A Treatise on the Art of Making Good and Wholesome Bread

Rye Bread

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 excellent bread. In Yorkshire, bread made from a mixture of these two grains is esteemed.

The following method of making household rye bread, has been recommended by the board of agriculture.7

Suppose a bushel of rye to weigh sixty pounds, add to it a fourth part, or fifteen pounds of rice; this when ground has only the broad bran taken out, which seldom exceeds four and a half or five pounds for that quantity; it is thus directed to be prepared for household rye bread.

Take fourteen pounds of the mixed flour, a sufficient quantity of yeast, salt, and warm water, and let it be made in a dough, and baked in the usual way. It will produce twenty-two pounds weight of bread, which is a surplus of three pounds and a half in fourteen pounds, over and above what is usually produced in the common process of converting household wheat flour into bread.

Notes

7. Account of Experiments tried by the Board of Agriculture, p. 12.