Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-06-15
UNCLE SAM BAKES.
SOME GOOD BREAD
He Does Things by Rule in Big
Model Bakery; Able to Dry
Dishes Without Towels

Miss Hannah WeSsling has probably
baked more bread within the past few
years than. does the average mother
of a large family in long lifetime on
the farm Miss Wessling has both
men and women assistants to help her,
but she makes most of the bread her
self, working the dough with her own
hands.
This all takes place in the expert
mental bakery, which is part of the
United States Department of Agricul-
ture. Here hundreds and thousands
of tiny test loaves of bread have been
baked, to say nothing of pies and cakes
and biscuits without number. The
baking has been done under all sorts
of conditions and with all grades of
powders, flavoring extracts, and other
ingredients. The federal explorers in
the field of baking have even gone so
far as to make trials OF a number or
substitutes for wheat fiour-potato
-four, banana flour. chestnut flour, and
other varieties which it has been sug-
gested might possibly be produced
more cheaply than a wheat flour in
certain localities.
They Do Things by Rule
The men and women who have stud
led break-making for the government
would like to see all bread made by
rule of thumb. Perhaps some women
will regard them as tride fussy when
they object to the way the usual house
wife trusts to her judgment in taking
a pinch of this and a dash of that In
stead of weighing and measuring
everything from flour to f1avoring that
enters into the making of bread or
pastry, but their ideas are worth us
tening to all the same.
Another suggestion they make Is
that most cooks would have better
success If they gave greater attentlon
to the matter of temperature. Fermen-
tation, say these wiseacreS, is the foun-
dation of successful baking. Miss Wess-
ling has invented a closet where the
heat can be controlled accurately and
absolutely This sponge closet is heat
ed by electricity and fitted with glass
doors through which the progress OF
the operation may be watched. But
Miss Wessling declares that any house
wife may obtain the same beneficial
results by boring holes in the top of
an ordinary wooden box, fitting a
shelf for crooks, and Installing under
meath a small oil lamp to provide heat.
Miss Wessling and her assistants pre-
pare their own flour, except of course
when tests are being made OF COM
mercial fiours such as are sold in the
open market. When wheat is sent to
the Department, as is constantly the
case, in order that its flour making
qualifications may be determined the
sample is made hto flour under Miss
Wessling's direction in a room fitted
with several types of the small hand
power mills such as may be found in
many farm houses.
This experimental bakery is also
model kitchen, and will interest any
housewife from this standpoint. To be
sure, all the baking is done in gas or
electric ovens, but this is merely be-
cause the experi%Senters must know
the exact temperature at all times and
be able to regulate it to the fraction
of degree Otherwise there is moth
ing in this bread making that may not
be duplicated in the everyday kitchen.
The experience at the Department of
Agriculture is that heat of about 400
degrees is the best temperature for
baking, and there is no reason why
this cannot be attained with a wood
burning or coal-burning range just as
readily, though perhaps not as quickly,
as with an electric or gas oven.
Drying Dishes Without Dish Towels
Several original ideas have been
worked out in the equipment of this
unique bakery kitchen, and one of
them would be useful to any housewife
as a means of saving space, time and
steps. This is drain board or dish
rack, and is placed fiat against the
| wall directly above the kitchen sink.
This fiat board, several times as large
as the ordinary break board, is full of
holes in which may be stuck at will
pegs or sticks which, when in place,
project from the face of the board at
an angle. The purpose of these pegs
is to furnish support for all manner
of dishes and cooking utensils. The
cups, the tumblers, the pitchers, and
other deep vessels may be placed, bot
tom up, eLch on its individual peg,
whereas plates, saucers and fiat dishes
are supported in perfect security on
rows of more slender sticks-each
about as large around as a lead pen
cil-set close together so as to form
what is equivalent to a continuous
rack.
The advantage of this device is that
1t does away with the drying of dishes
in the ordinary time-consuming way,
and also saves the wear and tear upon
dish towels and the time spent in
laundering them. The dishes and uten-
sils after being washed are rinsed in
boiling water, and suspended on the
upright board down which the surplus
water quickly drains. Evaporation
performs its work in short order, and
they are ready and waiting in the most
convenient place when the time comes
for another baking or the prepara-
ton of the next meal.-By Walden
Fawcett In Eta rr11 apd FfraaidA