NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BREAD. 



There is, perhaps, no subject connected witli Do- 

 mestic F.conomy of more importance tlian the manufac- 

 ture of Bread. We have therefore thoug-lit it might 

 prove acceptable to our readers to present them with 

 some recipes for composing the Sififf of Lift ,- and should 

 any of our friends or patrons be in possession of any bet- 

 ter methods of an?v/ering the same purpose, they will 

 oblige us, and, we hope, do the public a service by 

 communicating them for publication in our paper. 



I. To a peck of flour add a handful of salt, a 

 pint of yeast, and three (juarts of water : the 

 whole, being kneaded in a bowl or troug^h will 

 vise in about an hour ; it is then moulded into 

 loaves, and put into the oven. For Frencii 

 bread, they take half a bushel of fine flour, ten 

 fjgs, and a pound and a half of fresh butter, 

 into v/hich they put the same quantity of yea-:t, 

 and tempering- the whole mass with new milk 

 pretty hot, leave it half an hour to rise, after 

 which they make it into loaves or rolls, and 

 wash it over with an egg beaten with milk : 

 care is taken that the oven be not too hot. 



II. Potatoes, mixed in various quantities with 

 flour, make a wholesome, nutritive, and pleas- 

 ant bread. Kliogg, who has been styled the 

 rustic Socrates, recommends, that potatoes well 

 boiled and carefully peeled, should be put into 

 a kneading trough, covered with boiling water, 

 and bruised till they be converted into a kind 

 of soup of equal consistence throughout. A 

 half, a third, or a fourth, of this souj), mixed 

 with the flour of wheat, makes a bread of an 

 excellent taste, and extremely salutary and 

 nutritive. 



III. M. Duduit de Maizicros, a French officer 

 of the king's household, invented and practised 

 with the greatest success, a method of makin,'^-; 

 bread of common apples, very far superior to 

 potatoe bread. After having boiled one third 

 of peeled ajjples, he bruised them while quite 

 warm, into two thirds of flour, including tlie 

 quantity of leaven, and kneaded the whole with- 

 out water, the juice of the fruit being quite 

 ^uflicient. When this mixture had acquired 

 the consistency of paste, he put it into a vessel 

 in which he allowed it to rise for about tv/elve 

 hours. By this process he obtained a very 

 sweet bread, full of eyes, and extremely light. 



IV. At Debritzin, in Hungary, excellent bread 

 is made by the following process without yeast : 

 Two large handfuls of hops are boiled in four 

 quarts of water ; this is poured upon as much 

 wheaten bran as it will moisten, and to this are 

 added four or five pounds of leaven. When the 

 mass is warm, the several ingredients are work- 

 ed together till well mixed. It is then deposit- 

 ed in a warm place for twenty four hours, and 

 afterwards divided into small pieces about the 

 size of a hen's egg, which ar^,- dried by being 

 placed upon a board, and exposed to a drv air, 

 but not to the sun; when dry they are laij up 

 for use, and may be kept half a year. The 

 ferment, thus prepared, is applied in the, fol- 

 lowing manner : For baking six large lowes, 

 six good handfuls of these balls are dissolvod in 

 seven or eight quarts of warm water ; this'wa- 

 tcr is poured through a sieve into one enfl of 

 the bread trough, and after it three quarts ol 

 warm water ; the rcmainmg mass being well 

 pressed out. The liquor is mixed with Hour, 

 sulficient to fonn a mass of the size of a lar"e 

 loaf; this is strewed over with flour; the sieve 



with its contents, is put upon it, and the whole 

 is covered up warm, and left till it has risen 

 enough, and its surface h;is begun to crack : 

 this t'orms the leaven. Fifteen quarts of warm 

 water, in which six handfuls of salt have been 

 dissolved, are then poured upon it through the 

 sieve ; the necessary quantity of flour is added, 

 and mixed and kneaded with the leaven ; this 

 is covered up warm, and left for about half an 

 hour; it is then formed into loaves, which are 

 kept for another half hour in a warm room; 

 and after that they are put into an oven, whore 

 they remain two or three hours, according to 

 their size. One great advantage attends this 

 kind of ferment, that it may be made in large 

 quantities at a time, and kept for use ; and, on 

 this account, it might be convenient on board of 

 ships, or in camps for armies in the field. 



V. The carbonate of magnesia, [common 

 magnesia of the shops] when well mixed with 

 new flour, in the proportion of from 20 to 10 

 grains to a pound of flour materially improves 

 it lor the purpose of making bread. Loaves, 

 made with the addition of the carbonate of mag- 

 nesia rise well in the oven ; and after lieing 

 baked the bread is light and spongy, has a good 

 taste, and keeps well. In cases where the new 

 flour is of an inditferent quality from 20 to 30 

 grains of magnesia to a pound of flour will con- 

 siderably improve the bread, When the flour 

 is of the worst quality 40 grains to a pound of 

 flour is necessary to produce the same effect. 

 As the improvement of the bread depends upon 

 the magnesia, it is necessary that care should 

 be taken to mix it intimately with the flour 

 previous to making the dough. A pound of 

 carbonate of magnesia would be sufficient to 

 mix with two hundred and fifty six pounds of 

 now flour at the rate of 30 grains to a pound. 



^'I. To every live pounds of flour add one 

 pound of rice that has been previously boiled 

 to a jelly over a slow fire ; then, when luke 

 vvarni, add your usual quantity of yeast, and 

 make u[) your bread. Should 3'ou judge your 

 jelly to be too thick add luke warm water; a 

 method by which thirty pounds of flour and six 

 of rice produce eighteen loaves, each four 

 pounds and an half weight Five pounds of 

 flour produce eight pounds of bread ; but with 

 the addition of a pound of rice twelve and an 

 half. 



VII. In order to make bread of turnips the 

 following method is recommended in the -'.V/k- 

 scniin, rusticum commsrcialc.^'' an English work. 

 When turnips are plentiful, a number of them 

 should be pulled, washed clean, pared and boil- 

 ed. When they are soft enough lor being 

 mashed, the greatest part of the water should 

 be pressed out of them, and they should then 

 be mixed with an equal quantity in weight of 

 coarse wheat meal. The dough may then be 

 made in the usual manner, with yeast or barm. 

 salt, water, &c. It will rise well in the trough ; 

 aiwl after being well kneaded, it may be formed 

 into loaves, and put into the oven to be baked. 

 The person who made this experiment had 

 other bread made with common meal in the 

 ordinary method. The turnip Ijread was baked 

 rather longer than the other. When they were 

 drawn from the oven, a loaf of each sort was 

 cut ; and upon exannnation, the turnip bread 

 was sweet'-r than the other, not less light and 

 white, with a slight, but not disagreeable 

 taste of the turnip. When it was tasted twelve 



hours al'ter, this taste was scarcely perceptible, 

 and the sm^dl was quite gone off.' After an in- 

 terval of twenty-four hours, it could not be 

 known that it had any turnips in its composi- 

 tion, although it still had a peculiar sweetish 

 taste. After twenty-four houi-s, it appeared to 

 be rather superior to bread made only of wheat 

 tlour ; it was fresher and moister ; and after a 

 week it was still very good. 



VIlj. When wheat has grown or germinated, 

 before it is ground, as often happens in wet i 

 seasons, magnesia, soda or some other alkaline | 

 substance .seems indispensable to make good 

 bread. An Knglish writer in the I>ancaster 

 Gazette, 181G, mentions his having tried the 

 following mixtures with flour froJiiivheat which 

 had germinated, which, if used without the al- 

 kali took twice the usual time, and when baked 

 became a hard thick crust, elevated like a roof 

 over a glutinous saccharine paste, the specific 

 gravity of which was greater than water. 



1st. Take new llour, two pounds; soda two 



drachms. 

 2d. Take new flour, two pounds : soda one 



drachm. 

 3d. Take new flour, three pounds ; old do. 



one pound ; soda two drachms. 

 4th. Take new flour, three pounds ; old do. 



one pound ; ground rice, half a pound ; 



soda two drachms. 

 5th. Take new flour, two pounds ; old do. 



one pound and an half; soda one drachm. 

 The soda was dissolved in the water in which 

 the flour was to be mixed, and the yeast added 

 in the usual way. 



RESULTS. 



Nos. 1 and 2 were pleasant tasted bread, 

 similar to brown bread ; it was friable, very 

 buoyant in water, and tilled like a sponge ; it 

 gained nearly one third, but No. 2 was better 

 bread than No. 1 ; and this is well worth at- 

 tending to, since it proves that with this flour 

 half the quantity of soda produced the best ef- 

 fect, a circumstance that is of importance in an 

 economical point of view. 



No. 3 was better bread than Nos. 1 and 3, 

 and it was but little inferior to the bread pro- 

 cured iVom our old flour, when the alkali was 

 not used. 



No. 4 wa.s heavier than the preceding, but 

 was baked in a tin pan. 



No. 5 was also baked in a tin ; it was as good 

 bread as that made wholly with the old flour ; 

 but it was not very easy to distinguish Nos. 3, 

 4 and 5, from each other. 



From these experiments it appears that by 

 thirty grains of .soda, a pound of the new flour, 

 wliichas loaf bread Nould nut ottien'-ise be eatable, 

 will make about a pound and an half of very 

 pleasant tasted wholesome loaf bread. 



n.£MARHS ON THE FOREGOI.VG. 



The four first of the foreg^oiiig^ recipes -were taken 

 from the Edinburgh Encyclopajdia. The fifth has been 

 proved )y an experiment made within the knowledge 

 of the Editor, to be useful. The sixth, seventh and 

 eighth r«st upon ncwspaptr authority only. Perhaps 

 it mightibe well to mix flour from new, or damaged 

 wheat, with lime water, as a substitute for soda or the 

 oilier alkaline substances mentioned above. The ex- 

 pense cf lime water would be very trifling, as lime re- 

 quires no less than 700 times its weight of water to 

 effect its entire solution, and a single handful of quitl; 

 liaic tlu'owa into a b^re! of water, or any l"ss quantity 



