Bread

Ingredients

• 2 Quarts of flour
• About three-quarters of a quart of water
• 1/2 Table-spoonful of salt
• 1/2 Table-spoonful of sugar
• 1/2 Table-spoonful of lard

Method

1. 1

   Mix the yeast with lukewarm water and pour into a hole made in sifted flour.

2. 2

   Gradually mix in flour until a dough forms.

3. 3

   Knead until not sticky, then rub melted lard on top.

4. 4

   Cover and let rise until doubled in size.

5. 5

   Shape into loaves, let rise again, then prick the tops and bake in a hot oven until a broom straw comes out dry.

Nutrition per serving

As published

This recipe was extracted from The cooking garden (1885) by Emily Huntington, page 22. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

bread, and it is the easiest way, perhaps ; but it takes a great deal more baker's bread to satisfy hunger than home-made bread, and the latter is more nourishing. So, if there is a large family of children at home, it will be well to know how to make home-made bread. Then, again, you can make so many nice dishes with bread dough as a basis — crust for a pot-pie, raised doughnuts, and a healthful cake ; and in cold weather one can keep the dough several days, and so have hot rolls for breakfast and supper with very little trouble. You may not always live in the city, where you can buy bread so conveniently. Then, if you should ever live in other homes, you would need to know how to make good bread, as no one is considered a perfect cook who does not understand bread making, and I want you to give good attention, for I should not be willing to say that my scholars did not know how to make bread. The yeast that bread is raised with is made from a plant. Some yeast is made of hops, and brewer's yeast of another plant, that ferments in little bubbles, like soap-bubbles. When this yeast is mixed in the flour, it fills the dough with air-bubbles, that lift, or raise, as we say, every part of it. In warm weather yeast works twice as fast as in cold weather, and both too great heat or cold will kill it ; and if water is too hot with 94 LESSON SIXTH. which you mix your dough, it will kill the yeast, so that water or milk with which you mix your bread must be lukewarm. The milk should be scalded and then allowed to cool, as the acid in unscalded milk may sour the bread ; the only way to know if it is right heat is to feel with )^our finger. All know that you should use sifted flour in cooking, but it makes a great difference whether flour is sifted before or after measuring. This rule on the Receipt Chart is to be sifted after it is measured, so you can put your sieve on the top of the bowl in which it is to be mixed, and salt and flour can be sifted through together. Then make a hole in the flour, not quite to the bottom of it, or the china is seen, and the yeast would stick to it. Then mix part of the water and yeast together, and pour into the hole just a little at a time, so you can mix flour and water gradually toward the middle until it has been made into dough ; mix well to- gether. Spread a little flour on the board, and heap a little on one side, enough to knead dough. When none of the dough sticks to your hands you can leave off kneading, but not until then, as rested dough is not near so nice. Rub a little melted lard over top of dough, then cover with clean cloth, and put it near the fire. You cannot tell just how long it must stand to rise, but when it rises to double its size it is ready to be made into loaves and put in pans. This, before it is ready to bake, must rise again ; then the top must be pricked or cut across, so that the crust will not bind, and the loaves be put into a quick oven to bake. The air is hot at the top of the oven, so you must put your bread on the bottom, for if you should bake your dough hard on the top first it would not rise at all, and we wish to have the yeast swell the starch and send the water that is in the dough in steam out through the holes we pricked in the loaf. When a broom straw will pass through and come out dry, it is done. When it is taken from the oven it should be placed on its side, or top crust, so that the steam can get out of the bottom of the loaf, which is not so hard as the top crust. Now you know how to make the bread, I will repeat some things I have told you before — that the flour is made up of albumen or LESSON SIXTH. 95 gluten, which makes our flesh, muscles, and nerves ; starch, which makes our fat ; and phosphorus, lime, and gelatine, which make our bones grow hard and strong. Starch is a very white substance, and not very nourishing, al- though it makes us fat. Gluten, phosphorus, gelatine, and lime, which feed our muscles and nerves and make the bones strong, are dark-colored substances ; so it does not follow that because flour is not very white it is not good. It may have more health-giving substances in it than the white kind. Graham flour, which has more of these substances in it, is much darker in color. You now have your lesson upon handling the dough, and after what you have learned here I hope you will practice at home. QUESTIONS. Question. How many mdicles are needed m making bread f Answer. Six. Flour, salt, water, shortening, yeast, and sugar. Q. Must welter be hot or cold? A. Lukewarm. Q. When should it be put in f A. When the flour is quite dry. Q. How much salt to a qzcart of flour f A. A small teaspoonful. Q. How miLch yeast to a quart of flour f A. Quarter cake compressed yeast, or quarter cup of liquid yeast. Q. Must it be left in a warm, or cool place to rise ? A. In a warm place. Q. After it is moulded into loaves is it baked at once f A. No ; it is left to get light. Q. How do you know when it is ready ? A. When it is double its original size. Q. How should the oven be when it is put in ? A. Hot. Q. Should it be kept so f A. No ; it should gradually cool off. g6 LESSON SIXTH. ■ 0. How do you know luhen it is done ? A. By a broom straw being passed through and coming out per- fectly dry. Q When baked, how is bread cared for ? A. Turned upside down, and wrapped in a cloth till cool, to steam crust and make it tender ; or rub over the top with butter or lard. Q. What is the last thing yozi do to your dough before covering it? A. Rub lard over the top of it. Q. What is this for ? A. To prevent a hard crust forming. Q. How are Fre7ich rolls made ? A. The dougfh is rolled about an inch thick, then cut with a bis- cuit-cutter. Rub a little butter around half the edge, then turn over till almost double. The rolls should be very light before they are baked. O. How are biscuits made ? A. The dough is rolled out, then cut in little pieces of same size, turned into rounds with the fingers, and put side by side in the pan. Cover them with a towel, and set near the fire to rise. Q. What makes fried bread particularly convenient ? A. In the morning, before oven is heated or biscuit raised, the simple dough would expand in hot fat, and it could be much more quickly cooked. RECEIPTS. BREAD. 2 Quarts of flour. About three-quarters of a quart of water, y2 Table-spoonful of salt

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.