Food Feedback: More on salt rising bread
Re: “Rising again: Two women at a Soutwestern Pennsylvania bakery are bringing back the regional specialty that is salt rising bread” by Bob Batz Jr., Food Flavor, Nov. 3: I was born in Clarksburg, W.Va., in 1926. My family lived on Beverly Road in Mt. Lebanon from 1940 to 1944. I went to first, second and third grades in what was then called the Washington School. I remember going to a bakery nearby and buying salt-rising bread to take home to my mother and dad. (At that time, there was a cow pasture at the end of Beverly Road, and we had to black out all of our windows at night, because of fear of being bombed by the Germans, as Pittsburgh was the heart of the steel industry during the Second World War. We all wore identity badges, so someone would know who we were if we were bombed.)
I have looked for salt-rising bread ever since. I have lived in California since the late 1950s and have never found anyone who knew what I was talking about, so these articles are fascinating to a 75-year-old retired foreign investment director!
MAGGIE KERR SABOVICH
Crockett, Calif.
Thanks to all of you for your great food articles; I love reading the paper here when I visit. The salt rising bread article was so great; I know my Lebanese mom, who always made her own Lebanese/Arabic bread, would have appreciated reading about all the work in making this type of bread. You all are to be commended on the scope of your columns.
VICKIE EADE EDDY
Olean, N.Y., and Yuma, Ariz., “but love Pittsburgh and its people and great library and museums!”
Glad to hear that salt risen bread isn’t becoming a lost art, and that it also is traditionally from a region where I grew up — Western New York.
We always got salt risen bread from the Angelica Bakery in Angelica, N.Y.
The bread from this bakery is also sold at the Cuba Cheese Store/Factory in Cuba, N.Y. Definitely worth stopping there for the cheese curds alone.
The Angelica bread is great, but I discovered by accident that the Giant supermarket, just up the street from the cheese shop in Cuba, makes its own salt risen bread. Both bakeries to my knowledge make whole-wheat versions of salt risen, and though probably healthier than the white bread, the whole-wheat flavor masks some of that salt-risen flavor, making it more at the pungency level of sourdough bread, which I love, but it always disappoints me as it always seems to be about one-third as strong as salt risen in flavor.
If anyone knows a good place for super-strong sour dough, I’d love to hear about it.
SCOTT SILLIMAN
Swissvale
I grew up in a small town in West Virginia where homemade bread was baked and served in most homes. That was all we ever had at my house. Most everyone made ordinary white bread but our neighbor Mrs. Heck made salt rising bread. I remember the smell of the dough as it raised and how their house smelled when it was baking. I really don’t remember how it tasted. We were admonished not to eat at other people’s houses. After all, it was the Depression and the families all were challenged to feed their own. Mrs. Heck had six kids so her challenge was twice as great as at our house. Nevertheless she would slip me a slice and I kept it as my special secret.
I remember having tomato gravy for lunch lots of days. We three kids, as well as my dad, all came home for lunch every day so Mom had to have something good and filling every noon hour. She used home canned tomatoes and served it over the dry crusts of bread that she toasted under the broiler. Delicious!
So I was delighted to read about the Rising Creek Bakery in Mt. Morris. My husband and I made a special trip down Route 79 to find the cafe. We found the charming little town, (it reminded me of the town I grew up in). But alas, they sold the last loaf of bread to the lady in line in front of us. They had one loaf left but were saving it for their menu. The lady behind the counter took pity on us and gave us a slice of it and even put butter on it. We had a fabulous sandwich on sourdough bread and bought a loaf of raisin bread for toast Sunday morning. It’s the best I’ve ever had.
I found a handwritten recipe for SRB among my mother-in-law’s papers. It calls for a grated potato in the starter. I found it interesting that so much scientific research went into developing the Rising Creek bread. Mrs. Heck and my mother-in-law had no idea what was going on in their mixing bowls.
Thanks for the great story and recipes. It brought back pleasant memories and now I’m determined to try to duplicate that long-ago aroma memory in my own kitchen.
KAY BALL
Pleasant Hills (originally Fairmont, W.Va.)
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