SMALL ECONOMIES, "LEFT-OVERS" OR "IVERICH BLEIBST" AS AUNT SARAH CALLED THEM.
"The young housewife," said Aunt Sarah to Mary, in a little talk on small economies in the household, "should never throw away pieces of hard cheese. Grate them and keep in a cool, dry place until wanted, then spread lightly over the top of a dish of macaroni, before baking; or sprinkle over small pieces of dough remaining after baking pies, roll thin, cut in narrow strips like straws, and bake light brown in a hot oven, as 'Cheese Straws.'"
Wash and dry celery tips in oven, and when not wished for soup they may be used later for seasoning. The undesirable outer leaves of a head of lettuce, if fresh and green, may be used if cut fine with scissors, and a German salad dressing added. The heart of lettuce should, after washing carefully, be placed in a piece of damp cheese cloth and put on ice until wanted, then served at table "au natural," with olive oil and vinegar or mayonnaise dressing to suit individual taste. Should you have a large quantity of celery, trim and carefully wash the roots, cut them fine and add to soup as flavoring. Almost all vegetables may be, when well cooked, finely mashed, strained, and when added to stock, form a nourishing soup by the addition of previously-cooked rice or barley. Add small pieces of meat, well-washed bones cut from steaks or roasts, to the stock pot. Small pieces of ham or bacon (left-overs), also bacon or hamgravynot thickened with flour may be used occasionally, when making German salad dressingfor dandelion, endive, lettuce or water cress, instead of frying fresh pieces of bacon.
AN OLD FASHIONED BUCKS COUNTY BAKE OVEN
AN OLD FASHIONED BUCKS COUNTY BAKE OVEN
It is a great convenience, also economical, to keep a good salad dressing on hand, and when the white of an egg is used, the yolk remaining may he added at once to the salad dressing (previously prepared). Mix thoroughly, cook a minute and stand away in a cool place. Young housekeepers will be surprised at the many vegetables, frequently left-overs, from which appetizing salads may be made by the addition of a couple tablespoonfuls of mayonnaise, besides nut meats, lettuce, watercress, celery and fruit, all of which may be used to advantage. A good potato salad is one of the cheapest and most easily prepared salads. A German dressing for dandelions, lettuce or potatoes may be prepared in a few minutes by adding a couple of tablespoonfuls of salad dressing (which the forehanded housewife will always keep on hand) to a little hot ham or bacon gravy. Stirring it while hot over the salad and serving at once.
A cup of mashed potatoes, left over from dinner, covered and set aside in a cool place, may be used the next day, with either milk or potato water, to set a sponge for "Dutch Cake," or cinnamon buns with equally good results as if they had been freshly boiled (if the potatoes be heated luke-warm and mashed through a sieve); besides the various other ways in which cold boiled potatoes may be used.
Fruit juices or a couple tablespoonfuls of tart jelly or preserved fruit may be added to mincemeat with advantage. Housewives should make an effort to give their family good, plain, nourishing, wholesome food. The health of the family depends so largely on the quality of food consumed. When not having time, strength or inclination to bake cake, pies or puddings, have instead good, sweet, home-made bread and fruit; if nothing else, serve stewed fruit or apple sauce. Omit meat occasionally from the bill of fare and serve instead a dish of macaroni and cheese and fruit instead of other dessert. Serve a large, rich, creamy rice pudding for the children's lunch. When eggs are cheap and plentiful make simple custards, old-fashioned cornmeal puddings, tapioca, bread puddings and gelatine with fruits. These are all good, wholesome, and not expensive, and in Summer may be prepared in the cool of the early morning with small outlay of time, labor or money. Plan your housework well the day before and haveeverything in readiness. The pudding may be placed in the oven and baked white preparing breakfast, economizing coal and the time required for other household duties.
Every wife and mother who does her own housework and cooking these days (and their number is legion) knows the satisfaction one experiences, especially in hot weather, in having dinner and luncheon planned and partly prepared early in the morning before leaving the kitchen to perform other household tasks.
Another small economy of Aunt Sarah's was the utilizing of cold mashed potatoes in an appetizing manner. The mashed potatoes remaining from a former meal were put through a small fruit press or ricer to make them light and flaky. To one heaped cup of mashed potatoes (measured before pressing them through fruit press) she added ¾ cup of soft, stale bread crumbs, ¼ cup of flour sifted with ¼ teaspoonful of baking powder. Mix in lightly with a fork yolk of one egg, then the stiffly beaten white, seasoned with salt and a little minced onion or parsley, or both. With well-floured hands she molded the mixture into balls the size of a shelled walnut, dropped into rapidly boiling water and cooked them uncovered from 15 to 20 minutes, then skimmed them from the water and browned in a pan with a little butter and served on platter with meat, a pot roast or beef preferred. From the above quantity of potatoes was made five potato balls.
THE MANY USES OF STALE BREAD
Never waste stale bread, as it may be used to advantage in many ways. The young housewife will be surprised at the many good, wholesome and appetizing dishes which may be made from stale bread, with the addition of eggs and milk.
Take a half dozen slices of stale bread of equal size and place in a hot oven a few minutes to become crisped on the outside so they may be quickly toasted over a hot fire, a delicate brown. Butter them and for breakfast serve with a poached egg on each slice.
A plate of hot, crisp, nicely-browned and buttered toast is always a welcome addition to the breakfast table.
Serve creamed asparagus tips on slices of toast for luncheon.
The economical housewife carefully inspects the contents of her bread box and refrigerator every morning before planning hermeals for the day, and is particular to use scraps of bread and left-over meat and vegetables as quickly as possible. Especially is this necessary in hot weather. Never use any food unless perfectly sweet and fresh. If otherwise, it is unfit for use.
Loaves of bread which have become stale can be freshened if wrapped in a damp cloth for a few minutes, then remove and place in a hot oven until heated through.
For a change, toast slices of stale bread quite crisp and serve a plate of hot, plain toast at table, to be eaten broken in small pieces in individual bowls of cold milk. Still another way is to put the stiffly-beaten white of an egg on the centre of a hot, buttered slice of toast, carefully drop the yolk in the centre of the beaten white and place in hot oven a few minutes to cook. Serve with a bit of butter on top, season with pepper and salt. Serve at once.
Another way to use stale bread is to toast slices of bread, spread with butter, pour over 1 cup of hot milk, in which has been beaten 1 egg and a pinch of salt. Serve in a deep dish. Or a cup of hot milk may be poured over crisply-toasted slices of buttered bread, without the addition of an egg.
"BROD GRUMMELLA"
In a bowl containing 1 cup of soft bread crumbs pour 1 cup of sweet milk, then add the slightly-beaten yolks of three eggs, a little pepper and salt, then the stiffly-beaten whites of the three eggs. Place in a fry-pan a tablespoonful of butter and 1 of lard or drippings; when quite hot pour the omelette carefully in the pan. When it begins to "set" loosen around the edges and from the bottom with a knife. When cooked turn one side over on the other half, loosen entirely from the pan, then slide carefully on a hot platter and serve at once. Garnish with parsley.
CROUTONS AND CRUMBS
Still another way is to make croutons. Cut stale bread into small pieces, size of dice, brown in hot oven and serve with soup instead of serving crackers. Small pieces of bread that cannot beused otherwise should be spread over a large pan, placed in a moderate oven and dried until crisp. They may then be easily rolled fine with a rolling-pin or run through the food chopper and then sifted, put in a jar, stood in a dry place until wanted, but not in an air-tight jar. Tie a piece of cheese-cloth over the top of jar. These crumbs may be used for crumbing eggplant, oysters, veal cutlets or croquettes. All should be dipped in beaten white of eggs and then in the crumbs, seasoned with salt and pepper, then floated in a pan of hot fat composed of ⅔ lard and ⅓ suet. All except veal cutlets. They should be crumbed, not floated in deep fat, but fried slowly in a couple tablespoonfuls of butter and lard.
Also fry fish in a pan of hot fat. Shad is particularly fine, prepared in this manner (when not baked). Cut in small pieces, which when breaded are floated in hot fat. If the fat is the right temperature when the fish is put in, it absorbs less fat than when fried in a small quantity of lard and butter.
"ZWEIBACH"
Cut wheat bread in slices not too thin. Place in a warm, not hot, oven, and allow it to remain until thoroughly dry and crisp. Place in a toaster or a wire broiler over a hot fire and toast a golden brown and allow it to remain in the oven until toasted. Keep in cool place until used. Zweibach is considered more wholesome than fresh bread.
"GERMAN" EGG BREAD
Cut stale bread into slices about ¾ inch thick. Cut slices in half, and soak for a few minutes, turning frequently, in the following mixtures: 1 pint of sweet milk, 3 eggs, 1 teaspoonful flour mixed smooth with a little of the cold milk and a pinch of salt. Fry half dozen slices of thinly-sliced bacon in a pan. Put bacon, when fried, in oven to keep hot. Dip the slices of soaked bread in fine, dried bread crumbs and fry quickly in the bacon fat (to which has been added one tablespoon of butter) to a golden brown. Serve at once on the same platter with the bacon, or instead ofusing bacon fat, fry the crumbed bread in sweet drippings, or a tablespoonful each of lard and butter. This is an appetizing and wholesome breakfast or luncheon dish, served with a tart jelly, either currant or grape.
CREAMED TOAST
Partly fill a large tureen with slices of crisply-browned and buttered toast. (Slices of bread which have become dry and hard may be used for this dish.) When ready to serve, not before, pour over the toasted slices 1 quart of hot milk to which 1 teaspoonful of flour or cornstarch has been added, after being mixed smoothly with a little cold milk or water and cooked a few minutes until thick as cream. Add also a pinch of salt.
If milk is not plentiful, prepare one pint of milk and dip each slice of toasted bread quickly in a bowl of hot water; place in a deep dish and quickly pour over the hot milk, to which a tablespoonful of butter has been added, and serve at once.
BREAD AND ROLLS
Bread, called the "Staff of Life," on account of its nutritive value, should head the list of foods for human consumption. Bread making should stand first in the "Science of Cooking," as there is no one food upon which the comfort, health and well-being of the average family so largely depends as upon good bread. There is absolutely no reason why the housewife of the present day should not have good, sweet, wholesome, home-made bread, if good yeast, good flour and common-sense are used. The milk or water used to mix with flour for making bread sponge should be lukewarm. If too hot, the loaves will be full of holes and coarse grained. If too cold the bread, chilled, will not rise as it should have done had the liquid used been the right temperature. Good bread may be made by using milk, potato water or whey (drained from thick sour milk), and good bread may be made by simply using lukewarm water. I prefer a mixture of milk and water to set sponge. Milk makes a fine-grained, white bread, but it soon dries out and becomes stale. Bread rises more slowly when milk is used. Whenmashed potatoes are used, the bread keeps moist a longer time. Should you wish extra fine, white, delicate bread, add one cup of sweet cream to the liquid when setting sponge. When milk is used the dough is slower in rising, but makes a creamy-looking and fine-flavored bread. When one Fleischman yeast cake is used in any recipe the ordinary half-ounce cake of compressed yeast is intended, twenty-eight cakes in a pound. These are usually kept in a large refrigerator in a temperature of 44 degrees and should not be kept longer in the home than three days in Summer or six days in Winter, and should always be kept in a cool place until used, if the cook would have success when using.
Use the best hard, Spring wheat flour obtainable for baking bread, or any sponge raised with yeast, as this flour contains a greater quantity of gluten and makes bread of high nutritive value.
Winter wheat maybe used for cake-making and for baking pastry with excellent results, although costing less than Spring wheat.
Always sift flour before using, when setting sponge for bread. When mixing sponge use one quart liquid to about three pounds of flour. "Aunt Sarah" always cut several gashes with a sharp knife on top of loaves when ready to be placed in oven. She also made several cuts across the top of loaves with a hot knife when set to rise to allow gas to escape. If an impression made on a loaf of bread with the finger remains, the bread is light. If the dent disappears, then the loaf is not light enough to be placed in the oven; give it more time to rise. An experienced cook, noted for the excellence and size of her loaves of bread, said she always inverted a pail over the pan containing loaves of bread when set to rise, and allowed the bread to remain covered after being placed in the oven. Loaves will rise to a greater height if this is done. Remove the covering to allow loaves to brown a short time before taking them from the oven. "Aunt Sarah" frequently placed four loaves in her large roasting pan, covered the pan, when set to rise, and allowed the cover to remain until loaves were nearly baked. She brushed the top and sides of loaves with melted butter when set to rise to allow of their being broken apart easily. A more crusty loaf is secured by placing each loaf singly in medium-sized bread tins.
Aunt Sarah considered Fleischman's compressed yeast the best commercial yeast in use, both quick and reliable, but thought better bread was never made than that made by her mother, asshe had been taught to make it in years past, by the old-fashioned and slower "sponge method." She was invariably successful in making sweet, wholesome bread in that manner. She used home-made potato yeast or "cornmeal yeast cakes," under different names, always with good results.
Good bread may be made either by the old-fashioned "sponge" method or "straight." Sponge method consists of a batter mixed from liquid yeast (usually home-made potato yeast is used) and a small part of the flour required for making the bread. This batter was usually set to rise at night and mixed up in the centre of a quantity of flour, in an old-fashioned wooden dough tray. The following morning enough flour was kneaded in to form a dough, and when well-raised and light, this dough was formed into loaves and placed in pans for the final rising. The more easily and more quickly made "straight" dough, when using Fleischman's compressed yeast, is mixed in the morning and all the ingredients necessary are added at one time. It is then set to rise and, when the dough has doubled in bulk, it is kneaded down and when risen to once and half its size, shaped into loaves, placed in pans to rise and, when risen to top of pans, bake.
Better bread may be made from flour not freshly milled. Flour should be kept in a dry place; it improves with moderate age. Stand flour in a warm place to dry out several hours before using if you would have good bread.
When baking bread the heat of the oven should not betoo greatatfirst, or the outside of the bread will harden too quickly and inside the loaves will not be thoroughly baked before the crust is thick and dark. The temperature of the oven and time required for baking depend upon the size of the loaves, yet the bread should be placed in rather a quick oven, one in which the loaves should brown in about fifteen minutes, when the heat may be reduced, finishing the baking more slowly.
Small biscuits and rolls can stand a much hotter oven and quicker baking than large loaves, which must be heated slowly, and baked a longer time. A one-pound loaf should bake about one hour. On being taken from the oven, bread should be placed on a sieve, so that the air can circulate about it until it is thoroughly cooled. In theFarmers' Bulletin, we read: "The lightness and sweetness depend as much on the way bread is made as on the materials used." The greatest care should be used in preparing and baking the dough and in cooking and keeping the finished bread. Though good housekeepers agree that light, well-raised bread can readily be made, with reasonable care and attention, heavy, badly-raised bread is unfortunately very common. Such bread is not palatable and is generally considered to be unwholesome, and probably more indigestion has been caused by it than by any other badly-cooked food. As compared with most meats and vegetables, bread has practically no waste and is very completely digested, but it is usually too poor in proteins to be fittingly used as the sole article of diet, but when eaten with due quantities of other food, it is invaluable and well deserves its title of "Staff of Life."
When the housewife "sets" bread sponge to rise over night, she should mix the sponge or dough quite late, and early in the morning mold it at once into shapely-looking loaves (should the sponge have had the necessary amount of flour added the night before for making a stiff dough).
Being aware of the great nutritive value of raisins and dried currants, Aunt Sarah frequently added a cup of either one or the other, well-floured, to the dough when shaping into loaves for the final rising.
Aunt Sarah frequently used a mixture of butter and lard when baking on account of its being more economical, and for the reason that a lesser quantity of lard may be used; the shortening qualities being greater than that of butter. The taste of lard was never detected in her bread or cakes, they being noted for their excellence, as the lard she used was home-rendered, almost as sweet as dairy butter, free from taste or odor of pork. She always beat lard to a cream when using it for baking cakes, and salted it well before using, and I do not think the small quantity used could be objected to on hygienic principles.
I have read "bread baking" is done once every three or four weeks, no oftener, in some of the farm houses of Central Europe, and yet stale bread is there unknown. Their method of keeping bread fresh is to sprinkle flour into a large sack and into this pack the loaves, taking care to have the top crusts of bread touch each other. If they have to lie bottom to bottom, sprinkle flour between them. Swing the sack in a dry place. It must swing and there must be plenty of flour between the loaves. It sounds more odd than reasonable, I confess.
"BUCKS COUNTY" HEARTH-BAKED RYE BREAD (AS MADE BY AUNT SARAH)
"BUCKS COUNTY" RYE BREAD
"BUCKS COUNTY" RYE BREAD
Pour 1 quart of luke-warm milk in a bowl holding 7 quarts. Add butter, sugar and salt, 1½ quarts rye flour and 1 cup of yeast, or one Fleischman's yeast cake, dissolved in a little lukewarm water. Beat thoroughly, cover with cloth, and set in a warm place to rise about three hours, or until it almost reaches the top of bowl. When light, stir in the remaining 1½ quarts of rye flour, in which one cup of wheat is included; turn out on a well-floured bake board and knead about twenty minutes. Shape dough into one high, round loaf, sprinkle flourliberallyover top and sides of loaf, and place carefully into the clean bowl on top of awell-flouredcloth. Cover and set to rise about one hour, whenit should be light and risen to top of bowl. Turn the bowl containing the loaf carefully upside down on the centre of a hot sheet iron taken from the hot oven and placed on top of range. A tablespoonful of flour should have been sifted over the sheet iron before turning the loaf out on it. Remove cloth from dough carefully after it has been turned from bowl and place the sheet iron containing loafimmediately in the hot oven, as it will then rise at once and not spread. Bake at least sixty minutes. Bread is seldom baked long enough to be wholesome, especially graham and rye bread. When baked and still hot, brush the top of loaf with butter and wash the bottom of loaf well with a cloth wrung out of cold water, to soften the lower, hard-baked crust. Wrap in a damp cloth and stand aside to cool where the air will circulate around it. Always set rye bread to rise early in the morning of the same day it is to be baked, as rye sponge sours more quickly than wheat sponge. The bread baked from this recipe has the taste of bread which, in olden times, was baked in the brick ovens of our grandmother's day, and that bread was unexcelled. I know of what I am speaking, having watched my grandmother bake bread in an old-fashioned brick oven, and have eaten hearth-baked rye bread, baked directly on the bottom of the oven, and know, if this recipe be closely followed, the young housewife will have sweet, wholesome bread. Some Germans use Kumel or Caraway seed in rye bread.
Aunt Sarah's loaves of rye bread, baked from the above recipe, were invariably 3½ inches high, 14½ inches in diameter and 46 inches in circumference and always won a blue ribbon at Country Fairs and Farmers' Picnics.
In the oven of Aunt Sarah's range was always to be found a piece of sheet iron 17 inches in length by 16 inches in width. The three edges of the sheet iron turned down all around to a depth of half an inch, the two opposite corners being cut off about a half inch, to allow of its being turned down. It is a great convenience for young housewives to possess two of these sheet-iron tins, or "baking sheets," when baking small cakes or cookies, as being raised slightly from the bottom of the oven, cakes are less liable to scorch and bake more evenly. One sheet may be filled while baking another sheetful of cakes. In this manner a large number of cakes may be baked in a short time. This baking sheet was turned the opposite way, upside down, when baking a loaf ofrye bread on it, and when the loaf of bread was partly baked the extra baking sheet was slipped under the bottom of the one containing the loaf, in case the oven was quite hot, to prevent the bottom of the bread scorching. Wheat bread may be baked in the same manner as rye bread, substituting wheat flour for rye. These baking sheets may be made by any tinsmith, and young housewives, I know, would not part with them, once they realize how invaluable they are for baking small cakes on them easily and quickly.
"FRAU SCHMIDTS" GOOD WHITE BREAD (SPONGE METHOD)
To one quart of potato water, drained from potatoes which were boiled for mid-day dinner, she added about ½ cup of finely-mashed hot potatoes and stood aside. About four o'clock in the afternoon she placed one pint of lukewarm potato water and mashed potatoes in a bowl with ¼ cup of granulated sugar and ½ a dissolved Fleischman's yeast cake, beat all well together, covered with a cloth and stood in a warm place until light and foamy. About nine o'clock in the evening she added the reserved pint of (lukewarm) potato water and ½ tablespoonful of salt to the yeast sponge, with enough warmed, well-dried flour to stiffen, and kneaded it until dough was fine-grained. She also cut through the dough frequently with a sharp knife. When the dough was elastic and would not adhere to molding-board or hands, she placed it in a bowl, brushed melted lard or butter over top to prevent a crust forming, covered warmly with a cloth and allowed it to stand until morning. Frau Schmidt always rose particularly early on bake day, for fear the sponge might fall or become sour, if allowed to stand too long. She molded the dough into four small loaves, placed it in pans to rise until it doubled its original bulk. When light she baked it one hour. Bread made according to these directions was fine-grained, sweet and wholesome. She always cut several gashes across top of loaf with a sharp knife when loaves were set to rise, to allow gas to escape.
EXCELLENT "GRAHAM BREAD"
At 6.30 A.M. place in a quart measure ½ cup of sweet creamand 3½ cups of milk, after being scalded (1 quart all together). When lukewarm, add 1 Fleischman yeast cake, dissolved in a little of the luke warm milk, 3 tablespoonfuls sugar and 1 tablespoonful salt. Add 3 cups each of white bread flour and 3 cups of graham flour (in all 6 cups or 1½ quarts of flour). Mix well together and stand in a warm place, closely covered, a couple of hours, until well-risen. Then stir sponge down and add about 2½ cups each of graham and of white flour. (Sponge for graham bread should not be quite as stiff as a sponge prepared from white flour.) Set to rise again for an hour, or longer; when light, stir down sponge and turn on to a well-floured board. Knead well, divide into four portions, mold into four small, shapely loaves, brush with soft butter, place in well-greased pans, set to rise, and in about one hour they should be ready to put in a moderately-hot oven. Bake about fifty minutes. Graham bread should be particularly well-baked. Brush loaves, when baked, with butter, which makes a crisp crust with a nutty flavor.
Should cream not be available, one quart of scalded milk, containing one tablespoonful of butter, may be used with good results. If cream be used with the milk, no shortening is required in the bread. Bread is considered more wholesome when no shortening is used in its preparation.
GRAHAM BREAD (AN OLD RECIPE)
Stiffen about as thick as ordinary molasses cake. Bake at once.
"MARY'S" RECIPE FOR WHEAT BREAD
This makes good bread and, as bread is apt to chill if set over night in a cold kitchen, or sour if allowed to stand over night in summer, set this sponge early in the morning. Stiffen with flour and knead about 25 minutes; place the dough in a covered bowl in a warm place to rise about two hours and when well-risen and light, knead and stand one hour. Then mold into shapely loaves, place in pans, brush tops of loaves with melted butter, and when doubled in bulk, in about 45 minutes put in an oven which is so hot you can hold your hand in only while you count thirty, or if a little flour browns in the oven in about six minutes, it is hot enough for bread. The oven should be hot enough to brown the bread slightly five minutes after being put in. Medium-sized loaves of bread require from ¾ of an hour to one hour to bake. When bread is sufficiently baked it can be told by turning the loaf over and rapping with the knuckles on the bottom of the loaf. If it sounds hollow, it is thoroughly baked, and should be taken from the oven. Stand loaves up on end against some object, where the air can circulate around them, and brush a little butter over the top to soften the crust. An authority on the chemistry of foods cautious housewives against cooling loaves of bread too rapidly after taking from the oven, and I should like to add a word of caution against eating fresh breads of any kind. Bread should be baked at least twelve hours before being eaten. The sponge for this bread was set at 6 o'clock in the morning; bread was baked at 10.30.
From 1 pint of liquid, 1 cake of yeast and about 1½ quarts of flour were made two loaves of bread. More yeast is required to raise a sponge containing sugar, eggs and shortening than is required to raise bread sponge containing only liquid, flour and yeast.
"FRAU SCHMIDTS" EASILY-MADE GRAHAM BREAD
Should you care to have a couple of loaves of graham bread instead of all-wheat, take a generous cup of the above spongebefore it is stiffened beyond a thick batter, and add one tablespoonful of brown sugar or molasses, stiffen with graham flour (not quite as stiff as when making wheat bread), rub butter or lard on top of dough, cover and set in a warm place to rise. When light, mold into one small loaf (never make graham bread into large loaves), place in oblong pan, cover, let stand until light, about 1½ hours, when it should have doubled in size; put in oven and bake thoroughly. When the loaf is taken from the oven, brush butter over the top. This keeps the crust moist.
If a wholesome loaf of "Corn Bread" is wished, use fine, yellow, granulated cornmeal to stiffen the sponge instead of graham flour; do not make dough too stiff.
WHOLE-WHEAT BREAD
When the milk and water are lukewarm add the yeast cake and salt. Then add enough whole wheat flour to make a thin batter. Let stand in a warm place three or four hours. Then stir in as much wheat flour (whole wheat) as can be stirred in well with a large spoon, and pour into well-greased pans. Let rise to double its bulk; then bake from three-fourths to one hour, according to the size of the loaves. This quantity makes three loaves.
NUT BREAD
Put in a good-sized bread pan and bake on hour in a moderate oven. Strange as it may seem, this bread is lighter and better if allowed to stand a half hour before being placed in the oven to bake.
FRAU SCHMIDTS "QUICK BREAD"
The Professor's wife seldom used any liquid except water to set a sponge for bread. She seldom used any shortening. She taught Mary to make bread by the following process, which she considered superior to any other. From the directions given, housewives may think more time devoted to the making of a couple of loaves of bread than necessary; also, that too great a quantity of yeast was used; but the bread made by "Frau Schmidt" was excellent, quickly raised and baked.
The whole process consumed only about four hours' time, and how could time be more profitably spent than in baking sweet, crusty loaves of bread, even in these strenuous days when the efficient housekeeper plans to conserve strength, time and labor?
First, two Fleischman's compressed yeast cakes were placed in a bowl and dissolved with 4 tablespoonfuls of luke-warm water; she then added 1 cup of lukewarm water, ½ tablespoonful of sugar and ½ teaspoonful of salt and stirred all well together. The bowl containing this yeast foam was allowed to stand in a warm place, closely covered, one hour.
At the end of that time the yeast mixture should be light and foamy. It was then poured into the centre of a bowl containing about 4½ cups ofwarmedflour, mixing the foamy yeast with aportionof the flour to make a soft sponge, leaving a wall of flour around the inside edge of bowl, as our grandmothers used to do in olden times when they mixed a sponge for bread of liquid flour and yeast, in one end of the old-fashioned wooden "dough tray," using a wooden stick or small paddle for stirring together the mixture.
The bowl containing the sponge was placed in a warm place to rise. In about 15 or 20 minutes ½ cup of lukewarm water was added to the sponge, stirring in all the outside wall of flour until a dough, the proper consistency for bread, was formed. The dough was turned out on the molding board and given a couple ofquick, deft turns with the hands for several minutes, then placed in the bowl and again set to rise in a warm place, free from draughts, for 25 or 30 minutes. When light, with hands slightly greased with butter, she kneaded the dough a short time, until smooth and elastic, divided the dough into two portions, placed each loaf in warmed, well-greased bread pans and stood in a warm place about ¼ hour. Then turned the contents of bread pans onto bake-board, one at a time. Cut each loaf into three portions, rolled each piece into long, narrow strips with the palms of the hands. Pinched ends of the three strips together and braided or plaited them into a braid almost the length of bread pan. Placed each braided loaf in a bread pan and set to raise as before. When well-raised, brush the top of loaves with melted butter. Bake about three-quarters of an hour in a moderately-hot oven. An old-fashioned way of testing the heat of the oven was to hold the hand in the oven while counting thirty. Should one be unable to bear the heat of oven a longer time, then the temperature was correct for baking bread. Should one be able to allow the hand to remain in the oven a longer time, the heat of the oven should be increased.
As a result of carefully following these minute directions, even an inexperienced housewife should have sweet, wholesome bread.
Frau Schmidt insisted that rolling portions of dough separately before combining in a loaf, as for braided loaves, caused the bread to have a finer texture than if just shaped into round loaves.
AN "OATMEAL LOAF"
For a loaf of oatmeal bread, place 1 cup of crushed oats, or common oatmeal, in a bowl, pour over ½ cup of hot milk. When luke warm, add 1 cup of sponge, or batter, reserved from that raised over night for making loaves of white bread; 1 teaspoonful butter, 1 teaspoonful sugar and ½ teaspoonful salt, and about 2 scant cups of white flour. Knead a few minutes, set to rise in a warm place, closely covered, about one hour or until doubled in bulk. Then knead down and form into a shapely loaf, place in a pan, brush melted butter over top (this improves crust), and when raised, doubled in bulk (in about one hour), place in a moderately hot oven and bake from 40 to 45 minutes. Raisins may be addedto this loaf, if liked. Mary preferred this oatmeal loaf to graham bread.
The sponge or batter from which this oatmeal-loaf was made had been prepared in the following manner:
To 1½ cups of luke-warm potato water was added 1 teaspoonful of sugar, 1 cake of yeast; when dissolved, add 1½ cups of white bread flour. Beat all together well, stand closely-covered in a warm place until the following morning. From one cup of this sponge was made one oatmeal loaf, and to the other cup of sponge white flour was added for a loaf of white bread or rolls.
AUNT SARAH'S WHITE BREAD (SPONGE METHOD)
Prepare the following "Yeast Sponge" at noon, the day preceding that on which you bake bread: Place in a bowl (after the mid-day meal) 1 quart of potato water (containing no salt), in which potatoes were boiled; also two medium-sized, finely-mashed potatoes, 1 tablespoonful of sugar and, when luke warm, add 1 cup of good home-made or baker's yeast. Mix all well together; then divide this mixture and pour each half into each of two 1-quart glass fruit jars. Place covers tightly on jars and shake each jar well, to mix yeast and potato-water thoroughly. Stand yeast in a warm place near the kitchen range over night. Jars should becovered onlywith a napkin. The sponge should become light and foamy. In the morning use this freshly-prepared yeast to set sponge for bread.
When preparing to set bread, place in a large bowl 1 pint of potato water, 1 tablespoonful of sugar, 1 pint of the yeast sponge, ½ teaspoonful of salt, and use about 3 pounds of sifted flour, well-dried and warmed. Knead from 15 to 20 minutes, until a stiff dough is formed. The dough should be fine-grained and elastic and not stick to bake board. Place dough in the bowl to rise; this should lake about four hours. When well-risen and light knead down and set to rise again, about 1½ hours. When light, mold into three large, shapely loaves; place in pans and allow to stand one hour. When loaves have doubled in bulk, are very light and show signs of cracking, invert a pan over top of loaves (if that was not done when loaves were put in pans), and place in a rather hot oven to bake. Brush melted butter over loaves of bread whenset to rise, it will cause bread to have a crisp crust when baked. The old-fashioned way of testing the heat of an oven was to hold the hand in the oven, if possible, while one counted thirty.
The pint of yeast remaining in jar may be kept in a cool place one week, and may be used during this time in making fresh "yeast foam." This should always be prepared the day before baking bread. Always prepare double the quantity of "yeast foam." Use half to set bread, and reserve half for next baking. Bread baked from this recipe has frequently taken first prize at County Fairs and Farmers' Picnics.
When baking bread, the oven should be quite hot when bread is first placed therein, when the bread should rise about an inch; then the heat of the oven should he lessened and in a half hour a brown crust should begin forming; and during the latter part of the hour (the time required for baking an ordinary-sized loaf) the heat of the oven should be less, causing the bread to bake slowly. Should the heat of the oven not be great enough, when the loaves are placed within for baking, then poor bread would be the result. This method of making bread will insure most satisfactory results, although more troublesome than ordinary methods.
RECIPE FOR "PULLED BREAD"
Take a Vienna loaf of bread, twelve-hours old, cut away all the crust with a clean-cut knife, then break away gently (with your fingers only) small finger-lengths of the bread, place in a moderate oven and brown a golden brown, and it is ready to serve. 'Tis said six loaves will be required for one pound of this pulled bread. 'Tis easily prepared in the home, but quite costly, when purchased. Many people prefer "pulled bread" to fresh bread, as it is more wholesome.