Flour loses its sweetness by keeping, and this is the reason why sugar is put in the recipes for bread. The best kind of flour, when new and fresh ground, has eight per cent. of sugar; and when such flour is used, the sugar may be omitted.
Some people make bread by mixing it so that it can be stirred with a spoon. But the nicest kind of bread can be made only with a good deal of kneading.
RECIPES FOR YEAST AND BREAD.
The best yeast is brewers’ or distillery, as this raises bread much sooner than home-brewed. The following is the best kind of home-made yeast, and will keep good two or three weeks:
Hop and Potato Yeast.—Pare and slice five large potatoes, and boil them in one quart of water with a large handful of common hops (or a square inch of pressed hops), tied in a muslin rag. When soft, take out the hops and press the potatoes through a colander, and add a small cup of white sugar, a tea-spoonful of ginger, two tea-spoonfuls of salt, and two tea-cups of common yeast, or half as much distillery. Add the yeast when the rest is only blood-warm. White sugar keeps better than brown, and the salt and ginger help to preserve the yeast.
Do not boil in iron or use an iron spoon, as it colors the yeast. Keep yeast in a stone or earthenware jar, with a plate fitting well to the rim. This is better than a jug, as easier to fill and to cleanse. Scald the jar before making new yeast.
The rule for quantity is, one table-spoonful of brewers’ or distillery yeast to every quart of flour; or twice as much home-made yeast.
Potato Yeast is made by the above rule, omitting the hops. It can be used in large quantities without giving a bitter taste, and so raises bread sooner. But it has to be renewed much oftener than hop yeast, and the bread loses the flavor of hop yeast.
Hard Yeast is made with home-brewed yeast (not brewers’ or distillery), thickened with Indian meal and fine flour in equal parts, and then made into cakes an inch thick and three inches by two in size, dried in the wind but not in the sun. Keep them tied in a bag in a dry, cool place, where they will not freeze. One cake soaked in a pint of warm water (not hot) is enough for four quarts of flour. It is a good plan to work in mashed potatoes into this yeast, and let it rise well before using it. This makes the nicest bread. Some housekeepers say pour boiling water on one third of the flour, and then mix the rest in immediately, and it has the same effect as using potatoes.
When there is no yeast to start with, it can be made with one pint of new milk, one tea-spoonful of fine salt, and a table-spoonful of flour. When it is worked, use twice as much as common yeast. This is called Milk Yeast or Salt Risings, and bread made of it is poor, and soon spoils.
When yeast ceases to look foamy, and becomes watery, with sediment at the bottom, it must be renewed. When good, the smell is pungent, but not sour. If sour, nothing can restore it.
Bread of Fine Flour.—Take four quarts of sifted flour, one quart of lukewarm water, in which are dissolved two tea-spoonfuls of salt, two tea-spoonfuls of sugar, a table-spoonful of melted butter, and one cup of yeast. Mix and knead very thoroughly, and have it as soft as can be molded, using as little flour as possible. Make it into small loaves, put it in buttered pans, prick it with a fork, and when light enough to crack on the top, bake it. Nothing but experience will show when bread is just at the right point of lightness.
If bread rises too long, it becomes sour. This is discovered by making a sudden opening and applying the nose, and the sourness will be noticed as different from the odor of proper lightness. Practice is needed in this. If bread is light too soon for the oven, knead it awhile, and set it in a cool place. Sour bread can be remedied somewhat by working in soda dissolved in water—about half a tea-spoonful for each quart of flour. Many spoil bread by too much flour, others by not kneading enough, and others by allowing it to rise too much.
The goodness of bread depends on the quality of the flour. Some flour will not make good bread in any way. New and good flour has a yellowish tinge, and when pressed in the hand is adhesive. Poor flour is dry, and will not retain form when pressed. Poor flour is bad economy, for it does not make as nutritious bread as does good flour.
Bread made with milk sometimes causes indigestion to invalids and to children with weak digestion.
Take loaves out of the pans, and set them sidewise, and not flat, on a table. Wrapping in a cloth makes the bread clammy.
Bread is better in small loaves. Let your pans be of tin (or better, of iron), eight inches long, three inches high, three inches wide at the bottom, and flaring so as to be four inches wide at the top. This size makes more tender crust, and cuts more neatly than larger loaves.
Oil the pans with a swab and sweet butter or lard. They should be well washed and dried, or black and rancid oil will gather.
All these kinds of bread can be baked in biscuit-form; and, by adding water and eggs, made into griddle-cakes. Bread having potatoes in it keeps moist longest, but turns sour soonest.
Bread of Middlings or Unbolted Flour.—Take four quarts of coarse flour, one quart of warm water, one cup of yeast, two tea-spoonfuls of salt, one spoonful of melted lard or butter, two cups of sugar or molasses, and half a tea-spoonful of soda. Mix thoroughly, and bake in pans the same as the bread of fine flour. It is better to be kneaded rather than made soft with a spoon.
Bread raised with Water only.—Many persons like bread made either of fine or coarse flour, and raised with water only. Success in making this kind depends on the proper quantity of water, quick beating, the heating of very small pans, and very quick baking. There are cast-iron patties made for this purpose, and also small, coarse earthen cups. The following is the rule, but it must be modified by trying:
Recipe.—To one quart of unbolted flour put about one quart, or a little less, of hot water. Beat it very quickly, put it in hot pans, and bake in a hot oven. White flour may be used in place of coarse, and the quantity ascertained by trial. When right, there is after baking little except a crust, which is sweet and crisp.
Rye and Indian Bread.—The Boston or Eastern Brown Bread is made thus: One quart of rye, one quart of corn-meal, one cup of molasses, half a cup of distillery yeast, or twice as much home-brewed; one tea-spoonful of soda, and one tea-spoonful of salt. Wet with hot water till it is stiff as can be stirred with a spoon. This is put in a large brown pan and baked four or five hours. It is good toasted, and improved by adding boiled squash.
Third Bread.—This is made with equal parts of rye, corn-meal, and unbolted flour. To one quart of warm water add one tea-spoonful of salt, half a cup of distillery or twice as much home-brewed yeast, and half a cup of molasses, and thicken with equal parts of these three kinds of flour. It is very good for a variety.
Rye Bread.—Take a quart of warm water, a tea-spoonful of salt, half a cup of molasses, and a cup of home-brewed yeast, or half as much of distillery. Add flour till you can knead it, and do it very thoroughly.
Oat-meal Bread.—Oat-meal is sometimes bitter from want of care in preparing. When good, it makes excellent and healthful bread.
Take one pint of boiling water, one great-spoonful of sweet lard or butter, two great-spoonfuls of sugar; melt them together, and thicken with two-thirds Oat-meal and one-third fine flour. When blood-warm, add half a cup of home-brewed yeast and two well-beaten eggs. Mold into small cakes, and bake on buttered tins, or make two loaves.
Pumpkin Bread and Apple Bread.—These are very good for a variety. Stew and strain pumpkins or apples, and then work in either corn-meal or unbolted flour, or both. To each quart of the fruit add two table-spoonfuls of sugar, a pinch of salt, and a cup of home-brewed yeast. If the apples are quite sour, add more sugar. Make it as stiff as can be stirred with a spoon, and bake in patties or small loaves. Children like it for a change.
Corn-Meal Bread.—Always scald corn-meal. Melt two table-spoonfuls of butter or sweet lard in one quart of hot water; add a tea-spoonful of salt and a tea-cup of sugar. Thicken with corn-meal, and one-third as much fine flour, or unbolted flour, or middlings. Two well-beaten eggs improve it. Make it as stiff as can be easily stirred with a spoon, or, as some would advise, knead it like bread of white flour.
If raised with yeast, put in a tea-cup of home-brewed yeast, or half as much of distillery. If raised with powders, mix two tea-spoonfuls of cream tartar thoroughly with the meal, and one tea-spoonful of soda in the water.
Sweet Rolls of Corn-Meal.—Mix half corn-meal and half fine or unbolted flour; add a little salt, and then wet it up with sweetened water, raise it with yeast, and bake in small patties or cups in a very quick oven.
Soda Biscuit.—In one quart of flour mix very thoroughly two tea-spoonfuls of cream tartar, and a tea-spoonful of salt. Dissolve in a pint of warm water one tea-spoonful of soda and one table-spoonful of melted butter or lard. Mix quickly; add flour till you can roll, but let it be as soft as possible. Bake in a quick oven, and as soon as possible after mixing.
Yeast Biscuit.—Take a pint of raised dough of fine flour: pick it in small pieces; add one well-beaten egg, two great-spoonfuls of butter or lard, and two great-spoonfuls of sugar. Work thoroughly for ten minutes; add flour to roll, and then cut in round cakes and bake on tins, or mold into biscuits. Let them stand till light, and then bake in a quick oven.
If you have no dough raised, make biscuit as you would bread, except adding more shortening.
Potato Biscuit.—Boil and press through a colander twelve mealy potatoes; any others are not good. While warm, add one cup of butter, one tea-spoonful of salt, four great-spoonfuls of sugar, and half a cup of yeast. Mix in white or coarse flour till it can be well kneaded. Mold into small cakes; let them stand till light, and bake in a quick oven. These are the best kind, especially if made of coarse flour.
Buns.—These are best made by the rule for potato biscuit, adding twice as much sugar. When done, rub over a mixture of half milk and half molasses, and it improves looks and taste.
CHAPTER XIV.
BREAKFAST AND SUPPER.
What shall we have for breakfast to-morrow? is the constant question of trial to a housekeeper, and it is the aim of the present chapter to meet this want by presenting a good and successive variety of articles healthful, economical, and easily prepared.
Some of the best housekeepers have taken this method: they provide a good supply of the following articles, to be used in succession—rice, corn-meal, rye flour, wheat grits, unbolted wheat, cracked wheat, pearl wheat, oat grits, Oat-meal, and hominy, with which they make a new article for every day in the week. Some one of these is selected for either a dinner vegetable or dessert, or for a dish at tea, and the remainder used for the next morning’s breakfast.
The following will indicate the methods: