Part 26

To one quartern of flour add a dessertspoonful of salt as before; dissolve one ounce of dried German yeast in about three tablespoonfuls of cold water, add to this one pint and a half of water a little warm, and pour the whole into the flour; knead it well immediately, and let it stand as before directed for one hour: then bake at pleasure. It will not hurt if you make up a peck of flour at once, and bake three or four loaves in succession, provided you do not keep the dough too warm. German yeast may be obtained at almost any corn-chandler's in the metropolis and suburbs. In winter it will keep good for a week in a dry place, and in summer it should be kept in cold water, and the water changed every day. Wheat meal requires a little more yeast than fine flour, or a longer time to stand in the dough for rising.

1010. Unfermented Bread.

Three pounds wheat meal, or four pounds of white flour, two heaped tablespoonfuls of baking powder, a tablespoonful of salt, and about two and a half pints of lukewarm water, or just sufficient to bring the flour to a proper consistence for bread-making; water about a quart. The way of making is as follows:

First mix the baking powder, the salt, and about three fourths of the flour well together by rubbing in a pan; then pour the water over the flour, and mix well by stirring. Then add most of the remainder of the flour, and work up the dough with the hand to the required consistence, which is indicated by the smoothness of the dough, and its not sticking to the hands or the sides of the pan when kneaded. The rest of the flour must then be added to stiffen the dough, which may then be placed in tins or formed by the hand into any shape that may be preferred and placed on flat tins for baking.

The tins should be well floured. Put the loaves at once into a well-heated oven. After they have been in the oven about a quarter of an hour open the ventilator to slacken the heat and allow the steam to escape. In an hour the process of baking will be completed. Bread made in this way keeps moist longer than bread made with yeast, and is far more sweet and digestible. This is especially recommended to persons who suffer from indigestion, who will find the brown bread invaluable.

1011. Baking Powders and Egg Powders.

These useful preparations are now much used in making bread and pastry of all kinds, and have the merit of being both cheap and wholesome. They may be procured of all grocers and oilmen. The basis of all baking powders consists of carbonate of soda and tartaric acid or cream of tartar, and egg powders are made of the same materials, with a little harmless colouring matter such as turmeric. By the action of these substances, carbonic acid is generated in the dough, which causes it to rise in the same manner as the so-called "aerated bread" made on Dr. Dauglish's system, by which carbonic acid is forced into the dough before baking.

[NEVER PUT OFF TILL TO-MORROW WHAT YOU CAN DO TO-DAY.]

1012. How to Use Baking Powder, &c.

Baking powder may be used instead of yeast in making all kinds of bread, cake, teacakes, &c., and for biscuits and pastry, either without or in combination with butter, suet, &c. Bread, &c., made with baking powder is never placed before the fire to rise as when made with yeast, but the dough may be shaped and put into the oven as soon as it is made. The chief points to bear in remembrance are that in making bread two teaspoonfuls of baking powder should be used to every pound of flour, but for pastry, cakes, buns, &c., three teaspoonfuls should be used. The ingredients should always be thoroughly incorporated by mixing; the tins on which or in which the dough is placed to bake should be well floured, and not greased; and the oven should always be very hot, so that the baking may be effected as rapidly as possible.

1013. Bread (Cheap and Excellent).

Simmer slowly, over a gentle fire, a pound of rice in three quarts of water, till the rice has become perfectly soft, and the water is either evaporated or imbibed by the rice: let it become cool, but not cold, and mix it completely with four pounds of flour; add to it some salt, and about four tablespoonfuls of yeast. Knead it very thoroughly, for on this depends whether or not your good materials produce a superior article. Next let it rise well before the fire, make it up into loaves with a little of the flour--which, for that purpose, you must reserve from your four pounds--and bake it rather long. This is an exceedingly good and cheap bread.

1014. Economical and Nourishing Bread.

Suffer the miller to remove from the flour only the coarse flake bran. Of this bran, boil five or six pounds in four and a half gallons of water; when the goodness is extracted from the bran,--during which time the liquor will waste half or three-quarters of a gallon,--strain it and let it cool. When it has cooled down to the temperature of new milk, mix it with fifty-six pounds of flour and as much salt and yeast as would be used for other bread; knead it exceedingly well; let it rise before the fire, and bake it in small loaves: small loaves are preferable to large ones, because they take the heat more equally. There are two advantages in making bread with bran water instead of plain water; the one being that there is considerable nourishment in bran, which is thus extracted and added to the bread; the other, that flour imbibes much more of bran water than it does of plain water; so much more, as to give in the bread produced almost a fifth in weight more than the quantity of flour made up with plain water would have done. These are important considerations to the poor. Fifty-six pounds of flour, made with plain water, would produce sixty-nine and a half pounds of bread; made with bran water, it will produce eighty-three and a half pounds.

1015. Use Bran-Water.

A great increase on Home-made Bread, even equal to one-fifth, may be produced by using bran water for kneading the dough. The proportion is three pounds of bran for every twenty-eight pounds of flour, to be boiled for an hour, and then strained through a hair sieve.

1016. Rye and Wheat Flour.

Rye and wheat flour, in equal quantities, make an excellent and economical bread.

1017. Potatoes in Bread.

Place in a large dish fifteen pounds of flour near the fire to warm; take five pounds of good potatoes, those of a mealy kind being preferable, peel and boil them as if for the table, mash them fine, and then mix with them as much cold water as will allow all except small lumps to pass through a coarse sieve into the flour, which will now be ready to receive them; add yeast, &c., and mix for bread in the usual way. This plan has been followed for some years: finding that bread made according to it is much superior to that made of flour only, and on this ground alone we recommend its adoption; but in addition to this, taking the high price of flour, and moderately low price of potatoes, here is a saving of over twenty per cent., which is surely an object worth attending to by those of limited means.

[ALL THINGS HAVE A BEGINNING, GOD EXCEPTED.]

1018. Use of Lime Water in making Bread.

It has lately been found that water saturated with lime produces in bread the same whiteness, softness, and capacity of retaining moisture, as results from the use of alum; while the former removes all acidity from the dough, and supplies an ingredient needed in the structure of the bones, but which is deficient in the _cerealia_. The best proportion to use is, five pounds of water saturated with lime, to every nineteen pounds of flour. No change is required in the process of baking. The lime most effectually coagulates the gluten, and the bread weighs well; bakers must therefore approve of its introduction, which is not injurious to the system, like alum, &c.

1019. Rice Bread.

Take one pound and a half of rice, and boil it gently over a slow fire in three quarts of water about five hours, stirring it, and afterwards beating it up into a smooth paste. Mix this, while warm, into two gallons or four pounds of flour, adding at the same time the usual quantity of yeast. Allow the dough to work a certain time near the fire, after which divide it into loaves, and it will be found, when baked, to produce twenty-eight or thirty pounds of excellent white bread.

1020. Apple Bread.

A very light, pleasant bread is made in France by a mixture of apples and flour, in the proportion of one of the former to two of the latter. The usual quantity of yeast is employed, as in making common bread, and is beaten with flour and warm pulp of the apples after they have boiled, and the dough is then considered as set; it is then put in a proper vessel, and allowed to rise for eight or twelve hours, and then baked in long loaves. Very little water is requisite: none, generally, if the apples are very fresh.

1021. Pulled Bread.

Take from the oven an ordinary loaf when it is about _half baked_, and with the fingers, while the bread is yet hot, dexterously pull the half-set dough into pieces of irregular shape, about the size of an egg. Don't attempt to smooth or flatten them--the rougher their shapes the better. Set upon tins, place in a very slow oven, and bake to a rich brown. This forms a deliciously crisp crust for cheese. If you do not bake at home, your baker will prepare it for you, if ordered. Pulled bread may be made in the revolving ovens. It is very nice with wine instead of biscuits.

1022. French Bread and Rolls.

Take a pint and a half of milk; make it quite warm; half a pint of small-beer yeast; add sufficient flour to make it as thick as batter; put it into a pan; cover it over, and keep it warm: when it has risen as high as it will, add a quarter of a pint of warm water, and half an ounce of salt,--mix them well together,--rub into a little flour two ounces of butter; then make your dough, not quite so stiff as for your bread; let it stand for three-quarters of an hour, and it will be ready to make into rolls, &c.:--let them stand till they have risen, and bake them in a quick oven.

1023. Rolls.

Mix the salt with the flour. Make a deep hole in the middle. Stir the warm water into the yeast, and pour it into the hole in the flour. Stir it with a spoon just enough to make a thin batter, and sprinkle some flour over the top. Cover the pan, and set it in a warm place for several hours. When it is light, add half a pint more of lukewarm water, and make it, with a little more flour, into a dough. Knead it very well for ten minutes. Then divide it into small pieces, and knead each separately. Make them into round cakes or rolls. Cover them, and set them to rise about an hour and a half. Bake them, and, when done, let them remain in the oven, without the lid, for about ten minutes.

[GOD IS THE FIRST OF ALL.]

1024. Sally Lunn Tea Cakes.

Take one pint of milk quite warm, a quarter of a pint of thick small-beer yeast; put them into a pan with flour sufficient to make it as thick as batter,--cover it over, and let it stand till it has risen as high as it will, i. e., about two hours: add two ounces of lump sugar, dissolved in a quarter of a pint of warm milk, a quarter of a pound of butter rubbed into the flour very fine,--then make the dough the same as for French rolls, &c.; let it stand half an hour; then make up the cakes, and put them on tins:--when they have stood to rise, bake them in a quick oven. Care should be taken never to mix the yeast with water or milk too hot or too cold, as either extreme will destroy the fermentation. In summer it should he lukewarm,--in winter a little warmer,--and in very cold weather, warmer still. When it has first risen, if you are not prepared, it will not harm if it stand an hour.

1025. Cooking Instruments.

1026. The Gridiron.

The gridiron, though the simplest of cooking instruments, is by no means to be despised. In common with all cooking utensils the Gridiron should be kept scrupulously clean; and when it is used, the bars should be allowed to get warm before the meat is placed upon it, otherwise the parts crossed by the bars will be insufficiently dressed. The fire should be sharp, clear, and free from smoke. The heat soon forms a film upon the surface of the meat, by which the juices are retained. Chops and steaks should not be too thick nor too thin. From a half to three-quarters of an inch is the proper thickness. Avoid thrusting the fork into the meat, by which you release the juice. There is a description of gridiron in which the bars are grooved to catch the juice of the meat, but a much better invention is the upright gridiron, which is attached to the front of the grate, and has a pan at the bottom to catch the gravy. Kidneys, rashers, &c., dressed in this manner will he found delicious.

1027. The Frying-pan

The frying-pan is a noisy and a greasy servant, requiring much watchfulness. Like the Gridiron, the Frying-pan requires a clear but not a large fire, and the pan should be allowed to get thoroughly hot, and be well covered with fat, before meat is put into it. The excellence of frying very much depends upon the sweetness of the oil, butter, lard, or fat that may be employed. The Frying-pan is very useful in the warming of cold vegetables and other kinds of food, and in this respect may be considered a real friend of economy. All know the relish afforded by a pancake, to say nothing of eggs and bacon, and various kinds of fish, to which both the Saucepan and the Gridiron are quite unsuited, because they require that which is the essence of frying, _boiling and browning in fat_.

1028. The Spit.

The spit is a very ancient and very useful implement of cockery. Perhaps the process of roasting stands only second in the rank of excellence in cookery. The process is perfectly sound in its chemical effects upon the food, while the joint is kept so immediately under the eye of the cook, that it must be the fault of that functionary if it does not go to the table in the highest state of perfection. The process of roasting should be commenced very slowly, the meat being kept a good distance from the fire, and gradually brought forward, until it is thoroughly soaked within and browned without. The Spit has this advantage over the Oven, and especially over the common oven, that the meat retains its own flavour, not having to encounter the evaporation from fifty different dishes, and that the steam from its own substance passes entirely away, leaving the essence of the meat in its primest condition.

[VIRTUE IS THE FAIREST OF ALL.]

1029. The Meat Hook.

The meat hook has in the present day superseded the use of the Spit in middle class families. It is thrust into the meat, and the joint thereby suspended before the fire. For roasting in this manner the lintel of the mantel-piece is furnished with a brass or iron arm, turning on pivots in a plate fastened to the lintel, and notched along its upper edge. From this arm, which is turned back against the lintel when not in use, the meat is hung and turned by means of a bottle-jack or a skein of worsted, knotted in three or four places, which answers the purpose equally well, and may be replaced by a new one when required, at a merely nominal cost. Meat roasted in this manner should be turned occasionally, the hook being inserted first at one end and then at the other.

1030. The Dutch Oven.

The Dutch oven is of great utility for small dishes of various kinds, which the Spit would spoil by the magnitude of its operations, or the Oven destroy by the severity of its heat. It combines, in fact, the advantages of roasting and baking, and may be adopted for compound dishes, and for warming cold scraps: it is easily heated, and causes no material expenditure of fuel.

1031. The Saucepan.

When we come to speak of the Saucepan, we have to consider the claims of a very large, ancient, and useful family. There are large saucepans, dignified with the name of Boilers, and small saucepans, which come under the denomination of Stewpans. There are few kinds of meat or fish which the Saucepan will not receive, and dispose of in a satisfactory manner; and few vegetables for which it is not adapted.

When rightly used, it is a very economical servant, allowing nothing to be lost; that which escapes from the meat while in its charge forms broth, or may be made the basis of soups. Fat rises upon the surface of the water, and may be skimmed off; while in various stews it combines, in an eminent degree, what we may term the _fragrance_ of cookery, and the _piquancy_ of taste. The French are perfect masters of the use of the Stewpan. And we shall find that, as all cookery is but an aid to digestion, the operations of the Stewpan resemble the

## action of the stomach very closely. The stomach is a close sac, in

which solids and fluids are mixed together, macerated in the gastric juice, and dissolved by the aid of heat and motion, occasioned by the continual contractions and relaxations of the coats of the stomach during the action of digestion. This is more closely resembled by the process of stewing than by any other of our culinary methods.

1032. Various Processes of Cooking.

1033. Utility of the Kitchen.

"In the hands of an expert cook," says Majendie, "alimentary substances are made almost entirely to change their nature, their form, consistence, odour, savour, colour, chemical composition, &c.; everything is so modified, that it is often impossible for the most exquisite sense of taste to recognise the substance which makes up the basis of certain dishes. The greatest utility of the kitchen consists in making the food agreeable to the senses, and rendering it easy of digestion."

1034. Theory of Cooking.

To some extent the claims of either process of cooking depend upon the taste of the individual. Some persons may esteem the peculiar flavour of fried meats, while others will prefer broils or stews. It is important, however, to understand the _theory_ of each method of cooking, so that whichever may be adopted, may be done well. Bad cooking, though by a good method, is far inferior to good cooking by a bad method.

1035. Roasting.--Beef.

A sirloin of about fifteen pounds (if much more in weight the outside will be done too much before the inner side is sufficiently roasted), will require to be before the fire about three and a half or four hours. Take care to spit it evenly, that it may not be heavier on one side than the other; put a little clean dripping into the dripping pan (tie a sheet of paper over it to preserve the fat) baste it well as soon as it is put down, and every quarter of an hour all the time it is roasting, till the last half-hour; then take off the paper and make some gravy for it, stir the fire and make it clear; to brown and froth it, sprinkle a little salt over it, baste it with butter, and dredge it with flour; let it go a few minutes longer, till the froth rises, take it up, put it on the dish, &c. Garnish it with horseradish, scraped as fine as possible with a very sharp knife.

[VICE IS THE MOST HURTFUL OF ALL.]

1036. Yorkshire Pudding

A Yorkshire Pudding is an excellent accompaniment to roast beef.

1037. Ribs of Beef.

The first three ribs, of fifteen or twenty pounds, will take three hours, or three and a half; the fourth and fifth ribs will take as long, managed in the same way as the sirloin. Paper the fat and the thin part, or it will be done too much, before the thick part is done enough.

1038. Ribs of Beef boned and rolled.

Keep two or three ribs of beef till quite tender, take out the bones, and skewer the meat as round as possible, like a fillet of veal. Some cooks egg it, and sprinkle it with veal stuffing before rolling it. As the meat is in a solid mass, it will require more time at the fire than ribs of beef with the bones: a piece of ten or twelve pounds weight will not be well and thoroughly roasted in less than four and a half or five hours. For the first half-hour it should not be less than twelve inches from the fire, that it may get gradually warm to the centre; the last half-hour before it is finished, sprinkle a little salt over it, and, if you like, flour it, to froth it.

1039. Mutton.

As beef requires a large sound fire, mutton must have a brisk and sharp one: if you wish to have mutton tender it should be hung as long as it will keep, and then good eight-tooth (_i.e._,four years old) mutton, is as good eating as venison.

1040. The Leg, Haunch, and Saddle

The leg, haunch, and saddle, will be the better for being hung up in a cool airy place for four or five days, at least; in temperate weather, a week: in cold weather, ten days, A leg of eight pounds will take about two hours; let it be well basted.

1041. A Chine or Saddle.

_i.e._ the two loins, of ten or eleven pounds--two hours and a half. It is the business of the butcher to take off the skin and skewer it on again, to defend the meat from extreme heat, and preserve its succulence. If this is neglected, tie a sheet of paper over it; baste the strings you tie it on with directly, or they will burn. About a quarter of an hour before you think it will be done, take off the skin or paper, that it may get a pale brown colour, and then baste it, and flour it lightly to froth it.

1042. A Shoulder.

A shoulder, of seven pounds, an hour and three-quarters, or even two hours. If a spit is used, put it in close to the shank-bone, and run it along the blade-bone.

1043. A Loin of Mutton.