Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-28


customary odors of cooking would emanate,
the other tenants in the Office building
might object In this laboratory we elabor-
ate good dinner every day for about 20
| persons who are employed in the business,
which is under my supervision. Being
laboratory no objection has been taken to
its existence. THIS old gentleman was
very much delighted with mechanical
bread kneader that we use in preparing the
dough for bread raiser. He told me that
few days before he had taken his little
grandson to bakers. A week later the
small boy asked him to take him again:
"What tor?" was the question, to which
the little boy answered, 81 want to see that
fat man who was washing his hands in the
brown bread. He gave me cooky."
Since we adopted the mechanical kneader
our cooks do not ''wash their hands" any
more in the bread pan. The work of knead-
ing is only for the purpose of mixing yeast
throughout the mass of flour in preparation
for the application of heat. and it can be
done more thoroughly with good bread
kneader than by hand.
In the ordinary method Of raising bread,
the pan is set here and there where 1t may
be subject to the moderate degree of heat
required for generating the growth of the
yeast plant, and through that diffusing the
carbonic acid gas in the mass. How uncer-
tain that method is every housekeeper well
knows.
Raising IN Forty-Ffve Minutes.
There is scientific bread-raiser in which
a moist or humid heat at 99o Fahrenheit
may be established and maintained without
variation. When the dough is subjected to
this measured degree of heat it is raised,
ready to be transferred from the large pan
to the baking pans, in three hours and
half Being thus transferred, the baking
pans are again put into the bread raiser for
20 minutes. In exactly four hours from the
time of beginning, the sponge, so-called, is
ready for the oven. It is as necessary to
subject this sponge in the oven to the true
and measured degree of heat after it has
been raised as it is in order to raise it. A
heat of 5000 to $500 F. serves this pur-
pose. At that temperature the bread is
cooked more slowly than in the oven of the
iron stove; but it is also cooked more thor
oqghly.
The main substance of bread Is carbon
aceous material ALI forms of carbon are
non-conductors of heat; consequently when
high heat is applied to the dough in the
bread pan it quickly converts the outer part
into hardened crust This forms an ef-
fectual non-conductor, and if the high de-
gree of heat in ventilated oven is .con-
tinued until the middle of the loaf is thor
oughly cooked, it may burn the crust. In
any event it dries it and hardens it unless
great care is taken in the regulation of the
service But when the dough, raised to the
right point, is subjected to heat of 5000
to $500 f. in an oven which is not venti-
lated, and in which the bread is surrounded
by the humidity developed from itself in
the process of cooking, the crust forms
slowly; that formation of crust being
partial change of the outer surface of starch
into dextrine or grape sugar, developing a
sweet and nutty flavor
The Time Required to Bake.
When the dough is thus subjected to the
moderate and humid degree of heat, it NAV
be continued tor almost any length Of
time. But at the end of about two
hours the bread will be cooked to the very
center. If the process of cooking is con-
tinued longer than is absolutely necessary,
. crust halt an inch in thickness will be
made, and if continued long enough the
whole loaf will be affected; the color will
become tawny and the nutty favor will
pervade both crust and crumb.
Now when bread is hardened on the out
side and is not cooked at the core, the mid
ferment is not destroyed. Such bread is
also subject to becoming mouldy or to being
dried up very rapidly; while bread, which |
has been cooked slowly in the manner de-
scribed, will keep in what may be called
fresh condition for many days. At the
same time any person with good digestion |
can eat it with impunity on the first day.
1t is therefore perfectly simple matter |
for anyone, who can read and is capable of |
learning distinct rules, to make the very
best of bread, provided they supply them
selves with the best material and facilities |
1t may be done in the household with the |
very least expenditure of force or time. For
any person who is obliged to 20
one hour for dinner, may employ the last |
10 or Is minutes of the hour in working the |
dough with the mechanical kneader, plac-
ing it in the bread-raiser and adjusting the |
heat of the lamps so that it may be raised |
either in 81 or four hours.
Economizing to the Limit.
In that interval 1t requires no attention.
in four hours, the bread pans
may be placed in the oven, and if the lamp
IS needed to light the household for the
evening work, both oven and lamp can be
yet upon the workable so that the bread
nay be baked in the two evening hours
while the ordinary evening work of the
household is going on.
There are many varieties Of bread which
an be made in this way that cannot be
made by the ordinary methods Very light
md nutritious bread may be made from rye
neal This, however, requires hand knead-
ng, the only wheat -four being that with
which the hands are busted in working up
he rye meal into dough. The most
nutritious bread that can be made in any
way can also be made by this slow method;
y mixing one-half oat meal with one-half
White -four or one-half graham flour, knead-
ng it thoroughly, raising it effectually, and
'aking it somewhat longer than is required
n the preparation Of white bread very
,erfect loaf is obtained if no charge is
made against the bread for the time re-
Luired in working up the materials; the
'ery best quality Of bread can now be made
rom flour costing Sc 30 per barrel, at the
ate Of 290 pounds Of bread to the barrel of
lour: to this sum we may add 70 cents for
he cost of the salt. the yeast cakes, and the
il used in the baking, making 81 25; which
ives the cost of the bread at 21z cents per
ound If any one desires to compare this
nth the price of bakers bread in the shops,
he comparison can be readily made.
Fnw ArErrao~ |