The process of bread-making is not necessarily a diflBcult one,
and yet there are probably a dozen American girls who can nlake a
good loaf of cake or a delicate dessert to one who can make good
bread ; though it is generally acknowledged that bread is by far
the most important article in the list of household cookery, and
that bread-making should therefore be the first lesson in house-
keeping. In this, as in every other branch of cookery, the first
step is the most difiicult, and the main thing is to become acquainted
with the elementary principles. When one is well grounded in
these, and knows how to make the best quality of fermented or
yeast-raised bread of pure wheat flour, the rest is easily accom-
plished. Bread-making then becomes easier and more interesting
with each trial, and Vienna bread, Graham bread, Boston brown
bread — in fact all the varieties of bread, together with rolls and
buns of every description, are achievements to be attained with a
little additional thought and effort. ^
The preparation of good bread is really a very simple matter,
requiring only care and attention U) the principles involved in its
production. In its simplest form, bread is flour, mixed with water
into a stiff dough, with yeast or some similar substance introduced
to cause it to rise, after which it is baked in masses or loaves in
the oven. This is simple enough, and yet close attention all along
the lines of the process must be given to insure the highest success.
The best bread, and almost the only bread generally used in Amer-
ica, is made of flour — ^which is the crushed and pulverized grain of
wheat, less the hard outer shell or bran. The best and strongest
flour (measured by its capacity to produce loaves and the quantity
of gluten), is made from what is known as "No. 1 hard" spring
wiheat, grown in Minnesota and North Dakota and farther to the
north in the wheat growing regions of Manitoba in British America.
Brands of this flour are known in all the leading markets of the
world. The next flour in excellence of quality is made from choice
winter wheat. The spring wheat of all except the extreme North-
western states, makes an inferior flour and is therefore but little
grown.
10 BREAD-MAKING.
An average sample of flour is composed of:
Moisture 10.84 per cent.
Gluten 13.76 "
Starch ' 68.28 "
Oil .... ; 2.40 "
Sugar 4.16 "
Ash 57 "
100.00
The peculiar characteristic of wheat flour is its gluten. Fiour
or meal from other grain contains but little. It is a nitrogenous
compound, but it differs from the nitrogenous portions of other
grains and vegetables, none of them showing more than a trace of
its peculiar form in wheat. Take a little wheat flour, and moisten
it with water and it may be worked into a stiff mass of dough, from
which, by continued working and kneading in cold water, the
starch may be washed out almost completely, leaving a tough,
^ semi-transparent mass, which, in drying, loses about two-fifths
in weight, and becomes hard like a piece of horn. This is
nearly pure gluten, and its presence in wheat flour gives to it its
peculiar properties. Analysis gives in average winter wheat 10.16
Page 4
Presented as published in 1890. 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
The process of bread-making is not necessarily a diflBcult one, and yet there are probably a dozen American girls who can nlake a good loaf of cake or a delicate dessert to one who can make good bread ; though it is generally acknowledged that bread is by far the most important article in the list of household cookery, and that bread-making should therefore be the first lesson in housekeeping. In this, as in every other branch of cookery, the first step is the most difficult, and the main thing is to become acquainted with the elementary principles. When one is well grounded in these, and knows how to make the best quality of fermented or yeast-raised bread of pure wheat flour, the rest is easily accomplished. Bread-making then becomes easier and more interesting with each trial, and Vienna bread, Graham bread, Boston brown bread — in fact all the varieties of bread, together with rolls and buns of every description, are achievements to be attained with a little additional thought and effort. ^
The preparation of good bread is really a very simple matter, requiring only care and attention U) the principles involved in its production. In its simplest form, bread is flour, mixed with water into a stiff dough, with yeast or some similar substance introduced to cause it to rise, after which it is baked in masses or loaves in the oven. This is simple enough, and yet close attention all along the lines of the process must be given to insure the highest success. The best bread, and almost the only bread generally used in America, is made of flour — ^which is the crushed and pulverized grain of wheat, less the hard outer shell or bran. The best and strongest flour (measured by its capacity to produce loaves and the quantity of gluten), is made from what is known as "No. 1 hard" spring wheat, grown in Minnesota and North Dakota and farther to the north in the wheat growing regions of Manitoba in British America. Brands of this flour are known in all the leading markets of the world. The next flour in excellence of quality is made from choice winter wheat. The spring wheat of all except the extreme Northwestern states, makes an inferior flour and is therefore but little grown.
An average sample of flour is composed of:
Moisture 10.84 per cent.
Gluten 13.76 "
Starch ' 68.28 "
Oil .... ; 2.40 "
Sugar 4.16 "
Ash .57 "
100.00 The peculiar characteristic of wheat flour is its gluten. Fiour or meal from other grain contains but little. It is a nitrogenous compound, but it differs from the nitrogenous portions of other grains and vegetables, none of them showing more than a trace of its peculiar form in wheat. Take a little wheat flour, and moisten it with water and it may be worked into a stiff mass of dough, from which, by continued working and kneading in cold water, the starch may be washed out almost completely, leaving a tough,
^ semi-transparent mass, which, in drying, loses about two-fifths in weight, and becomes hard like a piece of horn. This is nearly pure gluten, and its presence in wheat flour gives to it its peculiar properties. Analysis gives in average winter wheat 10.16