Bread Making

Ingredients

• good flour
• lively yeast
• a table-spoonful of lard

Method

1. 1

   Prepare sponge with warm water and flour.

2. 2

   Knead the dough, let it rise, shape into rolls or loaves, and bake in a properly heated oven.

Nutrition per serving

Estimated from matched ingredients across 12 servings.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The new Kentucky home cook book (1884) by Maysville (Ky.). Methodist Episcopal Church, South., page 65. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

BREAD MAKING. To the uninitiated in this the most important department of the culinary art much may be said to instruct; at the same time there are no written rules that can guide one to perfection as experience and practice do. The preparing of good and wholesome food fills an important place in the list of duties which falls to the lot of the housewife, and prominent among these preparations is the making of good bread, appropriately designated the "staff of life," as it is really the food of all classes. Hence the importance of obtaining a knowledge of an art that is so universal in its demands, and so productive of good. We Americans may not have the least desire to adopt or indorse the course pur- sued by the people of the Old World, yet the fact that " the wife's inability to make good bread is a ground for divorce among the Arabs" will show, to a certain extent, how con- ducive such an acquisition is to domestic peace. In the culti- vation of whatever undeveloped talent we may possess in this line Ave will presuppose that we have at our command the first essentials, which are good flour, lively yeast, and an oven that does good baking. Having these requisites, with due attention paid to the proportioning of ingredients as given in the different receipts under the head of Bread, we cannot but feel assured that the swift, deft touch which makes the work easy and sure will come with practice. In making yeast bread, if it is desirable to have the baking done in the early part of the day, the sponge (which can be prepared by di- rections given in receipts) must be made in the afternoon. In cold weather use warm water in making the sponge, us- 132 The Neiv Kentucky Home Cook Book. ing a crock or jar (never in tin) in which to have it rise. If necessary, the vessel which contains the sponge can he protected from the cold by wrapping it in a worn blanket kept for this purpose. After it has risen, the bread can be mixed during the evening, and left to lighten in the bread- pan. For this purpose, use a large seamless pan with handles and a closely fitted cover. Tin is preferable to wood, being much easier cleansed after using. The temper- ature of the flour and sponge should correspond. After having stirred the sponge into the flour, if additional moist- ure is needed use warm water, keeping the dough as solt as can well be handled. Protect the bread-pan from the cold as you did the sponge-jar, and leave the mass to lighten. The dough at the first rising should increase to twice its original size. After the bread is mixed then begins the process of kneading, which is a very important part of bread making. Good cooks differ as to the number of times the dough should be worked, each being successful in carrying out her individual ideas. Some insist that twice is the com- plement, while others are quite as well satisfied with knead- ing it well at the time of mixing, and once again for a few minutes only after it has lightened, before molding the loaves preparatory to the second rising. The queen of the kitchen, be she mistress or maid, can show her desire to add to the pleasure of the household by rising early in order to prepare the light rolls so delicious for the morning meal. The batch of bread' made up the evening before (if a suc- cess) will be found waiting her attention. After sprinkling a little flour on the kneading-board, separate a piece of the lightened dough and work a table-spoonful of lard

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