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

Scale of Weights for Flour — 1 pint = 14 oz. flour ; 1 quartern = 2 pints or 1 quartern ; 1 quartern = J of a stone = 3! lb. (and makes a loaf weighing 4 lb. 6 oz., the regulation quartern loaf) ; 1 stone or peck (14 lb.) makes about 17 or 18 lb. of bread. Substitutes for Yeast — Cookery teachers are often asked what can be used as a substitute for yeast in countries where it is difficult to procure and keep yeast. In Canada a patent compressed yeast is used, and there are also yeast powders to be obtained from many grocers. People get very tired of soda bread and baking-powder bread, and the following recipe is quite satisfactory : Mash 2 ripe bananas or plantains with 1 tablespoonful of brown sugar, J oz. flour, and \ pint tepid water. Mix well in a warm place, and expose to warm air for a few minutes. Bottle tightly in a ginger-beer bottle, and let it stand for 48 hours in a rather warm place. Use this quantity for about 1 quartern of flour, and strain it carefully into the centre of the flour. There is another made of 2 boiled and mashed potatoes, but this is apt to turn the bread a bad colour. It is done as above, but a few hops are added. All these methods are really only of use to start the dough. It is much better, having begun the fermentation of the flour in this way, to keep back about 2 tablespoonfuls of the dough, and then place this in a wide-necked bottle with a screw top , with sugar and warm water, to make the dough quite thin again, and leave this covered up in a warm place all night. Place this in the middle of the flour and knead it in the ordinary way. Allow it to rise till nearly three times the bulk of the flour. The quantity needed must be regulated by experience. It is much affected by the temperature of a climate like India, for instance, less being required in warm weather than in cold. A good reliable baking-powder is made as follows: 8 02. of flour, 4 oz. tartaric acid, 4 oz. cream of tartar, 6 oz. carbonate of soda. Sieve this and store in a dry tin. Soda Bread, etc. — Use J pint of butter-milk or sour milk, and 1 teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda. Mix this into the flour until it is the consistency of dough. In a previous paragraph I alluded to the substitution of potatoes for flour in bread. This is a fraud if it is proved that the bread was sold as made with flour, but in a household where a large number of potatoes have been cooked, it would be a good and economical way of using them up to work them into the bread next day ; but it must be remembered that, if it is desired to have them light and floury, they must be sieved immediately after cooking, before being allowed to get cold, and many kinds of potatoes become sticky and glutinous if mashed when cold. Method — About 3 lb. of potatoes should be mashed for 1 stone of flour, or you may use 1 lb. to 1 quartern. A smaller quantity of yeast (§ oz. to 1 quartern) is liquefied and mixed with tepid water and the potato pulp, and then poured into a hole in the middle of the flour. Allow to ‘ sponge ’ for 1 hour, then knead up, let it rise for 2 hours, and shape into loaves; let them rise, and bake in a hot oven for 1 or 2 hours, according to size. It will be seen that this would be too long for a lesson, but a potato, boiled and mashed, may be added to most doughs.