Few housekeepers are aware of their responsibility in reference to the bread furnished for their family. As this is the principal article of food, there is no one thing on which the health of a family, especially of young children, is more dependant.
Baker’s bread is often made of musty, sour, or other bad flour, which is made to look light, and the bad taste removed by unhealthy drugs. Of course, to the evil of unhealthy flour, is added unhealthy drugs, and there is no mode of discovering the imposition.
The only safe mode is, to have all bread made in the family, and to take all needful care that it shall uniformly be good.
Bread made of salt, or milk risings, is good only the first day, and to those accustomed to good yeast bread, it is offensive to the smell, and not acceptable to the palate.
Bread made of sour milk, or buttermilk and an alkali, or made by mixing cream tartar in the flour, and an alkali in the wetting, is good as an occasional resort, in emergencies, when good yeast cannot be preserved, or when there is not time to wait for yeast rising.
But, as the ordinary bread for continued daily use, it is expensive, and not healthful or good like yeast bread. Some persons suffer from sore mouths and disordered stomachs, in consequence of eating it. Sometimes this is owing to the imperfect mixture of the materials. When the cream tartar is not very thoroughly mixed with the flour, or when the alkali is not properly dissolved and thoroughly mixed, or when there is too much of either, the skin of the mouth and stomach are affected by the bread.
The only kind of bread which is always good for the health, and always acceptable to every palate, is sweet, well-raised, home-made yeast bread. The best kind of home-made yeast bread is an article of luxury to be found upon very few tables, and those who enjoy this comfort, know that there is no food upon earth, which is so good, or the loss of which is so much regretted.
In order to secure such bread, these three things are indispensable, viz.: good flour, good yeast, and good care.
In order to secure good flour, it is best to try it by tasting it, and you ordinarily can detect sourness or must. Buy a small quantity, and then, if it is found to be very superior, and it can be done conveniently, it is well to provide enough of it to last till the next crop of wheat affords new flour, when another supply for a year can be secured. Flour stored in barrels needs no other care than putting it in a cool, dry place, where it is well protected from rats and cockroaches. A tight covered box made of thick plank, large enough to hold several barrels, with shelves to hold smaller supplies of other bread-stuffs, with a door in one side shutting very tight, is a perfect protection from rats, mice, and cockroaches.
Good flour has a yellowish tinge, and when pressed tight in the hand, retains the creases of the skin impressed on it. Poor flour is not thus adhesive; it can be blown about readily, and sometimes has a dingy look, as if ashes were mixed with it.