Vintage Eats Recipe: 1959 Anadama Bread

If I could confess to one culinary weakness, it is bread. I love all types – rolls, muffins, sliced, baguettes, yeast, quick, whatever.

Knowing carbs from bread can convert to sugar in the bloodstream, I do try to limit myself somewhat, due to a familial history of diabetes.

But, when I find a power bread enriched with iron, B vitamins and minerals, including calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron, as well as dietary fiber, I’m willing to make it part of my diet. Anadama Bread provides all of the above-mentioned nutrients.

With cornmeal and molasses it is denser and darker than other breads. Being from the Midwest, I was raised eating white bread. My husband preferred wheat bread so we switched. I grew to like the texture and flavor.

Prior to making Anadama Bread, the only dark loaves I had tasted were pumpernickel and rye. Despite its dark color, Anadama Bread has a sweetness from molasses. I like it toasted and spread with butter and honey.

(The photos show two loaves from different batches.)

One other thing I like about this bread. It contains yeast, yet requires no kneading — I have yet to conquer the process of kneading and seeing a loaf rise, so this is a relief. All I had to do was place it in bread pans.

Anadama Bread has a historical background. It is said to have been baked in New England hearths in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Cornmeal and molasses were common ingredients in Northeast cooking and when cooks discovered their wonderful complementary tastes, they knew they had a winner.

As for the name – I’ve yet to find out the origin. Could the first cook to present this loaf at a meal have been called Anna and the bread was named after her?

Anadama Bread is worth making for the wintry months ahead. Give it a try and let me know how it turns out. I hope you like it.

Note: Next year –2026– is our nation’s 250^th birthday. To honor our nation’s past, I plan to experiment with much older recipes than you’ve seen here and share them with you. Some may even be from colonial days, depending on availability of ingredients.

Anadama Bread was your introduction to this venture.

So hang on! That should be some ride for all of us!

**

This recipe is from ‘Betty Crocker’s Guide to Easy Entertaining —How to Have Guests and Enjoy Them (Golden Press NY 1959, First Edition, Second Printing). It was a gift to me from my dear friend Cathy Shouse. We have supported each other through our writing efforts for decades. She is a romance writer. Find more information about Cathy here. Her books are clean, well-written stories appropriate for all ages.

Take care,

**

1959 Anadama Bread

¾ cup boiling water

½ cup yellow corn meal

3 Tablespoons shortening

¼ cup molasses

2 teaspoons salt

¼ cup warm water (not hot- 110-115 degrees)

1 package active dry yeast

1 egg

2 ¾ cups sifted flour (divided in 2 parts)

Stir together in large bowl boiling water, corn meal, shortening, molasses, salt. Cool to lukewarm.

Dissolve yeast in warm water.

Add yeast, egg, half flour to lukewarm mixture.

Beat 2 minutes at medium speed or 300 vigorous strokes by hand. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl frequently.

Add rest of flour and mix with spoon until flour is thoroughly blended into dough.

Spread batter evenly in greased loaf pan 3-1/2x 4-1/2x 2-¾” pan or 1” from top of other loaf pan for 1.5 hours. Sprinkle top with little corn meal and salt. (I split the dough and put it into 2 smaller bread pans)

Bake at 375 degrees for 50-55 minutes. (I baked it for 25 minutes in the smaller pans)

To test loaf tap the top crust. It should sound hollow. Crust will be dark brown.

Immediately remove bread from pan. Place on a cooling rack or across edges of bread pans.

Brush top with melted butter or shortening. Do not place in direct draft. Cool before cutting.

Yield: 1 loaf

**