More tips for salt-rising bread.
I'm currently working on Prairie Home Breads, which will be out next year.
I've been baking and testing bread recipes for the past year, and salt-rising
is one of the trickiest. Even the late great James Beard had trouble with it.
Maintaining the necessary fermentation temperature of 100 to 105 degrees is
the tricky part. I found that sitting the bowl of batter on a heating pad
turned to the medium setting did the trick. But you also need an instant read
thermometer to accurately gauge the temperature of the cornmeal and milk
batter. (Your heating pad might be different than mine.) If the batter gets
too hot, it curdles, and you have to start all over again. (I use a batter
that ferments naturally, not the King Arthur product).
When the batter has fermented and you mix the dough, it smells like aged
cheese when it rises. But the taste of the bread is wonderful, and I can
understand why people get hooked on it, especially for toast. If you have
further questions, you can e-mail me privately. Happy baking, Judith Fertig.