668 "Reading-Course for Farmers' Wives. 



how elastic it has become. Put the dough in a fine sieve (soup strainer), 

 take a large basin of water, put the dough down into the water and wash 

 it by working with the fingers while the dough is in the water. The 

 water becomes milky and a fine powder settles down to the bottom of 

 the basin. The fine powder is the starch or carbohydrates of the grain. 

 Provide fresh water and continue washing the dough until the water is 

 practically clear. The remaining ball is the gluten. By taking different 

 grades of flour and comparing the gluten a great difference in color and 

 elasticity is perceptible. The best gluten for bread making should be 

 creamy white and elastic. The stretched piece in the picture was about 

 the size of the ends of the two thumbs taken together. If you have a 

 reading circle a most profitable afternoon might be spent by taking up 

 the study of flours. Let each woman bring a sample of gluten from 

 some flour and try to have all grades represented. Have also someone 

 bake some gluten to show the difference in color and expansive power. 

 When a smaller quantity of flour is used, one-half a measuring cup will 

 do. Each one should take the same quantity to compare results. 



Bread. 



Use only good flour ; but good yeast should be used to insure good 

 bread. The most satisfactory yeast is the compressed yeast, providing, 

 always, it is fresh. If we remember that yeast is a plant, and our flour 

 is the soil in which it is planted, breadmaking would become much sim- 

 pler because we would have less so-called '' bad luck." W'e all know that 

 compressed yeast that has become soft is no longer fit for use. For 

 those who live some distance from market, when going to town a pound 

 brick can be purchased and kept in cold water in a pint can. If no ice 

 is available it can be lowered in a deep well or kept in a cold cellar. You 

 may say your grocer does not keep fresh compressed yeast. If the 

 women in a neighborhood demand it, he will keep it. The trouble with 

 dry yeast is, we have to set our bread over night or else have the bread 

 around in the afternoon, and as we cannot govern the elements, our little 

 delicate plants may become chilled or too warm. The yeast is in a dor- 

 mant state in the dry yeast, so has to be given more time to grow, like 

 plants from the seed ; while in the compressed yeast the plants are merely 

 transplanted. 



Breakfast Foods 



There are so many different forms into which our grains arc worked 

 and under so many different names, we hardly know what we are eating. 

 Some claim to be vegetable iron, the only scientific preparation, the only 

 food for brain and muscle, a ]:)rcdigestcd food, etc., etc. The Maine Sta- 



