Atop a high hill in the heart of Appalachia in 1988, I first learned about salt-rising bread. I was making soap at my neighbor’s house, and as we entered the kitchen, I noticed a unique, pungent smell that was new to me. The smell turned out to be salt-rising bread delicately browning in a frying pan for grilled-cheese sandwiches. In all my decades of studying and baking bread, I’d never smelled a bread like this. After the first bite, I fell in love with its delicious, rich, and tangy flavor.
A Unique Fermentation
The Appalachian people have always been proud of their salt-rising bread, and rightly so. It’s a tricky bread to make. It uses local grains to raise the dough, and it has a reputation for making excellent toast. Unlike sourdough, which is a primarily yeasted bread whose starter is refreshed, salt-rising bread “starter” is made from scratch each time. The wild bacteria on the grains prefer a temperature of 104 degrees Fahrenheit; after several hours of fermentation, these bacteria produce bubbles of gas that raise the dough. However, the smell of a salt-rising starter isn’t for everyone. Some people call it “stinky bread,” as the odor is reminiscent of a powerfully pungent cheese. Some
