The Mystery of the Bread That Didn't Rise

I was rather puzzled the other day by a loaf of bread that didn’t rise. I knew my yeast was good and had used my standard recipe: 2 cups whole wheat flour, 1 cup white flour, 1 egg (preferably duck), 3 tablespoons soft butter, 1 cup whey, 1.5 teaspoon salt, 1.5 teaspoon yeast, and one teaspoon of sugar. I knew it had enough rising time and the proper baking temperature, because I made it in my bread machine. Not wanting to waste it, I sliced it anyway and popped it into the toaster.

YUCK! It was way too salty! What in the world?! Then it dawned on me. I hadn’t used whey, I had used my mozzarella cheese brine!

My brine jar in kept in the fridge, as is they whey, but it’s labeled, “Brine.”

Or it’s supposed to be! I wash the jar every time I use the brine so I must have washed the label off and couldn’t tell it from the whey.

I’ve made some silly mistakes in my time, but this one must top them all! I ended up feeding it to the chickens, who weren’t impressed. I think if we had pigs at the moment they wouldn’t have cared. But more pigs are for another day, because we have some fencing to fix first.