AbstractsBiology & Animal Science

Salt-rising bread is a kind of leavened bread, which is made light not by the introduction of yeast, as with yeast cakes or by mechanical aeration or by carbon dioxide liberated from chemical compounds, such as baking powders, but by some ferment which is present in the ingredients used in starting the bread. The most marked characteristics of it are its texture, odor and flavor. The texture is very close and fine, yet the bread is light. The odor and flavor are especially characteristic, being rather penetrating. This odor which suggests putrefaction is unpleasant to some people. The flavor is slightly sweet but peculiar and characteristic. It is because the outcome is so uncertain in the making of salt-rising bread and because no scientific work on the subject has been done, that this work was undertaken. It was thought that if some definite knowledge of the organisms concerned in the making of salt-rising bread were obtained, results could be made more certain, and thus make this process of bread making more accessible to a larger number of people.