FoodNet

Elements of the theory and practice of cookery

1901

Page 62

Presented as published in 1901. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
8. Use round or French bread-pans; in the corners of rectangular pans the dough has not room fully to expand. Make small loaves always, to insure the bread's being baked through ; in large loaves, the heat may fail to penetrate to the centre, and some yeast may remain alive. This yeast, fermenting in the stomach of the person that eats the bread, is likely to cause serious indigestion. If obliged to use pans more than four inches broad, bake the bread from one hour and a quarter to one hour and a half, decreasing the heat after the first half hour. Why should it be decreased ? 9. If the oven is too hot, set a pan of water in it for a few minutes. If bread rises much after being put into the oven, the heat is not great enough ; if it begins to brown in less than fifteen minutes, the heat is too great. If the loaf rises or browns more on one side than on the other, turn it around. 10. The crust, by preventing the inside of the loaf from drying, keeps the centre from becoming hotter than about 212° F. Which is more digestible, crust or crumb ? Why ? 11. Bread is baked when it shrinks from the sides of the pan. To make the crust crisp and tender, rub it 132 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY while hot with a bit of butter twisted in a piece of cloth or paper. Set fresh loaves on edge in such a way that air reaches all sides of them. When cool put them in a tin box or stone jar, without wrapping. Wrapping bread in cloth makes it damp and musty. 234. Uses for stale bread. — Stale bread, if heated in a closely covered pan, becomes almost like new. Keep pieces of stale bread by themselves in a jar or covered bowl. Stale slices may be used for toast. (See direc- tions for toasting bread, § 153.) Dry broken pieces in a warm oven until they are crisp, but not brown. Crush them on a board with a rolling-pin kept for this purpose ; sift the crumbs, and keep them in a jar to use for croquettes, etc. They will keep several weeks. Coarser or browned crumbs may be used for the tops of scalloped dishes. Stale crumbs not dried are suitable for bread puddings and filling of scalloped dishes. Bread dried slowly in the oven till brittle and brown all through is liked by many people and is excellent for children. Fancy Bread Recipes Parker House Rolls Flour, 4 cupfuls. Scalded milk, 1 cupful. Salt, 14. teaspoonful. Compressed yeast, 1 cake, mixed with Butter, 2 tablespooiifuls. Lukewarm water, ]4- cupful. Sugar, 1 tablespoonful ; extra butter melted. Reserve one-half cupful of flour. Sift the salt with the rest, rub in the butter, and sift again. Let the milk cool until lukewarm ; then stir into it the yeast BREAD 133 and add the flour gradually, using as much of the reserved portion as is necessary. When stiff enough, knead the dough on a board. Let it rise until tripled in bulk. Roll out about one-half inch thick, cut with a biscuit-cutter, spread lightly with melted butter, crease with the back of a knife-handle dipped in flour, and fold almost double. Let the rolls rise until doubled in bulk (about twenty minutes). Brush them with water or milk, and bake in a very hot oven fifteen minutes. Swedish Rolls Flour, about 4 cupfuls. Scalded milk, 1 cupful. Sugar, 2 tablespoon fuls. Compressed yeast, 1 cake mixed with Salt, i^ teaspoonful. Lukewarm water, % cupful.