Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1857-06-12
.4arirntiaraI. ana 9amestlt.
The Art Of Making Bread, or



I find il very difficult to have mino always
right; but yours always has the sweet nutri-
tious taste, and is exceedingly light and
tender. ! wish you would give me some
account Of the manner in which you obtain
Cd such perfection in ihe.art, for | consider
bread one Of tho most important items in n
family N
nCertainly,s said Mrs. Stanhope, "it seems
20 me, the health Of the family, and ospec-
tally Of the children, depends moro upon
the quality Of the bread than upon any 9TH
= er article Of diet And il my experience
will be Of any use to you, who have just
4 commenced house keeping, you shall have
it. 1t may be a long story, but it may be
as profitable as table talk usually is.
s7a "When | first commenced house keeping,
understood as much perhaps about cook
ing as young girls generally do; and that
was very little. Indeed have sometimes
wondered how young man can GO from the
nicely filed table of his experienced mother,
for that of an inexperienced wife without
complaining, but in truth he has no right to
complain, as il is change Of his own choos-
ing. And / suppose too that love seasons
the dishes. 1t seems to me there is more
head-work, more philosophy required in pre-
pairing palatable and wholesome food than
is usually supposed. I soon found too that
1T was subject of almost infinite progress.
Especially was this the case with my bread.
'My first business, after settling in my
new homo, away from my mother and older
sisters, was to borrow, of kind neighbor a
little yeast. But this must not be repeated !;
could not be dependent; and so before
baking my bread, would take out piece
of the dough and save to leaven my
next loaf with. But with only myself and
husband, loaf of bread, especially if ii
was not very nice, would last several davs
Then, in the warm days in spring. my leav-
en- would become sour before / had occas-
ion to mix again. This would of course
make my bread sour; and must resort to
The use of saleratus. Now all house-keep-
ers know how difficult it is to use this arti-
clio in the exact proportion needed. We need
a rule for the use of il. And we cannot
have one in this case, because the acdity
of the bread varies so much. Some peo-
pie say Judgment is needed; but it seems
TO me We might as well undertake to use
judgment in boiling eggs. For my own
part found it very difficult to get it just
right. Sometimes it would be little sour /;
at other times l would get in a little too
much saleratus; either of which was very
unpleasant to my husband. So you see l
was continually trying to steer between
Scylla and Charybdis. Occasionally too
my bread would not rise at all. All my
noayino xvoc 10 NO ,Nur,,oso on6 ~ tvon1J
come out of the oven as flat rs it went in,
solid cake. This to dyspeptic stomach
was rather trying 10 be sure. What could
I dos My yeast had lost all its life.
must try some new expedient. Well, hap
pehed to remember that my cousin, Mrs.
B., with whom had boarded whom teach
ing, made very good bread with the turn
pike cakes. So boiled some hops, thick
ened the water with flour; borrowed some
yeast, which added to the mixture when it |
was lukewarm, and set it to rise. When
risen sufficiently, | worked in my Indian |
meal, made up my cakes and dried them in |
the sun. Now, thought I, shall have nice
bread. So soaked one of my cakes and
made my bread. 1t was nicely raised and |
required less saleratus, and of course more |
Of the native sweetness of the wheat was
preserved. In this way l went on, gene
rally having pretty good bread, though with
an occasional dash of salcratus, extra, or a
deficiency of it, which was as bad. But as
the spring advanced, noticed one day
when I went to examine the contents Of my
yeast-bag, that the worms had got into it,
So must throw it all away. y
"After while l heard of another way of
making yeast. This was to pare and boil
two or three potatoes, take them out and
thicken the water they were boiled in, mash
tho potatoes and stir them in, adding lit
tie molasses, and when lukewarm stirring
in the old yeast to rise it. This made very
light, good bread, when my yeast was per-
fectly new; but in few days it would be-
come so sour that It would make my bread
very sour. So discontinued it. About
this time ! visited afriend in W., who though
young was a very model for housckcopers.
Every thing about her house was neat and
tasteful, and her table, though frugal was
handsomely arranged Every dish was
good Of its kind but especially her bread,
which came nearer to my IDEAS of good bread
than any had hitherto been able tomakc.
So vent,Ired to ask permission to look in
side of her pantry, and SEQ how she pre-
pared. l found her method did not differ
much from mine when commenced house
keeping, except that she made her dough
softer, setting a sponge first with herleaveu,
and adding a little saleratus before mixing.
This prevented the dough from getting so
sour, and made light, tender bread. was
very much pleased had now better bread
than I had ever had before. Indeed 1
thought it good enough. I found, by COW
ering my leaven with flour, could, even in
warm weather, prcgent it from moulding,
50 that now, having become more accus-
toned to saleratus, generally had light and
sweet broad. True much Of the nourishing
quality Of the wheat passed away in the
fermsnting, and there were occasionally
streaks Of golden hue which betrayed
either the want of judgement in the use Of
saleratus or nnftness Of that article as an
ingredient ia bread. But succeeded much
better than formerly, that supposed these
were necessary evils. and settled down in
thoseonclusion that Iceold make no farther
improvement in the matter. @ -gIaa
about this time n sister Of mine sent
me small jug Of yeast, with directions
how TO useit 1t required no saleratus at
all, and made, in her estimation, not only
much nicer, but moro wholesome broad
This Yeast was To he used in the following