1.--To make Home-made Bread.
Put 1 stone of fine flour into your mixing pan; make a hole in the
middle of the flour, and press the sides of the hole to prevent the
liquid running through; dissolve 2½ ozs. of yeast in 1 gill of water,
and put it in the hole made in the flour; mix a little flour in the
liquid to make a thin batter, cover your pan over and let it rise to a
nice cauliflower top; when ready, dissolve 2½ ozs. of salt in 1 gill of
water, put this into your pan, and then take sufficient water (or water
and milk) to make all into a nice dough; let it rise a little in the
pan, then weigh off into your tins, and prove and bake. The heat of the
water should be between 80° and 90° Fahr.
2.--Bread-making by the Old Method.
To make a sack of flour into bread the baker takes the flour and
empties it into the kneading trough; it is then carefully passed
through a wire sieve, which makes it lie lighter and reduces any lumps
that may have formed in it. Next he dissolves 2 oz. of alum (called in
the trade “stuff” or “rocky”) in a little water placed over the fire.
This is poured into the seasoning tub with a pailful of warm water, but
not too hot. When this mixture has cooled to a temperature of about
84 degrees, from 3 to 4 pints of yeast are put into it, and the whole
having been strained through the seasoning sieve, it is emptied into
a hole made in the mass of flour and mixed up with a portion of it
to the consistency of thick batter. Dry flour is then sprinkled over
the top. This is called the quarter-sponge, and the operation is known
as “setting.” The sponge must then be covered up with sacks, if the
weather be cold, to keep it warm. It is then left for three or four
hours, when it gradually swells and breaks through the dry flour laid
upon its surface. Another pail of water impregnated with alum and salt
is now added, and well stirred in, and the mass sprinkled with flour
and covered up as before. This is called setting the half-sponge. The
whole is then well kneaded with about two more pailfuls of water for
about an hour. It is then cut into pieces with a knife, and to prevent
spreading it is pinned, or kept at one end of the trough by means of a
sprint-board, in which state it is left to “prove,” as the bakers call
it, for about four hours. When this process is over the dough is again
well kneaded for about half an hour. It is then removed from the trough
to the table and weighed into the quantities suitable for each loaf.
The operation of moulding, chaffing, and rolling up can be learnt only
by practice.
3.--Modern Way of making Bread.
The modern way of making bread is as follows: Put 1 sack, or 20 stone,
of flour into the trough, and, to take it all up, sponge 12 gallons of
water of the required temperature, and from 10 to 16 ozs. of yeast,
according to the strength. Then dissolve 2 lbs. of salt in the water
and mix all together. In the morning, or when taken up again, add 6
gallons of water and 1½ lb. of salt. If a quick or “flying” sponge is
required to be ready in an hour and a half, empty the sack of flour
into the trough. Make a sprint, add 12 gallons of water of the required
heat and 2 lbs. of yeast, and as much flour as you can stir in with the
hand. Let it rise for one hour and a half; add 6 gallons more water (at
the temperature the sponge is set, which should be about 100 degrees
Fahr.), and 3½ lbs. of salt. Make all into a nice-sized dough; let it
stand three-quarters of an hour, then scale off.
4.--Scotch Style of making Bread.
The bread-making industry has made great strides in Scotland. In
Glasgow alone there are two firms which each bake over two thousand
bags of flour a week--namely, J. and B. Stevenson and Bilsland
Brothers--while five other firms each bake from five hundred to one
thousand bags a week. In respect to the output, Scotland is a long way
in advance of either England or Ireland. I can well remember the time
when oatmeal cakes and scones were the staple food in Scotland; but
such food is now notable by its absence. This brings to mind a story
I once heard of an Englishman and a Scotchman who were arguing on the
merits of their respective countries. The Englishman said, “Man Sandy,
you are all fed on oatmeal! Why, in England we only feed our horses on
oats.” Sandy’s reply was, “I don’t na but what you say, man, is a’ very
true, but where wull ye get sic horses and where wull ye get sic men?”
As I have said before, Parisian barm is the kind most used in Scotland;
in fact, nearly all the Scotch advertisements require “men used to
Parisian barm.” However, I have noticed lately that German yeast is
steadily making its way in the North. The Scotch used generally to make
their bread with what they called potato ferment. Now it is mostly
quarter or full sponges. To make 1 sack of flour into bread with a
quarter sponge take 1 gallon of water of the required temperature, add
½ a gallon of Parisian barm, and sufficient flour to make it into a
good stiff dough. This is generally set between one and two o’clock,
and is ready to take about half-past four. It should be dropped when
ready an inch in the quarter boat or barrel. Empty it into the trough,
add 10 gallons of water, dissolve 2 lbs. of salt, and mix all into a
well-beaten sponge. Add 6 gallons of water of the required temperature
and 1¼ lb. of salt in the morning, or when you take the sponge, and
make all into a nice dough. The softer you can work the sponge the
clearer and showier will be the loaf.
To make 1 sack of flour with a full sponge, take 1 to 1½ gallons of
barm, about 10 gallons of water of the proper temperature with 2 lbs.
of salt dissolved in it; make all into a nice-sized sponge. When ready
add 6 gallons of water of proper temperature, and 1¼ lb. of salt, and
make it into dough.
Care should always be taken to keep the barm clear of grease and
churned milk, especially if the milk is sour.
There are a great many substitutes for wheat-flour bread, some of which
I will enumerate; but I do not think it needful to give the recipes
for them, as the recipes and formulæ I have given are evidently those
most popular in the English, Scotch, and Irish bakehouses. Among the
many substitutes for wheat bread are the following: bread corn, rice
bread, potato bread; bread made of roots, ragwort bread, turnip bread,
apple bread, meslin bread, salep bread, Debreczen bread, oat and barley
bread. The Norwegians, we are informed, make bread of barley and
oatmeal baked between two stones; this bread is said to improve by age,
and may be kept for as long as thirty or forty years. At their great
festivals the Norwegians use the oldest bread, and it is not unusual at
the baptism of infants to have bread made at the time of the baptism of
their grandfathers.
5.--Home-made Whole Meal Bread.
Take 1 stone of wheat meal (granulated is best); put your flour in
the basin or mixing bowl, and make a hole in the centre of the meal:
dissolve 2 ozs. of yeast in a gill and a half of water, about 90°
Fahr.; pour the yeast and water into the hole, and mix in as much of
the meal as will make a soft batter; cover it up, and when it is ready
(which you will know by its having a nice cauliflower top), add 2½ ozs.
of salt, and sufficient water, at a temperature of say 80° Fahr., and
mix all lightly into a nice mellow dough; put it past, with a cover
over it, till you see it commence to rise; then divide it into the
sizes required and place in tins to prove; bake in a moderate oven.
Wheat meals, and brown or second flours, do not require so much
working, either in the sponge or with the hands, in making it into
dough, as do the flours of a finer quality.
6.--Whole Meal Bread.
(_For Master Bakers, as generally used in the Trade._)
When setting your ordinary sponges at night for fine bread, dissolve
2½ ozs. of yeast and 2½ ozs. of salt in 1½ gallons of water, about 4°
to 6° Fahr., under whatever heat at which you may be setting your fine
sponges (according to the nature of the meal you are using); take as
much whole meal flour as will make this quantity of water into a weak
sponge, and in the morning, when it is ready, give it half a gallon of
water off same heat as your fine sponges, with 5 ozs. of salt, and make
all lightly into a dough so that there is no “scrape” about it, and
work off in the same way as your ordinary bread.
7.--Unfermented, or Diet Bread.
Take 8 lbs. of granulated wheat meal (or meal made with a mixture
of barley meal and wheat meal properly blended), 4 ozs. of cream of
tartar, and 2 ozs. of carbonate of soda; mix the tartar and soda
amongst the flour and sift all through a sieve; make a bay, and add 2
ozs. of crushed salt and 4 ozs. of castor sugar, putting the above in
the bay and pouring in a little churned milk to dissolve the salt and
sugar; then add as much churned milk as will take the 8 lbs. of meal
in, and make into a nice-sized dough; weigh off, and bake in oval tins.
They should be put immediately into the oven.
I consider this the very best mode of making wheat meals into bread;
bread thus made eats well, and keeps moist longer than fermented meals.
8.--Rye Bread.
Rye bread used to be in greater favour with the public than it now
is, but I consider that is owing to the sodden, heavy way in which
it is generally made; for if rye flour is properly blended with fine
flour, instead of the barley meal generally used, it produces a very
nice-flavoured loaf.
Set a sponge at night with fine flour--say, 1 gallon of water, 1½
ozs. of yeast, and 1½ ozs. of salt; let your sponge be about the same
consistency as for muffin batter; in the morning add 1 quart of water
and 3 ozs. of salt, and make your dough up with rye meal; let your
sponge be set of the same heat as for wheat meal bread.
I have adopted this plan, and find it gives general satisfaction. In
baking wheat meals, or other meals of the same nature, your oven should
be 30° or 40° by the pyrometer under the heat used for fine bread.
9.--Coarse Bread.
Coarse flour (or “overheads,” as it is generally called in the south
of Scotland) is the cheapest grade of flour made, and if properly
manufactured it will vie with any class of flour in the market for a
fine, sweet, nutty flavour; but of course it is dark in colour, and
I have seen flour of this grade very strong and carry an exceedingly
large quantity of water.
In a test I had some time ago, I produced 110 4-lb. loaves, weighed
in dough at 4 lbs. 6 ozs., out of 20 stone of this flour; but I may
say that the flour was stone-dressed, and milled in the old style.
This same class of flour was in general use in Scotland twenty years
ago, and was generally made into coarse or second bread, and coarse
“twopennies.” Many a poor family--ay, and rich families too--have
thriven and had their hearts made glad on the produce of this grade of
flour.
TO MAKE COARSE BREAD.--Take, say 1 gallon of water, at the same
temperature as for wheat meal bread; dissolve 1¼ ozs. of yeast, and
the same quantity of salt, in the water; make into an ordinary-sized
sponge, and when ready in the morning add half a gallon of water and
about 4 ozs. of salt; then make all into a dough, and work off as other
doughs.
This flour can be sponged the same way as fine flour for a quick or
flying sponge, only care should be used in not setting the sponge too
warm, as I find that it ferments and works more quickly than the finer
grades of flour.
10.--Germ Flour Bread.
Germ flour is amongst one of the newest kinds of flour placed before
the public as a speciality. It is in appearance something like
granulated wheat meal, and the vendors of it claim to have found a new
process of removing the germ from the flour, and subjecting it to a
certain process before it is again mixed with the flour. I am having
germ bread made almost daily. Our mode of making it is as follows:--
Dissolve 1½ ozs. of yeast in half a gallon of water, say 90° Fahr.,
and mix with this about 7 lbs. of germ flour; it should be ready in
about an hour and a half; weigh off and prove; use no salt, as we think
there is a certain amount of salt (or some substitute for salt) ground
amongst the flour. For this class of bread it makes a very nice-eating
loaf.
11.--Tea-Cakes.
To be able to make a good tea-cake is considered a great point in the
baking trade. The following not only makes good tea-cakes, but also
capital Scotch cookies.
Take ½ a gallon of water at, say, 94° Fahr.; add 1 lb. of moist sugar,
5 ozs. of German yeast; dissolve all together, add, say, 1½ lb. of
flour and mix. When well risen, add 1 lb. of lard and butter, 2 ozs. of
salt, a few currants to taste; mix all together into tea-cake dough.
Let it remain in a warm place for about half an hour, then weigh off at
8 or 9 ozs. for 2d.; prove, and bake.
12.--Queen’s Bread.
This can be made with the same dough, but omitting the currants, and
making the dough tighter than for tea-cakes; add 1 egg to each pound of
dough. Weigh at 3 ounces for a penny, and make into different shapes,
such as half-moons, cart-wheels, twists, &c.
13.--Sally Luns, Yorkshire, or Tea Cakes.
Take 1 quart of milk, ¼ lb. of moist sugar, and 2 ozs. of German yeast.
Ferment this with a little flour, and when ready, add ½ lb. of butter
(some add also 4 eggs to this quantity) and make into dough as for
tea-cakes; butter some rings or hoops, and place them on buttered tins,
weigh or divide into 5 or 6 ozs. for twopence; mould them round, put
them in the hoops, and, when half proved, make a hole in each with a
piece of stick. Do not overprove them, or they will eat poor and dry.
When baked, which will be in about ten or fifteen minutes, wash over
the top with egg and milk.
14.--Muffins.
Sift through the sieve 4 lbs. of good Hungarian flour; take as much
water and milk as will make the above into a nice-sized batter, having
previously dissolved 2 ozs. of yeast, 1 oz. of sugar, and ¾ oz. of
salt in the liquid; then beat this well with your hand for at least
ten minutes; after it has half risen in your pan beat again for other
ten minutes; then let it stand till ready, which you will know by the
batter starting to drop. Have one of your roll-boards well dusted with
sifted flour, and with your hand lay out the muffins in rows. The
above mixture should produce 24 muffins. Then, with another roll-board
slightly dusted with rice flour, take the muffins and with your fingers
draw the outsides into the centre, forming a round cake; draw them into
your hand and brush off any flour that may be adhering to them; place
them on the board dusted with rice, and so on till all are finished;
then put them in the prover to prove, which does not take long. The
heat of the liquid for muffins (or crumpets) should range from 90° to
100° Fahr., according to the temperature of the bakehouse.
One great point to guard against in fermenting cakes or bread, is to
see that your sponge or dough does not get chilled. By the time your
muffins are ready, have the stove or hot plate properly heated, then
row them gently on to the hot plate so as not to knock the proof out of
them; when they are a nice brown turn them gently on the other side and
bake a nice delicate brown.
15. _Another way._--Some persons now make muffins after the same
formula as for tea cakes, namely, moulding one in each hand and pinning
out the size required, then proving and baking. I have tried that
way more than once, but I cannot get the muffins to appear anything
like what my experience teaches me a muffin should be. Practice and
judgment are required to make one proficient in muffin-making.
There has recently been introduced to the trade a hot plate heated with
gas, which will go a long way in helping the muffin-maker. It is both
cleaner, handier, and you can bake with it to a more certain degree of
heat.
16.--Crumpets.
Crumpets are generally made by muffin-makers, the most modern formula
being the following:--Take 4 lbs. of good English flour, 2 ozs. of good
yeast, and 2 ozs. of salt. The flour and salt may be sifted together.
Take 1 quart of milk, and 1½ quarts of water, at about 100° Fahr.;
dissolve your yeast in the water, then mix in your flour and salt; make
all into a thin liquid paste, giving it a thoroughly good mixing; let
it stand for one hour, when you may again give it a thoroughly good
beat; let it stand for another hour, when it will be ready to bake off.
In the meantime thoroughly clean your stove or hot plate before it gets
hot, and give it a rub over with a greasy cloth; then have your rings
of the size required (they should be half an inch in depth); slightly
grease them, and see that they are greased for each round of the hot
plate; have a cup in one hand and a saucer in the other to prevent
the batter dropping; pour half a cup of the batter into the rings and
spread them with a palette knife to a level surface, putting what comes
off (if any) back into your pan. Then, when the bottom part is of a
nice golden colour, turn them over with your palette knife, turning the
ring at the same time, and bake off a nice colour. Remove them from
the stove or hot plate, and lay them on clean boards for a couple of
minutes, when with a gentle tap your rings will come clear; and so on
till finished. Nothing but careful practice, and particular attention
to the whys and wherefores of both hot plates and batter, will make a
good muffin or crumpet-maker.
17.--Oatmeal Cake.
Take 7 lbs. of medium oatmeal, 1½ oz. salt, 1½ oz. carbonate of soda,
1½ oz. cream of tartar, 1½ lb. of flour, 1½ lb. of lard. Rub the
lard in the oatmeal and flour, having previously mixed all the other
ingredients in the oatmeal; make a bay, add sufficient cold water to
make all into a good working dough, weigh off at 8 ozs., mould up, pin
out the size you think most suitable, cut into four, and place on clean
dry tins. Bake in a sharp oven.
18.--Bath Buns.
1 lb. of flour, 8 ozs. of butter, 8 ozs. of sugar, 4 eggs, a little
warm milk, 1 oz. of Parisian yeast, some citron peel cut small, and
half a nutmeg grated. This will make fourteen twopenny buns.
Rub the butter in with the flour, make a bay and break in the eggs,
add the yeast with sufficient milk to make the whole into a dough of
moderate consistency, and put in a warm place to prove. When it has
risen enough mix in the peel, a little essence of lemon, and the sugar,
which should be in small pieces about the size of peas. Divide into
pieces for buns, prove and bake in gentle heat. They may be washed with
egg and dusted with sugar before proving.
19. _Another Way._--4 lbs. of flour, 1 lb. of butter, 6 ozs. of sugar,
4 ozs. of yeast, 4 eggs, and sufficient milk to make all into a dough;
add essence of lemon.
Warm the milk, add the sugar and yeast with sufficient flour to make
a ferment; when ready, add butter, eggs, and remainder of flour, with
currants or peel to taste. Weigh or divide into 3 ozs. each, mould
them up round egg on top rolled in castor sugar; slightly prove, bake
in moderate oven.
20.--Hot Cross Buns.
Take 1 quart of milk or water, 3 ozs. of yeast, 12 ozs. of moist sugar,
12 ozs. of butter, 1 oz. of salt, with sufficient flour to make a nice
mellow dough.
Proceed the same as for tea-cakes (p. 24), adding spice, currants, and
peel to taste; weigh 4 ozs. for a penny, make a cross in the middle of
the bun, wash over with egg, and prove. Spice, however, is very seldom
used, as it tends to darken the buns, and thus giving them a poor
appearance. An ingenious apparatus has been invented called a Patent
Bun Divider, which greatly facilitates the making of these buns, and
cannot fail to be of great service where large quantities of buns or
cakes are required to be divided. All that is needed is to weigh 8 lbs.
of dough, place it in the pan, and at one stroke of a lever thirty buns
or cakes are divided ready to mould.
21.--Chelsea Buns.
Take plain bun dough (or if for common buns, bread dough), roll it out
in a sheet, break some firm butter in small pieces and place over it,
roll it out as you would paste; after you have given it two or three
turns, moisten the surface of the dough, and strew over it some moist
sugar; roll up the sheet into a roll, and cut it in slices; or cut the
dough in strips of the required size and turn them round; place on
buttered tins having edges, half-an-inch from each. Prove them well,
and bake in a moderate oven. They may be dusted with loaf sugar either
before or after they are baked. The quantity of ingredients used must
be regulated by the required richness of the buns. ½ lb. of butter,
½ lb. of sugar, with 4 lb. of dough, will make a good bun. When bun
dough is used, half the quantity of sugar will be sufficient; some omit
it altogether.
22.--Balmoral Cakes.
3½ lbs. of flour, 1 lb. of butter, 1 lb. of sugar, 5 eggs, nearly 1
quart of milk, a few caraway seeds, with 1½ oz. of carbonate of soda
and tartaric acid, mixed in proportion of 1 oz. of soda to ¾ oz. of
acid.
Mix the soda and acid well with the flour, then rub in the butter and
sugar; make a bay with the flour, add the seeds, beat up the eggs with
the milk, and make all into a dough. Put into buttered pans according
to the size; dust with castor sugar, and bake in a moderate oven.
23.--Balloon or Prussian Cakes.
Take currant bun dough and make it into a round flat cake of any
required size, and place it on a buttered tin. When it is about half
proved, divide it with a long, flat piece of wood having a thin
graduated edge, into eight equal parts, and place it again to prove.
When it is proved enough, brush over the top lightly with the white of
an egg well whisked, dust it with fine powdered sugar and sprinkle it
with water, just sufficient to moisten the sugar. Bake it in a rather
cool oven to prevent the icing getting too much coloured.
24.--Saffron Buns.
Take the same mixture as for tea cakes, add 1 oz. of caraway seeds, and
colour it with saffron. Mould them round, and put them on the tins so
as not to touch. When they are near proof, wash the tops with egg and
milk, and dust them with castor sugar. Put them in the oven to finish
proving, and bake them in a moderately hot oven.
25.--Cinnamon Buns.
Made same way as saffron buns, but leaving out the caraway seeds and
saffron, and using instead sufficient ground cinnamon to flavour them.
26.--Jubilee Buns.