182 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June, 
her. Then, when she becomes a wife, if she be 
wise, she will “ rise while it is yet night,” make, or 
see that good bread is made, “ and give a portion 
to her maidens,” family, and visitors. I hope your 
lady readers, more competent than myself, will 
answer C. Bachelor’s questions, and that his 
Lordship’s crustiness will become like that, of 
good bread—its most delicious part. 
Good bye. Flora Dale. 
Good Yeast and Good Bread. 
A “Practical Baker” at Franklin Co., Kansas, 
6ends to the American Agriculturist the following 
directions for making good yeast bread: “ Pare and 
boil potatoes sufficient to make one pint when 
mashed, with water enough to scald 1)4 lbs. flour. 
(The water from the potatoes is important, as it 
contains a great part of the substance of the po¬ 
tatoes.) A small handful of hops in a cloth should 
be boiled with the potatoes. Scald the flour, mash 
the potatoes and mix well. When cool, add about 
one pint of good hop yeast. This should be made 
about noon the day before baking. Next morning 
set the sponge with warm water—a pint for a loaf; 
put in a handful of salt, and stir to consistence of 
thick batter. Set in a warm place and let it rise, 
and when light, add a piece of alum the size of a 
large hazel nut, dissolved in % pint of hot water, 
and then knead until it works free from the hands 
and pan, making the dough rather stiff, (many 
"knead too little and have the dough too thin); then 
spread over and work in slightly % tablespoonful 
of lard. Set in a warm place and let it rise until 
very light. Mould into pans; let it rise again, and 
bake in 4 large loaves. It will be done by noon. 
“ Our starting yeast is made and kept as follows: 
Scald one large teacupful of flour with very strong 
hop water; when cool, add yeast; let it rise and 
fall; rub dry and fine with flour; spread out to dry 
in a cool room. The morning before making yeast, 
soak a teacupful with warm water and keep warm. 
When this is used put no hops with the potatoes.” 
Another Method. —Contributed by Mrs. 
McClellan, Sandusky Co., O.: To 3 qts. water add 
1 pt. hops, tied in a thin muslin bag; boil }hour ; 
remove bag and stir in thickening made of 1 pt. 
flour, 1 tablespoonful sugar, 1 do. ginger, 1 do. salt. 
Let this boil up once. When lukewarm, add 
pt. yeast to raise it, and when light bottle. It must 
not be corked tightly for 34 hours. After that, the 
tighter the better. A jug holding 1 gallon, glazed 
inside and out, is best for keeping yeast. It should 
be washed with care every time new yeast is made. 
Bread.—1 qt. warm water, or better, 1 pt. 
water and 1 pt. new milk, mixed with flour to a 
thick batter, X cup yeast (as above). Set at night. 
In morning mix and mould well, setting again to 
rise. When light, re-mold and put into pans for 
baking. If tender crust is desired, wrap the bread 
in a towel wrung out of cold water, and this again 
in a dry towel, immediately after taking out of the 
oven. The above quantity will make two loaves. 
More. Bread.— Ah experienced baker sends 
the following directions to the American Agricultu¬ 
rist: Wash clean and boil 4 lbs. of potatoes, 
not peeled; the best part of the potato is near 
the surface. The diastase which surrounds the eye 
of the potato greatly promotes the fermentation. 
Pour the water from the potatoes, and while hot, 
mash them up fine and add sufficient water to make 
a batter about as thick as for griddle cakes, put in 
a handful or two of flour and mix well; crush all 
the lumps and when the mixture is about as warm 
as new milk or about 90°, mix with it a few spoon¬ 
fuls of yeast, and cover it with a cloth, and keep it 
moderately warm until morning. Then strain the 
mixture through a corn meal sieve, and work in 
about 13 lbs. of flour, or until it is thick enough, 
and set it in a warm place to rise. If this plan is 
followed out thoroughly, it will make more good, 
light bread that will keep moist longer, and will 
be better than with flour alone. 
To Anneal Baking Platters. —Earthen dishes 
when new are liable to crack the first few times 
they are heated. “ Ann Eliza,” Cold Spring, L. I., 
writes to the American Agriculturist : “ Before the 
dishes have been used, soak them in warm water 
a few hours, and then grease them on both sides the 
first two or three times they are used to bake up¬ 
on,” which she says will prevent their cracking. 
Music at Home. 
No family can afford to do without music. It is 
a luxury and an economy; an alleviator of sorrow, 
and a spring of enjoyment; a protection against 
vice and an incitement to virtue. When rightly 
used, its effects, physical, intellectual and moral, 
are good, very good, and only good. 
Make home attractive ; music affords a means of 
doing this. Cultivate kindly feeling, love. Music 
will help in this work. Keep out angry feeling. 
“ Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast.” 
Be economical. Pleasure, recreation, all must have, 
and no pleasure costs less in proportion to its 
worth than home music. Make your sons and 
daughters accomplished. What accomplishment 
is more valuable than music ? Fit your daughters 
to support themselves in the future, if need be. 
There has been no time in many years when any 
young lady having sufficient knowledge to teach 
music could not pleasantly earn a respectable sup¬ 
port in that way. 
“ But,” some may say, “ I have no ear for music, 
nor have any of my family.” Probably not one of 
you has ever tried it faithfully. Perhaps your sons 
had no natural “ ears ” for raiding, or your daugh¬ 
ters natural hands for writing ; and certainly un¬ 
less they had learned these things they would nev¬ 
er have been accomplished in them. Music does, 
indeed, come more naturally to most people than 
many other accomplishments that are next to uni¬ 
versal ; yet it does not come to all without much 
time spent in careful cultivation. 
The one best means of introducing musie to the 
family, and inducing its cultivation is to procure 
agood musical instrument. If none of your daugh¬ 
ters or sons can play at all, yet if they have a good 
instrument at hand, some of them will learn. In 
almost every family this will be the case. Buy an 
instrument and try the experiment; if it succeeds 
only to a very small extent, the cost will be repaid 
many fold. 
The “ Religious Dodge.” 
There is a class of rogues and swindlers in this 
city who in the language of the police are on the 
“serious dodge.” Bad women and men dress in 
the deepest mourning, wear the blackest of vails 
and the widest of weeds, and in other ways imitate 
those in affliction, in order to work upon the sym¬ 
pathies of the benevolent and unsuspecting. There 
are certain quacks who go upon what may be called 
the “religious dodge,” and “ assume the livery of 
heaven to serve &e.” It is always well to be shy 
of Reverend dabblers in physic. A clergyman who 
attends to his proper duties has enough to do, 
and had better leave the bodies of people to be look¬ 
ed after by others. Among the most conspicuous 
of these “Reverend” gentlemen just now is the 
“Rev. Charles E. King,” who advertises to send 
(gp”Free of costXgfl his prescription for the “cure 
of consumption and other diseases.” We have 
one of these prescriptions with the accompanying 
documents before us, and are disposed to give the 
Rev. Charles E. the.benefit of a gratuitous adver¬ 
tisement, and “ from a sense of humanity ” make 
his prescription more widely known, which will no 
doubt gladden his benevolent heart. The first ar¬ 
ticle in his prescription is five ounces of the leaves 
of « yirosa monogynia,” and the next-but we 
need not go on, as the leading and most important 
article is not known to druggists nor to botanists, 
and like Veronica quinquefolia, is a fancy name ap- . 
plied to nobody knows what. Here is just where 
the joke comes in ; the “Reverend” Charles know¬ 
ing that his “ Virosa ” is not “ always (?) to be ob¬ 
tained,” proposes at the end of his circular to under¬ 
take the preparation of his own prescription for 
money—all of which is very good of Charlie. He 
is a very benevolent man to the tune of Two Dol¬ 
lars a pint. Every body who should happen to 
want the stuff, can send in their orders to Station 
D, Bible House, an excellent address to give the 
thing a religious look to people in the country,, 
though every body in New York knows that this is 
one of the regular U. S. Mail stations, and has no. 
more to do with the Bible Society than have the 
shoemakers or other tenants of the Bible-bouse. In 
addition to his printed circular the “Reverend” 
Charles throws in one done in the best style of 
lithography, which is edifying reading on account 
of “ its earnest prayer” and moral and religious 
teachings, and to make good measure he adds a 
printed tract on “ Solitude and Sorrow considered 
as God’s Agencies.” This is doubtless a thought¬ 
ful care for the surviving friends of those who not 
getting the prescription made up of pure articles, 
should fail to get cured. This tract by the way, 
purports to be published by the “ New Tract So¬ 
ciety,” a concern not known to our religious com¬ 
munity and which with commendable modest}', 
withholds its address.—Charles E. King you call 
yourself Reverend, and add M. D., and L. L. D. to 
your name. If these really belong to you we ad¬ 
vise you to drop them while you are engaged in 
this business, or you will bring titles which should 
always command respect, into disgrace.—Drop 
your divinity or your quackery, Charles. 
Hints on Cooking, etc. 
Trite Apple PieMelon. —Having tried this 
once, we discarded it as worthless, but the fault 
might have been in the cook and not in the melon. 
A. P. Blodgett, Esq., Middlessex Co.. N. J., is quite 
enthusiastic in his praise of it, as a material for 
pies, preserves and sweet pickles. Half a lemon or 
half a teaspoonful of tartarie acid are added to each 
pie. For “ apple sauce” to 3 lbs. of the melon pre¬ 
pared for cooking, 1 lb. of sugar, a teaspoonful of 
tartaric acid and a little extract of lemon are added. 
Another use for the fruit is to fry it in the same 
manner as the egg plant, when it is said to not be 
distinguishable from that vegetable. The vine 
bears well and the fruit keeps through the winter. 
Cioort IPies.— Contributed to the American 
Agriculturist by Mrs. Thos. W. Rhodes, Cayuga 
Co., N. Y. Cider Pie .—Mix 1 cup of boiled cider, 
1 cup of water, 1 cup of sugar, 1 egg, 2 tablespoon¬ 
fuls of flour and a little salt. Should the cider be 
thick, use two thirds of a cup and fill the cup with 
water. Bake with single crust like custard pie. 
Cream Pie .—In 1 pint of sweet cream stir 1 ta- 
blespoonful of flour, X cup of sugar, a little salt; 
flavor with nutmeg or extract of lemon ; make the 
crust single the same as the preceding. 
Ss r:i wl»erry .Belly. —Contributed to the 
American Agriculturist by Asenath Doan, Athens 
Co., O. Take ripe, perfect strawberries, pick off the 
husks, place the berries in large (but not deep) 
dishes, saturate well with refined brown sugar, and 
set the dishes on the cellar floor to keep them cool. 
Early the next morning drain off the juice, being 
careful not to mash the berries. (I make pies of 
the berries and they are pretty good.) Stew the 
juice over a slow fire until it begins to thicken, then 
stir in as many cups of sugar as there are of juice; 
keep it cooking slowly and well stirred until the 
sugar is well dissolved. I prefer a stone common 
milk crock to stew it down in. When a little 
cool put it in glass tumblers, and when cold cover 
tight with two or more thicknesses of white paper 
and keep in a cool dry place. 
Ra.spl>ei*ry Mi«rf-Cake.— Contributed 
to the American Agriculturist by Ada Martin, Clarke 
Co., Iowa. Mix dough as for biscuit; roll it thin 
as pie crust and cut in sheets the size of a bake-tin. 
Place one of these in the tin, then a layer of ripe 
strawberries, then more dough, and so on for three 
layers of dough, and two of berries. Cut small 
holes in the top crust, pour in a little water, and 
lay on a few small lumps of butter, and bake half 
an hour. Serve with sweetened cream. 
