|
Classic
Cook Books
< last page | next page >
page 7
BREAD-MAKING.
THE old saying, "bread is the staff of life," has sound reason in it. Flour made
from wheat, and meal from oats and Indian corn, are rich in the waste-repairing
elements, starch and albumen, and head the list of articles of food for man.
Good bread makes the homeliest meal acceptable, and the coarsest fare
appetizing, while the most luxurious table is not even tolerable without it.
Light, crisp rolls for breakfast, spongy, sweet bread for dinner, and flaky
biscuit for supper, cover a multitude of culinary sins; and there is no one
thing on which the health and comfort of a family so much depends as the quality
of its home-made loaves.
Bread-making seems a simple process enough, but it requires a delicate care and
watchfulness, and a thorough knowledge of all the contingencies of the process,
dependent on the different qualitites of flour, the varying kinds and conditions
of yeast, and the change of seasons; the process which raises bread successfully
in winter making it sour in summer. There are many little things in bread-making
which require accurate observation, and, while valuable recipes and well-defined
methods in detail are invaluable aids, nothing but experience will secure the
name merited by so few, though earnestly coveted by every practical, sensible
housekeeper--"an excellent bread-maker." Three things are indispensable to
success--good flour, good yeast, and watchful care. Good flour adheres to the
hand, and, when pressed, shows the imprint of the lines of the skin. Its tint is
cream white. Never buy that which has a blue-white tinge. Poor flour is not
adhesive, can be blown about easily, and sometimes has a dingy look, as though
mixed with ashes. Never use flour without sifting; and a large tin or
< last page | next page >
Classic
Cook Books
|
