Sec. 23.] THE BREAD QUESTION". 367 



" Here is my way of tnakiiig good bread : Take one pint of warm water, 

 one tciispooiit'ul of salt, i)ut it in a disli sufliciently large to admit of Btirring 

 in flour until it is a thick batter, and keep it warm, quite warm, and in five 

 hours it will rise or become fit for use. If it does not rise eulliciently, dis- 

 solve a piece of common soda as large as two kernels of corn and stir into 

 the batter. 



'• You can make three common-sized loaves of bread with this yeast, 

 which will 1)0 nice and tender. The soda is only necessary when the flour 

 is of an inferior quality." 



Tlie following directions for making bread we give in the Janguage of 

 another good housekeeper. She says : 



'•To have good, wholesome bread, it is absolutely necessary to pay atten- 

 tion to the making of it, and to believe that making bread, like learning to 

 read, does not come by nature; that it is indis])ensable to learn every little 

 f;;ct connected with the fermenling or raising of the dough ; absolutely nec- 

 essary to understand the difference between vinous and acetous fermentation, 

 and when an alkali, such as salcratus or bicarbonate of soda, is required. 



'•Of course, good flour is the first requisite. The liner the flour the 

 greater the labor in kneading it ; and the finest flour does not always make 

 the sweetest and healthiest bread, yet the best flour is the cheapest ; though 

 I must confers I can not advise about using inferior flour, for I have never 

 had any. 



" The next important thing is the yeast, and I give the preference to tha 

 made of potatoes. I have tried brewer's yeast, baker's yeast, yeast cakes, hop 

 yeast; leaven, which is a bit of sourdough, and needs saleratus to make the 

 bread sweet ; in fact, all the various kinds of yeast, and after over two years 

 of constant use, I am content with j)otato yeast. 



"The rule of making it is this: Take ten potatoes of nearly equal size — 

 wash and boil them ; when cooked, peel and mash them perfectly smooth ; 

 pour on to this a quart of boiling-hot water ; stir in a cofl'ee-cup of good.jniro 

 sugar, and after standing a few minutes, pour in a ijuart of boiling water 

 wanting a gill ; when lukewarm, add a pint of yeast to raise it, put it in a 

 tightly-covered vessel to ferment, and set it away in a moderately warm 

 jiluce until sufliciently risen, which may be known by the potato appearing 

 upun the top of the liquid, and light, loamy spots bursting up through it. 

 The temperature of the place where this is set to rise or work should bo 

 from (is to 7-lr degrees; too iinich heat is as bad as toi> nnich cold. When 

 this is risen, put it into a stone jug aiul cork it ; tie in the cork and keep it 

 in a cool place. A gill and a liulf, or common-sized teacuptul, is euHieieiit 

 to raise dough for two large loaves of bread. The source of the sourness 

 which supervenes in bread, under careless or unskillt'nl hands, was formerly 

 ascribed to each of nil the constituents of flour; to its gluten, which is 10 

 j'arts; its starch, which is 70 ]>arts; and its sugar, 4 parts; the other l(i 

 j.aits are water — but erroneously, for it is merely the result of the second 

 fermentation, which always succeeds the vinous when i»ushed improperly 



