Some people object to the odor during this period but, as Practical Housekeeping explained, this is "the result of
acetous [or sour] fermentation, but the more of that the more sure you are of having sweet bread when baked" [3] When the batter has risen, knead in shortening and more flour (it may take as many as 8 cups) to make a stiff bread dough.
It should be remarked that dough made of wheat meal will take on the
acetous fermentation, [acet- acetic acid, such as vinegar] or become sour sooner than that made with fine flour.
Is it not bread which has been suffered to sour, and then been sweetened with an alkali, which has undergone the vinous,
acetous, and sometimes the putrid fermentation, and then been whitened with vitriol?