60 MAKING BREAD. [No. 



the fate of half a pound to a bushel of flour. When 

 you have got the whole sufficiently moist, you knead 

 it well. This is a grand part 01 the business; for, 

 unless the dough be well worked, there will be little 

 round lumps of flour in the loaves ; and, besides, the 

 original batter, which is to give fermentation to the 

 whole, will not be duly mixed. The dough must, 

 therefore, be well worked. The Jists must go hear- 

 tily into it. It must be rolled over ; pressed out ; 

 folded up and pressed out again, until it be com- 

 pletely mixed, and formed into a stiff and tough 

 dough. This is labour, mind. I have never quite 

 liked baker's bread since I saw a great heavy fellow, 

 in a bakehouse in France, kneading bread with his 

 naked feet ! His feet looked very white, to be sure : 

 whether they were of that colour before he got into 

 the trough I could not tell. God forbid, that I should 

 suspect that this is ever done in England : It is la- 

 bour ; but, what is exercise other than4abour ? Let a 

 young woman bake a bushel once a week, and she 

 will do very well without phials and gallipots. 



103. Thus, then, the dough is made. And, when 

 made, it is to be formed into a lump in the middle of 

 the trough, and, with a little dry flour thinly scattered 

 over it, covered over again to be kept warm and to 

 ferment ; and in this state, if all be done rightly, it 

 will not have to remain more than about 15 or 20 

 minutes. 



104. In the mean while the oven is to be heated; 

 and this is much more than half the art of the ope- 

 ration. When an oven is properly heated, can be 

 known only by actual observation. Women who 

 understand the matter, know when the heat is right 

 the moment they put their faces within a yard of the 

 oven-mouth ; and once or twice observing is enough 

 for any person of common capacity. But this much 

 may be said in the way of rule: that the fuel (I am 

 supposing a brick oven) should be dry (not rotten) 

 wood, and not mere brush-wood, but rather fagot- 

 sticks. If larger wood, it ought to be split up into 

 sticks not more than two, or two and a half inches 



