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Classic
Cook Books
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page 243
To take off the bitter of yeast, put bran into a sieve, and pour it through,
having first mixed a little warm water with it.
To make Bread.
Let flour be kept four or five weeks before it is begun to bake with. Put half a
bushel of good flour into a trough, or kneading-tub; mix with it between four
and five quarts of warm water, and a pint and a half of good yeast; put it into
the flour, and stir it we'll with your hands till it becomes tough. Let it rise
about an hour and twenty minutes, or less if it rises fast; then, before it
falls, add four quarts more of warm water, and half a pound of salt; work it
well, and cover it with a cloth. Put the fire then into the oven; and by the
time it is warm enough, the dough will be ready. Make the loaves about five
pounds each; sweep out the oven very clean and quick, and put in the bread; shut
it up close, and two hours and a half will bake it. In summer the water should
be milk-warm, in winter a little more, and in frosty weather as hot as you can
well bear your hand in, but not scalding, or the whole will be spoiled. If baked
in tins, the crust will be very nice.
The oven should be round, not long; the roof from twenty to twenty-four inches
high, the mouth small, and the door of iron, to shut close. This construction
will save firing and time, and bake better than long and high-roofed ovens.
Rolls, muffins, or any sort of bread, may be made to taste new when two or three
days old, by dipping them uncut in water, and baking afresh or toasting.
American Flour
Requires almost twice as much water to make it into bread as is used for English
flour, and therefore it is more profitable; for a stone of the American, which
weighs fourteen pounds, will make twenty-one pounds and a half of bread, but the
best sort of English flour produces only eighteen pounds and a half.
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Classic
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