Salt Rising Bread. Genevieve Bardwell
To Our Readers
Behind every well-loved food there are stories, often heartwarming ones, about where the food came from and the people whose lives it has touched. Most of our food traditions have come to these shores from other places and other continents. Some have adapted and changed over the years and a few have stayed true to their distant origins. But the food we are writing about in this book didn’t arrive with the great immigrant waves. It was born in the hills of Appalachia more than 200 years ago and spread from there along the pioneer wagon trails. Salt Rising Bread is the story of this uniquely American bread and the people who have continued baking it in the years since, passing their recipes down lovingly from generation to generation.
We, Jenny and Susan, have baked and loved salt rising bread for a very long time. Without exaggeration, we can say that in the universe of breads, it stands alone. There is nothing else remotely like it in terms of flavor, personality and technique. There is mystery about it in the wild microbes that cause it to rise. It has attitude and holds tantalizing secrets that have never been fully revealed. Sadly, very few people are alive today who know how to make this delicious yeastless bread the authentic way. That is the reason that we took it upon ourselves to be the chroniclers and preservers of this nearly lost tradition.
About Us
Susan, whose family has deep roots in the region, is the founder of the online resource The Salt Rising Bread Project (www.saltrisingbread.net). Jenny is the proprietor of Rising Creek Bakery, which specializes in traditional salt rising bread. The bakery is located in Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania, in the heart of Appalachia. More than twenty years ago, we set out to find and interview the people who still baked salt rising bread, and beyond that, to discover the secrets and the science behind its unique fermentation and memorable aroma, texture and taste. Our search took us from the Appalachian parlors and kitchens of bread-making elders to the laboratory of a renowned microbiologist, to bread museums and the pages of rare cookbooks and pioneer diaries. What we found was a treasure of American culinary lore.
If you grew up loving your grandmother’s salt rising bread and you miss it (and her), this book is for you. If you haven’t yet had the pleasure of eating salt rising bread and wonder why anyone would write an entire book about it, this book is for you too.
We wish you happy reading, along with your own discovery or re-discovery of this wonderful, tradition-rich bread.
Jenny and Susan
A SALT RISING BREAD MEMORY, SENT TO SUSAN’S SALT RISING BREAD PROJECT
“I grew up in Spelter, WV, just north of Clarksburg on Rt. 19. My grandmother baked this bread EVERY Saturday morning of her life. I don’t think she ever bought bread. She would make several loaves and a couple of cookie sheets full of wonderful large buns. We lived next door and she would call me over just before she took the bread out of the oven. I would race over and wait (usually impatiently) until the bread came out. Then I would take one of the buns and poke my finger into the middle and wiggle it around to hollow it out a bit. I would then put fresh, real butter and my daddy’s homemade blackberry jelly down into the hot bread. It would melt and I would sit and eat that bun with a glass of cold milk. I’m 50 years old and my granny has been gone for nearly 40 years. If I close my eyes and let myself go back in time, I can still smell that wonderful aroma as the bread was baking and still feel my finger burning from sticking it into the bread (you’d think I would have learned to use a knife or fork!!!!) and I can almost taste that wonderful treat. It’s one of my most treasured memories of my grandmother, who was my favorite person in the world!”
Introduction
Ahh, salt rising bread. If you have ever taken a bite from a warm slice fresh from the toaster and slathered with butter, you probably remember the moment. Most people do, because salt rising bread makes an impact – no question about it. The baker in the family could be greeted with the smiling faces of children begging for more . . . or have an aging parent on her deathbed who insists on eating only salt rising bread. Or the baker might be confronted by a spouse who holds his nose and demands that the toast and the toaster be put on the back porch immediately. We’ve seen it all. However, throughout the many generations of families (and in the years that Rising Creek Bakery has been producing and distributing salt rising bread) the reactions are almost universally positive.
It’s a bread with a distinctive personality, finicky habits in the baking process, and a marvelous flavor. And it is the object of unabashed nostalgia on the part of people whose memories of a simpler time – perhaps an idealized American past – are intertwined with the taste and smell of salt rising bread.
In many ways this is not your usual bread. The fermentation period for salt rising bread from “starter” to loaf takes a long time – sometimes as long as 24 hours. And then there’s the smell! You may have heard it referred to as “stinky bread” (the reason a spouse might hold their nose). We find the pungent smell of the fermented grains to be like a fine cheese. By the time the dough is made, the smell is sweeter. When the loaves are pulled from the oven, the wonderful aroma is of freshly baked bread with a hint of cheese. The seductive aroma of the baked bread has drawn people into homes and bakeries for generations. And by the time it is toasted, well, that is when memories are made. Without a doubt, the smell of salt rising toast has wafted up the stairs of many an old farmhouse, initiating memories that linger for decades.
We – Jenny and Susan – have known each other for nearly 25 years, during which time we have shared the wonders, the mysteries, the disappointments and the joys of salt rising bread.
We first met on a cool October evening at a Halloween party at Jenny’s rural home. We both had young children then, and a mutual friend had suggested that we should meet. It wasn’t long before we realized that we shared a similar interest . . . salt rising bread! The knowledge had been passed on to us from two remarkable elder bakers – women whom we admired, respected and loved. For Susan, that woman was her grandmother, Katheryn Rippetoe Erwin. For Jenny, it was Pearl Haines, a neighbor of great generosity and heart.
Katheryn Rippetoe Erwin
Katheryn Rippetoe Erwin
As grandmothers go, you couldn’t beat Katheryn Erwin! [Susan speaking]. She was the best kind of grandmother a child could want. She was funny and wise, gracious and giving, a friend to many, and she loved her grandchildren unconditionally. Like her family for many generations, Grandmother grew up in the southern mountains of West Virginia. She was proud of her West Virginia heritage and instilled in her grandchildren that same fierce pride. She was also proud of her famous