At times I do wonder how our forbearers did their cooking and baking in olden days – their tools and gadgets, where they got their ingredients, how they keep the hearth fire going in all sort of weather… So I appreciate very much this writing. It seems salt-rising is not the easiest way to get a loaf of bread. But I put a copy of this blog in my file of bread recipes just in case my curiosity and the challenge compel me to give it try one day. Stowing days-old bread into the freezer. Fine. But may I share with you Madam Marion Cunningham’s (a.k.a. Fannie Farmer) recipe for preserving bread? She said to break the loaf into pieces, about 2 to 3 inches, and toast them in a preheated 250° oven for about an hour. She called this ‘pulled bread’, and said this was often served in hotel restaurants in the 18th and 19th centuries. Imagine! So this is not just for leftover bread. The toasted bread, according to Madam Cunningham, “will keep almost indefinitely stored in an airtight container.” To test her method I once purposely kept some ‘pulled bread’ (made from a loaf of rye bread) for over two months in a container at room temperature. It was good to the last crumb. Since then I have done this ‘pulled bread’ quite a few times, with moderate department from Madam Cunningham’s recipe. Firstly I keep the crust on. Madam Cunningham said to feed the crust to the birds, but I enjoy it too. And I sometimes slice the bread instead. And I find that the pieces/slices will toast nicely in a turned-off oven after I have done some baking – no need to preheat the oven just for this purpose.

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