Section C.—Bread of the third kind.
Of this there are several kinds. Those which are made by a simple effervescence, provided the residuum is not injurious, are best, and shall accordingly be placed first in order. Next will follow various kinds of bread made by the ordinary process of fermentation, salting, etc.
Receipt 1.—Wheat meal, seven pounds; carbonate of soda or saleratus[26] three quarters of an ounce to one ounce; water, two and three quarter pints; muriatic acid, 420 to 560 drops. Mix the soda with the meal as intimately as possible, by means of a wooden spoon or stick. Then mix the acid and water, and add it slowly to the mass, stirring it constantly. Make three loaves of it, and bake it in a quick oven.
Receipt 2.—Wheat meal, one pound; sesquicarbonate of soda, forty grains; muriatic acid, fifty drops; cold water, half a pint, or a sufficient quantity. Mix in the same way, and with the same caution, as in Receipt 1. Make one loaf of it, and bake in a quick oven.[27]
Receipt 3.—Wheat meal, one quart; cream of tartar, two tea-spoonfuls; saleratus, one tea-spoonful; and two and a half teacups full of milk. Mix well, and bake thirty minutes. If the meal is fresh, as it ought to be, the milk may be omitted.
Receipt 4.—Coarse rye meal, Indian meal, and oat meal, may be formed into bread in nearly a similar manner. So, in fact, may fine meal and all sorts of mixtures.
Receipt 5.—Professor Silliman more than intimates, that carbonic acid gas might be made to inflate bread, without either an effervescence or a fermentation. The plan is, to force carbonic acid, by some means or other, into the mass of dough, or, as bakers call it, the sponge. I do not know that the experiment has yet been made.
Receipt 6.—Coarse Indian meal may be formed into small, rather thin loaves, and prepared and baked as in Receipt 3.
Let us now proceed to common fermented bread:
Receipt 7.—Wheat meal, six pounds; good yeast, a teacup full; and a sufficient quantity of pure water. Knead thoroughly. Bake it in small loaves, unless you have a very strong heat.