[J] If you bake bread in a Dutch oven, take off the lid when the loaf
is done, and let it remain in the oven uncovered for a quarter of an
hour.
[K] If you are obliged from its want of strength to put in a large
quantity of yeast, mix with it two or three handfuls of bran; add the
warm water to it, and then strain it through a sieve or cloth; or you
may correct the bitterness by putting in a few bits of charcoal and
then straining it.
BRAN BREAD.--Sift into a pan three quarts of unbolted wheat meal. Stir
a jill of strong yeast, and a jill of molasses into a quart of soft
water, (which must be warm but not hot,) and add a small tea-spoonful
of pearl-ash, or sal-aratus. Make a hole in the heap of flour, pour
in the liquid, and proceed in the usual manner of making bread. This
quantity may be made into two loaves. Bran bread is considered very
wholesome; and is recommended to persons afflicted with dyspepsia.
RYE AND INDIAN BREAD.--Sift two quarts of rye, and two quarts of Indian
meal, and mix them well together. Boil three pints of milk; pour it
boiling hot upon the meal; add two tea-spoonfuls of salt, and stir the
whole very hard. Let it stand till it becomes of only a lukewarm heat,
and then stir in half a pint of good fresh yeast; if from the brewery
and quite fresh, a smaller quantity will suffice. Knead the mixture
into a stiff dough, and set it to rise in a pan. Cover it with a thick
cloth that has been previously warmed, and set it near the fire. When
it is quite light, and has cracked all over the top, make it into two
loaves, put them into a moderate oven, and bake them two hours and a
half.
COMMON YEAST.--Put a large handful of hops into two quarts of boiling
water, which must then be set on the fire again, and boiled twenty
minutes with the hops. Have ready in a pan three pints of sifted flour;
strain the liquid, and pour half of it on the flour. Let the other half
stand till it becomes cool, and then mix it gradually into the pan
with the flour, &c. Then stir into it half a pint of good strong yeast,
fresh from the brewery if possible; if not, use some that was left of
the last making. You may increase the strength by stirring into your
yeast before you bottle it, four or five large tea-spoonfuls of brown
sugar, or as many table-spoonfuls of molasses.
Put it into clean bottles, and cork them loosely till the fermentation
is over. Next morning put in the corks tightly, and set the bottles
in a cold place. When you are going to bottle the yeast it will be an
improvement to place two or three raisins at the bottom of each bottle.
It is best to make yeast very frequently; as, with every precaution,
it will scarcely keep good a week, even in cold weather. If you are
apprehensive of its becoming sour, put into each bottle a lump of
pearl-ash the size of a hazle-nut.
BRAN YEAST.--Mix a pint of wheat bran, and a handful of hops with a
quart of water, and boil them together about twenty minutes. Then
strain it through a sieve into a pan; when the liquid becomes only
milk-warm, stir into it four table-spoonfuls of brewer's yeast, and two
of brown sugar, or four of molasses. Put it into a wooden bowl, cover
it, and set it near the fire for four or five hours. Then bottle it,
and cork it tightly next day.
PUMPKIN YEAST.--Pare a fine ripe pumpkin, and cut it into pieces. Put
them into a kettle with a large handful of hops, and as much water as
will cover them. Boil them till the pumpkin is soft enough to pass
through a cullender. Having done this, put the pulp into a stone jar,
adding half a pint of good strong yeast to set it into a fermentation.
The yeast must be well stirred into the pumpkin. Leave the jar
uncovered till next day; then secure it tightly with a cork. If pumpkin
yeast is well made, and of a proper consistence, neither too thick nor
too thin, it will keep longer than any other.
BAKER'S YEAST.--To a gallon of soft water put two quarts of wheat bran,
one quart of ground malt, (which may be obtained from a brewery,) and
two handfuls of hops. Boil them together for half an hour. Then strain
it through a sieve, and let it stand till it is cold; after which put
to it two large tea-cups of molasses, and half a pint of strong yeast.
Pour it into a stone jug, and let it stand uncorked till next morning.
Then pour off the thin liquid from the top, and cork the jug tightly.
When you are going to use the yeast, if it has been made two or three
days, stir in a little pearl-ash dissolved in warm water, allowing a
lump the size of a hickory-nut to a pint of yeast. This will correct
any tendency to sourness, and make the yeast more brisk.