Directions for making Bread, Yeast &c.
Holy Writ assures us that bread is the staff of life, and experience fully proves the assertion. Yet many of us know not how to make this needed support. Every girl, no matter what her station in life may be, should learn how to prepare it in its highest excellence.
The word bread is derived from brayed grain, from the verb to bray, or pound; indicative of the method of preparing the flour.
Dough comes from the Anglo-Saxon word deawian, to wet or moisten. Loaf is from the Anglo-Saxon lif-ian, to raise or lift up, as raised bread. Leaven is derived from the French verb lever, to raise.
Dwellers in country towns and villages are forced to prepare the leaven, or yeast; so we append a receipt which never fails to make good bread. Wash and pare six good-sized, white-fleshed potatoes, grate them raw, on a lemon grater. Pour over them three quarts of boiling water; it will thicken up like starch. Add one table-spoonful of salt and half a cup of sugar. When the mixture is lukewarm, pour in one cupful of yeast. Set the pan beside the stove, and in six hours it will be light enough to use. Let it stand over night in a cool place; next morning cork it tightly in a jug. Keep it in the cellar or ice-house; but be sure that it does not freeze—that kills the life of it. Home-made yeast requires double the quantity of baker’s yeast. One teacupful of this yeast will make three loaves of bread and a pan of biscuit.
Potatoes added to the bread increases its bulk and quality. Boil six common-sized potatoes in two quarts of water, with one table-spoon of salt. When perfectly salt, mash fine on a plate, leaving no little particles. They can be rubbed through a colander and reduced to a pulp; turn it into the bread-pan, and pour over the water in which they were boiled. Sift eight quarts of flour, and when the potato-water is cooled, so as to be a little warm to the touch, stir in half the flour; then add one teacupful of the yeast. When that is thoroughly mixed up, put in the rest of the flour, making it thick enough to knead stiffly. Do this in the evening, and place the pan in a warm room in winter, a cool one in summer. Early next morning it will be risen finely. Another pan should have been tightly covered over it, and it will rise up into the pan. Knead it thoroughly on the moulding board, chopping it with a chopping-knife, or pounding with a pestle. Bread must be kneaded for an hour at least, if one desires the best quality. Holes in the slices of bread show that it was not well made. The superiority of the French bread-makers is owing to this cause. In many bakeries the dough is prepared by machinery. After the process of kneading is finished, rolls can be made, and baked for breakfast. They are prepared by rolling the dough in the shape of a rolling-pin, then cutting off a small portion, and rolling that in the same shape. Dip the sides and tops in melted butter, place in a pan, and put them in a warm place for twenty minutes; then bake in a hot oven twenty minutes. The melted butter causes them to break apart perfectly, and to brown handsomely.
The remainder of the dough is placed near the stove to rise a second time. It must be closely watched—ten minutes’ neglect will sour it.