Miss Beecher's Housekeeper and Healthkeeper. Catharine Esther Beecher
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by experiments on dogs.
But meats, vegetables, fruit, eggs, milk, and several other articles in family diet contain the same elements as wheat, though in different proportions; so that it is only an exclusive use of fine flour that is positively dangerous. Still there is no doubt that a large portion of young children using white bread for common food, especially if butter, sugar, and molasses are added, have their teeth, bones, and muscles not properly nourished. And it is a most unwise, uneconomical, and unhealthful practice to use flour deprived of its most important elements because it is white and is fashionable. It would be much cheaper, as well as more healthful, to use the middlings, instead of fine or superfine flour. It would be still better to use unbolted flour, except where delicate stomachs can not bear it, and in that case the middlings would serve nearly as well for nutrition and give no trouble.
Some suppose that bread wet with milk is better than if wet with water, in the making. Many experienced housekeepers say that a little butter or lard in warm water makes bread that looks and tastes exactly like that wet with milk, and that it does not spoil so soon.
Experienced housekeepers say also that bread, if thoroughly kneaded, may be put in the pans, and then baked as soon as light enough, without the second or third kneading, which is often practiced. This saves care and trouble, especially in training new cooks, who thus have only one chance to make mistakes, instead of two or three.
It is not well to use yeast powders instead of yeast, because it is a daily taking of medicinal articles not needed, and often injurious. Cream tartar is supertartrate of potash, and soda is a supercarbonate of soda. These two, when united in dough, form tartrate of potash, tartrate of soda, and carbonate of soda; while some one of the three tends to act chemically and injuriously on the digestive fluids. Professor Hosford’s method is objectionable for the same reason, especially when his medical articles are mixed with flour; for thus poor flour is sold more readily than in ordinary cases. These statements the best-informed medical men and chemists will verify.
Flour loses its sweetness by keeping, and this is the reason why sugar is put in the recipes for bread. The best kind of flour, when new and fresh ground, has eight per cent. of sugar; and when such flour is used, the sugar may be omitted.
Some people make bread by mixing it so that it can be stirred with a spoon. But the nicest kind of bread can be made only with a good deal of kneading.
RECIPES FOR YEAST AND BREAD.
The best yeast is brewers’ or distillery, as this raises bread much sooner than home-brewed. The following is the best kind of home-made yeast, and will keep good two or three weeks:
Hop and Potato Yeast.—Pare and slice five large potatoes, and boil them in one quart of water with a large handful of common hops (or a square inch of pressed hops), tied in a muslin rag. When soft, take out the hops and press the potatoes through a colander, and add a small cup of white sugar, a tea-spoonful of ginger, two tea-spoonfuls of salt, and two tea-cups of common yeast, or half as much distillery. Add the yeast when the rest is only blood-warm. White sugar keeps better than brown, and the salt and ginger help to preserve the yeast.
Do not boil in iron or use an iron spoon, as it colors the yeast. Keep yeast in a stone or earthenware jar, with a plate fitting well to the rim. This is better than a jug, as easier to fill and to cleanse. Scald the jar before making new yeast.
The rule for quantity is, one table-spoonful of brewers’ or distillery yeast to every quart of flour; or twice as much home-made yeast.
Potato Yeast is made by the above rule, omitting the hops. It can be used in large quantities without giving a bitter taste, and so raises bread sooner. But it has to be renewed much oftener than hop yeast, and the bread loses the flavor of hop yeast.
Hard Yeast is made with home-brewed yeast (not brewers’ or distillery), thickened with Indian meal and fine flour in equal parts, and then made into cakes an inch thick and three inches by two in size, dried in the wind but not in the sun. Keep them tied in a bag in a dry, cool place, where they will not freeze. One cake soaked in a pint of warm water (not hot) is enough for four quarts of flour. It is a good plan to work in mashed potatoes into this yeast, and let it rise well before using it. This makes the nicest bread. Some housekeepers say pour boiling water on one third of the flour, and then mix the rest in immediately, and it has the same effect as using potatoes.
When there is no yeast to start with, it can be made with one pint of new milk, one tea-spoonful of fine salt, and a table-spoonful of flour. When it is worked, use twice as much as common yeast. This is called Milk Yeast or Salt Risings, and bread made of it is poor, and soon spoils.
When yeast ceases to look foamy, and becomes watery, with sediment at the bottom, it must be renewed. When good, the smell is pungent, but not sour. If sour, nothing can restore it.
Bread of Fine Flour.—Take four quarts of sifted flour, one quart of lukewarm water, in which are dissolved two tea-spoonfuls of salt, two tea-spoonfuls of sugar, a table-spoonful of melted butter, and one cup of yeast. Mix and knead very thoroughly, and have it as soft as can be molded, using as little flour as possible. Make it into small loaves, put it in buttered pans, prick it with a fork, and when light enough to crack on the top, bake it. Nothing but experience will show when bread is just at the right point of lightness.
If bread rises too long, it becomes sour. This is discovered by making a sudden opening and applying the nose, and the sourness will be noticed as different from the odor of proper lightness. Practice is needed in this. If bread is light too soon for the oven, knead it awhile, and set it in a cool place. Sour bread can be remedied somewhat by working in soda dissolved in water—about half a tea-spoonful for each quart of flour. Many spoil bread by too much flour, others by not kneading enough, and others by allowing it to rise too much.
The goodness of bread depends on the quality of the flour. Some flour will not make good bread in any way. New and good flour has a yellowish tinge, and when pressed in the hand is adhesive. Poor flour is dry, and will not retain form when pressed. Poor flour is bad economy, for it does not make as nutritious bread as does good flour.
Bread made with milk sometimes causes indigestion to invalids and to children with weak digestion.
Take loaves out of the pans, and set them sidewise, and not flat, on a table. Wrapping in a cloth makes the bread clammy.
Bread is better in small loaves. Let your pans be of tin (or better, of iron), eight inches long, three inches high, three inches wide at the bottom, and flaring so as to be four inches wide at the top. This size makes more tender crust, and cuts more neatly than larger loaves.
Oil the pans with a swab and sweet butter or lard. They should be well washed and dried, or black and rancid oil will gather.
All these kinds of bread can be baked in biscuit-form; and, by adding water and eggs, made into griddle-cakes. Bread having potatoes in it keeps moist longest, but turns sour soonest.
Bread of Middlings or Unbolted Flour.—Take four quarts of coarse flour, one quart of warm water, one cup of yeast, two tea-spoonfuls of salt, one spoonful of melted lard or butter, two cups of sugar or molasses, and half a tea-spoonful of soda. Mix thoroughly, and bake in pans the same as the bread of fine flour. It is better to be kneaded rather than made soft with a spoon.
Bread raised with Water only.—Many persons like bread made either of fine or coarse flour, and raised with water only. Success in making this kind depends on the proper quantity of water, quick beating, the heating of very small pans, and very quick baking. There are cast-iron patties made for this purpose, and also small, coarse earthen cups. The following is the rule, but it must be modified by trying:
Recipe.—To one quart of unbolted flour put about one quart, or a little less, of hot water. Beat it very quickly, put it in hot pans, and bake in a hot oven. White flour may be used in place of coarse, and the quantity ascertained by trial. When right, there is after baking little except a crust, which is sweet and crisp.