No. 3687 — Rye Bread, Sifted and Coarse

The sourdough trough, or kvashenka, always retains some dough on its bottom and walls after breadmaking. This residue starts the next batch. For more sour bread, leave an extra piece about the size of a goose egg.

The author advises keeping the trough covered with a tablecloth and wooden lid and never washing it, but storing it clean in a dry room with fresh air and never using it for another purpose.

If the sourdough is spoiled and the bread becomes black, heavy or gummy, one folk remedy is to invert the trough, scald its outer base and rub its interior with onion and salt before rinsing and starting again with fresh leaven.

Coarse rye bread was made with water; sifted rye bread might use whey or soured milk. The author advises separate troughs for each type because the culture does not tolerate changes.

Exact flour and liquid quantities depend on dryness and grade of flour. An approximate ratio is one vedro flour to ¼ vedro water, whey or sour milk.

Dry the flour near the stove on a tablecloth before starting. In the evening dilute the sourdough with liquid in the trough, add one-third to one-half the flour and the allotted liquid warmed to about 25° Réaumur.

Beat thoroughly with a wooden paddle, sprinkle flour on top, cover and leave warm until morning. The sponge for finely sifted flour should be fairly fluid; that for ordinary rye flour thicker.

By morning the sponge should have risen enough that the flour sprinkled on top is no longer visible. Add the remaining flour, salt and optionally caraway, and knead for about half an hour until the dough no longer sticks to the hands.

Cover and let the dough rise again in the trough, normally 1½–2 hours in a warm place.

Shape loaves. For finely sifted dough the author sometimes floats shaped loaves in water as cool as summer river water and considers them ready for the oven when they rise to the surface.

Alternatively let loaves rise under a cover on the table, testing a small separate piece of dough in water. A shaped loaf normally requires about ½–¾ hour, sometimes longer; too little rise makes it dense, too much makes it fall and develop a gummy layer.

Dust the bread peel with flour, set a loaf on it, smooth the surface with boiling water and place in a well-swept oven. Loaves proved in cool water should not be scalded.

The source gives an oven reading up to 60° Réaumur for sifted bread and says ordinary rye requires a considerably hotter oven. It tests the heat by throwing in a handful of flour: gradual browning is suitable, instant burning too hot and no colour too cool.

After loading, close the oven flue. Baking time varies with size and heat; as examples, a 12-pound loaf needs 2½–3 hours and a 1-pound loaf about ¾ hour.

A loaf that feels light and sounds hollow when its lower crust is tapped with the finger joints is considered done.

Near the end, the source sometimes removes almost-baked sifted loaves singly, splashes them with boiling water and returns them to the oven. Rye loaves, however, are smoothed with cold water before baking and moistened lightly after removal.

Cool loaves on a table with one end propped against a sieve so air reaches both the upper and lower crust. Do not move bread into a cold place until it has cooled.

The later Russian editorial note defines the Réaumur scale: 1°C = 0.8°R, and 1°R = 1.25°C, so 25°R is about 31°C and 60°R is 75°C.