ON BREAD MAKING.
Few housekeepers are aware of their responsibility in reference to the
_bread_ furnished for their family. As this is the principal article of
food, there is no one thing on which the health of a family, especially
of young children, is more dependant.
Baker’s bread is often made of musty, sour, or other bad flour, which
is made to look light, and the bad taste removed by unhealthy drugs. Of
course, to the evil of unhealthy flour, is added unhealthy drugs, and
there is no mode of discovering the imposition.
The only safe mode is, to have all bread made in the family, and to
take all needful care that it shall uniformly be good.
Bread made of _salt_, or _milk risings_, is good only the first day,
and to those accustomed to good _yeast bread_, it is offensive to the
smell, and not acceptable to the palate.
Bread made of sour milk, or buttermilk and an alkali, or made by mixing
cream tartar in the flour, and an alkali in the wetting, is good as an
occasional resort, in emergencies, when good yeast cannot be preserved,
or when there is not time to wait for yeast rising.
But, as the ordinary bread for continued daily use, it is expensive,
and not healthful or good like yeast bread. Some persons suffer from
sore mouths and disordered stomachs, in consequence of eating it.
Sometimes this is owing to the imperfect mixture of the materials.
When the cream tartar is not _very_ thoroughly mixed with the flour,
or when the alkali is not properly dissolved and thoroughly mixed, or
when there is too much of either, the skin of the mouth and stomach are
affected by the bread.
The only kind of bread which is always good for the health, and always
acceptable to every palate, is sweet, well-raised, home-made _yeast
bread_. The _best_ kind of home-made yeast bread is an article of
luxury to be found upon very few tables, and those who enjoy this
comfort, know that there is no food upon earth, which is so good, or
the loss of which is so much regretted.
In order to secure such bread, these three things are indispensable,
viz.: _good flour_, _good yeast_, and _good care_.
In order to secure good flour, it is best to try it _by tasting it_,
and you ordinarily can detect sourness or must. Buy a small quantity,
and then, if it is found to be very superior, and it can be done
conveniently, it is well to provide enough of it to last till the next
crop of wheat affords new flour, when another supply for a year can
be secured. Flour stored in barrels needs no other care than putting
it in a cool, dry place, where it is well protected from rats and
cockroaches. A tight covered box made of thick plank, large enough to
hold several barrels, with shelves to hold smaller supplies of other
bread-stuffs, with a door in one side shutting very tight, is a perfect
protection from rats, mice, and cockroaches.
Good flour has a yellowish tinge, and when pressed tight in the hand,
retains the creases of the skin impressed on it. Poor flour is not thus
adhesive; it can be blown about readily, and sometimes has a dingy
look, as if ashes were mixed with it.
When good flour is found, _notice the brand_, and seek the same next
time. It is sometimes the case, however, that bad flour is passed off,
by putting on the brands of persons who have gained a name as makers of
superior flour. The only sure way is to try a small sample, and then
get a larger supply, if it is good, from the same stock.
_Grown_ wheat makes dough that is _runny_, and cannot be well moulded,
or make good bread. This can be discovered only by trial. _Smutty_
wheat makes flour that is very unhealthful.
Flour always should be _sifted_ before using it, to restore the
lightness destroyed by packing, as well as to remove impurities. Bread
is also more sure to be light, if the flour is heated before wetting.
This can be done, by setting the kneading trough aslant before the
fire, stirring it a little as it is warming. When bread proves to be
bad, examine the yeast, and see also whether the oven bakes properly.
If both are as they should be, and the bread is still poor, then the
fault is in the flour, and it should be sent back and another supply
obtained. And in buying flour, this liberty should always be secured,
even if a higher price is the condition. No economy is so false as to
try to save by means of bad bread. Medicine and doctors’ bills soon
show the folly of it.
_Good yeast_ is as indispensable to good bread as good flour. Of the
receipts given in this book, the one which will keep a month is the
best. The one which is made with fewer materials will not keep so
well, but is more easily made.
In hot weather, when it is difficult to keep yeast, the hard yeast will
be a great convenience. Some housekeepers who have tried both, prefer
the flour hard yeast to that which is made with Indian meal, as it does
not turn sour, as Indian does. Home-brewed yeast must be used for hard
yeast, and not distillery or brewer’s. Yeast, when it is good, is all
in a foam, or else has large _beads_ on the surface, and its smell is
brisk and pungent, but not sour. When poor, it sometimes smells sour,
sometimes looks watery, and the sediment sinks to the bottom, and it
has no froth or beads. Sometimes, when yeast does not look very good,
it is improved by adding a tea-cup, or so, of flour, and two or three
great spoonfuls of molasses, and setting it in a warm place to rise.
Yeast must be kept in stone, or glass, with a tight cork, and the thing
in which it is kept should often be scalded, and then warm water with
a half teaspoonful of saleratus be put in it, to stand a while. Then
rinse it with cold water. Sour yeast cannot be made good by saleratus.
The last grand essential to good bread is _good care_. Unless the cook
can be fully trusted, the mistress of a family _must_ take this care
upon _herself_. She must, if needful, stand by and see that the bread
is wet right, that the yeast is good, that the bread is put where it
is warm enough, that it does not rise too long, so as to lose its
sweetness (which is often the case before it begins to turn sour), that
it is moulded aright, that the oven is at the right heat, and that it
is taken out at the right time, and then that it is put in the right
place, and not set flat on to a greasy table, or painted shelf, to
imbibe a bad taste.
Perhaps it may be thought that all this is a great drudgery, but it is
worse drudgery to have sickly children, and a peevish husband, made so
by having all the nerves of their stomachs rasped with sour, or heavy
bread. A woman should be _ashamed_ to have poor bread, far more so,
than to speak bad grammar, or to have a dress out of the fashion.
It is true, that, by accident, the best of housekeepers will now and
then have poor bread, but then it is an accident, and one that rarely
happens. When it is very frequently the case that a housekeeper has
poor bread, she may set herself down as a _slack baked_ and negligent
housekeeper.
It is very desirable that every family should have a constant supply
of bread made of unbolted flour, or of rye and Indian. Most persons
like to eat of it occasionally, and it tends to promote health.
Warm cakes also, made of unbolted flour, are very excellent, and
serviceable to health. The receipts for these articles in this work are
first-rate. Warm raised bread cakes, of fine wheat, are not so healthy
for breakfast, as those made of unbolted flour, Indian meal, rice,
or tapioca. Griddle cakes, muffins, and waffles, made of these last
articles, are more healthful than those made of fine wheat. If eaten
at the right temperature (not above blood heat), and with but little
butter, they are safe and harmless. Unbolted flour is good in almost
any receipt in which fine flour is to be used, and many very much
prefer it for all kinds of warm cakes. Brown bread, when light, makes
good drop cakes, or good griddle cakes, by adding a little water or
milk, and some eggs, and in some cases, a spoonful or two of molasses.
Many cases are on record, of great changes for the better, in the
health of individuals and communities, by the habitual use of food made
of unbolted flour.
The style in which bread is prepared for the table, is a matter to be
carefully attended to. In moulding up loaves and small cakes, do not
leave lumps and loose flour adhering to the outside, but work them in
thoroughly, so as to have the cake look fair and smooth. Wipe off flour
from the outside before carrying to the table. Buttered pans are better
than floured ones, because the cakes cleave off cleaner. When soda
and saleratus are used, work it in thoroughly, or you will have those
yellow spots and streaks, which look so disgusting, and show a slovenly
negligence.
In the receipts for making bread, no particular direction is given in
regard to the time bread should stand after it is moulded and put in
pans, because here is the point where observation and discretion are so
indispensable, and rules are unavailing without. In hot weather, when
the yeast is very good, and the bread very light, it must not stand
over fifteen minutes after it is moulded, before setting in. If it is
cold weather, and the yeast is less active, or the bread not perfectly
raised, it may sometimes stand an hour in the pans without injury.
When it is risen in the pans so as to crack, it is ready for the oven,
and if it stands after this it loses sweetness, and then turns sour.
A great deal of bread is spoiled by standing too long after it is put
in the pans. The only way to prevent this is for the housekeeper to
ascertain, by experiment, how soon her yeast ordinarily raises bread
to the right point, so as to make that full lightness which does not
destroy the sweetness of the flour, and yet is complete. When this is
secured, the bread should not stand more than fifteen minutes after
moulding, unless it is very cold weather. Those who trust entirely to
raising the bread after it is put into the pans, are much less likely
to have the _best kind_ of bread, and far more risk is run than in the
way here given.
In summer, if the milk is not new, it should be scalded, or the bread
will turn sour by keeping. Bread is never as good which has turned
sour, and been sweetened with saleratus, as if it had risen only just
enough. In using saleratus, take a teaspoonful to each quart of wetting
used; or, which is the same thing, a teaspoonful to four quarts of
flour.
The proportion of yeast is about a tablespoonful of brewer’s or
distiller’s yeast for every quart of wetting, or twice as much
home-brewed yeast. In warm weather, pour the wetting boiling hot into
the flour, and the bread keeps better. But be careful not to kill the
yeast by putting it in before the mixture is sufficiently cooled. About
_blood warmth_ is the right temperature.
The eastern brown bread rises faster than the wheat bread, and in hot
weather cannot be made over night; and if made with other bread, must
be set to rise in a cool place.
It is always best to keep bread several hours before eating, until
it can be cut without making it clammy. Biscuits, and small cakes of
bread, are best baked in the morning to use for tea, and in the evening
for breakfast. When cake is to be made of bread dough, it ought to be
wet up with milk.
Most of the rules which have been given in other books for making cream
tartar bread and cakes allow too much of the acid and alkali, and this
affects the health.
_Three pints_ of flour to one teaspoonful of soda and two of cream
tartar is about right. Domestics are often careless in getting right
proportions, and thus health is injured. It is probable that this can
be remedied by getting an apothecary to combine the two powders in the
right proportions when _very dry_, and keeping them in a glass bottle,
with a ground glass stopper, so as to be air-tight. The dampness of
the air would make them combine, and neutralize them. There are yeast
powders for sale of this kind. The way to use them is first to mix them
thoroughly in the flour, and then put in the wetting.
In regard to yeast, the distillery rises fastest, the brewer’s nearly
as fast, and the home-brewed slowest of all. Sometimes distillery yeast
will raise bread in an hour. Every housekeeper must learn by trial the
time necessary to raise bread, and by this calculate the time to put
her oven heating.
For large loaves of bread or cake, the oven must be heated with hard
wood, so as to _soak_ thoroughly. For smaller things lighter wood is
as good, and more economical. After a housekeeper has tried her oven,
her yeast, and her oven wood, she can make out very minute directions
for her domestics. But with poor domestics she ordinarily will need to
persevere in superintending this matter herself, if she would always
have good bread.