If you cannot hold your hand in longer than to count twenty moderately, it is hot enough.
If you can count thirty moderately, it is not hot enough for bread.
These last are not very accurate tests, as the power to bear heat is so diverse in different persons; but they are as good rules as can be given, where there has been no experience.
How to know when Bread is Sour, or Heavy.
If the bread is sour, on opening it quick and deeply with your fingers, and applying the nose to the opening, a tingling and sour odor escapes. This is remedied by taking a teaspoonful of saleratus, for every four quarts of flour, very thoroughly dissolved in hot water, which is to be put in a hole made in the middle, and very thoroughly kneaded in, or there will be yellow streaks.
If the bread is light and not sour, it will, on opening it deep and suddenly, send forth a pungent and brisk, but not a sour odor, and it will look full of holes, like sponge. Some may mistake the smell of light bread for that of sour bread, but a little practice will show the difference very plainly.
If the bread is light before the oven is ready, knead it a little without adding flour, and set it in a cool place.
If it rises too much, it loses all sweetness, and nothing but care and experience will prevent this. The best of flour will not make sweet bread, if it is allowed to rise too much, even when no sourness is induced.
How to treat Bread when taken from the Oven.
Never set it flat on a table, as it sweats the bottom, and acquires a bad taste from the table.