The housekeeper's companion

To Make Twist Bread. — Let the bread be made as directed for baker's or for wheat bread, then take three pieces as large as a pint bowl each; strew a little flour over the pasteboard or table, roll each piece under your hands, to twelve inches length, making it smaller in circumference at the ends than in the middle; having rolled the three in this way, take a baking tin, lay one part on it, join one end of each of the other two to it, and braid them together the length of the rolls, and join the ends by pressing them together; dip a brush in milk, and pass over the top of loaf; after ten minutes or so, set it in a quick oven, and bake for nearly an hour. Wheat and Indian Bread. — Put three pints of water over the fire; when it is boiling hot, add a large tablespoonful of salt, stir into it sweet white corn meal, until it is a thick batter; continue to stir it for ten minutes, that it may not burn, then turn it into a dish, stir into it a quart of cold water; when it is cool enough to bear your hand in it, pour it into a bowl, in which is seven pounds of wheat flour, heaped around the sides so as to leave a hollow in the centre; add to it a gill of baker's yeast, and half a teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in a little hot water, then work the whole into a smooth dough, work it, or knead, for nearly an hour, then strew a little flour over it, lay a thickly folded cloth over, and set it in a warm place for five or six hours in summer, or mix at night in winter; when light, work it down, set it to rise again for one hour, then heat the oven, work the bread down, and divide it in loaves, and bake, according to their size, in a quick oven; when taken from the oven, turn them over in the pans, and set them to become cold; if the crust is hard, wrap them in a towel as soon as taken from the oven. Rye Bread. — Make the same as wheat and Indian bread, substituting rye flour for wheat. Or, -thus: To a quart of warm water stir as much wheat flour as will make a smooth batter, stir into it half a gill of baker's yeast, and set it in a warm place to rise; this is called setting a sponge; let it be mixed in some vessel which will contain twice the quantity; in the morning put three pounds and a half of rye flour into a bowl or tray; make a hollow in the centre, pour in the sponge, add a dessert spoonful of salt, and half a small teaspoonful of saleratus, dissolved in a little water; make the whole into a smooth dough with as much warm water as may be necessary; knead it well, cover it, and let it set in a warm place for three hours, then knead it again, and make it in two or three loaves; bake in a quick oven one hour, if made in two loaves, and less if the loaves are smaller. Bread-Cake or Biscuit. — Take from risen bread dough, the size of a small loaf, work into it one egg and a large tablespoonful of lard when it is thoroughly amalgamated, flour the hands and make it in balls the size and shape of a hen's egg; rub a tin pan over with a bit of sponge dipped in butter, lay them in so as to touch each other until the pan is full, wet the tops over with milk, then set them into a quick oven for twenty minutes; serve hot for breakfast or tea. When eaten, break them open — to cut them would make them heavy.