshund, loved them and would sit out there plucking the low hanging fruit and eat the tomatoes as long as I would let him. Cooper does the same thing.

The funnier thing is that Vince wanted the bread and I didn’t have time to make it so he made it. That was a first and a last!

Even though Salt Rising Bread doesn’t rise much, the batch I made yesterday went crazy and I would normally have let it rise longer but it just wouldn’t stop so I baked it before it rose too much and fell.

It tastes fine and the texture is normal but my goodness, it was rising like crazy.

The plate is the one between the size of a dinner plate and a saucer.

If you want to try it, here are things I’d like for you to know:

1. It will stink while rising and baking – and so will your kitchen.
2. I have read that you must use cornmeal that has not had the germ removed (don’t try it with degerminated corn meal).
3. I have also read that degerminated cornmeal works fine. I have never tried it with degerminated cornmeal. Before milling my own grains, I ordered degerminated cornmeal from a mill and kept it in the freezer since this recipe doesn’t use much.
4. This bread is finicky. I’ve had one time that it just didn’t work at all. Others say they have tried it numerous times and it didn’t work. All you’re wasting by trying is a couple of potatoes, a bit of cornmeal and some milk so if you want to try it – go for it.
5. You will know if it’s going to work before mixing in all the flour. The starter has to foam and it has to stink.
6. The starter HAS to be kept warm! Like I said above, I keep the oven on “proof” and it does take about 24 hours. My oven will go off after 12 hours so I have to reset it a couple of times.
7. It seems like a lot of work – it isn’t. And, it’s so worth it.