FoodNet

A manual of home-making

1919

Page 282

Presented as published in 1919. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Flour is sometimes said to be 80 per cent patent. Thi usually means that 80 per cent of the flour obtained from t wheat in the diflFerent stages of milling has been blended fi market. The term " patent*' flour came into use when the rt>ller| or patent, milling process was introducetl; its nieaiiing at present time is not uniform throughout the country. Graham^ from whom graham flour received its name, believ^ YEAST BREAD 497 that the entire wheat kernc4 should be used for food and de- veloped a milling process hy which all the kernel, with the excep- tion of the outer inetliljte coats, was usetL At the present time, most graham flour is made by comljining i^ran and white flour. Whole-wheat flour does not contain so \iu%e a percentage of the entire wheat kernel as does K^'^ham, However, graham, Ijecaose of its coarseness, may be irritating to the digestive tract of some pei^ons. White flour contains less of the wheat kernel than does either w^hole-wheat or graham. Yeasts are very small plants, having a diameter of al»out 3/1000 inch. In bread-making» yeast serves two functions: (1) hy its action on the sugar of the flour it forms carbon di- oxide gas, which makes the dough light; (2) it gives the char- acteristic flavor which is found in bread only when yeast is used. Before yeast was sold commercially, women used to obtain it by exposing batter to the air for several hours. The difficult}'' with this method was that various yeast i)lantH, fis well us other organisms present in the air, might enter^ whereas only one type of yeast Is best for bread-making. Thus the flavor of the bread was not always desirable. Old-fa^^hioned litjuid yeast, or potato yeast, represents the housekeeper's metliod. The yeasts grow and umlUply rapidly in potato water to which ealt and sugar have been added. This mixture is then kept in a cool place until needed 1 for bread-making; The disadvan- tage of liquid yeast is that other yeasts and organisms find their way into the mixture and may give the bread a peculiar flavor. For the commercial producti one form of yeast is grown under ver>' carefully standardized conditions. The yeasts are mixed with cornmcal and the mixture pressed into cakes and dried; or the yeasts are mixed with starch or tapioca flour, pressed into cakes, and sold in the form of compressed 3^east. In the dried form they will keep in fairly good condition for months; 498 A MANUAL OF HOME-MAKING cornpresBed yea«t keeps for only a few days, but the yessi mnvli more active than it is in the dry cakes and, therefor bread can l>e made more quickly from it. Lu/uid. The liquid used in bread-making may be water, whole milk, Hkimmcil milk, whey, potato water, rice water, or the like. Incrciised nutritive value, as well m lx?ttcr flavor and textu are points in favor of using milk in »ume of it^ forums inn of water. tureuj tea4| MIXING \ND KNRADIN«J Milk for making breail is scaldetl in order to kill any organ- isms that might develop under the favorable conditions offered and thus give the bread a bad flavor. The ix^st tcmperalure for the growth of yeast is 75** to 90* F. Below 40° to tK)"* F, yeast will not grow. It i^ kilkxl at 140** F. Therefore, the liquid is cooled until it is lukewann befordj the yeast Is added, Sp&nge method. For the sponge method of mixing bread, sufficient flour