126 
THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
solved in a little warm water, or a cup of home-made 
yeast if you are sure it is goo i. Cover it and keep it 
warm till it looks light; then stir it down two or three 
times in the course of the next six hours, or it will run 
over and waste its strength. When it is through rising 
put it away in a crock, and tie a piece of muslin over 
it. It will keep a month in a cool place. One cupful 
will make six small loaves of bread. 
BREAD. 
The best sized pans for bread should measure nine or 
ten inches in length, four m width, and three in depth. 
Loaves of this size will bake in thirty or forty minutes, 
according to the heat of your oven. When the bread is 
put in, the oven should be hot enough to cause a sharp 
hiss if you moisten your finger and touch the bottom. 
If your oven bakes bread faster on the bottom than the 
top, set a grate in that will raise the pans an inch or 
two, so that the bottom will not burn before the top is 
browned. 
A yellow earthen bowl is best to make bread in. One 
that will hold eight quarts can be bought for seventy- 
five cents, and a tin cover to fit it, for twenty-nine 
cents. We know a lady who has had such a bowl 
twenty-five years, and used it always lo make bread in. 
It retains the heat, and you can scrape every particle of 
dough off. 
The first thing to do in making bread, is to prepare 
the sponge, and this is done at night. After tea, pare 
three good-sized potatoes, and boil them. Have hot 
water in your tea-kettle, as water that has not been 
boiled should never be used in bread. While your 
potatoes are boiling you can sift your flour, and when 
that is done, put two heaping tablespoons of flour in 
your bowl and scald it with a pint of boiling water, 
stirring it constantly and not putting in the water too 
fast or it will be lumpy. The scalded flour and pota¬ 
toes make the bread moist. If you choose you can take 
double the quantity of potatoes, and not scald any flour. 
When your potatoes are done, throw off the water and 
mash them thoroughly; put one pint of boiling water on 
them, when they can be poured through a collander 
into the bowl with the scalded flour. You have now a 
quart of wetting, which makes four loaves of the size 
mentioned. When it is cool enough not to scald the 
flour, put in two teaspoons of salt, and stir in flour 
enough to make a thick batter: then put in three-fourths 
of a cup of yeast or a yeast-cake dissolved in a little 
warm water, beat thoroughly, cover the bowl, and set in 
a warm place till morning. If the weather is cool, it is 
best to place the bowl over a wooden pail, containing a 
little hot water, as bread should never be allowed to 
get entirely cold while in process of making. In the 
morning your sponge will be foamy, and the bowl half 
full, and if you are enterprising, you will knead it be¬ 
fore breakfast. If you cannot do so, stir some flour in 
and let it come up again. When you knead it, if it 
seems cold, put some warm water in the pail, and set 
the bowl over it while you are mixing it. You can set 
the pail on a wooden chair, so it will not be too high to 
work it conveniently. Do not take the bread out on the 
moulding board, but stir in some flour with a mush 
stick or a wooden spoon, until it is as stiff as cau be 
stirred, then knead the rest of the flour in. You will 
need to be something of a pugilist to knead bread 
properly, for you must double-up your fist and make a 
business of it if you want nice bread. Sprinkle a hand¬ 
ful of flour over the top of your dough, flour your 
hands, double-up your fists and work in the flour. If 
the dough sticks to your hands, take some flour and rub 
it off. Sprinkle on more flour and knead it in, and when 
it does not stick quite as much, with a knife scrape the 
dough off the sides of the bowl, loosen from the bottom 
aud put in a handful of flour so it will not stick again, 
then work in the dry flour and dough that came off the 
bowl. Now turn over one side of the dough, sprinkle 
on a little flour and knead as before. Keep folding 
over on one side at a time, turning the lump round 
so it will not stick to the bowl again, adding a little 
flour at a time, till the dough is • stiff enough not to 
stick to your hands if you knead it without any flour. 
When you fold over the side of your dough, you must 
not have any dry flour on top, or it will not stick to¬ 
gether, and you will get dry flour in the middle of your 
bread. 
It is well to keep a little flour on the bottom of the 
bowl until you are about done, when there should be 
no dry flour anywhere, and your dough should be free 
from the bowl, then shape it into a nice round lump, 
a id turn it bottom-side up in the bowl, cover it with a 
towel and a thick piece of flannel, and set it again over 
warm water, unless the weather is very warm. You 
should put the flour in very slowly at the last of your 
kneading, for you must spend at least twenty-five min¬ 
utes working it, and a half hour if you make a larger 
baking. 
It will take about two and one-half hours for th 
dough to rise. Never break it open to try it, as by that 
means the gases escape aud it will be likely to settle 
some-what; you can soon tell by' pressing the finger 
lightly on it, for if light enough, it will feel very soft to 
the touch, and the whole dough be spongy. If the top 
seems dry, dip your hand in water, and rub lightly over 
to moisten it. Dust a little flour over your moulding 
board, and turn the mass out upon it. Mould it all to¬ 
gether a few moments and then cut off enough for one 
loaf. Mould this very hard,using as little flour as possible, 
just to keep from sticking to the board. The object of 
this moulding is to press the air out so there will be no 
large holes, and it will facilitate the operation if you 
gash it several times with a knife, then press it together 
and mould again, .and place in the bake-pan to rise 
again. It is well to throw a towel over the dough you 
are not moulding, so it will not get cold. 
When all the bread is in the pans, put it where it will 
keep moderately warm until light, when the loaves will 
be about double their original size. Bake from thirty-five 
to forty-five minutes, remove from the pans, and stand 
the loaves up against the pans, so the air can circulate 
freely about them, or they will sweat and absorb an 
unpleasant taste from the wood of the table. Cover 
them with a cloth and let them stand till cool, then put 
away in a tin box. You can get one of these boxes, 
the sea foam crackers come in, for fifty or seventy-five 
cents, and it is just as good as a more expensive one, 
aud large enough for four or five loaves of bread. If 
the bread is just right, it will be better than cake, 
white, tender, moist and fine-grained. If it is too 
porous, it is because it was too light before you 
put it in the oven. A little experience will soon enable 
you to get it just right, and your success will quite 
repay all your efforts. Mrs. C. G. Herbert. 
