The secrets of salt, water and flour

Finding an early 1800s authentic Cape bread recipe that was used before commercial yeast was available, was made possible by the Africana cookbook collection in the Towerwater library. The first commercial yeast factory in South Africa was started in 1923 by Daniel Mills and Sons.

Salt, water and wheat

Deciding to make bread using Hildagonda Duckitt’s recipe for yeast, which was the family’s own recipe, set us on a path of discovery. A path that would ultimately change how we look at food. Hilda was born at Groote Post on 21 February 1839 and it is safe to say that the recipe must have been in use by her family for a long time before that.

Hilda explains in her book "Hilda's Diary of a Cape Housekeeper" (published 1902), how every day of the week on the farm was set out for different activities. Baking was done on Tuesdays and Fridays by their man cook Abraham. She describes their oven as follows, “There was a large oven (built into the kitchen), which took a cartload of wood to heat; by wood I mean “rhenoster bush”, which grows on the hills, and strange to say, wherever land has been under cultivation, in a few years it is covered with this bush, which makes excellent firewood, and was put round the kraals as fences as well. When this oven was heated twice a week for baking all the bread required on the farm, we generally made a supply of sponge- and tea-cakes at the same time, and turn-overs for picnics.”

Groote Post homestead with the thatched stables next to the round roof of the silo. Photo: Alice Mertens - "From the days that are gone" 1967

The Cape homestead and its surrounding outbuildings, on large farms such as Groote Post, would almost constitute a small village. Since wood was scarce in the Cape Colony, and it was far more economical to do so, bread would be baked centrally for the entire farm community. These remote largely self-sufficient communities would typically include the leaseholder/owner and household, the blacksmith and other artisans and their households, farm hands and their families and labourers and their families. 

   Plan of Groote Post, the bakoond is indicated by no 14 and the kitchen no 11. Image:"From the days that are gone" published 1967 by Howard Timmins

It is therefore unsurprising that Hilda’s wood-fired oven could take 70 loaves of bread at a single baking. The oven at Towerwater is estimated to take about twenty-six 1Kg (2lb) loaves at a time (two baker’s dozen), or most likely a baker’s dozen of the more likely 2kg (4lb) loaf. All these breads were baked in bread pans made on the farm from re-purposed metal.

This background to Hildagonda Duckitt is of interest as it is her authoritative published bread recipe that will serve to prepare a typical mid- 19th Century (1800’s) loaf. The recipe, with its’ only ingredients being flour, salt and water, is significant. In considering others of the period, it would seem to form the basis of the most generally accepted method for making bread in the rural Cape, with minor regional adaptations. This pre-ferment methodology prevailed prior to the invention of instant baker’s yeast in 1860 and its subsequent availability. The recipe would appear to pre-date all others consulted. 

This bold assumption is made on the basis that the recipe does not distinguish itself as being one for sourdough bread, though it clearly is. All ancient leavened bread-making, the same methods having been brought to the Cape in 1652 with European settlers, was from sourdough in some form or another. The recipe is therefore simply, “a bread recipe”. Notably, it uses only the ingredients of flour, salt and water. Later recipes, following the invention of baker’s yeast, add the descriptor, sourdough. The name sweet sourdough was then assigned to the recipe to differentiate it from other forms of sourdough, which use a continuous starter, potato or fruit additive to create a yeast. Of course, typical sourdough was not universally held in high esteem. Many found the sourness distasteful or reflecting a lack of accomplishment on the part of the baker (Source: Putnam’s Handy Book Series of Things Worth Knowing – Bread Making. By G P Putnam’s Sons, New York 1884).

The sweet sourdough process (which is unlike contemporary sweet sourdough recipes consulted), produced a bread that was much less sour, hence ‘sweet’ sourdough. This ‘sweetness’ might be ascribed to the yeast preparation which was a shorter one-off process. The pre-ferment starter was consumed entirely in each bake for which it was prepared.

Key features of this recipe in terms of the sourdough starter, is that it is a no fuss, no waste and time efficient method. To be expected in a very busy household, where bread-making was a basic routine driven by functional necessity. To bake your sourdough loaf from starting the starter to removing the loaves from the oven can be achieved in less than 24 hours, if all goes well!

A challenge is to interpret this recipe for contemporary use. First, in terms of the measurements. It should be remembered that all measurements in the recipe are in imperial quantities as would have been the standard of practice in the Cape Colony. For ease of use, these imperial measurements can be converted to metric measurements. In addition, few households today would require such quantities of bread as provided for in Hilda’s recipe (six large loaves of a baked weight of a kilogram each or twelve loaves of a ½ kilogram each). The recipe therefore can be scaled down (using 1Kg flour, excluding the starter) to make say two, 1Kg loaves or a single 2Kg ‘farmers’ loaf.

The yeast only required three ingredients, salt, water and flour. Easy enough because we had the ingredients readily available. Keith reduced the quantities for our domestic use and followed Hilda’s recipe to the letter. Although the mixture had a “disagreeable odour” as mentioned in Hilda’s recipe, there was no “frothy appearance” in the mixture. We were taken aback as to the lack of fermentation in the mixture. And serious research was undertaken to find out what could have gone wrong.

We discovered that our yeast was unresponsive because all three ingredients (on tap and off the shelf) that we used were “dead”; having none of the natural nutrients and minerals required by a traditional Cape yeast. 

Using the correct flour

Through our research, we established that if one wants to make authentic 19th Century bread, one would need to use simple rough wheat meal (course flour). Nothing added, or removed, the wheat cultivated organically, and stone ground. Stoneground flour, ensures that the temperatures reached during milling, do not achieve the high temperatures and damaging effects of roller milled flour. 

Conventional flour is unrecognisable from the flour Hilda would have used. The wheat is reconstituted with the germ and hull stripped away. Today, flour is treated with bleaching agents and sometimes maturing agents for artificial aging. To this end, additives commonly include Potassium bromate, Benzoyl peroxide, Ascorbic Acid, Chlorine dioxide, Calcium peroxide, Azodicarbonamide. Then there are the preservatives added which may include one or a selection of, Calcium propanoate, Sodium benzoate, Tricalcium phosphate, Butylated hydroxyanisole. 

Stone-ground unbleached natural flour

Some flours supplied to bakeries are also bromated. This is when potassium bromate is added to the flour to improve rise and the elasticity of dough! Contemporary methods of manufacturing flour strip away the natural nutrients and these are then sometimes replaced in ‘enriched flour’. These include the addition of iron and B vitamins (folic acid, riboflavin, niacin thiamine and sometimes calcium. In addition to enriching the flour, bread flour is also often ‘fortified’ with the further addition of a cocktail of micro-nutrients. 

Hilda’s recipe simply does not work with this kind of flour. Use only organically grown, non-gmo’d, 100% pure natural flour that has been stone-ground.

Finding the correct salt

Groote Post is closely located to the West Coast. Indeed, the Duckitts had a lovely home on the seaside. The West Coast is rich in sea salt deposit pans, and doubtless the family would have sourced their natural sea salt from one of these deposits. 

The first commercially iodised salt was manufactured and available in the USA in 1924. Manufactured commercial salt the world over is predominantly iodised. The process of ‘manufacturing’ salt, involves the washing, draining, cleaning and refining of salt until it is nearly 100 percent sodium chloride. It reportedly has no fewer than 84 naturally occurring minerals and trace elements removed in the process. Salt is iodised to mitigate the effects of iodine deficiencies in diets. A deficiency in iodine can lead to intellectual and developmental disabilities. 

Pure salt crystals

From personal experience, it would seem that iodine has a negative effect on sourdough yeast. Apart from this, keeping true to the original recipe to achieve an authentic 19th Century loaf of bread demands non-iodised salt. Salt is now a manufactured product. It is bleached to present it as white as possible and has an anti-coagulant added to ensure that the salt runs better. We have discovered a source of natural sea salt from the same area as Hilda’s source. This calcium rich salt, we have found to be considerably (I would estimate 30%) stronger (saltier) than any conventional salt. 

Hilda’s conservative use of salt in the recipe is not necessarily a nod to contemporary health priorities. Her measure is dictated by the strength of the salt she was using. Salt inhibits the development and function of the yeast. 

Exceeding her measurement using a strong salt will disrupt the starter. Salt has a very important role to play in the making of the bread. It controls the yeast development, slowing it down and developing the best flavours of the bread. It contributes to the colouring of the crust allowing it to become golden brown in the oven. Salt of course is also a preservative, allowing the bread to mature gracefully without the development of mould.

The importance of the correct water

Municipal water has many additives, the list varies from municipality to municipality. Primary among them are chlorides and fluorides. The water which Hilda used, was from a local spring on the farm a short distance from the house. This water was rich in mineral content and entirely untreated. Municipal tap water has in the past century been sanitized to the point where all ‘life’ has been removed from it. Hilda’s recipe will not work with municipal tap water. The yeast will not develop.

  The "waterbalie" in Groote Post that would have been used to store the spring water. Photo: E.C. Lodge "From the days that are gone" 1967   

We have discovered in our numerous attempts to make this bread, that only the best organic, original non-gmo varietal wheat stoneground into flour; the purest untreated natural sea salt and fully natural untreated spring water, will work. Even the slightest ‘contamination’ of any one of these three ingredients will cause the bread to fail. This fact has been the most extraordinary discovery of this journey. It is therefore no wonder that this bread is in a very literal sense, the bread of life. A health bread par excellence.

(This post has been co-authored by Keith Loynes)

The start of our bread journey - A traditional sourdough bread recipe for a wood-fired oven 

Click here for the Towerwater traditional Cape Sweet Sourdough Bread recipe More about tradional Cape waterbalies - Listening to buildings