Peel and stew them, with just water enough to prevent their sticking at the bottom of the pan. Shake them occasionally, to prevent their burning. When tender, take them up, and put them in scalding hot vinegar, spiced with mace, cloves, and peppercorns—add a little salt. Bottle and cork them tight, if you wish to keep them long.
For six common sized loaves of bread, take three pints of boiling water, and mix it with five or six quarts of flour. When thoroughly mixed, add three pints of cold water. Stir it till the whole of the dough is of the same temperature. When lukewarm, stir in half a pint of family yeast, (if brewers’ yeast is used, a less quantity will answer,) a table-spoonful of salt, knead in flour till stiff enough to mould up, and free from lumps. The more the bread is kneaded, the better it will be. Cover it over with a thick cloth, and if the weather is cold, set it near a fire. To ascertain when it has risen, cut it through the middle with a knife—if full of small holes like a sponge, it is sufficiently light for baking. It should be baked as soon as light. If your bread should get sour before you are ready to bake it, dissolve two or more tea-spoonsful of saleratus (according to the acidity of it) in a tea-cup of milk or water, strain it on to the dough, work it in well—then cut off enough for a loaf of bread—mould it up well, slash it on both sides, to prevent its cracking when baked—put it in a buttered tin-pan. The bread should stand ten or twelve minutes in the pans before baking it. If you like your bread baked a good deal, let it stand in the oven an hour and a half. When the wheat is grown, it makes better bread to wet the flour entirely with boiling water. It should remain till cool before working in the yeast. Some cooks have an idea that it kills the life of the flour to scald it, but it is a mistaken idea—it is sweeter for it, and will keep good much longer. Bread made in this way is nearly as good as that which is wet with milk. Care must be taken not to put the yeast in when the dough is hot, as it will scald it, and prevents its rising. Most ovens require heating an hour and a half for bread. A brisk fire should be kept up, and the doors of the room should be kept shut, if the weather is cold. Pine and ash, mixed together, or birch-wood, is the best for heating an oven. To ascertain if your oven is of the right temperature, when cleaned, throw in a little flour; if it browns in the course of a minute, it is sufficiently hot; if it turns black directly, wait several minutes, before putting in the things that are to be baked. If the oven does not bake well, set in a furnace of live coals.
For four loaves of bread, take three quarts of wheat flour, and the same quantity of boiling water—mix them well together. Let it remain till lukewarm, then add a tea-cup full of family, or half a tea-cup of distillery yeast. Set it in a warm place to rise. When light, knead in flour till stiff enough to mould up, then let it stand till risen again, before moulding it up.
Wet up rye flour with lukewarm milk, (water will do to wet it with, but it will not make the bread so good.) Put in the same proportion of yeast as for wheat bread. For four or five loaves of bread, put in a couple of tea-spoonsful of salt. A couple of table-spoonsful of melted butter makes the crust more tender. It should not be kneaded as stiff as wheat bread, or it will be hard when baked. When light, take it out into pans, without moulding it up—let it remain in them about twenty minutes, before baking.
Brown bread is made by scalding Indian meal, and stirring into it, when lukewarm, about the same quantity of rye flour as Indian meal—add yeast and salt in the same proportion as for other kinds of bread. Bake it between two and three hours.