Boston Rye and Indian Bread
Two quarts of indian meal, two quarts of rye meal, half a pint of strong fresh yeast, half a pint of West India molasses, a small table-spoonful of salt. Sift the rye and indian meal into a large pan or wooden bowl; and mix them well together, adding a little salt. Have ready half a pint of water, warm but not hot. Mix with it the molasses, and then stir into it the yeast. Make a hole in the middle of the pan of meal, pour in the liquid, and then with a spoon work into it a portion of the flour that surrounds the hole, till the liquid in the centre becomes a thick batter. Sprinkle the top with rye meal, lay a thick cloth over the pan, and set it in a warm place to rise. In three or four hours it should be light enough to appear cracked all over the surface. Then pour into the middle (by degrees) about a pint of warm water, (it must not be hot,) and as you pour mix it well all through the dough, till the whole becomes a round mass. Sprinkle some rye flour on the dough, and having floured your hands, knead it long and hard, (at least half an hour, and after it ceases to stick to your hands,) turning it over as you proceed. Then sprinkle the dough again with flour, cover it, and again set it in a warm place to rise. Have the oven ready, and of the proper heat, so that the bread may be put in as soon as it has completely risen the second time. When perfectly light, the dough will stand high, and the surface will be cracked all over. This quantity will be sufficient for a common-sized loaf. Set it directly into the oven, and bake it about two hours. When bread has done rising, it will fall again if not put into the oven. As soon as it is done, wrap it immediately in a clean coarse towel wet with cold water, and stand it up on end till it is cool.
This is a palatable, cheap, and wholesome bread. It may be baked in a deep tin or iron pan.
If the dough should have stood so long as to become sour, (which it will, if mixed over night,) restore it by kneading in a small tea-spoonful of pearlash or saleratus melted in a little warm water.