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Ovens—and how to heat them.

Stoves and cooking-ranges have so generally taken the place of brick ovens, that the following directions, which were appropriate when this book was first published, will seldom be of use now. Yet, as they may sometimes be needed, they are suffered to remain. It is impossible to give minute directions as to the management of the various kinds of baking apparatus now in use. A few experiments will enable a person of good judgment to succeed with any of them.

A few suggestions in regard to the construction of an oven may be useful. For a family of medium size, an oven holding ten or twelve plates is large enough. There should be two or three bushels of ashes, with dead coals in them, poured over the top, after the first tier of bricks which forms the arch is laid. Then the usual brickwork should be laid over them. The advantage is this—when the oven is heated, these ashes and coals are heated also, and, being so thick, retain the heat a long time. Five successive bakings have been done in such an oven with one heating; the bread first—then the puddings—afterward pastry—then cake and gingerbread—and lastly custards, which, if made with boiled milk and put into the oven hot, and allowed to stand a considerable time, will bake sufficiently with a very slight heat.

The first time an oven is heated, a large fire should be kept burning in it six or eight hours. Unless this is done it will never bake well.

The size and structure of ovens is so different, that no precise rules for heating them can be given. A lady should attend to this herself, until she perfectly understands what is necessary, and can give minute directions to those she employs. It is easy to find out how many sticks of a given size are necessary for baking articles that require a strong heat; and so for those which are baked with less. To bake brown bread, beans, apples, and other things, all at one time, the oven should be heated with hard wood, and if rather large, so as to be two hours in burning out, it is better. To bake thin cake, and some kinds of puddings, pine wood, split small, answers very well.

After the wood is half burnt, stir the fire equally to all parts of the oven. This is necessary to an equal diffusion of the heat. Do it several times before the oven is cleared. If the oven is to be very full, put in a brick, so that you can have it hot, to set upon it any pan or plate for which there may not be room on the bottom.[3] Be careful that no doors or windows are open near the oven. Let the coals remain until they are no longer red. They should not look dead, but like hot embers. When you take them out, leave in the back part a few to be put near the pans that require most heat, such as beans, Indian pudding, or jars of fruit. Before putting in the things to be baked, throw in a little flour. If it browns instantly, the oven is too hot, and should stand open three or four minutes. If it browns without burning in the course of half a minute, it will be safe to set in the articles immediately. It is often best not to put in those things which require a moderate heat, till those which need a strong heat have been baking ten or fifteen minutes.

A coal scuttle of peat, with less wood, is economical, and gives an equal and very prolonged heat. Many persons use it with pine wood, for their ordinary baking. It takes a longer time to burn out than wood.

It is well to kindle the fire as far back as possible, because all parts of the wood are much sooner on fire than if it is kindled near the mouth of the oven; and if peat is used, it should not be thrown in until the wood is well kindled.

Directions respecting Bread.

There is no one thing upon which health and comfort in a family so much depend as bread. With good bread the coarsest fare is tolerable; without it, the most luxurious table is not comfortable.

It is best economy to purchase the best flour, even at an extra cost. Good flour adheres slightly to the hand, and if pressed in it, shows the impress of the lines of the skin. Dough made of it is a yellowish white, and does not stick to the hands after sufficient kneading. There is much bad flour in market, which can in no way be made into nutritious food.

When you find good flour, notice the brand, and afterwards purchase the same kind. The writer knows a family that for eleven years purchased flour in this way, without once having a poor barrel; then the mills passed to another owner, and though the brand was the same, the flour was good no more.

If you raise wheat, or buy it in the grain, always wash it before sending it to the mill. Take two or three bushels at a time, pour in water and stir it, and then pour off the water. Repeat this till the water is clear. Do not let the grain stand in the water, as it will swell and be injured; spread it on a large cloth in the sun, or where it will have warmth and fresh air, and stir it often, and in a day or two it will be dry. The flour is much improved by this process.

Newly ground flour which has never been packed, is very superior to barrel flour, so that the people in Western New York, that land of finest wheat, say that New England people do not know what good flour is.

Indian meal, also, is much the best when freshly ground. The meal made of Southern corn is often injured by salt water, or dampness acquired in the hold of a ship.

Rye flour is very apt to be musty or grown. There is no way to detect this but by trial. It is well to engage a farmer to supply you with the same he provides for his own family.

On Yeast.

Good yeast is indispensable to good bread. Many of the compounds sold for yeast are unfit for use.

The best kinds are dry yeast, soft hop yeast, and potato yeast. The hard yeast should be made in the month of May, or early in June, for summer use, and in September or October, for the winter. This kind sometimes loses its vitality during the damp weather of August, but it is not invariably the case. Soft hop, or potato yeast, should be made once a week in the summer, and once in two weeks in the winter. No soft yeast can be fit for use, if kept week after week; it may be rectified with saleratus, but the bread will not be very good.

Every housekeeper should make sure, by her own personal attention, that the yeast is properly made, and the jar well scalded. A jar having a close cover is best. Bottles will burst, and you cannot be perfectly sure that a jug is cleansed from every particle of old yeast. To scald the jar, put it into a kettle of boiling water. This must be done every time you make yeast. Stone ware is liable to be cracked by the pouring of boiling water into it.

Soft Hop Yeast.

To three pints of water put a small handful of hops, or if they are in compact pound papers, as put up by the Shakers, half a handful; boil them about half an hour. If the water wastes, add more. Put into the jar six or seven table-spoonfuls of flour, and a teaspoonful of salt. Set it near the kettle, and dip the hop tea, as it boils, into the jar through a small colander or sieve. When you have strained enough of the tea to wet all the flour, stir it, and let none remain dry at the bottom or sides of the jar; then strain upon it the remainder of the hop-water, and stir it well. This mixture should be about the consistency of batter for griddle-cakes. The reason for straining the hop-water while boiling is, that if the flour is not scalded, the yeast will soon become sour.

After it becomes cool (but not cold), stir in a gill of good yeast; set it in a slightly warm place, and not closely covered. Do not leave an iron spoon in it, as it will turn it a dark color, and make it unfit for use. When the yeast is fermented, put it in a cool place, covered close.

Yeast which is made in part of Graham flour rises light sooner than that which is made of white flour alone, and does not affect the color of the bread.

When yeast has a strong tart smell, and a watery appearance on the surface, it is too old for use.

Dry Yeast.

Put four ounces of hops to six quarts of water; boil it away to three quarts. Strain, boiling hot (as directed for the Soft yeast) upon three pints of flour, a large spoonful of ginger, and another of salt. When it is cool, add a pint of sweet yeast. When it is foaming light, knead in sifted Indian meal enough to make it very stiff. Mould it into loaves, and cut in thin slices, and lay it upon clean boards. Set it where there is a free circulation of air, in the sun. After one side has dried so as to be a little crisped, turn the slices over; and when both sides are dry, break them up into small pieces. It thus dries sooner than if not broken. Set it in the sun two or three days in succession. Stir it often with your hand, so that all parts will be equally exposed to the air. When perfectly dry, put it into a coarse bag, and hang it in a dry and cool place. The greatest inconvenience in making this yeast is the danger of cloudy or wet weather. If the day after it is made should not be fair, it will do to set the jar in a cool place, and wait a day or two before putting in the Indian meal. But the best yeast is made when the weather continues clear and dry; and if a little windy, so much the better.

To use it, take, for five loaves of bread, one handful; soak it in a very little water till soft, which will be in a few minutes; stir it into the sponge prepared for the bread. This yeast makes less delicate bread than the soft kind, but it is very convenient.

Potato Yeast.

Boil one handful of hops in two quarts of water half an hour. Strain it, and return the tea to the kettle. Have ready grated eight large potatoes, or nine small ones; which stir into the tea. Let it boil a minute or two, and it will thicken to a batter. When nearly cold, add half a pint of good yeast. Let it ferment well, then put it into a jar and cover close. Always shake or stir before using it.

Use a porcelain kettle for making this yeast, or an iron one tinned inside. A common iron one will turn it dark.

Good Family Bread.

For five common-sized loaves, make a pint and a half of thin water gruel. Use half a teacupful of fine Indian meal. Salt it a little more than if it were to be eaten as gruel, and boil ten or fifteen minutes. This is of importance, as, if the meal is only scalded, the bread will be coarse. Add enough milk to make two quarts of the whole. If the milk is new, the gruel may be poured into it in the pan; if not, it should be scalded in the kettle with the gruel. This is particularly important in the summer, as at that season milk which is but a few hours old, and is sweet when put into the bread, will sour in the dough in a short time. When the mixture is cool, so that you are sure it will not scald, add a teacupful of yeast, and then stir in sifted flour[4] enough to make a thick batter. This is called a sponge. This being done in the evening, let it stand, if in summer, in a cool place, if in winter, in a moderately warm place, till morning. Then add flour enough to make it easy to mould, and knead it very thoroughly.

This process of kneading is very important in making bread, and there are but few domestics whom it is not necessary to instruct how to do it. They generally work over the dough without expending any strength upon it. The hands should be closely shut, and the fists pressed hard and quickly upon the dough, dipping them into flour whenever the dough sticks to them. A half an hour is the least time to be given to kneading a baking of bread, unless you prefer, after having done this till it ceases to stick to your hands, to chop it with a chopping-knife four or five hundred strokes. An hour's kneading is not too much.

All this looks on paper like a long and troublesome process; but I venture to say that no lady, after having learned the benefit of it, will be willing to diminish any portion of the labor and attention necessary to secure such bread as these directions, observed, will make. Practice will make it easy, and no woman of sense will hesitate in choosing between sour, tough, ill-baked bread, with heaps of wasted pieces, a dyspeptic husband, and sickly children on the one hand, and comfort, economy, and health on the other.

But to return to the bread. After it is thoroughly kneaded, divide it into four or five equal pieces, and mould according to the form of the pans in which you bake it. These being greased with clean drippings, put in the dough and set it in the sun or near the fire (according to the season) to rise. Loaves of this size will bake in an hour; if the oven be rather hot, in a few minutes short of an hour. Practice and good judgment must direct these things. If the bread rises rather slowly, take a dish of warm water and wet the top with your hand.

When the loaves are baked, do not lay them flat upon the table; good housewives think it makes them heavy. Set them on the side, one against another, and put a coarse cloth closely over them; this makes the crust tender by keeping in the steam. If bread is baked too hard, wring a towel in cold water and wrap around it while it is yet hot. Care is necessary that bread does not rise too much, and thus become sour, especially in warm weather; and even if it does not, the freshness is lost, and an insipid taste is produced, and it becomes dry sooner by long rising. No exact rule can be given; experience and observation must teach. When dough becomes so light as to run over after being moulded and put into pans, it is best to mould it again, kneading it hard two or three minutes, but using as little flour as possible; then lay it back into the pans, and put it immediately into the oven; this prevents its being tasteless and dry; it will be perfectly light, but of a different sort, and much preferred by some persons.

Some people invariably use saleratus in bread, and there are tables where the effluvia of this article, and the deep yellow color of the bread, offend the senses before it is tasted. If all the materials used are good, and the dough has not been permitted to sour, white bread is far better without saleratus, except that which is made with water. If dough has become sour, a teaspoonful of saleratus for every quart of the milk or water that was used for wetting the bread, will be sufficient to correct it. The tray or pan in which the bread is made, should be scalded after being washed, every time it is used, except in cold weather. It is not good economy to buy skimmed milk, as some persons do, for making bread. It renders it tough and indigestible, if used in the ordinary way. In case it is used for this purpose, it should be boiled, and thickened with a little Indian meal in the same way, and the same proportions as directed for making gruel, in the receipt for Good Family Bread. Use no water with it.

Bread made without a Sponge.

In cool weather the milk should be warmed. A little more yeast is necessary than for sponge-bread, and it should be made up over night. When it is light, knead and mould it, and raise it again in the pans in which it is to be baked.

If brewer's yeast is used, a table-spoonful is enough for every quart of wetting, and it should not stand over night, as it rises very quickly.

Water Bread.

Take a quart of warm water, a teaspoonful of salt, and a small gill of yeast. Add flour enough to make a sponge, as before directed. In the morning add half a teaspoonful of saleratus. The design of this is to make it tender. It should be kneaded longer than bread made with milk—an hour at least. None but the best of flour will make good bread with water alone.

Rice Bread.

Allow half a pint of ground rice to a quart of milk, or milk and water; put the milk and water over the fire to boil, reserving enough to wet the rice. Stir out the lumps, add a large teaspoonful of salt, and when the milk and water boil, stir in the rice, exactly as when you make gruel. Boil it up two or three minutes, stirring it repeatedly; then pour it out into your bread-pan, and immediately stir in as much flour as you can with a spoon. After it is cool enough (and of this be very sure, as scalding the yeast will make heavy, sour bread, full of great holes), add a gill of yeast, and let it stand until morning. Then knead in more flour until the dough ceases to stick to the hands. It is necessary to make this kind of bread a little stiffer than that in which no rice is used, else there will be a heavy streak through the loaf. It is elegant bread, keeps moist several days, and is particularly good toasted.

Bread made with Milk.

To make the sponge, simply warm the milk if the weather is cold; if warm weather, boil it; when cool enough, stir in the gill of yeast, and a little salt; make it with the same care as that which is made with Indian meal gruel.

All these various sponges are very nice baked on a griddle like buckwheat-cakes, or poured into a buttered, shallow pan and baked in the cooking-stove; and better still, baked in muffin rings.

Third Bread.

Take equal parts of white flour, rye flour, and Indian meal. It is good made with water, but made with milk is much better. Add salt and a gill of yeast to a quart of water or milk. It should not be made so stiff as to mould, but as thick as you can stir it with your hand, or a large spoon. Like all other bread it should be thoroughly worked together. Bake in deep pans.

Graham Bread.

Take a pint of warm water, one teacup of white flour, a spoonful of scalded Indian meal, a small teacup of yeast, a spoonful or two of molasses, a teaspoonful of salt, a small one of saleratus, and stir them together; then add as much unbolted, or Graham flour (not sifted) as will be stirred in with a spoon. Do this over night, and in the morning stir it again a few minutes, and pour it into two deep tin pans. Let it rise up again, and bake an hour. This is very excellent bread—a different thing from the hard, unpalatable article which many a dyspeptic eats as a penance.

Like the wheat sponge, it is good baked in rings on a griddle for breakfast; it will, however, take several minutes longer, and will more easily burn, owing to the molasses which is in it.

Another (one loaf).

Take one coffee-cup of white flour, two of Graham flour, one of warm water, half a cup each of yeast, and molasses, a small teaspoonful of salt, and half a teaspoonful of saleratus dissolved in the water. It should be made as stiff as can be stirred with a spoon. If you prefer to add a spoonful of Indian meal it is very well, but it should be scalded. Let it rise over night, and when it is very light, bake it about an hour in a moderate heat.

Boston Brown Bread, to be baked in a Brick Oven.

Take a quart of rye meal, and the same of fine Indian meal. (If this is bitter, scald it before mixing it with the rye. If it is sweet and fresh, almost every thing in which it is used is lighter without its being scalded.) Mix with warm water, a gill of molasses, a teaspoonful of saleratus, a large teaspoonful of salt, and half a gill of yeast. Such bread is improved by the addition of a gill of boiled pumpkin or winter squash. Make it stiff as can easily be stirred. Grease a deep, brown pan, thickly, and put the bread in it, and dip your hand in water and smooth over the top. This will rise faster than other bread, and should not be made over night in the summer. If put into the oven in the forenoon, it will be ready for the tea-table. If in the afternoon, let it stand in the oven till morning. This may be steamed, as directed in the next receipt.

Steamed Brown Bread.

For a very small family, take half a pint of rye meal, not sifted, and a pint of sifted Indian meal, a pint of sour milk, a half a gill of molasses, a teaspoonful of salt, and a large teaspoonful of saleratus. Mix all the ingredients except the saleratus, dissolve that (as it should always be) in a little boiling water, and add it, stirring the mixture well. Grease a tin pudding pan, or a pail having a close lid, and having put the bread in it, set it into a kettle of boiling water. The bread should not quite fill the pail, as it must have room to swell. See that the water does not boil up to the top of the pail, and also take care it does not boil entirely away. The bread should be cooked at least four hours. To serve it, remove the lid, and set it a few minutes into the stove oven, without the lid, to dry the top; then it will turn out in perfect shape.

If used as a pudding, those who have cream, can make an excellent sauce for it of thick sour cream, by stirring into it plenty of sugar, and adding nutmeg. This bread is improved by being made, and put into the pan or pail in which it is to be boiled, two or three hours before it is set into the kettle. It is good toasted the next day.

Indian Loaf.

To one quart of sweet milk, put a gill of molasses, a teaspoonful of saleratus, a heaping pint of Indian meal, a gill of flour, and a teaspoonful of salt. Stir it well together, put it into a deep brown pan, and bake in a brick oven. It should be stirred the last thing before being set into the oven. It must be in the oven many hours, at least eight or nine, if it is a brick oven, and if set in towards night should stand till morning. If it is baked in a range, it will require five or six hours of moderate heat.

Rye Bread.

Take a pint of water, and a large spoonful of fine Indian meal, and make it into gruel. Add a pint of milk, and when cool enough, a small gill of yeast, and then the flour. Fine, bolted rye flour is necessary to make this bread good. Knead it about as stiff as white bread. Let it rise over night, and then mould and put into three pans to rise again. When light, bake it about an hour. Rye is very adhesive, and a young cook will be troubled with its sticking to her fingers, but practice will make it easy to manage it.

To make Stale Bread, or Cake, Fresh.

Plunge the loaf one instant in cold water, and lay it upon a tin in the stove ten or fifteen minutes. It will be like new bread without its deleterious qualities. Stale cake is thus made nice as new cake. But bread or cake heated over thus, should be used immediately.

Various convenient Uses of Bread Dough.

In the winter, dough may be kept sweet many days in a place where it will be cold, without freezing, and it will grow better till the last. It should be raised light, then kneaded a little, and then covered with a damp cloth, so that a dry crust will not form on the top. Fresh bread can thus be furnished for the table every day, without extra work. Doughnuts, bread, cake, or rusks can be made of it by adding butter, sugar, and spice; tea biscuit also, fried biscuit, crust for apple dumpling, and for pan pie. See the receipts for these articles.

The dough should be made, at least in part, with milk, when it is to be used for these purposes.

These directions are particularly recommended to persons who do their own house-work, and of course wish to save time and labor, as much as possible.