120 YEAST. [NO. 



as you roll out pie-crust, to the thickness of about a 

 third of an inch. When you have it (or a part of it 

 at a time) rolled out, cut it up into cakes with a tum- 

 bler glass turned upside down, or with something 

 else that will answer the same purpose. Take a clean 

 board (a tin may be better) and put the cakes to dry 

 in the sun. Turn them every day ; let them receive 

 no wet ; and they will become as hard as ship bis- 

 cuit. Put them into a bag, or box, and keep them in 

 a place perfectly free from damp. When you bake, 

 take two cakes, of the thickness above-mentioned, 

 and about 3 inches in diameter ; put them into hot 

 water, over-night, having cracked them first. Let 

 the vessel containing them stand near the fire-place 

 all night. They will dissolve by the morning, and 

 then you use them in setting your sponge (as it is 

 called) precisely as you would use the yeast of beer. 

 206. There are two things which may be consi- 

 dered by the reader as obstacles. FIRST, where are 

 we to get the Indian Meal? Indian Meal is used 

 merely because it is of a less adhesive nature than 

 that of wheat. White pea-meal, or even barley-meal, 

 would do just as well. But SECOND, to dry the cakes, 

 to make them (and quickly too, mind) as hard as ship 

 biscuit (which is much harder than the timber of 

 Scotch firs or Canada firs;) and to do this in the sun 

 (for it must not be /ire,) where are we, in this climate, 

 to get the sun? In 1816 we could not; for, that year, 

 melons rotted in the glazed frames and never ripen- 

 ed. But, in every nine summers out of ten, we have 

 in June, in July, or in August, a fortnight of hot sun, 

 and that is enough. Nature has not given us a peach- 

 climate; but we get peaches. The cakes, when put 

 in the sun, may have a glass sash, or a hand-light, 

 put over them. This would make their birth hotter 

 than that of the hottest open-air situation in America. 

 In short to a farmer's wife, or any good housewife, 

 all the little difficulties to the attainment of such an 

 object would appear as nothing. The will only is 

 required ; and, if there be not that, it is useless to 

 think of the attempt. 



