A simple course in home economics for rural schools

Arrange a layer of sliced or diced potatoes in a buttered dish. Sprinkle with flour, salt, pepper, and dot with bits of butter. Repeat until dish is not more than % full. Add milk or water to cover. Bake in a moderate oven until potatoes are tender, from 45 m. to 1 hr. As a variety and for a change — Note: Grated cheese may be added to each layer or a little minced onion gives a good additional flavor. White Sauce for Creamed Vegetables 2 T. butter— melt 2 T. flour 1/4 t. salt f. g. pepper, or paprica if desired. Blend, add gradually, stir constantly, 1 C. milk Cook until consistency of thick cream. Add prepared vegetable. Serve hot. Simple Courses in Home Economics 155 YEAST BREAD Subject Matter Wheat is the most important cereal in the world, because it is most largely used for bread-manking. Besides starch, it contains a valuable protein called gluten, which becomes very elastic when moist. This gluten is stretched by means of the pressure of gas in the dough, and it is due to this that bread is light and porous. The process of making wheat into flour is a most interesting one. The grain is washed, broken into pieces by means of intricate machinery, ground and sifted many times until all of the bran is removed, and we have the fine white product with which we are all familiar. A visit to a flour mill where this procesp. can be seen is most interesting and instructive. Yeast is essential for bread-making. It is a form of microscopic plant life. Each plant is composed of one cell. When yeasti is placed in a solution containing food for the plants, under favorable conditions, the yeast cells rapidly grow and reproduce. The tiny yeast plant sometimes floats about in the air, and when it finds a good soil for growth, it develops very rapidly. To grow, it requires warmth, moisture, and food. Bread dough furnishes all of these requirements, and when at a temperature of 90° F. it is most favorable to the development of the plant. There are other tiny plants besides yeast floating in the air. They are called bacteria and molds. They, too, are likely to get into the dough, but they do not have the same good effect that the yeast does. The bacteria is apt to change the flavor of the bread and cause it to become sour and stringy. For this reason, we have to be very careful in the yeast we use, and try and get that which is free from bacteria. The Fleischman yeast cakes are excellent. They are prepared with the greatest care and are free from bacteria, so that bread made from them is usually good. However, when this yeast is not obtainable, the home-made yeast can be used, or the dried 156 Bulletin of the Vniversiiy of Texas yeast cake which can be purchased at any reliable grocery store. Home-made yeast can be made very successfully by using the recipes given below. The yeast acts upon the sugar and starch in the dough and breaks them down into the simpler sugars and then into a gas called carbon dioxide. It is this gas which expands and stretches the gluten in the flour. Gluten hardens when baked. Bread is rightly called the ''Staff of Life," and when served with butter it is known as the "Gold-headed Cane." Every meal is incomplete wdthout some form of bread. It is a food of which we never tire. Composition of Bread. Butter. Water 40.0 12.5 Protein 6.5 5 Fat 1.0 84.5