Baking Bread

Baking bread yesterday I got to thinking about bread baking in the past. I guess, it is a “thing” right now to be baking bread when everyone is trying to limit outside ventures, but in the past usually if one wanted bread, one made it themselves. My understanding is that there was a reliance in capturing “wild yeast” (sourdough), since neat little packets of dry yeast, or even cake yeast was not readily available. Sometimes a starter was shared and kept nurtured. Interesting to note that some sourdough was replaced by “berm” from beer making, and that baker’s yeast has been available for less than 150 years. (thanks to our friends at Wikipedia).

Here’s an image of Evelyn Cameron making bread in her kitchen, 1904-1908 (slow rising bread). Note her multiple-use surfaces. No fancy appliances, or marble counter tops.

I remember from my early days of baking that older recipes would talk about baking in a slow, moderate, or hot oven—wood stoves had 3 temperatures—slow/moderate/hot. Moderate was roughly the temperature one wanted for baking of bread—maintaining and regulating temperature was a skill. I bet the learning curve produced some chewy results!