It is next to an impossibility to bake bread in a small oven; half the
time the bread is too much or not enough baked. In cities, where good
baker's bread can be bought, it comes as cheap as it can be made at
home, if not cheaper, and saves a great deal of time and labor. It is
not difficult to make good bread with good flour. There are several ways
of making and of using yeast. Some are better than others; but many,
though differently manipulated, bring about the same results. The only
difficulty is the baking of it. Bakers can almost always bake bread
properly, having large brick ovens. If they do not bake their bread
enough, which is generally the case, it is not because they cannot, but
because under-baked bread is heavier, and people, especially the poorer
class, buy it in preference to the other; judging by the weight, they
think they have more of it for a certain sum of money. Under-baked bread
is difficult of digestion. (_See_ Food.)
The best bread is made with the best wheat-flour, all that can be said
by anybody to the contrary notwithstanding. Rye, corn, and barley bread
are excellent, and may be partaken of by those whose constitution,
occupation, etc., allow it. In every thing, bread included, the people,
or what may be called "the million," are wiser than _soi-disant_
philosophers; and if oat-meal or Indian-meal were better than
wheat-flour, they would be dearer. To describe or discuss the
innumerable methods of making bread would require several volumes. We
have perused carefully hundreds of them; they nearly all differ
theoretically, but practically, when practical (which is not always the
case), they amount to about the same thing. We think that the only
difficulty, if difficulty there be, is in the use of the yeast, the
making of the same, and the baking. Chemical processes for rising will
never equal the processes of nature and time. Many bakers do not use the
yeast properly, their bread being sour or musty; some sweeten their
bread, to disguise an inferior quality of flour, or as an antidote to
sourness or mustiness.
Bread gets dry after a while, and is inferior in quality and taste. The
lighter the bread the better, although many do not think so. The belief
may come from the fact that the lighter bread is the more porous, and
therefore the quicker it evaporates and loses its taste. Warm bread,
besides being injurious to the teeth, is difficult of digestion. When
perfectly cold, let it stand in a dry place, neither cold nor warm, for
one or two hours, and use. We give below the best methods of making
bread--French bread, or rather good light bread, for we do not see that
it is more French than Chinese or American, as long as it can be made
everywhere with good flour; it is certainly the best for inhabitants of
a large city, and especially for those having a sedentary occupation.
Let us apply the proverb to bread as well as to every thing else: "Feed
me with food convenient for me."--_Bible._
Mix well together one gill of good strong yeast with half a pound of
flour, so that it makes a rather stiff paste. Knead so that you shape it
like a ball. Make two cuts with a knife on the top, across and about
one-quarter of an inch deep; then place the paste in a bowl of tepid
water (milk-warm), the cuts upward. After it has been in the water for a
few minutes it will float and swell; let it float about two minutes,
when take off and use. Put six ounces of flour on the paste-board, and
make a hole in the middle; put into it the yeast prepared as above,
tepid water enough to make an ordinary dough, and salt to taste. Knead
well, shape according to fancy, put in a warm place (about 78 deg.
Fahr.) to rise, and bake. It requires about six hours to rise.
_Another._--Wash and clean thoroughly half a pound of potatoes, and then
steam them with the skins on. Mash them well with half a pint of flour,
about half a pint of tepid water, and half an ounce of salt. When
thoroughly mixed, put away in a warm place (about 78 deg. Fahr.) for one
hour. Then add and mix with it half a pint of good yeast, and put away
in the same place for about nine hours. It may take a little longer than
nine hours or a little less, but it is very easy to know, and in this
way: after a while it will rise slowly and gradually for some time, and
then begin to fall; as soon as it begins to fall, mix a little tepid
water with it and strain through a sieve; throw away potato skins and
eyes; mix what is strained with two pounds of flour and tepid water
enough to make an ordinary dough. Put it away again in the same place
until it cracks on the top, which will take place in about an hour. Then
put six pounds of flour on the paste-board, and make a hole in the
middle; put into it a little tepid water and the dough when cracked;
knead the whole well with water enough to make an ordinary dough, salt
to taste. To knead it well, it is necessary to raise the dough or part
of it, and then throw it back on the paste-board with force. The more
the dough is kneaded, the better and lighter the bread. Then shape the
loaves, let rise, and bake in a very quick oven.
_To shape._--Divide the dough, as soon as kneaded, in as many parts as
you wish to make loaves; then knead each part, one after another, so as
to make a kind of ball; then, by rolling and pulling it, give it an
elongated, sausage-like shape. A pound loaf can be made a foot and a
half long, as well as four inches; it will only be narrower and thinner,
and will have more crust. When the dough is thus elongated, take a round
stick or a small rolling-pin, place it on the top of the dough, right on
the middle, lengthwise, and then press on it and roll just a little, to
and fro, so as to make a kind of furrow in the middle. Have a towel
well dusted with flour, place the dough on it upside down, that is, the
furrowed side under; let rise as ordinary bread; turn it into a pan, but
so that the furrowed side will be up (the side that was down in rising
must be up in baking); dust the furrow well with rye-flour to prevent
the paste from closing, so that the top of the loaf will be concave
instead of convex when baked.
_Another._--Steam half a pound of potatoes and mash them well; then mix
them immediately and while hot with about a pint of flour, a quart of
water, and half a pint of good strong yeast. Leave the mixture six hours
in a rather warm place, then strain through a sieve, pressing the
potato-skins so as to squeeze all the liquid out of them. Immediately
add to the strained mixture flour enough to make ordinary dough, which
you knead a little, and let stand as it is from one to two hours and a
half, according to temperature. Knead then with it about six pounds of
flour, salt to taste, and tepid water to make ordinary dough, and leave
it thus two hours, then shape in the same way as the above; put it to
rise in the same way also (it will take from one to two hours, according
to temperature); dust with rye-flour, and bake.
French bread may be shaped like other bread, round or square; it is just
as good.
Rolls, or rather French rolls as they are generally called, are made,
shaped, and baked in the same way.
It is a mistake to call _bread_ certain mixtures of flour, soda, and
milk; or flour, milk, and butter, etc.; it is no more bread than a
mixture of carbonic acid, water, alcohol, molasses, vitriol, etc., is
wine. No one can give a name to such a mixture except chemists.