Culinary jottings

Having thus directed your attention to two excellent appliances for the camp kitchen,* I will return to the subject of baking bread, for your servants can always contrive a field oven for you without difficulty, which, though infinitely inferior to that of the stove, will perform the task required of it fairly enough. But in wet weather, the owner of an Acme will, of course, laugh and grow fat, whilst his neighbour with only Ramasamy's fine whether make-shift to fall back upon, will beg for bread. I have baked at home regularly now for over two years using, for ordinary bread, Yeatman's baking powder, * There are, I dare say, cooking stoves, fed by mineral oils, patented by other firms, which are similar to the Acme in working and quite as good. I have confined my remarks to the one which I have thoroughly tested. American flour, salt, and water ; for fancy rolls, tlie same with butter, and milk ; and have discovered, after many experiments, that in this country, the proportions of baking powder to flour which are laid down in the paper of directions accompanying each tin, have to be increased. For eight ounces of flour, for instance, I find that I have to use two tea-spoonfuls of Yeatmau. I may say without hesitation that very few breadmakers hit off perfection at starting. I struggled through many disheartening attempts, before I turned out the thing I wanted. The common mistakes are overworking the dough, and using too much liquid. The mixing of dough with the proper quantity of fluid can only be acquired by practice, and all beginners knead too heavily through over zeal. Watch a professor. The fair-haired artiste who demonstrates bread-making at Mr. Woolf 's, makes a pound loaf with three-quarters of a tea-cupful of water; her touch is as light as a feather, and the dough is made with wonderful swiftness. I have taught my servant to use two wooden spoons to work his dough with, the result is satisfactory as regards the lightness of the bread, and to those who dislike eating food mauled by native fingers, the system is especially attractive. If by any chance your dough has been made too sloppily, and from its putty-like consistency, you feel convinced it will be heavy, bake it in a tin. The paraphernalia of the home-baker should be : — a large enamelled iron milk basin, two wooden spoons, a flour dredger, scales to weigh the flour, some patty-pans for rolls, some small tins for ditto, a baking-sheet, a half pound and pound loaf tin, and a cake tin : these various things are not expensive, they should be kept in the house (when in cantonment) away from the cook-room, as clean as possible, and be scrupulously reserved for their own purposes. Having provided yourself with this equipment, yon should use Yeatman's baking powder, the best imported flour you can get, oatmeal occasionally, salt, and either good butter made at home, or that of any well-known brand preserved in tin. Here is a reliable receipt for four nice breakfast or dinner rolls : — eight ounces of flour, one dessert-spoonful of good butter, two tea-spoonfuls of Yeatman's powder, one salt-spoonful of salt,