and Cottage Economy. 169 



kneaded, and risen with the yest, in afterwards making it up into loaves or 

 cakes, the less it is worked with the hands the better, as, if kneaded much, 

 the bread will always be heavy. Another advantage attends the poor man 

 who purchases his own wheat. There is the bran, every now and then, for 

 the hog-tubs ; and, as for yest, I will soon show him how he may obtain a 

 regular supply the year round, and some to sell besides, with very little 

 trouble or expense, when I speak of brewing. 



No man can be said to be very poor who has got a good flitch of bacon 

 or two hung up in his house : it is a great promoter of happiness, and makes 

 a man independent of the butcher ; he can at any time have a good supper 

 or dinner, without sending his wife, or running himself, to the market or 

 butcher's shop, to get a bit of meat at an extravagant price, more than a 

 quarter of which will be wasted in dressing. How this bacon may be pro- 

 cured I will afterwards show. 



In brewing, as in baking, the wife must likewise be the operator, for one 

 is as easy to do as the other : indeed, it is as easy to brew as to make tea ; 

 and, unfortunately, most women are too dexterous at making the latter ; nor 

 does it require any very large vessels for either brewing or preserving beer. 

 A pot or boiler that will hold four gallons ; with two or three tubs, say a 

 small square washing-tub, and a bucket or two ; and, if a small cask cannot 

 be got, two or three large jars, to preserve the beer in, are all that need be 

 required in the shape of utensils. 



Surely no maltster would refuse to let a poor man have a peck of malt 

 and two ounces of hops.* With these his wife may go to work, and boil 

 rather more than three gallons of water ; as soon as it boils, take it off, and 

 let it stand till she can see her face in it ; then (having previously put the 

 peck of malt into a tub, say a washing-tub, with a small hole bored in the 

 side, level with the bottom, and covered inside with a few small birch twigs 

 and a piece of coarse canvass, while the outside is stopped with a wooden 

 peg), then, I say, pour the hot water upon the malt, stir it well for a few 

 minutes to mix it, cover it over with a sack or cloth, and set it by the 

 fireside, to keep it warm, for three hours ; after which, pull out the peg, and 

 drain the whole into a bucket. Immediately after, put in the peg, and pour 

 in upon the wet grains as much water as before, quite as hot, or a little hot- 

 ter than the first ; then cover it over, and set it by the fire, as before, for 

 two hours. This finishes the mashing. The moment the boiler is emptied 

 the second time, put into it the first run [the first quantity run out], boil it a 

 quarter of an hour : add the two ounces of hops, and continue the boiling- 

 half an hour longer. Then strain the contents through a fine sieve (to keep 

 back the hops), into as shallow vessels as can be procured, to cool the wort 

 as quickly as possible. Boil the second run half an hour with the same hops 

 as before, and cool the wort in the same manner. Mix them, and there 

 will be above five gallons, which, when mixed in the washing-tub with a 

 small teacupful of yest, will ferment for two or three days. It should, 

 during this time, be frequently skimmed ; for this is yest as well as the sedi- 

 ment. When this fermentation ceases, the beer may be put into jars, where 

 it will probably ferment, but slightly, for two or three days longer, after 

 which it is fit for drinking. A good cask would, of course, be better than 

 jars ; and better, also, would be the beer, if brewed in larger quantities : but 

 if beer cannot be brewed except in large quantities, then that alone would 

 ever be an insurmountable obstacle to the poor man ; and my object is to 

 show that beer, and good beer, may be brewed with common domestic 

 utensils, with great facility, and without at all injuring them ; for, surely, a 

 washing-tub is not a straw worse for having a hole bored into it, a small 

 cork will effectually repair it in half a minute. 



* We have suggested the idea of every cottager growing his own hops ; 

 and also his own barley, and making his own malt. (p. 147.) — Cond. 



