Instruction in cookery (Methuen's text-books, Thompson)

Yorkshire Tea-cakes — Ingredients: 1 lb. flour, 2 oz. lard, J oz. yeast (good weight), 2 oz. moist sugar, 2 oz. currants, 1 small teaspoonful salt, lukewarm milk. Method — Warm a bowl and put the flour into it, rub in the lard with the hands. Mix the yeast with a little sugar, and when liquid add J teacupful of lukewarm water, then a little milk (lukewarm), and pour this into the middle of the flour ; sprinkle the salt round the edges, and allow to rise 15 minutes in a warm place. Now knead up with more warm milk to a rather lighter dough than bread. Let it rise for an hour, knead in the currants (cleaned) and the sugar (both of these should be slightly warmed), and let it stand again to dissolve the sugar. Make into tea-cakes, roll out slightly, place on a greased and warmed tin, allow to rise well in front of the fire, then bake in a quick oven 12 to 15 minutes. A loaf made from 1 lb. of flour should take about 1½ hours to bake. Points in Making and Baking Bread — Warm basins and flour. Do not mix too moist. Use lukewarm water. Knead till quite smooth. Allow to rise in a gentle heat till three times the bulk. Shape into loaves. Half fill the tins. Allow these to rise well for 15 minutes. Bake in a very hot oven. Lower the heat after the first few minutes. Brush over with milk. Turn the loaves on end to allow the steam to escape. A lesson on bread-making is hardly complete without some mention of flour and its quality. A grain of wheat can be divided into six parts — 1. The outer skin. 5. The glutin or flesh- 2. The middle skin. forming cells. 3. The inner skin. 6. Starch cells. 4. The germ. Flour is sold as Vienna, household, and brown flour — Pastry white or Vienna flour contains 5 and 6. Household flour contains 4, 5, and 6. Brown contains some of all six. The germ is very rich in fat and flesh-forming food, and should, if possible, be preserved as an article of food. There are two ways of grinding the flour, either between roller or stones. The latter produces a nicer and more digestible flour, but it is not so white. Bread made from this stone-ground flour is largely sold in the London shops, and recommended by doctors under the name of Farm-house Bread. This flour can be obtained direct from Jackson Bros., Nowell Mills, Newark, and costs 15s. 6d. per 10 pecks or stone, carriage paid, which is not expensive. In the modern makes of flour everything is sacrificed towards getting the flour a good colour, and though this may be essential for good pastry, it is not so good or digestible for bread. Adulterations of flour are not so common as they were, but adulteration in bread still continues to be used. Amongst the working classes the one thing they like is very white bread, and this is often produced by the use of alum and the substitution of potato pulp for the best flour. The use of alum may be detected by sticking a hot knife into the loaf, which comes out covered with a stringy fibre if alum has been used. Flour should not be sticky to the touch ; if so, it is too new. It should not be kept in a damp place, for this will give a musty flavour to the bread.