Salt Rising Bread

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 4 cups sweet milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 5 tablespoons crisco or 5 tablespoons other shortening
• 10 1/2 cups bread flour, sifted

Recipe

• 1 scald 1 cup milk and pour over corn meal.
• 2 let stand in warm place to ferment, almost 24 hours.
• 3 heat 3 cups milk until lukewarm, with salt, sugar and crisco.
• 4 stir in 3 1/2 cups flour, then corn meal mixture. place bowl containing these ingredients in pan of lukewarm water for about 2 hours or until bubbles work up from the bottom.
• 5 then stir in 5 cups flour and knead in 2 1/2 cups.
• 6 place dough in three 5 x 10-inch pans until it has doubled in size. bake in moderate oven for about 10 minutes; then increase heat to moderately hot oven gradually.
• 7 bake bread for 45 to 60 minutes in all.
• 8 do not attempt to bake bread in cold damp weather, unless house is warm.
• 9 be sure to protect batter from drafts.