Scientific Lectures. 121 



must select from the flour wliicli tlie market affords. Good flour 

 from fully ripe, dry grain, but recently ground, will not contain 

 lumps. These are due to souring, which softens the gluten and 

 Bticks the flour together. Good flour will readily mix' with water to 

 form a uniform creamy batter. Good flour will yield, with a small 

 amount of water, a tenacious, elastic, homogeneous dough. Good 

 flour will not smell sour or musty, but Avill exhale a fresh, fruity 

 aroma. It will, when pressed in the hand, retain the imprint of the 

 fingers. 



Advantages of Self-leavening Flouk. 

 Let me now return to the self-leavening flour, from which our loaf 

 has been produced. Its chief characteristic is its uniform cellular 

 texture. This is an essential condition of the healthful preparations 

 of farinaceous food. It should be porous, to permit the ready imbi- 

 bition of the fluids that serve indigestion. The self-leavening flour is 

 tlie substratum upon which whatever is desirable may be erected. 

 Mixed with water or cold milk, and immediately baked in a hot oven, 

 it gives plain bread. If the tins are small the result is biscuit. 

 Increase the quantity of water, beat in an egg^ and spread the paste 

 on a hot plate, and the product is a griddle cake. Add molasses and 

 ginger, and you have gingerbread. Stud the leavened mass with 

 raisins and you have a pudding. Eggs, sugar and flavoring extracts 

 give you a sponge cake. If there be a fancy for the faint, delicate 

 aroma of hops in bread, replace a portion of the water with Scotch 

 ale. If a rich reddish-lu-own crust to the bread bo desired, add a 

 trace of sirup to tlie milk or water. Will you apply the self-leaven- 

 ing principle to other forms of farinaceous food, mingle the phospliorie 

 acid and the bicarbonate of soda with the corn meal, or rice, or rye, 

 or buckwheat, and the task is accomplished. With the self-leavening 

 agent at command, little time and moderate skill are required to 

 secure uniformly excellent results. 



Eecipe for making Good Yeast Bread. 



Let me conclude by giving 3-011 special instructions for making 

 good yeast bread, the philosophy of v\-hich, I will hope, will now be 

 easy to comprehend. Select good, plump, fully ripened, hard grained 

 wheat. Have it freshly ground, and not too finely bolted. Prepare 

 the yeast as follows : Boil thoroughly with the skins on, in one quart 

 of water, enough potatoes to make a quart of mashed potatoes. Peel 



