1007. Home-made Bread
To one quartern of flour (three pounds and a half), add a dessertspoonful of salt, and mix them well; mix about two tablespoonfuls of good fresh yeast with half a pint of water a little warm, but not hot; make a hole with your hand in the middle of the flour, but not quite touching the bottom of the pan; pour the water and yeast into this hole, and stir it with a spoon till you have made a thin batter; sprinkle this over with flour, cover the pan over with a dry cloth, and let it stand in a warm room for an hour; not near the fire, except in cold weather, and then not too close; then add a pint of water a little warm, and knead the whole well together, till the dough comes clean through the hand (some flour will require a little more water; but in this, experience must be your guide); let it stand again for about a quarter of an hour, and then bake at pleasure.
1008. Indian Corn Flour and Wheaten Bread
The peculiarity of this bread consists in its being composed in part of Indian corn flour, which will be seen by the following analysis by the late Professor Johnston, to be much richer in gluten and fatty matter than the flour of wheat, to which circumstance it owes its highly nutritive character:
| English Fine Wheaten Flour | Indian Corn Flour | |
|---|---|---|
| water | 16 | 12 |
| gluten | 10 | 12 |
| Fat | 2 | 8 |
| Starch, etc. | 72 | 66 |
| Total | 100 | 100 |
Take of Indian corn flour seven pounds, pour upon it four quarts of boiling water, stirring it all the time; let it stand till about new-milk warm, then mix it with fourteen pounds of fine wheaten flour, to which a quarter of a pound of salt has been previously added. Make a depression on the surface of this mixture, and pour into it two quarts of yeast, which should be thickened to the consistence of cream with some of the flour; let it stand all night; on the following morning the whole should be well kneaded, and allowed to stand for three hours; then divide it into loaves, which are better baked in tins, in which they should stand for half an hour, then bake. Thirty-two pounds of wholesome, nutritive, and very agreeable bread will be the result. It is of importance that the flour of Indian corn should be procured, as Indian corn meal is that which is commonly met with at the shops, and the coarseness of the husk in the meal might to some persons be prejudicial.
Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
1009. To make Bread with German Yeast