122 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



cold, pour it into the flour, and with the addition of a pint each 

 of milk and water, form a dough, and knead for a full half hour. 

 Form the dough at night, and allow it to stand until morning, 

 in a moderately warm place ; then mould and put in pans, and 

 let it remain until it has become well raised ; then place in a 

 hot oven and bake. 



The points needing attention in this process are several. 

 First, the flour must be of the best quality ; second, the potatoes 

 should be sound and mealy ; third, the yeast cake is to be 

 freshly prepared ; fourth, the ferment must be in just the right 

 condition ; fifth, the kneading should be thorough and effective ; 

 sixth, the raising of the dough must be watched, that it does 

 not proceed too far and set up the acetic fermentation and 

 cause the bread to sour ; seventh, after the dough is placed in 

 pans it should be allowed to rise, or puff up, before placing 

 in the oven ; eighth, the temperature of the oven, and the time 

 consumed in baking, has much to do with the perfection of the 

 process. 



If this method is followed with the exercise of good judgment 

 and ordinary skill, white bread of the highest perfection will be 

 uniformly produced. 



Unfermented, or " cream of tartar " bread, is never placed 

 upon the table in my family. There are special dietary, or 

 sanitary reasons for its exclusion. All " quick made " bread is 

 usually prepared in haste, and the adjustment of acid and alkali 

 is apt to be imperfect. Not one pound in a hundred of cream 

 of tartar sold in the market is free from adulteration. In ten 

 specimens procured from as many different dealers, in a town of 

 ten thousand inhabitants, I ascertained by analysis that the least 

 percentage of adulterating material was twenty-two per cent ; 

 and several were over seventy per cent. The " yeast powders ' : 

 so common in the market are composed of acids in association 

 with alkaline carbonates, usually bi-carbonate of soda. If 

 tartaric acid, or cream of tartar, is used with the soda, there 

 remains in the bread, after baking, a neutral salt, the tartrate of 

 soda, which is diffused through the loaf and is consumed with 

 it. This salt has aperient properties — in fact is a medicine — 

 and thus at the daily meal, those who use bread made with 

 " powders," or with cream of tartar, are taking food and 

 medicine together. 



