HOME ECONOMICS AND EDUCATION 595 



man must decide what food agrees with him; moldy or stale meal 

 should of course never be used. 



KECIPE FOR BREAD. 



For one loaf of bread use % pint of water or milk ; ^4 of a yeast 

 cake, or ^ cup of liquid starter, and 1 teaspoonful of salt. If a 

 crumbly crumb is liked, use 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of lard or 

 drippings or butter. If sweet bread is liked, use 1 teaspoon to 1 

 tablespoon of sugar. At first, use enough flour to make a batter 

 (about 2 to 2 1 / cupfuls). 



If milk is used, boil it up once, add salt, butter and sugar and 

 then let it cool until it is about lukewarm. It is better to boil the 

 water used for it may contain some living things harmful to the 

 yeast. After the liquid has cooled, add the yeast and enough flour 

 to make a batter and then beat it well to put in plenty of oxygen. 

 Cover with a clean cloth and set in a warm place until light. If com- 

 pressed yeast or "starter" is used the batter will be light in three or 

 four hours. If dry yeast is used it will take at least over night 

 for the yeast to get a good start. When the batter is light, add 

 enough flour to make a dough and knead it until it is no longer 

 sticky. Then put it back into the same bowl or pan in which the 

 sponge was made and let it rise until it is a little more than double 

 its bulk. Shape into a loaf, put into a buttered bread pan, and let it 

 rise again until it has about doubled its size. It should feel light and 

 very elastic. Bake at once in a moderately hot oven for 40 to 45 

 minutes. This will not make a very large loaf of bread. (Cornell 

 Rural School Leaflet Vol. 2, No. 9.) 



CANNING VEGETABLES. 



Every housewife may run a miniature canning factory in her 

 own kitchen, and on the farm this is especially economical and 

 desirable. Enough vegetables annually go to waste from the aver- 

 age farm garden to supply the table during the entire winter. But 

 usually the farmer's wife cans her tomatoes, preserves her fruits, 

 and leaves her most wholesome and nutritious vegetables to decay 

 in the field, under the impression that it is impossible to keep them. 

 This is a great mistake. It is just as easy to keep corn or string 

 beans as it is to keep tomatoes, if you know how. The great secret 

 of canning or preserving lies in complete sterilization. To sterilize 

 a substance is to destroy all life or sources of life in or about it. 



Germs which cause decay may be divided into three classes 

 yeasts, molds, and bacteria. All three of these are themselves plants 

 of a very low order, and all attack other plants of a higher order in 

 somewhat the same way. Every housewife is familiar with the 

 yeast plant. Yeasts are easily killed, so they can be left out of con- 

 sideration in canning vegetables. The spoiling of vegetables is 

 due primarily to bacteria. 



Bacteria are also much more resistant to heat than yeasts. 

 They thrive in products like milk and in meats and vegetables 

 rich in protein, such as peas, beans, etc. Certain species of bacteria 

 will live and cause vegetables to decompose even when no air is pres- 



