Philosopher Henry David Thoreau was an environmentalist and early naturalist. In 1845 he built a tiny one-room cabin on the shores of Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, to experiment with living simply and deliberately. There he grew and gathered his own food and wrote in his journals—living off the grid before there was a grid.
Thoreau even made his own bread. He was inspired by a traditional bread of the Indigenous people of his beloved Massachusetts: unleavened cornmeal flatbread. In his famous book Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1854), he wrote:
“... Bread I at first made of pure cornmeal and salt, genuine hoe-cakes [sometimes made on the blade of a hoe], which I baked before my fire out of doors on a shingle on the end of a stick of timber sawed off in building my house; but it was wont to get smoked and to have a piny flavor. I have tried flour also; but have at last found a mixture of rye and cornmeal most convenient and agreeable...”
Unleavened, smoked, and piny? Not too appealing. But reading about Thoreau’s recipe got me thinking about Anadama Bread, another New England specialty, which also includes cornmeal. And what could be lovelier in fall than the aroma of Anadama warming your own soon-to-be chilly kitchen?
The version here is not quite so flat as Thoreau’s, but not as lofty as more typical Anadama bread, which generally calls for all-purpose flour, cornmeal, molasses, and milk or butter. It is closely associated with New England, and Massachusetts in particular—possibly Rockport and Gloucester, two of my favorite towns in the world.
This Thoreau-inspired loaf is delicious, with a touch of warmth and sweetness from the molasses, a subtle crunch from the cornmeal, and the savory depth of rye. It makes what is perhaps my all-time favorite toast for breakfast, and freezes (after slicing) exceptionally well. Click here for the recipe on my website.
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