Genevieve Bardwell - Salt Rising Bread: Recipes and Heartfelt Stories of a Nearly Lost Appalachian Tradition

My friend Marion Cunningham first introduced me to salt rising bread she had been experimenting with baking it in her kitchen, perhaps for one of her cookbooks. She made me some toast at her house, and it was just unlike anything Id had before. The taste was something really different and unique. It was absolutely perfect toast it didnt need anything on it, not even butter. And it made great sandwiches, too!

~ Alice Waters, chef, restaurateur, author of The Art of Simple Food (I and II), 40 Years of Chez Panisse, and others

I must admit that I have fallen under the spell of salt rising bread. It is the quirkiest of breads but, like an expensive white truffle, the earthy aroma and flavor are intoxicating. The more I eat the more I want.

~ Peter Reinhart, baker, author of Bread Revolution, The Bakers Apprentice, and others

Jenny Bardwell and Susan Brown are carrying on the Appalachian art of creating salt rising bread allowing all of us to indulge in the fruits of their labor! Their combined talent produces the delicious dense bread with a distinctive flavor unique to salt rising bread that is unlike any other. Ill take mine toasted with a dab of butter, please.

~ Candace Nelson, author of the food blog Candace Lately

Salt Rising Bread combines oral history and contemporary cookbook to rescue salt rising bread from undeserved obscurity. For those lucky enough to know it from childhood, Susan and Jennys book will bring back warm memories. For those of us like me! who didnt know salt rising bread as children, Salt Rising Bread introduces the gospel of this delicious treat.

~ Geoffrey Cameron Fuller, West Virginian and New York Times bestselling author

Here are a couple of ladies bringing the world of wild microbes together with memories of our grandmothers grandmothers surviving and thriving. Theyre dusting off battered bread recipes and sewing them together with science, and its somehow all so life-affirming! Even if you dont remember salt rising bread, youll want to. The audacious curiosity cultivated here is, in a word: delicious.

~ Glynis Board, Reporter, West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Smells evoke memories, and one of my fondest childhood recollections is of the pungent aroma of salt rising bread being made. My Aunt Avah of Jane Lew, WV, who believed this magical bread had a special consciousness, told us kids that it would only rise if there was absolute peace and harmony in the home. So we had to be quiet all day and not fight if we were to enjoy it. Only later did I become suspicious about her having an ulterior motive for telling us this! Lots of things have changed since then, but not my fondness for toasted salt rising bread. Kudos to Susan and Jenny for reviving this wonderful tradition and helping me relive my childhood.

~ Greg Juckett, MD, MPH, Professor of Family Medicine, West Virginia University

I think it will be interesting to a lot of people to read about salt rising bread because there are an awful lot of people who never have heard of it, how it came about or where it came from. I started working in a bakery when I was twelve and eventually owned one for many years. We made over twenty different kinds of bread, including salt rising, one of the most unique breads of all.

~ William E. Crum III, retired baker, Kansas

SALT RISING

BREAD

Recipes and Heartfelt Stories of a
Nearly Lost Appalachian Tradition

Genevieve Bardwell | Susan Ray Brown

Salt Rising Bread

Recipes and Heartfelt Stories of a Nearly Lost Appalachian Tradition

Copyright 2016 by Genevieve Bardwell and Susan Ray Brown

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes.

ISBN-13: 978-1-943366-03-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016936358

CIP information available upon request

First Edition, 2016

St. Lynns Press . POB 18680 . Pittsburgh, PA 15236

412.381.9933 . www.stlynnspress.com

Book Design Holly Rosborough

Editor Catherine Dees

Editorial Intern Christina Gregory

Photo Credits:

JBN Photo cover photo, provided by Bill Crum.

Printed in Canada

on certified FSC recycled paper using soy-based inks

This title and all of St. Lynns Press books may be purchased for educational, business or sales promotional use. For information please write:

Special Markets Department . St. Lynns Press . POB 18680 . Pittsburgh, PA 15236

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SUSAN

To my grandmother, Katheryn Rippetoe Erwin,
whose salt rising bread has nurtured
my body and soul for more than 50 years.

JENNY

To Pearl Haines, whom I learned from
and who made salt raisin for over 90 years.

I am honored to congratulate Bardwell and Brown not only for their outstanding success, but also for their efforts to keep our Appalachian heritage alive and thriving. Rising Creek Bakery and their famous salt rising bread is a favorite within my family and countless others.

~ Joe Manchin, U.S. Senator, West Virginia

Behind every well-loved food there are stories, often heartwarming ones, about where the food came from and the people whose lives it has touched. Most of our food traditions have come to these shores from other places and other continents. Some have adapted and changed over the years and a few have stayed true to their distant origins. But the food we are writing about in this book didnt arrive with the great immigrant waves. It was born in the hills of Appalachia more than 200 years ago and spread from there along the pioneer wagon trails. Salt Rising Bread is the story of this uniquely American bread and the people who have continued baking it in the years since, passing their recipes down lovingly from generation to generation.

We, Jenny and Susan, have baked and loved salt rising bread for a very long time. Without exaggeration, we can say that in the universe of breads, it stands alone. There is nothing else remotely like it in terms of flavor, personality and technique. There is mystery about it in the wild microbes that cause it to rise. It has attitude and holds tantalizing secrets that have never been fully revealed. Sadly, very few people are alive today who know how to make this delicious yeastless bread the authentic way. That is the reason that we took it upon ourselves to be the chroniclers and preservers of this nearly lost tradition.