FoodNetArchive

Farm and home cook book and housekeeper's assistant

1907

Page 18

Presented as published in 1907. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
For steaming brown bread I use 2 sizes of lard pails, put the bread in the small one, and set this in the larger one, with a piece of perforated wood in the bottom, fill with boiling water to within an inch of the top of the smaller pail, which should be securely covered. Cover the larger pail also and place the whole in a hot oven and you will not have to bother with it until the bread is done. This method saves steaming up the rooms. For brown bread I prefer the bolted corn meal. — [Mrs. L. M. R., Me. Use milk in mixing bread, for it is obvious that milk is more nutritious than water. Much kneading of the dough is unnecessary, even harmful, though many rules for bread mak- ing particularly emphasize it: I think it makes the bread tougher and it does not keep fresh and moist so long. Use as little yeast as possible. In summer less yeast is needed than in winter. All the ingredients for bread making should be lukewarm. Much depends upon baking — not too fast or too slow — in a range that bakes top and bottom evenly, usually in a little less than one hour. A very little baking after the- bread is done makes it dry. The ideal bread should be a little moist. It is best not to cut bread the same day it is baked. — [Mrs. J. I. M., N. H. 22 FARM AND HOME COOK BOOK tPASTE ADDITIONAIi RECIPES HEBE] A LUSCIOUSi HOMEMADE PIE. THREE CRISP LOAVES OF BREAD. Qakes, Fillings and Frostin^s OR cakes and in all branches of cookery it always pays to use the best and purest ingredients. Inferior flours, or cheap sodas, baking powders, spices and extracts, inva- riably fail to give satisfaction, because more than the ordinary quantities are required, and because they are generally unpalatable, and, most im- portant of all, because they are positively injurious to health. If you must practice economy, do so in quantity, not quality — in other words, select plain recipes and leave the fancy and more elaborate combinations for special occasions. Some like cakes very sweet and rich, while others do not. In presenting the following recipes, the editor has tried to steer a middle course. It is understood that salt should be added to every cake, although it was not thought necessary to repeat this in every recipe. The amount of salt required will vary — less if salted butter is used, and more if lard or any other unsalted drippings are used. The recipes which follow were mostly furnished by readers of Farm and Home, whose initials are signed. These recipes are all claimed to be tried and tested, and whatever else there may or may not be said of them, they certainly sound "tasty," and most of them have the addi- tional merit of being economical. The assortment includes plain and rich cakes, "raised" or yeast cakes, baking powder cakes, sour milk, buttermilk and soda cakes, eggless cakes, butterless cakes, fruit cakes, and various wholesome and palatable light and dark cakes, in loaves, layers, rolls and small cakes, together with all sorts of fillings and frostings. It would seem as though the variety would be large enough to suit all tastes. FARM AND HOME COOK BOOK General Directions for Baking Cake