The Farm Table. 619 



The dry yeast cakes which still have a place in country grocery 

 stores were devised to keep yeast for a longer time than was possible in a 

 liquid form. These are usually made by stirring corn meal into a good 

 liquid yeast until it can be shaped into cakes, and these are allowed 

 to dry. 



To use dry yeast, the most satisfactory way is to make a cupful of 

 flour paste or of potato like that for liquid yeast, and start it with a por- 

 tion of a dry cake. When that is foaming, use like liquid yeast. To 

 rise over night, a half pint of good liquid yeast may be used with one 

 quart of milk or water — for a shorter time equal quantities of yeast 

 and other liquid may be combined. 



At the Centennial Exhibition in 1876 a bakery was established by a 

 foreign firm to show the excellence of its bread and yeast ; and thus 

 indirectly, the square yeast cakes, solid, but so moist that it is necessary 

 to protect them by wrapping in tinfoil, were introduced in the United 

 States. To-day this form of yeast is used mainly in the large cities, and 

 even in small villages it may be found fresh at least once a week. Some 

 isolated housekeepers who cannot secure it nearer home, have had it 

 mailed to them from the nearest large town, considering its uniform 

 good quality and the convenience worth all it cost them. The action of 

 this type of yeast is so rapid that it is often difficult for those accustomed 

 to slower methods to learn to use it, but the quality may be varied accord- 

 ing to the time available. 



To use yeast intelligently, we must 

 realize that it is a form of plant life and 

 if we wish it to grow, it must be treated 

 as a plant — that is, it must be supplied 

 with moisture and warmth. When the 

 yeast has done its work and filled the dough 

 with a gas given ofif in its development, it 

 should be promptly killed by the heat of 

 the oven. The chief objection ever brought 













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against the use of yeast is that loaves are Fig. 159. Yeast plants highly 

 often made so large or baked so quickly magmiied. 



that the yeast is not fully killed in the oven and further fermentation 

 interferes with digestion. 



