The home cook book

stir in the yeast. Set in a warm place (but not hot) to rise. Cover. When very light put away in Mason glass jars with covers. Fill the jars three-quarters full, as at first. The yeast will rise more. Set away in a cold place or in an ice-box. When yeast is made again use one yeast cake and half a teacup of potato yeast. BREAD Dissolve two cakes and a half of the ounce yeast cakes of Fleischmann's make. To dissolve them put in three tablespoons of cold water. Take a quart of blood-warm water and a heaping teaspoon of salt, and add the dissolved yeast cakes. Have flour sifted into a pan or bowl, and stir the yeast mixture in till you have a dough stiff enough to lift from the bowl. Lift the dough to your bread board, having first floured it well, and knead the dough thoroughly, putting to it more flour until it does not stick to your fingers or to your bread board. With hot drippings grease a warm bowl, set the dough in the bowl and grease over the top of the dough. Cover to protect from cold and set in a warm place to rise — not hot, merely warm. In about three hours the dough will have risen. Form it into loaves, brush the loaves with hot drippings, set to rise in a warm place for an hour, and bake till a golden brown. BREAD MADE WITH POTATOES Boil three large potatoes. Mash them while hot, adding a piece of butter half as big as an egg, one teaspoon of sugar, and half a teaspoon of salt. Mash all together perfectly smooth. Take a pint of warm water, half of it pour over the potatoes, moisten a teacup and a half of flour with the other half. Beat the flour batter well to remove all lumps, and add it to the potato batter. Then add half a teacup of yeast, or one-third of a cake of compressed yeast dissolved in half a cup of warm water. Add also half a teaspoon of soda dissolved in half a cup of warm water. Beat together this thin batter and set in a warm place, where the bottom of its dish will BREAD 227 be kept warm overnight. Next morning sift into your bread tray a quart and a half of flour and half a teaspoon of salt. Make a hole in the middle of the flour and pour in the sponge. If the risen sponge is good it will be full of bubbles. Knead well — five or ten minutes — with both hands, but keep the dough soft, and use on your hands only as much flour as is necessary. After sprinkling flour all round, over and under the Rolling Pin (even diameter) dough, cover with a cloth and set in a warm place. It should rise to double its size in about an hour. Knead again and divide into two loaves. Set the pans in a warm place until the loaves have risen to the top. Bake in a quick oven about half an hour. If you wish to make biscuits, after the first kneading take about half the dough and roll out the biscuits. Let them rise a few minutes in a warm place and bake in a quick oven. BROWN BREAD Mix together one cup and a half of cornmeal, one scant cup of wheat flour, one cup and a half of graham flour, one cup of New Orleans molasses, one teaspoon of salt, and two teacups of buttermilk. Beat well together and add two teaspoons of soda dissolved in cold water. Mix again. Bake in one-pound baking-powder cans in a rather hot and steady oven. Set the covers on the cans. BOSTON BROWN BREAD