The Laurel Health Cookery: A Collection of Practical Suggestions and Recipes for the Preparation of Non-Flesh Foods in Palatable and Attractive Ways

steamed 3 hours and baked slowly ½ hr., sometimes. Salt delays fermentation, so when bread is started with a sponge the salt should not be added until the sponge is light, and it may be worked in at the end of the first rising of the mass of dough. When a large quantity of bread is made at a time, a smaller proportion of yeast is required. Stir soft yeast well before using from it. Do not let the jar of yeast stand in a warm kitchen for a few minutes even. It is impossible to give an exact rule for the proportion of flour to liquid in bread as different brands of flour vary and the same brand may be dryer or more moist at different times; but usually not less than three times as much flour as of liquid is required, and not much more. Near the sea level bread dough may be mixed as soft as it can be well handled; but as the altitude increases the stiffness of the dough should increase. Flour must be warm when added to bread at any stage. Do not add any flour to bread after the last rising before putting it into the tins, “as all the flour in it is, in a fermentative sense, cooked and the addition of raw flour injures its quality.”--_Charles Cristodoro._ Oil the board and your hands instead. “Bread should be light and sweet, not the least taint of sourness should be tolerated. The loaves should be small and so thoroughly baked that so far as possible, the yeast germs shall be destroyed. When hot or new, raised bread of any kind is difficult of digestion. _It should never appear on the table._” The loaves should be baked in separate tins, brick shaped ones being best. If the loaf feels soft on the sides when removed from the tin, return it to the oven for it is not done. When done, leave loaves where the air can circulate around them until cool. Keep bread in tin or stone receptacles, never in wood; wash them often