This has very generally superseded the use of English beer-yeast in London, and other places conveniently situated for receiving quickly and regularly the supplies of it which are imported from abroad; but as it speedily becomes putrid in sultry weather, and does not in any season remain good long after its arrival here, it is unsuited for transmission to remote parts of the country. Bread made with it while it is perfectly sweet, is extremely light and good, and it answers remarkably well for light cakes and biscuits. An ounce is the proportion which we have always had used for a quartern (half a gallon or three pounds and a half) of flour, and this, with the addition of some salt and nearly a quart of milk, or milk and water, has produced excellent bread when it has been made with care. The yeast should be very gradually and perfectly moistened and blended with the warm liquid; for unless this be done, and the whole rendered smooth as cream, the dough will not be of the uniform texture which it ought, but will be full of large hollow spaces, which are never seen in well-made bread. The mass should be mixed up firmly and well kneaded at once, then left to rise for about an hour; again kneaded thoroughly, and again left to rise from three-quarters of an hour to an hour; then divided, and lightly worked up into loaves, put into round slightly buttered earthen pans, and sent immediately to the oven.[[187]]
[187]. We give the proportions used and the exact manner of making this bread, which we have had followed for more than twelve months, with entire success.
A leaven may be first laid with the yeast, and part of the liquid when it is preferred, as directed for bread made with beer-yeast, but the result will be equally good if the whole be kneaded up at once, if it be made quite firm.
PROFESSOR LIEBIG’S BAVARIAN BROWN BREAD.
(Very nutritious and wholesome.)
Baron Liebig pronounces this bread to be very superior to that which is made with fine flour solely, both in consequence of the greater amount of nutriment which it contains, and from its slight medicinal effect, which renders it valuable to many persons accustomed to have frequent recourse to drugs, of which it supersedes the necessity. It is made with the wheat exactly as it is ground, no part being subtracted, nor any additional flour mingled with it. He directs that the wheat should not be damped before it is prepared: but few millers can be found who will depart from their ordinary practice to oblige private customers; and this determined adherence to established usage intervenes constantly between us, and all improvement in our modes of preparing food. The bread is made in the usual way, with water only, or with a portion of milk added to the yeast, as taste or convenience may dictate. The loaves should be well baked at all times; and the dough should of course be perfectly light when it is placed in the oven. Salt should be mixed with the meal before the yeast is added.
ENGLISH BROWN BREAD.
This is often made with a portion only of the unbolted meal recommended in the preceding receipt, mixed with more or less of fine flour, according to the quality of bread required; and in many families the coarse bran is always sifted from the meal, as an impression exists that it is irritating to the stomach. If one gallon of meal as it comes from the mill, be well mixed with an equal measure of flour, and made into a dough in the manner directed for white household bread, the loaves will still be sufficiently brown for the general taste in this country, and they will be good and wholesome, though not, perhaps, so entirely easy of digestion as Baron Liebig’s Bavarian bread.
UNFERMENTED BREAD.
This bread, in which carbonate of soda and muriatic acid are substituted for yeast or other leaven, has within these few years been highly recommended, and much eaten. It may possibly suit many persons better than that which is fermented in the usual way, but it is not in general by any means so pleasant in flavour; and there is much more chance of failure in preparing it in private families, as it requires some skill to mix the ingredients with exactness and despatch; and it is absolutely necessary that the dough should be set into the oven the instant it is ready. In some hydropathic and other large establishments, where it is always supplied to the table in lieu of the more common kinds, it is, we have been informed by patients who had partaken of it there for many months together, exceedingly and uniformly good. More detailed information with regard to it, will be found in our “Cookery for Invalids,” a work for which our want of space in the present volume compels us to reserve it.