How to rise bread dough?

[Alpo]

I was watching a video of the cowboy cook. And he was making up some bread dough. And after he mixed it and he kneaded it, and he played with it for a while, he dumped it in his greased bowl, and covered it with some plastic wrap.

 

Plastic wrap? I'm not exactly sure when that came into existence, but it had to be sometime in the 1900s.

 

So how did they do it before that?

 

Plastic holds the heat in and the air out. If you covered up your dough ball with a dish towel, air and heat would go through the porous cloth.

 

In the long ago time, before Saran wrap, how did they do it? And if they were able to do it without Saran wrap - as they most obviously had to have been - why is Saran wrap the go-to thing now?

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Plastic wrap keeps the dough from drying out, I’d use a damp towel.

[Pat Riot]

My Mom used a damp towel, as @Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984suggested. 
I don’t think I have seen anyone use cling wrap on bread dough, but then I don’t hang out in the bread maker’s circle…in more ways than one. 

[Subdeacon Joe]

I used to cover the bowl with a plate.  Or another bowl.   A couple of years ago I found that one of my pan lids makes a perfect cover for bowl I usually use.

[Rye Miles #13621]

25 minutes ago, Pat Riot said:

My Mom used a damp towel, as @Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984suggested. 
I don’t think I have seen anyone use cling wrap on bread dough, but then I don’t hang out in the bread maker’s circle…in more ways than one. 

My mom did the same.

[Texas Joker]

Oil cloth. Doubles as a mostly non stick surface to flour and knead on.

 

 

[Pat Riot]

25 minutes ago, Texas Joker said:

Oil cloth. Doubles as a mostly non stick surface to flour and knead on.

 

 

What’s oil cloth? I’ve not heard of that. 

[Subdeacon Joe]

21 minutes ago, Pat Riot said:

What’s oil cloth? I’ve not heard of that. 

 

It's a medium to heavy, close weave cloth, like duck or canvas, treated with boiled linseed oil.  Dusters, bedrools (ETA: And even BEDROLLS), rain coats/capes were made of it.

[July Smith]

I make sourdough biscuits almost every weekend.  I usually proof them in a covered dutch oven.  If I don't have time to proof them I cheat and use a little baking powder, which really isn't cheating because that came out in 1843.

[Alpo]

Thank you, one and all.

 

Most recipes I see say to cover the bowl with plastic wrap. And I never thought anything about that, until I saw this video of a chuck wagon cook recommending plastic wrap.

 

And I thought, now how in the hell did they do that on the old Chisholm trail?

[J-BAR #18287]

I'd be more concerned with how the cook washed his hands.

[Subdeacon Joe]

2 minutes ago, Alpo said:

Thank you, one and all.

 

Most recipes I see say to cover the bowl with plastic wrap. And I never thought anything about that, until I saw this video of a chuck wagon cook recommending plastic wrap.

 

And I thought, now how in the hell did they do that on the old Chisholm trail?

 

I watch a lot of videos on YouTube and Instagram of (mostly) Balkan and Eastern European "traditional" cooking, especially This Guy.  Many of them showing very large cuts of meat being cooked show them being wrapped in aluminum foil.  I always think, "Yep, aluminum foil, just like used in 17th century!"  

I used to wonder about "traditional" Italian, Indian, Oriental cooking that use things like tomatoes, peanuts, peppers, corn, or potatoes - all New World foods.  Then I realize that 300 or 400 years of cooking with those could make its use qualify as "traditional."

[Alpo]

1 hour ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

tomatoes, peanuts, peppers, corn, or potatoes - all New World foods.

I guess I can go back to bed. I learned something today.

 

I thought peanuts came from Africa. Brought here by the slaves.

 

Well, apparently they were brought to North America by the slaves. But they originated in South America and were taken to Africa by the Spanish.

 

Golly gosh.

[Subdeacon Joe]

19 minutes ago, Alpo said:

I guess I can go back to bed. I learned something today.

 

I thought peanuts came from Africa. Brought here by the slaves.

 

Well, apparently they were brought to North America by the slaves. But they originated in South America and were taken to Africa by the Spanish.

 

Golly gosh.

 

Isn't history fun?  

 

I can almost hear you thinking,  "What in the world is he talking about?  Everyone knows that we got peanuts from Africa! "  and then went looking for a link to post about that.   

 

I was surprised when I  first came across that,  too.  

[Texas Joker]

4 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

I watch a lot of videos on YouTube and Instagram of (mostly) Balkan and Eastern European "traditional" cooking, especially This Guy.  Many of them showing very large cuts of meat being cooked show them being wrapped in aluminum foil.  I always think, "Yep, aluminum foil, just like used in 17th century!"  

I used to wonder about "traditional" Italian, Indian, Oriental cooking that use things like tomatoes, peanuts, peppers, corn, or potatoes - all New World foods.  Then I realize that 300 or 400 years of cooking with those could make its use qualify as "traditional."

You char the outside and it seals in the juices then parboil to loosen the char. Kinda like a brisket over coals

Pearl ash the shiny white ash from hard woods is also good in place of baking powder. It's a potassium carbonate IIRC. Has a lot of the same reactions and will rise dough

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Aluminum foil did not exist in the 17th century.

[John Kloehr]

I updated a traditional corned beef recipe from a few centuries ago.

 

First I replaced 50 pounds of meat with one slab.

 

The half whiskey barrel in the root cellar became a large covered pan in the fridge.

 

The rock to hold the beef submerged became a 2-gallon zip-lock bag (just burp out all the air).

 

The salt petre became a purchase of Salt of Potassium Nitrate, 4 ounces only at the local pharmacy, special order, show ID (this was after Oklahoma City). The tiny amount in the recipe is very carefully calibrated to the final product, do not want to poison yourself. This ingredient is not really needed today since we have refrigeration, but does provide the pink color after curing.

 

All other spices and vegetables simply scaled down, no changes there.

 

One thing I did keep true to the original recipe (slightly updated) is testing the salt brine (sodium chloride, table salt) concentration. Keep adding salt to the water and stirring to dissolve until a raw egg floats. The update is a careful sterilization of the raw egg shell. I found this detail in the original recipe too interesting to replace it with two measured ingredients; I chose not to ever figure out the actual concentration.

 

So I do make a carefully researched traditional corned beef in the fridge using a zip lock bag. The recipe and process are traditional, the tools and methods are modern.

 

The result is not the same as "plastic" corned beef from the store, even though many remember this grocery store product as part of traditional family meals. My home made product has grain and texture and flavor which can not be duplicated in a factory.

 

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

48 minutes ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

Aluminum foil did not exist in the 17th century.

 

Exactly my point. 

 

In the style of Father Vasiliy Vasileivich**, spokesman for the Church Abroad arm/bit/part/whatever of the Russian Orthodox Church Wherever It Wants to Be (ROCWIWTB) and parish priest of Sts. Boris and Gleb and Vladimir and Olga Russian Orthodox Church in Sydney, Australia was known to rant when a reader of The Onion Dome wrote about some innovation being introduced, "Was there being aluminum foil in 17th century Russia? NO! IS OUTRAGE!"

 

**Fr. Vasiliy was a fictional character in the defunct psatire blog "The Onion Dome." 

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

13 hours ago, J-BAR #18287 said:

I'd be more concerned with how the cook washed his hands.

 

Just adds more flavour!

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

7 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

Aluminum foil did not exist in the 17th century.

However tin foil was used in the late 18th century.