It is more difficult to give rules for making bread than for anything
else; it depends so much on judgment and experience. In summer, bread
should be mixed with cold water; during a chilly, damp spell, the
water should be slightly warm; in severe cold weather, it should be
mixed quite warm, and set in a warm place during the night. If your
yeast is new and lively, a small quantity will make the bread rise;
if it be old and heavy, it will take more. In these things I believe
wisdom must be gained by a few mistakes.
Six quarts of meal will make two good sized loaves of _Brown Bread_.
Some like to have it half Indian meal and half rye meal; others prefer
it one third Indian, and two thirds rye. Many mix their brown bread
over night; but there is no need of it; and it is more likely to sour,
particularly in summer. If you do mix it the night before you bake it,
you must not put in more than half the yeast I am about to mention,
unless the weather is intensely cold. The meal should be sifted
separately. Put the Indian in your bread-pan, sprinkle a little salt
among it, and wet it thoroughly with scalding water. Stir it up while
you are scalding it. Be sure and have hot water enough; for Indian
absorbs a great deal of water. When it is cool, pour in your rye; add
two gills of lively yeast, and mix it with water as stiff as you can
knead it. Let it stand an hour and a half, in a cool place in summer,
on the hearth in winter. It should be put into a very hot oven, and
baked three or four hours. It is all the better for remaining in the
oven over night.
_Flour Bread_ should have a sponge set the night before. The sponge
should be soft enough to pour; mixed with water, warm or cold,
according to the temperature of the weather. One gill of lively yeast
is enough to put into sponge for two loaves. I should judge about
three pints of sponge would be right for two loaves. The warmth of the
place in which the sponge is set, should be determined by the coldness
of the weather. If your sponge looks frothy in the morning, it is a
sign your bread will be good; if it does not rise, stir in a little
more emptings; if it rises too much, taste of it, to see if it has any
acid taste; if so, put in a tea-spoonful of pearlash when you mould in
your flour; be sure the pearlash is well dissolved in water; if there
are little lumps, your bread will be full of bitter spots. About an
hour before your oven is ready, stir in flour into your sponge till it
is stiff enough to lay on a well floured board or table. Knead it up
pretty stiff, and put it into well greased pans, and let it stand in
a cool or warm place, according to the weather. If the oven is ready,
put them in fifteen or twenty minutes after the dough begins to rise
up and crack; if the oven is not ready, move the pans to a cooler
spot, to prevent the dough from becoming sour by too much rising.
Common sized loaves will bake in three quarters of an hour. If they
slip easily in the pans, it is a sign they are done. Some people do
not set a soft sponge for flour bread; they knead it up all ready to
put in the pans the night before, and leave it to rise. White bread
and pies should not be set in the oven until the brown bread and beans
have been in half an hour. If the oven be too hot, it will bind the
crust so suddenly that the bread cannot rise; if it be too cold, the
bread will fall. Flour bread should not be too stiff.
Some people like one third Indian in their flour. Others like one
third rye; and some think the nicest of all bread is one third Indian,
one third rye, and one third flour, made according to the directions
for flour bread. When Indian is used, it should be salted, and
scalded, before the other meal is put in. A mixture of other grains is
economical when flour is high.
_Dyspepsia Bread_.--The American Farmer publishes the following
receipt for making bread, which has proved highly salutary to persons
afflicted with that complaint, viz:--Three quarts unbolted wheat meal;
one quart soft water, warm, but not hot; one gill of fresh yeast; one
gill of molasses, or not, as may suit the taste; one tea-spoonful of
saleratus.
This will make two loaves, and should remain in the oven at least
one hour; and when taken out, placed where they will cool gradually.
Dyspepsia crackers can be made with unbolted flour, water and
saleratus.
_To make Rice Bread_.--Boil a pint of rice soft; add a pint of leaven;
then, three quarts of the flour; put it to rise in a tin or earthen
vessel until it has risen sufficiently; divide it into three parts;
then bake it as other bread, and you will have three large loaves.
Heating ovens must be regulated by experience and observation.
There is a difference in wood in giving out heat; there is a great
difference in the construction of ovens; and when an oven is extremely
cold, either on account of the weather, or want of use, it must be
heated more. Economical people heat ovens with pine wood, fagots,
brush, and such light stuff. If you have none but hard wood, you must
remember that it makes very hot coals, and therefore less of it will
answer. A smart fire for an hour and a half is a general rule for
common sized family ovens, provided brown bread and beans are to be
baked. An hour is long enough to heat an oven for flour bread. Pies
bear about as much heat as flour bread: pumpkin pies will bear more.
If you are afraid your oven is too hot, throw in a little flour, and
shut it up for a minute. If it scorches black immediately, the heat is
too furious; if it merely browns, it is right. Some people wet an old
broom two or three times, and turn it round near the top of die oven
till it dries; this prevents pies and cake from scorching on the top.
When you go into a new house, heat your oven two or three times, to
get it seasoned, before you use it. After the wood is burned, rake the
coals over the bottom of the oven, and let them lie a few minutes.
Those who make their own bread should make yeast too. When bread is
nearly out, always think whether yeast is in readiness; for it takes
a day and night to prepare it. One handful of hops, with two or three
handsful of malt and rye bran, should be boiled fifteen or twenty
minutes, in two quarts of water, then strained, hung on to boil again,
and thickened with half a pint of rye and water stirred up quite
thick, and a little molasses; boil it a minute or two, and then take
it off to cool. When just about lukewarm, put in a cupful of good
lively yeast, and set it in a cool place in summer, and warm place
in winter. If it is too warm when you put in the old yeast, all the
spirit will be killed.
In summer, yeast sours easily; therefore make but little at a time.
Bottle it when it gets well a working; it keeps better when the air
is corked out. If you find it acid, but still spirited, put a little
pearlash to it, as you use it; but by no means put it into your bread
unless it foams up bright and lively as soon as the pearlash mixes
with it. Never keep yeast in tin; it destroys its life.
There is another method of making yeast, which is much easier, and I
think quite as good. Stir rye and cold water, till you make a stiff
thickening. Then pour in boiling water, and stir it all the time, till
you make it as thin as the yeast you buy; three or four table spoons
heaping full are enough for a quart of water. When it gets about cold,
put in half a pint of lively yeast. When it works well, bottle it; but
if very lively, do not cork your bottle _very_ tight, for fear it will
burst. Always think to make new yeast before the old is gone; so that
you may have some to work with. Always wash and scald your bottle
clean after it has contained sour yeast. Beware of freezing yeast.
Milk yeast is made quicker than any other. A pint of new milk with a
tea-spoonful of salt, and a large spoon of flour stirred in, set by
the fire to keep lukewarm, will make yeast fit for use in an hour.
Twice the quantity of common yeast is necessary, and unless used soon
is good for nothing. Bread made of this yeast dries sooner. It is
convenient in summer, when one wants to make biscuits suddenly.
A species of leaven may be made that will keep any length of time.
Three ounces of hops in a pail of water boiled down to a quart; strain
it, and stir in a quart of rye meal while boiling hot. Cool it, and
add half a pint of good yeast; after it has risen a few hours, thicken
it with Indian meal stiff enough to roll out upon a board; then put it
in the sun and air a few days to dry. A piece of this cake two inches
square, dissolved in warm water, and thickened with a little flour,
will make a large loaf of bread.
Potatoes make very good yeast. Mash three large potatoes fine; pour
a pint of boiling water over them; when almost cold, stir in two
spoonfuls of flour, two of molasses, and a cup of good yeast. This
yeast should be used while new.
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