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The Queen Cook Book: A Careful Compilation of Recipes and Practical ...

1895

Page 1

Presented as published in 1895. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
^ tea cup yeast Take out one pint of flour for kneading next morn- ing, make a hollow in center of flour, put all the ingredients in, stir together, then stir in the flour to a thick batter (not dough). Use a tin pan with a good fitting cover, then wrap in double flannel and set it on two warm bricks in a warm room over night. (It is a good plan to keep two bricks in the oven.) Take it out early next morning, soon as you can get it warmed through. Work in the largest half of your reserved flour and knead ten minutes, by doubling the hand and pressing the knuckles in the dough, lifting one fist up, as you put the other down, with some force. Then flour the board and knead on that for ten minutes more with the palm of the hand, using the rest of the flour or more, having the dough as soft as possible to manage well. At first the soft dough will seem to stick and trouble the inexperienced cook, but she will soon learn to manage it, to her great relief. The dough must not get cold. Butter your pan before making out the bread. §et it in heater and keep warm. If good it will be light in one hour. Raise up the edge of loaf; if it looks light and foamy lO The Queen Cook Book (not stringy) it is light for baking. Bake tnrfe-fourths of an hour, if oven is hot enough. If you can hold hand in oven till you can count twenty only, it is right heat, or if a teaspoon of flour on a tki browns in five minutes. Bread should be in the oven fifteen min- utes before it begins to brown. When baked through take it out of pan and stand it on end; lean it against something, so as to let the air circulate around it, to give a dry crust. When perfectly cold, put it in a sweet clean jar, cover with paper and plate. Do not wrap a cloth around it, as our mothers used to, as the cloth absorbs the moisture of the bread. If you wet the bread with water you can put one rounded tea- spoon of butter in water. Milk or water should always be warm. This receipt is for bottled yeast and makes one large loaf. If you use dried yeast, take one-fourth of a cake for a loaf and a half cup more wetting, and you can knead it and raise it twice after the sponge. To make good bread it is best to know how to select good flour. When pressed tightly, it adheres to the hand, remains in shape and shows the imprint of the lines on the hand. It has a yellowish white tinge and when made into a paste with water, and well worked, is tough and elastic. Use one kind of flour for bread, pastry and cake. After selecting the flour, the next important thing is to have good strong, sweet yeast. The compressed yeast cakes are very good and convenient. In large cities you can obtain the soft yeast cakes done up in tin foil. They are very nice, but must be fresh. I much prefer the flavor of bread made from bottled yeast. I have been thus minute in describing the process of bread making for the sake of the inexperienced, while it may seem unneccessary to the practical housekeeper. Always use we- • The Queen Cook Book II a tin pan to raise the dough in. Wooden bowls are not good. Bottled Yeast. 6 medium-sized potatoes }4 cup sugar 2 y^ quarts water J^ cup salt I handful good hops J4 pint yeast or J^ of a cake