Old bread recipes with a description of the cooking technology

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Today, more and more often, many followers of the idea of proper nutrition come to the decision to abandon the use of industrial bread. In an effort to preserve their own he alth and that of their households, housewives are engaged in baking homemade bread according to old recipes. Practical experience shows that this is quite possible not only in a private house with a preserved real Russian stove, but also in a typical modern city apartment.

It is known that bread and s alt have long been a symbol that accompanies all important - both joyful and sad - events that take place in the life of Russian people. Our ancestors sincerely believed in their unshakable holiness. The housewife's homeliness was once judged primarily by her ability to bake bread. According to experts, baking real bread according to an old recipe means not only providing yourself and your family with an environmentally friendly everyday food product. It also means declaring the existence of one’s own special philosophy, different from that accepted in society, a special style of life, freedom fromconventions and limits imposed by the technogenic system. Every day, baking bread according to an old recipe, we keep our he alth strong, and our minds clear, experts say. And this means that, contrary to modern trends, we build our own full-fledged life with our own hands. How to bake bread according to an old recipe with your own hands? Let's talk about it in our article.

How was bread baked in Russia? A bit of history

According to ancient sources, the procedure for baking bread has long been quite complicated. As a rule, in the evening, before sunset, the woman, who was the most experienced in the house, began to prepare the sourdough (barrels in which sourdough was made for bread). The sourdough was rarely washed, as it was constantly in operation. It was rubbed with s alt, previously mixed with sourdough, filled with water (warm) and placed in it a small piece of dough left over from the last baking. Then the sourdough was diligently stirred with a wooden spatula (whorl), a little more warm water was added, and flour, sifted through a sieve or sieve, was poured from a special dugout or plank trough.

Then the dough was stirred until the consistency of thick sour cream. Kvashnya was placed in a warm place and covered with a clean linen towel. The next day the dough was rising in the morning. Now the hostess began to knead it. This work was quite laborious, requiring considerable skill. The dough was kneaded until it began to lag behind the hands and the walls of the kneader. After that, he was again put in a warm place. When it rose a second time, the dough was kneaded again and started to be cut into loaves, which were allowed to stand, after which they were sent to the oven. Previously, the oven was well heated, ash and coals were swept from its hearth with a broom. Thanks to the uniform heat maintained in the Russian oven, the bread baked very well. Its readiness was judged as follows: the roll was taken out of the oven, it was taken in the left hand and tapped from below. When the bread was ready, it rang like a tambourine.

It is known that a woman with the ability to bake bread well was surrounded by special respect in the family. The hostess, who masterfully mastered the art of baking, had something to be proud of - after all, those around her considered her one of the most homely. The work of a baker in Russia has long been treated with great respect. Bakers in monasteries were especially skilled.

Many old recipes for baking bread have survived to this day. We suggest that you familiarize yourself with some of them later in the article.

An old recipe for sourdough bread. How to cook the main product?

To bake real bread according to an old recipe (the one that our distant ancestors ate five hundred years ago), you need to prepare a sourdough. Essential for bread baking, this amazing symbiotic product contains:

• water;
• whole grain flour (wheat or rye wallpaper);
• wild yeast culture;
• strains of lactic acid bacteria.

The ratio of strains of bacteria andmushroom colonies in high-quality starter should be: 1:1000. As you can see, the nature of the sourdough is more lactic acid than yeast. But it is precisely thanks to this ratio of microorganisms in the sourdough that real homemade bread is created, unusually he althy, with a unique smell and taste. The sourdough itself is made exclusively from flour and water. Nothing else is added to the bread recipe according to old Russian recipes: neither s alt, nor sugar, nor any other components whatsoever.

About the process of making starter mix

They work like this:

1. Pour clean water (about 2 tablespoons) into a clean jar (without a lid or with a loose lid) Then add rye flour (2 tablespoons) to it. leave access for oxygen to the product), then put the future sourdough in a warm place (should avoid direct sunlight). It is best to put a jar of young sourdough in a kitchen cabinet or leave it on the table.
2. After a day, add 2 tbsp to the mixture. l. water and 2 tbsp. l. flour and mix well.
3. After another day, the action (adding flour (rye) and water (warm, clean) and stirring the sourdough) is repeated.

After three days, a pleasant sour smell appears in the young sourdough, reminiscent of fermented homemade sourdough. The product is ready to use.

About the peculiarities of sourdough

Those who use the old yeast-free bread recipe should havemind that at first the leaven will be young, not ripened. Its maturation and transformation into a mature quality product is by no means a quick process during which the sourdough becomes stable and acquires all its characteristic qualities. Bread baked from a young sourdough mixture will be quite edible, but not particularly tasty and fragrant.

Make the first baking

Usually the first starter is divided in half. Approximately 1 glass of its volume is poured into another container. In the jar where the second half of the mixture remained, you need to add 2 tbsp. l. flour and water (clean) and mix. After that, the jar is placed on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator (not the coldest). This procedure must be repeated with each successive kneading of bread. Next, 1 glass of water (warm, clean) is poured into the container with the selected starter mixture and the flour is sifted through a sieve in the same volume.

Everything is thoroughly mixed, after which the leaven is sent to a warm place for about 8-9 hours. During this time, it should foam and rise, which will be a sure sign of the readiness of the product.

How to knead dough for homemade bread?

The finished sourdough (played) is mixed with 0.5 liters of water (warm, but not hot), in which 1 tbsp. l. and stir 1 kg of flour (any). The dough is kneaded until it becomes homogeneous and smooth. Then the product is placed in a warm place, preferably not elevated, covered with a film. When the dough has risen, it is placed in a buttered mold and waited for it to rise a second time.

How is bread baked?

Approached breads in the form are sent to the oven, heated to 180 degrees, in which a baking sheet with boiling water is preliminarily placed. After 20 minutes from the start of baking, the baking sheet must be removed from the oven, after which the bread should be baked for about half an hour. The appearance of a golden crust on the loaf testifies to the readiness of homemade bread. The freshly baked bread is laid out on a wooden board and cooled, covered with a clean towel.

Old rye bread recipes

It is known that rye flour has a huge number of useful properties. Unlike wheat flour, rye flour does not form gluten; its composition contains enzymes in a more active state, under the influence of which starch is broken down. Rye flour also contains the amino acid necessary for the body, it contains more iron and magnesium than wheat flour. Old recipes describe mainly the process of baking bread from rye flour - many of the excellent qualities of the product were appreciated by our ancestors five hundred years ago.

How to make rye flour (whole grain) bread?

To bake this bread, you must use the sourdough, the preparation of which was described above. In the process of creating baking, they act like this:

1. First, make a dough: pour the starter (400 g) into a deep bowl, add 250 g of water (warm) and flour (200 g), knead well so that the consistency of the mixture resembles sour cream. The dough is left"play" during the night (at room temperature) or about 4-5 hours in a warm place (at a temperature of 28-30 degrees). After the dough bubbles, it can be used.
2. Next, knead the dough: add 2 tsp to 200 g of warm water. s alt, poured into the dough, with gradual stirring, add 250-300 g of flour (rye) and 100 g of wheat (if you use only rye flour, the bread will turn out wet), cover and leave in a warm place, where for 1, 5 -2 hours The dough should roughly double in size. Then the product is mixed (bubbles should appear inside it), grease the molds with oil (vegetable) and lay out the dough. The surface of the dough in the forms is smeared with water and smoothed by hand.
3. Then the molds are covered with a cloth and the dough is left to rise for another hour on the kitchen table or forty minutes at a warmer temperature.
4. Then it is necessary to heat the oven so that by the time the bread is set, there will be enough heat in it.
5. After the bread has risen, you can start baking. If an oven is used, the temperature should be 200 degrees at the beginning, and after 10 minutes it is reduced to 170-180 degrees. Bake bread for about 40-50 minutes. A beautiful crust will turn out if you put a small container of water on the very bottom of the oven. Housewives usually put water in a cast-iron in the stove.

Another recipe (from rye flour and spring water)

Sourdough is done as usual. To prepare the dough use:

• rye flour (2.5 cups);
• wheat flour (0.5 cup); or just rye flour (3 cups);
• s alt - 2 tsp;
• sugar (1 tbsp);
• vegetable oil (1 tablespoon);
• warm water (1 glass) - spring water;
• starter (5 tablespoons).

Everything is mixed and laid out in a mold or a frying pan, greased with vegetable oil, covered with a napkin and sent to a warm place for five hours. Bake at 200 degrees for about 1 hour. After 20-30 minutes after the start of baking, the bread must be covered with foil so that the surface does not burn. The finished bread is taken out of the oven and wrapped in a blanket and left to ripen for 1 hour.