There are many recipes for making good bread. Skeptics say it
can't be made by rule. They are mistaken. It can. They put their
material together any way it happens, have as good "luck " as most of
their neighbors and are content. The baking they lay upon the
shoulders of the great god of chance. The deficiencies of the compla-
cent cook, cheap flour and lazy housekeepers, are .at the bottom of
more accidents in the bread line than in anything else. From inferior
grades of flour it is possible to make tolerable biscuit, griddle cakes,
pie and pastry, but not bread. Let it be understood once for all that
poor flour is poor economy.
Now let us make some bread by rule :
380 BREAD-MAKING.
Take two teacups of boiling water and stir in enough flour to make
a thin batter. Pour in a quart of cold water, add one teacup of baker's
yeast, a tablespoonful of salt and four tablespoonf uls of melted lard ;
add enough flour to make a thick batter✪ Bread Making. The temperature of the place
for the bread to rise in should be seventy degrees. Let the sponge
stand for three hours, but not near a heated stove. At the end of the
three hours, knead in all the flour it will mix without sticking to the
hands and knead it ten minutes. Let it stand again in the same tem-
perature an hour to rise. Knead again a little, mold ana* put it in
your bread-pan. Let it rise until the corners are filled and the dough
is nearly even with the edges of the bread-pan.
To bake it well, the temperature of the oven should be about 212
degrees. Place your bread in the oven with a large pan turned over it
so as not to hinder its rising, and bake three-quarters of an hour.
When to eat it : Never when it is warm. It is better far, for health,
not to cut into a loaf until it is six hours old. In Prussia bread is not
eaten until it is twenty-four hours old, and increased vigor in American
people would follow the adoption of the same rule.
HOP-YEAST.
First, and the most important of all, is how to make good, reliable
yeast. Steep slowly in a porcelain or a bright tin kettle one large hand-
ful of fresh hops tied in a cloth; boil six large potatoes, sliced thin, in
two quarts of water, and in porcelain ; when done very soft, mash till
smooth and creamy. Have ready one pint of flour, wet and rubbed to
a smooth paste ; pour into this the potato water boiling hot, stirring
smoothly; let it boil a few minutes, stirring all the time ; add the hop
water and potatoes, two tablespoonf uls of salt and one cup white sugar;
stir thoroughly and set away to cool. When milk warm to the touch,
stir in one cup of fresh yeast✪ Hop Yeast ; let it rise in a warm place twelve hours ;
put it in an air-tight vessel, previously well scalded, and set in the cel-
lar. This will keep from four to six weeks. Always make new yeast
before the old is gone, in order to have some to start with. Be very
particular at every new batch of yeast, to have the vessel in which it is
kept well cleaned with hot saleratus water. Much depends upon keep-
ing this sweet and clean.
YEAST THAT WON'T SOUR. ✪ Yeast That Won't Sour
Page 330 · 3 recipe records on this page
Presented as published in 1886. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
There are many recipes for making good bread. Skeptics say it can't be made by rule. They are mistaken. It can. They put their material together any way it happens, have as good "luck " as most of their neighbors and are content. The baking they lay upon the shoulders of the great god of chance. The deficiencies of the complacent cook, cheap flour and lazy housekeepers, are .at the bottom of more accidents in the bread line than in anything else. From inferior grades of flour it is possible to make tolerable biscuit, griddle cakes, pie and pastry, but not bread. Let it be understood once for all that poor flour is poor economy.
Now let us make some bread by rule :
Take two teacups of boiling water and stir in enough flour to make a thin batter. Pour in a quart of cold water, add one teacup of baker's yeast, a tablespoonful of salt and four tablespoonfuls of melted lard ; add enough flour to make a thick batter. The temperature of the place for the bread to rise in should be seventy degrees. Let the sponge stand for three hours, but not near a heated stove. At the end of the three hours, knead in all the flour it will mix without sticking to the hands and knead it ten minutes. Let it stand again in the same temperature an hour to rise. Knead again a little, mold and put it in your bread-pan. Let it rise until the corners are filled and the dough is nearly even with the edges of the bread-pan.
To bake it well, the temperature of the oven should be about 212 degrees. Place your bread in the oven with a large pan turned over it so as not to hinder its rising, and bake three-quarters of an hour.
When to eat it : Never when it is warm. It is better far, for health, not to cut into a loaf until it is six hours old. In Prussia bread is not eaten until it is twenty-four hours old, and increased vigor in American people would follow the adoption of the same rule.
HOP-YEAST.
First, and the most important of all, is how to make good, reliable yeast. Steep slowly in a porcelain or a bright tin kettle one large handful of fresh hops tied in a cloth; boil six large potatoes, sliced thin, in two quarts of water, and in porcelain ; when done very soft, mash till smooth and creamy. Have ready one pint of flour, wet and rubbed to a smooth paste ; pour into this the potato water boiling hot, stirring smoothly; let it boil a few minutes, stirring all the time ; add the hop water and potatoes, two tablespoonfuls of salt and one cup white sugar; stir thoroughly and set away to cool. When milk warm to the touch, stir in one cup of fresh yeast ; let it rise in a warm place twelve hours ; put it in an air-tight vessel, previously well scalded, and set in the cellar. This will keep from four to six weeks. Always make new yeast before the old is gone, in order to have some to start with. Be very particular at every new batch of yeast, to have the vessel in which it is kept well cleaned with hot saleratus water. Much depends upon keeping this sweet and clean.
YEAST THAT WON'T SOUR.
Records on this page
Bread MakingHop YeastYeast That Won't Sour