The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-12-20
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far from white when compared with corn
starch or amy article which is devoid of
color.
If you take a little hour in you hand,
closing the hand a moment, then open
ing it, the impress Of your fingers will
remain upon good flour; but If it inn
mediately tumbles into a shapeless mass
when the pressure is removed, the flour
Is of poor quality.
Good flour, when made INTO a dough,
becomes more and more stiff and elastic
upon kneading; poor -four becomes pasty,
sticky and fiat.
If a small quantity of good flour be
made into a stiff dough with cold water
and kneaded in a sieve under a very gem
tile stream of water for some minutes II
will be observed hat the lump of dough
grows smaller, darker and more elastic,
and upon looking down the water which
passed through the dough is found TO
be white. The starch is washed away,
leaving the most important element OF
the f1our-glutent-in the sieve This gluten
is of a peculiar .grayish color no unlike
furniture glue-whence its name-in APP
pearanee, and of the utmost tenacity and
elasticity. 1t is the gluten which gives
the -four its color elasticity, and alb
sence of or deficiency in either of these
properties is evidence of lack of gluten
/ said gluten was the most important ele-
ment of o Most of the food we eat
is rich in the other constituents of flour
starch. sugar, gum--but we depend chiefly
llpon the gluten in our bread for nitro
genous or muscle making food. Hence,
-four deficient in gluten is likewise de-
fcient in nutriment. 1t is by reason OF
this property also that We are enabled
to make light, porous bread from flour.
Did it contain no gluten, it would be
quite as impossible TO make a spongy
loaf of bread from flour as from meal or
starch.
A mistaken notion prevails that low
priced -four is cheapest, but, lacking
gluten, as it always does, a given duanti-
ty of four will absorb less water than
the better grades, and consequently will
make less bread. Then, a quantity of
bread will contain less nutrition. Thus
is increased the demand for meat, the
lean portions of which supply nitroge-
nous principles at much greater expense
thar they could be furnished in bread.
Given, then, good -four, let us learn
what is necessary to make good bread
1t is important that bread be made light
and porous, that it may be readily dis
solved and digested, and we learn that
yinous or alcoholic fermentation, pro-
duced by yeast, is best adapted to this
end. The name alcoholic is employed be-
cause in the process of mental
sugar contained in the flour is converted
into alcohol and carbonic acid gas, which
both escape In the process of rising and
baking. The sugar thus transformed Is,
of course, lost to the bread, hence it is
important to find the method by which
it may be made perfectly light at least
expense of sugar. Any good yeast will
make good, sweet bread when rightly
managed, but experiment demonstrates
tha- a good compressed yeast, accom-
piishing the work in much less time,
makes sweeter, richer and more nutri-
tious bread thu slower fernents.
n now for the process
One pint milk.
One pint boiling water.
One heaping teaspoonful salt.
One ounce yeast
Flour to make a stiff dough.
II milk is not to be had, substitute wa
ter, but the bread will become dry some
what sooner. Put the milk water and
salt into an earshen bowl and stir in, with
a wooden spoon. a portion of the f1ou- till
cool enough to receive the yeast. Then
AID the yeast, previously dissolved IN a
Nttle milk or water, and peat
the mixture about three minutes. Then
add Hour rapidly till the Dough Is stiff,
turn 1t out on a hour moulding board and
knead twenty to thirty minutes, or till 1t
is no longer sticky, but is smooth, with
bubbles OF gas appearing on the surface.
Now place the dough IN a warm Duttcrea
earthen bowl, butter the dough n COW
er with first a linen or cotton then a
wooden cloth, and keep in q warm place
rs TO 70 degrees-till the dough has some
what more than doubled in bulk, which
viii require two and one-half or three
hours. :
When light the dough should be very
lightly and gently folded into the desired
shape and laid in buttered pans. 1t should
then be brushed with melted butter, COW
cred as before and allowed to again dou-
bic in size, which will require about one
hour. 1t is then ready for baking.
oven should be hot enough to brown
flour lightly in three minutes. After the
bread is in the oven the heat should be
allowed to slightly increase for ten or ff-
teen minutes. For the next fifteen min
utes it should remain steady, then de-
crease til the bread Isl done IF the