Collection of old British bread recipes featured image.
Home   »  Collection of Old British Bread & Loaf recipes, including Quick Breads, Rolls, Crumpets, Muffins, Scones, & Tea Cake Recipes

Collection of Old British Bread & Loaf recipes, including Quick Breads, Rolls, Crumpets, Muffins, Scones, & Tea Cake Recipes

Table of Contents

Allied Cookery Arranged by Grace Clergue Harrison and Gertrude Clergue [1916]

TEA-CAKES (HOT) (Scotch)

One-half lb. flour, ¼ lb. butter, 1 oz. sugar, 1 saltspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking-powder, 1 egg, and some sweet milk.

Make the ingredients into a nice soft dough with the milk, cut into rounds about ½ an inch thick, and bake for 10 minutes in a quick oven; split open with your fingers, butter, and eat hot.

The Healthy Life Cook Book by Florence Daniel [Second Edition, 1915]

COLD WATER BREAD.

1-1/4 lb. fine wholemeal flour to 3/4 pint water.

Put the meal into a basin, add the water gradually, and mix with a clean, cool hand. (Bread, pastry, etc., mixed with a spoon, especially of metal, will not be so light as that mixed with a light cool hand.) Knead lightly for 20 minutes. (A little more flour may be required while kneading, as some brands of meal do not absorb so much water as others, but do not add more than is absolutely necessary to prevent the fingers sticking.) Put the dough on to a floured board and divide into four round loaves. Prick with a fork on top.

The colder the water used, the lighter the bread, and if the mixing be done by an open window so much the better, for unfermented bread is air-raised. Distilled or clean boiled rain-water makes the lightest bread. But it should be poured backwards and forwards from one jug to another several times, in order to aerate it.

Another method of mixing is the following:—Put the water into the basin first and stir the meal quickly into it with a spatula or wooden spoon. When it gets too stiff to be stirred, add the rest of the meal. Knead for two minutes, and shape into loaves as above.

BAKING.—Bake on the bare oven shelf, floored. If possible have a few holes bored in the shelf. This is not absolutely necessary, but any tinker or ironmonger will perforate your shelf for a few pence. Better still are wire shelves, like sieves. (This does not apply to gas ovens.)

Start with a hot oven, but not too hot. To test, sprinkle a teaspoonful of flour in a patty pan, and put in the oven for five minutes. At the end of that time, if the flour is a light golden-brown colour, the oven is right. Now put in the bread and keep the heat of the oven well up for half an hour. At the end of this time turn the loaves. Now bake for another hour, but do not make up the fire again. Let the oven get slightly cooler. The same result may perhaps be obtained by moving to a cooler shelf. It all depends on the oven. But always start with a hot oven, and after the first half hour let the oven get cooler.

Always remember, that the larger the loaves the slower must be the baking, otherwise they will be overdone on the outside and underdone in the middle.

Do not open the oven door oftener than absolutely necessary.

If a gas oven is used the bread must be baked on a baking sheet placed on a sand tin. A sand tin is the ordinary square or oblong baking tin, generally supplied with gas stoves, filled with silver sand. A baking sheet is simply a piece of sheet-iron, a size smaller than the oven shelves, so that the heat may pass up and round it. Any ironmonger will cut one to size for a few pence. Do not forget to place a vessel of water (hot) in the bottom of the oven. This is always necessary in a gas oven when baking bread, cakes or pastry.

It must not be forgotten that ovens are like children they need understanding. The temperature of the kitchen and the oven’s nearness to a window or door will often make a difference of five or ten minutes in the time needed for baking. One gas oven that I knew never baked well in winter unless a screen was put before it to keep away draughts!

ROLLS.—If you desire to get your bread more quickly it is only a question of making smaller loaves. Little rolls may be cut out with a large egg-cup or small pastry cutter, and these take any time from twenty minutes to half an hour.

EGG BREAD.

9 ozs. fine wholemeal, 1 egg, a bare 1/2 pint milk and water, butter size of walnut.

Put butter in a qr. qtn. tin (a small square-cornered tin price 6-1/2d. at most ironmongers) and let it remain in hot oven until it boils. Well whisk egg, and add to it the milk and water. Sift into this liquid the wholemeal, stirring all the time. Pour this batter into the hot buttered tin. Bake in a very hot oven for 50 minutes, then move to a cooler part for another 50 minutes. When done, turn out and stand on end to cool.

GEM BREAD.

Put into a basin a pint of cold water, and beat it for a few minutes in order to aerate it as much as possible. Stir gently, but quickly, into this as much fine wholemeal as will make a batter the consistency of thick cream. It should just drop off the spoon. Drop this batter into very hot greased gem pans. Bake for half an hour in a hot oven. When done, stand on end to cool. They may appear to be a little hard on first taking out of the oven, but when cool they should be soft, light and spongy. When properly made, the uninitiated generally refuse to believe that they do not contain eggs or baking-powder.

There are proper gem pans, made of cast iron (from 1s.) for baking this bread, and the best results are obtained by using them. But with a favourable oven I have got pretty good results from the ordinary baking-tins with depressions, the kind used for baking small cakes. But these are a thinner make and apt to produce a tough crust.

HOT WATER ROLLS.

This bread has a very sweet taste. It is made by stirring boiling water into any quantity of meal required, sufficient to form a stiff paste. Then take out of the basin on to a board and knead quickly with as much more flour as is needed to make it workable. Cut it into small rolls with a large egg-cup or small vegetable cutter. The quicker this is done the better, in order to retain the heat of the water. Bake from 20 to 30 minutes.

RAISIN LOAF.

1 lb. fine wholemeal, 6 oz. raisins, 2 oz. Mapleton’s nutter, water.

Well wash the raisins, but do not stone them or the loaf will be heavy. If the stones are disliked, seedless raisins, or even sultanas, may be used, but the large raisins give rather better results. Rub the nutter into the flour, add the raisins, which should be well dried after washing, and mix with enough water to form a dough which almost, but not quite drops from the spoon. Put into a greased tin, which should be very hot, and bake in a hot oven at first. At the end of twenty minutes to half an hour the loaf should be slightly browned. Then move to a cooler shelf, and bake until done. Test with a knife as for ordinary cakes.

For this loaf a small, deep, square-cornered tin is required (price 6-1/2d.), the same as for the egg loaf. 3 ozs. fresh dairy butter may be used in place of the 2 ozs. nutter.

SHORTENED BREAD.

Into 1 lb. wholemeal flour rub 4 ozs. nutter or 5 ozs. butter. Mix to a stiff dough with cold water. Knead lightly but well. Shape into small buns about 1 inch thick. Bake for an hour in a moderate oven.

YEAST BREAD.

7 lbs. flour, salt to taste (about 3/4 ounce), 1 ounce yeast, 1-1/2 quarts of warm water.

Put the flour into a pan or large basin, add salt to taste, and mix it well in. Put the yeast with a lump of sugar into a small basin, and pour a little of the warm water on to if. Cold or hot water kills the yeast. Leave this a little while until the yeast bubbles, then smooth out all lumps and pour into a hole made in the middle of the flour. Pour in the rest of the warm water, and begin to stir in the flour. Now begin kneading the dough, and knead until the whole is smooth and damp, and leaves the hand without sticking, which will take about 15 to 20 minutes. Time spent in kneading is not wasted.

Set the pan in a warm place, covered with a clean cloth. Be careful not to put the pan where it can get too hot. The fender is a good place, but to the side of the fire rather than in front. Let it rise at least an hour, but should it not have risen very much—say double the size—let it stand longer, as the bread cannot be light if the dough has not risen sufficiently.

Now have a baking-board well floured, and turn all the dough on to it. Have tins or earthenware pans, or even pie-dishes well greased. Divide the dough, putting enough to half fill the pans or tins. Put these on the fender to rise again for 20 to 30 minutes, then bake in a hot oven, about 350 degrees (a little hotter than for pastry).

Bake (for a loaf about 2 lbs. in a moderate oven) from 30 to 40 minutes. Of course the time depends greatly on the size of the loaves and the heat of the oven.

The above recipe produces the ordinary white loaf. Better bread would, in my opinion, result from the use of a very fine wholemeal flour such as the “Nu-Era,” and the omission of salt.

TWICE BAKED BREAD.

Cut moderately thin slices of white bread. Put into a moderate oven and bake until a golden colour.

Granose biscuits warmed in the oven until crisp serve the same purpose as twice-baked bread, i.e., a cereal food in which the starch has been dextrinised by cooking. But the biscuits being soft and flaky can be enjoyed by those for whom the twice-baked bread would be too hard.

SULTANA SCONES.

1 oz. cane sugar, 3 ozs. nutter, 1 lb. flour, 1/4 lb. sultanas, a short 1/2 pint water.

Mix the flour and sugar; rub in the nutter; add sultanas; make it into a dough with the water; roll out about 1/2 in. thick; form into scones; bake in a moderate oven.

Recipes from Cassell’s Vegetarian Cookery, A Manual of Cheap and Wholesome Diet [1891]

Potato Bread.

In making bread, a portion of mashed potato is sometimes added to the flour, and this addition improves the bread very much for some tastes; it also keeps it from getting dry quite so soon. At the same time it is not so nutritious as ordinary home-made bread. Boil the required quantity of potatoes in their skins, drain and dry them, then peel and weigh them. Pound them with the rolling-pin until they are quite free from lumps, and mix with them the flour in the proportion of seven pounds of flour to two and a half pounds of potatoes. Add the yeast and knead in the ordinary way, but make up the bread with milk instead of water. When the dough is well risen, bake the bread in a gentle oven. Bake it a little longer than for ordinary bread, and, when it seems done enough, let it stand a little while, with the oven-door open, before taking it out. Unless these precautions are taken, the crust will be hard and brittle, while the inside is still moist and doughy. This recipe is from “Cassell’s Dictionary of Cookery.”

MODERN COOKERY FOR PRIVATE FAMILIES (New Edition) by ELIZA ACTON [1882]

REMARKS ON HOME-MADE BREAD.

It is surely a singular fact that the one article of our daily food on which health depends more than on any other, is precisely that which is obtained in England with the greatest difficulty—good, light, and pure bread—yet nothing can be more simple and easy than the process of making it, either in large quantities or in small.

From constant failure, it is nevertheless considered so difficult in many families, that recourse is had to the nearest baker, both in town and country, as a means of escape from the heavy, or bitter, or ill-baked masses of dough which appear at table under the name of household or home-made bread; and which are well calculated to create the distaste which they often excite for everything which bears its name.

Without wishing in the slightest degree to disparage the skill and labour of bread-makers by trade, truth compels us to assert our conviction of the superior wholesomeness of bread made in our own homes. When a miller can be depended on to supply flour of good quality, and the other ingredients used in preparing it are also fresh and good, and mingled with it in due proportions, and the kneading, fermentation, and baking, are conducted with care and intelligence, the result will uniformly be excellent bread.

Every cook, therefore,—and we might almost say every female servant—ought to be perfectly acquainted with the proper mode of making it; and skill in preparing a variety of dishes, is poor compensation for ignorance on this one essential point.[186] Moreover, it presents no more real difficulty than boiling a dish of potatoes, or making a rice pudding; and the neglect with which it is treated is therefore the less to be comprehended or excused.

186.  Only those persons who live habitually on good home-made bread, can form an idea of the extent to which health is affected by their being deprived of it. We have been appealed to on several occasions for household loaves—which we have sent to a considerable distance—by friends who complained of being rendered really ill by the bread which they were compelled to eat in the sea-side towns and in other places of fashionable resort; and in London we have heard incessant complaints both from foreigners and habitual residents, of the impossibility of obtaining really wholesome bread.

TO PURIFY YEAST FOR BREAD OR CAKES.

The yeast procured from a public brewery is often so extremely bitter that it can only be rendered fit for use by frequent washings, and after these even it should be cautiously employed. Mix it, when first brought in, with a large quantity of cold water, and set it by until the following morning in a cool place; then drain off the water, and stir the yeast up well with as much more of fresh: it must again stand several hours before the water can be poured clear from it.

By changing this daily in winter, and both night and morning in very hot weather, the yeast may be preserved fit for use much longer than it would otherwise be; and should it ferment rather less freely after a time, a small portion of brown sugar and a little warm milk or other liquid, stirred to it a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes before it is required for bread-making, will restore its strength.

The German yeast, of which we have spoken in detail in another part of this chapter, makes exceedingly light bread and buns, and is never bitter; it is therefore a valuable substitute for our own beer-yeast, but cannot be procured in all parts of the country, for the reasons which we have stated.

THE OVEN.

A brick oven, heated with wood, is far superior to any other for baking bread, as well as for most other purposes. The iron ovens, now commonly attached to kitchen-ranges—the construction of which has within these few years been wonderfully improved—though exceedingly convenient, from the facility which they afford for baking at all hours of the day, do not in general answer well for bread, unless it be made into very small loaves or rolls, as the surface becomes hardened and browned long before the heat has sufficiently penetrated to the centre of the dough. The same objection often exists to iron-ovens of larger size, which require care and management, to ensure the successful use of them.

A brick oven should be well heated with faggot wood, or with a faggot, and two or three solid logs; and after it is cleared, the door should be closely shut for quite half an hour before the baking commences: the heat will then be well sustained for a succession of bread, pies, cakes, and small pastry. The servant who habitually attends at an oven will soon become acquainted with the precise quantity of fuel which it requires, and all other peculiarities which may be connected with it.

A FEW RULES TO BE OBSERVED IN MAKING BREAD.

Never use too large a proportion of yeast, as the bread will not only become dry very speedily when this is done, but it will be far less sweet and pleasant in flavour than that which is more slowly fermented, and the colour will not be so good: there will also be a great chance of its being bitter when brewer’s yeast is used for it. Remember that milk or water of scalding heat poured to any kind of yeast will render the bread heavy. One pint of either added quite boiling to a pint and a half of cold, will bring it to about the degree of warmth required. In frosty weather the proportion of the heated liquid may be increased a little.

When only porter-yeast—which is dark-coloured and bitter—can be procured, use a much smaller proportion than usual, and allow much longer time for it to rise. Never let it be sent to the oven until it is evidently light. Bitter bread is unpalatable, but not really unwholesome; but heavy bread is particularly so.

Let the leaven be kneaded up quickly with the remainder of the flour when once it is well risen, as it should on no account be allowed to sink again before this is done, when it has reached the proper point; and in making the dough, be particularly careful not to render it too lithe by adding more liquid than is requisite. It should be quite firm, and entirely free from lumps and crumbs throughout the mass, and on the surface also, which ought to be perfectly smooth.

In winter, place the bread while it is rising sufficiently close to the fire to prevent its becoming cold, but never so near as to render it hot. A warm thick cloth should be thrown over the pan in which it is made immediately after the leaven is mixed, and kept on it until the bread is ready for the oven.

HOUSEHOLD BREAD.

Put half a bushel (more or less, according to the consumption of the family) of flour into the kneading tub or trough, and hollow it well in the middle; dilute a pint of yeast as it is brought from the brewery or half the quantity if it has been washed and rendered solid, with four quarts or more of lukewarm milk or water, or a mixture of the two; stir into it, from the surrounding part, with a wooden spoon, as much flour as will make a thick batter; throw a handful or two over it, and leave this, which is called the leaven, to rise before proceeding further. In about an hour it will have swollen considerably, and have burst through the coating of flour on the top; then pour in as much more warm liquid as will convert the whole, with good kneading, and this should not be spared, into a firm dough, of which the surface should be entirely free from lumps or crumbs.

Throw a cloth over, and let it remain until it has risen very much a second time, which will be in an hour, or something more, if the batch be large. Then work it lightly up, and mould it into loaves of from two to three pounds weight; send them directly to a well heated oven, and bake them from an hour and a half to an hour and three-quarters.

Flour, 1/2 bushel; salt (when it is liked), 4 to 6 oz.; yeast, 1 pint unwashed, or 1/2 pint if purified; milk, or water, 2 quarts: 1 to 1-1/2 hour. Additional liquid as needed.

Obs.—Brown bread can be made exactly as above, either with half meal and half flour mixed, or with meal only. This will absorb more moisture than fine flour, and will retain it rather longer. Brown bread should always be thoroughly baked.

Remark.—We have seen it very erroneously asserted in one or two works, that bread made with milk speedily becomes sour. This is never the case when it is properly baked and kept, and when the milk used for it is perfectly sweet. The experience of many years, enables us to speak positively on this point.

BORDYKE BREAD. (Author’s Receipt.)

Mix with a gallon of flour a large teaspoonful of fine salt, make a hollow in the centre, and pour in two tablespoonsful of solid, well purified yeast, gradually diluted with about two pints and a half of milk, and work it into a thick batter with the surrounding flour, strew a thick layer over and leave it to rise from an hour to an hour and a half; then knead it up with as much more warm skimmed milk, or half new milk and half water, as will render it quite firm and smooth without being very stiff; let it rise another hour, and divide it into three loaves; put them into square tins slightly buttered, or into round baking pans, and bake them about an hour and a quarter in a well-heated oven.

The dough can be formed into household loaves if preferred, and sent to the oven in the usual way. When a finer and more spongy kind of bread is required for immediate eating, substitute new milk for skimmed, dissolve in it about an ounce of butter, leave it more liquid when the sponge is set, and let the whole be lightly kneaded into a lithe dough: the bread thus made will be excellent when new, and for a day or so after it is baked, but it will become dry sooner than the other.

Flour, 1 gallon; salt, 1 teaspoonful; skimmed milk, 2-1/2 pints, to rise from 1 to 1-1/2 hour. Additional milk, 1 to 2 pints: to rise 1 hour. 3 loaves, baked 1-1/4 hour.

Obs. 1.—A few spoonsful of cream will wonderfully improve either of the above receipts, and sweet buttermilk, substituted for the other, will give to the bread the shortness of a cake: we would particularly recommend it for trial when it can be procured.

Obs. 2.—Shallow round earthen pans answer much better, we think, than tins for baking bread; they should be slightly rubbed with butter before the dough is put into them.

GERMAN YEAST. (And Bread made with German Yeast.)

This has very generally superseded the use of English beer-yeast in London, and other places conveniently situated for receiving quickly and regularly the supplies of it which are imported from abroad; but as it speedily becomes putrid in sultry weather, and does not in any season remain good long after its arrival here, it is unsuited for transmission to remote parts of the country.

Bread made with it while it is perfectly sweet, is extremely light and good, and it answers remarkably well for light cakes and biscuits. An ounce is the proportion which we have always had used for a quartern (half a gallon or three pounds and a half) of flour, and this, with the addition of some salt and nearly a quart of milk, or milk and water, has produced excellent bread when it has been made with care.

The yeast should be very gradually and perfectly moistened and blended with the warm liquid; for unless this be done, and the whole rendered smooth as cream, the dough will not be of the uniform texture which it ought, but will be full of large hollow spaces, which are never seen in well-made bread. The mass should be mixed up firmly and well kneaded at once, then left to rise for about an hour; again kneaded thoroughly, and again left to rise from three-quarters of an hour to an hour; then divided, and lightly worked up into loaves, put into round slightly buttered earthen pans, and sent immediately to the oven.[187]

187.  We give the proportions used and the exact manner of making this bread, which we have had followed for more than twelve months, with entire success.

A leaven may be first laid with the yeast, and part of the liquid when it is preferred, as directed for bread made with beer-yeast, but the result will be equally good if the whole be kneaded up at once, if it be made quite firm.

PROFESSOR LIEBIG’S BAVARIAN BROWN BREAD. (Very nutritious and wholesome.)

Baron Liebig pronounces this bread to be very superior to that which is made with fine flour solely, both in consequence of the greater amount of nutriment which it contains, and from its slight medicinal effect, which renders it valuable to many persons accustomed to have frequent recourse to drugs, of which it supersedes the necessity.

It is made with the wheat exactly as it is ground, no part being subtracted, nor any additional flour mingled with it. He directs that the wheat should not be damped before it is prepared: but few millers can be found who will depart from their ordinary practice to oblige private customers; and this determined adherence to established usage intervenes constantly between us, and all improvement in our modes of preparing food.

The bread is made in the usual way, with water only, or with a portion of milk added to the yeast, as taste or convenience may dictate. The loaves should be well baked at all times; and the dough should of course be perfectly light when it is placed in the oven. Salt should be mixed with the meal before the yeast is added.

ENGLISH BROWN BREAD.

This is often made with a portion only of the unbolted meal recommended in the preceding receipt, mixed with more or less of fine flour, according to the quality of bread required; and in many families the coarse bran is always sifted from the meal, as an impression exists that it is irritating to the stomach. If one gallon of meal as it comes from the mill, be well mixed with an equal measure of flour, and made into a dough in the manner directed for white household bread, the loaves will still be sufficiently brown for the general taste in this country, and they will be good and wholesome, though not, perhaps, so entirely easy of digestion as Baron Liebig’s Bavarian bread.

UNFERMENTED BREAD.

This bread, in which carbonate of soda and muriatic acid are substituted for yeast or other leaven, has within these few years been highly recommended, and much eaten. It may possibly suit many persons better than that which is fermented in the usual way, but it is not in general by any means so pleasant in flavour; and there is much more chance of failure in preparing it in private families, as it requires some skill to mix the ingredients with exactness and despatch; and it is absolutely necessary that the dough should be set into the oven the instant it is ready.

In some hydropathic and other large establishments, where it is always supplied to the table in lieu of the more common kinds, it is, we have been informed by patients who had partaken of it there for many months together, exceedingly and uniformly good. More detailed information with regard to it, will be found in our “Cookery for Invalids,” a work for which our want of space in the present volume compels us to reserve it.

“For each pound of flour (or meal) take forty grains of sesquicarbonate of soda, mix it intimately with the sugar and flour, then add fifty drops of muriatic acid of the shops, diluted with half a pint of water, or with as much as may be requisite to form the dough, stirring it constantly into a smooth mass. Divide it into a couple of loaves, and put them immediately into a quick oven.” Bake them thoroughly.

Author’s note.—Dr. Pereira, from whose book on diet the substance of the above receipt is taken, says that delicious bread was made by it in his presence by the cook of Mr. John Savory, of Bond Street, equal to any bread fermented by the usual process. We would suggest that the soda, mixed with the sugar, and a small portion of the flour, should be rubbed through a hair sieve with a wooden spoon into the remainder of the flour, and stirred up with it until the whole is perfectly mingled, before the liquid is added. Should lighter bread be desired, the soda may be increased to fifty or even sixty grains, if the quantity of acid be proportionately augmented. As common salt is formed by the combination of these two agents, none beside is needed in the bread.

Flour, 1 lb.; sesquicarbonate of soda, 40 grains; sugar, 1 teaspoonful; muriatic acid of the shops, 50 drops; water, 1/2 pint (or as needed).

POTATO BREAD.

One pound of good mealy potatoes, steamed or boiled very dry, in the ordinary way, or prepared by Captain Kater’s receipt (see recipe below], and rubbed quite hot, through a coarse sieve, into a couple of pounds of flour, with which they should be well mixed, will produce excellent bread, which will remain moist much longer than wheaten bread made as usual. The yeast should be added immediately after the potatoes. An ounce or two of butter, an egg and some new milk, will convert this bread into superior rolls.

TO BOIL POTATOES. (Captain Kater’s Receipt.) [for recipe above]

Wash, wipe, and pare the potatoes, cover them with cold water, and boil them gently until they are done, pour off the water, and sprinkle a little fine salt over them; then take each potato separately with a spoon, and lay it into a clean warm cloth, twist this so as to press all the moisture from the vegetable, and render it quite round; turn it carefully into a dish placed before the fire, throw a cloth over, and when all are done, send them to table quickly. Potatoes dressed in this way are mashed without the slightest trouble; it is also by far the best method of preparing them for puddings or for cakes.

DINNER OR BREAKFAST ROLLS.

Crumble down very small indeed, an ounce of butter into a couple of pounds of the best flour, and mix with them a large saltspoonful of salt. Put into a basin a dessertspoonful of solid, well-purified yeast, and half a teaspoonful of pounded sugar; mix these with half a pint of warm new milk; hollow the centre of the flour, pour in the yeast gradually, stirring to it sufficient of the surrounding flour to make a thick batter; strew more flour on the top, cover a thick double cloth over the pan, and let it stand in a warm kitchen to rise. In winter it must be placed within a few feet of the fire.

In about an hour, should the leaven have broken through the flour on the top, and have risen considerably in height, mix one lightly-whisked egg, or the yolks of two, with nearly half a pint more of quite warm new milk, and wet up the mass into a very smooth dough. Cover it as before, and in from half to three-quarters of an hour turn it on to a paste-board, and divide it into twenty-four portions of equal size. Knead these up as lightly as possible into small round, or olive-shaped rolls; make a slight incision round them, and cut them once or twice across the top, placing them as they are done on slightly floured baking sheets an inch or two apart. Let them remain for fifteen or twenty minutes to prove; then wash the tops with yolk of egg, mixed with a little milk, and bake them in a rather brisk oven from ten to fifteen minutes.

Turn them upside down upon a dish to cool after they are taken from the tins. An additional ounce of butter and another egg can be used for these rolls when richer bread is liked; but it is so much less wholesome than a more simple kind, that it is not to be recommended. A cup of good cream would be an admirable substitute for butter altogether, rendering the rolls exceedingly delicate both in appearance and in flavour.

The yeast used for them should be stirred up with plenty of cold water the day before it is wanted; and it will be found very thick indeed when it is poured off, which should be gently done. Rather less than an ounce of good fresh German yeast may be used for them instead of brewer’s yeast, with advantage.

GENEVA ROLLS, OR BUNS.

Break down into very small crumbs three ounces of butter with two pounds of flour; add a little salt, and set the sponge with a large tablespoonful of solid yeast, mixed with a pint of new milk, and a tablespoonful or more of strong saffron water; let it rise for a full hour, then stir to a couple of well-beaten eggs as much hot milk as will render them lukewarm, and wet the rolls with them to a light, lithe dough; leave it from half to three-quarters of an hour longer, mould it into small rolls, brush them with beaten yolk of egg, and bake them from twenty minutes to half an hour.

The addition of six ounces of good sugar, three of butter, half a pound or more of currants, the grated rind of a large lemon, and a couple of ounces of candied orange-rind, will convert these into excellent buns. When the flavour of the saffron is not liked, omit it altogether. Only so much should be used at any time as will give a rich colour to the bread.

Flour, 2 lbs.; butter, 3 oz.; solid yeast, 1 large tablespoonful (saffron, 1 teaspoonful; water, less than a quarter pint); new milk, 1 pint: 1 hour, or more. 2 eggs, more milk: 3/4 hour: baked 20 to 30 minutes.

RUSKS.

Work quite into crumbs six ounces of butter with a couple of pounds of fine dry flour, and mix them into a lithe paste, with two tablespoonsful of mild beer yeast, three well-beaten eggs, and nearly half a pint of warm new milk. When it has risen to its full height knead it smooth, and make it into very small loaves or thick cakes cut with a round cake-cutter; place them on a floured tin, and let them stand in a warm place to prove from ten to twenty minutes before they are set into the oven. Bake them about a quarter of an hour; divide them while they are still warm, and put them into a very slow oven to dry. When they are crisp quite through they are done. Four teaspoonsful of sifted sugar must be added when sweet-rusks are preferred.

Flour, 2 lbs.; butter, 6 oz.; yeast, 2 tablespoonsful; eggs, 3; new milk nearly half a pint: baked 1/4 hour.

For either of the preceding receipts substitute rather more than an ounce of German yeast, when it can be procured quite fresh; or should an ounce of it only be used (which we should consider an ample proportion), let the dough—especially that of the rusks—become extremely light before it is kneaded down, and also previously to its being sent to the oven. A somewhat smaller quantity of yeast is required in warm weather than in cold.

[Remark.—The remainder of this chapter is extracted from a little treatise on domestic bread-making, which we hope shortly to lay before the public, as it appears to us to be greatly needed; but, as we have already more than once repeated, we are unwilling to withhold from the present volume any information which may be generally useful.]

EXCELLENT DAIRY-BREAD MADE WITHOUT YEAST. (Author’s Receipt.)

When we first heard unfermented bread vaguely spoken of, we had it tried very successfully in the following manner; and we have since been told that an almost similar method of preparing it is common in many remote parts both of England and Ireland, where it is almost impossible to procure a constant supply of yeast.

Blend well together a teaspoonful of pounded sugar and fifty grains of the purest carbonate of soda; mix a saltspoonful of salt with a pound of flour, and rub the soda and sugar through a hair-sieve into it. Stir and mingle them well, and make them quickly into a firm but not hard dough with sour buttermilk.

Bake the loaf well in a thoroughly heated, but not fierce oven. In a brick, or good iron oven a few minutes less than an hour would be sufficient to bake a loaf of similar weight. The buttermilk should be kept until it is quite acid, but it must never be in the slightest degree rancid, or otherwise bad. 

All unfermented bread should be placed in the oven directly it is made, or it will be heavy. For a larger baking allow rather less than an ounce of soda to the gallon (seven pounds) of flour.

Obs.—There are cases in which a knowledge of this, or of any other equally easy mode of bread-making would be invaluable.

For example:—We learn from the wife of an officer who has for a long time been stationed off the Isle of Skye, in which his family have their abode, that the inhabitants depend entirely for bread on supplies brought to them from Glasgow; and that they are often entirely without, when the steamer which ought to arrive at intervals of eight days, is delayed by stress of weather.

The residents are then compelled to have recourse to scones—as a mixture of flour and water and a little soda (cooked on a flat iron plate), are called—or to ship’s biscuit; and these are often found unsuitable for young children and invalids.

There are no ovens in the houses, though there are grates for coal fires, in front of which small loaves of unfermented bread could be baked extremely well in good American ovens. Buttermilk can always be procured; and if not, a provision of carbonate of soda and muriatic acid might be kept at hand to ensure the means of making wholesome bread. In many other localities the same plan might prove of equal benefit.

TO KEEP BREAD.

Bread requires almost as much care as milk to preserve it wholesome and fresh. It should be laid, as soon as it is perfectly cold, into a large earthen pan with a cover, which should be kept free from crumbs, and be frequently scalded, and then wiped very dry for use. Loaves which have been cut should have a smaller pan appropriated to them, and this also should have the loose crumbs wiped from it daily. It is a good plan to raise the bread-pans from the floor of the larder, when there is no proper stand or frame for the purpose, by means of two flat wedges of wood, so as to allow a current of air to pass under them.

TO FRESHEN STALE BREAD (AND PASTRY, ETC.), AND PRESERVE IT FROM MOULD.

If entire loaves be placed in a gentle oven and heated quite through, without being previously dipped into cold water, according to the old-fashioned plan, they will eat almost like bread newly baked: they should not remain in it long enough to become hard and dry, but they should be made hot throughout. In very damp localities, when large household bakings take place but once in eight or ten days, it is sometimes necessary to use precautions against the attack of mould, though the bread may have been exceedingly well made; and the method recommended above will be the best for warding it off, and for preserving the bread eatable for several days longer than it would otherwise be. If large loaves be just dipped into cold water and then placed in a quick oven until they are again thoroughly dried, they will resemble new bread altogether.

Pastry, cakes, and biscuits, may all be greatly improved when stale, by heating them in a gentle oven.

TO KNOW WHEN BREAD IS SUFFICIENTLY BAKED.

When the surface is uniformly browned, and it is everywhere firm to the touch, and the bottom crust of a loaf is hard, it is generally certain that it is thoroughly baked. To test bread that has been cut (or yeast-cakes), press down the crumb lightly in the centre with the thumb; when it is elastic and rises again to its place, it is proof that it is perfectly done; but if the indentation remains, the heat has not sufficiently penetrated the dough to convert it into wholesome eating.

ON THE PROPER FERMENTATION OF DOUGH.

As we have previously said, too large a proportion of yeast, which is very commonly used by persons not well skilled in bread-making, although it produces quickly a light spongy dough, has a very bad effect on bread, which it renders much less easy of digestion than that which is more slowly fermented, and far less sweet and pleasant in flavour: it also prevents its remaining eatable the same length of time, as it speedily becomes dry. It is likewise very disadvantageous to make the dough so lithe that it spreads about in the oven; and if it be excessively stiff, and its management not thoroughly understood, it will sometimes be heavy,. To prevent this, it should be kept quite warm (never heated), and left a much longer time to rise. It will frequently then prove excellent. It will ferment rather more quickly if, when it gives symptoms of becoming light it is made up into loaves with the least possible kneading, and a slight incision is made round them and acros

BREAD AND BREAD-MAKING ADVICE FROM MRS BEETON’S BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT [1861]

1668. AMONG the numerous vegetable products yielding articles of food for man, the Cereals hold the first place. By means of skilful cultivation, mankind have transformed the original forms of these growths, poor and ill-flavoured as they perhaps were, into various fruitful and agreeable species, which yield an abundant and pleasant supply. Classified according to their respective richness in alimentary elements, the Cereals stand thus:—Wheat, and its varieties, Rye, Barley, Oats, Rice, Indian Corn. Everybody knows it is wheat flour which yields the best bread. Rye-bread is viscous, hard, less easily soluble by the gastric juice, and not so rich in nutritive power. Flour produced from barley, Indian corn, or rice, is not so readily made into bread; and the article, when made, is heavy and indigestible.

1669. On examining a grain of corn from any of the numerous cereals [Footnote: Cereal, a corn-producing plant; from Ceres, the goddess of agriculture.] used in the preparation of flour, such as wheat, maize, rye, barley, &c., it will be found to consist of two parts,—the husk, or exterior covering, which is generally of a dark colour, and the inner, or albuminous part, which is more or less white. In grinding, these two portions are separated, and the husk being blown away in the process of winnowing, the flour remains in the form of a light brown powder, consisting principally of starch and gluten. In order to render it white, it undergoes a process called “bolting.” It is passed through a series of fine sieves, which separate the coarser parts, leaving behind fine white flour,—the “fine firsts” of the corn-dealer. The process of bolting, as just described, tends to deprive flour of its gluten, the coarser and darker portion containing much of that substance; while the lighter part is peculiarly rich in starch. Bran contains a large proportion of gluten; hence it will be seen why brown broad is so much more nutritious than white; in fact, we may lay it down as a general rule, that the whiter the bread the less nourishment it contains. Majendie proved this by feeding a dog for forty days with white wheaten bread, at the end of which time he died; while another dog, fed on brown bread made with flour mixed with bran, lived without any disturbance of his health. The “bolting” process, then, is rather injurious than beneficial in its result; and is one of the numerous instances where fashion has chosen a wrong standard to go by. In ancient times, down to the Emperors, no bolted flour was known. In many parts of Germany the entire meal is used; and in no part of the world are the digestive organs of the people in a better condition. In years of famine, when corn is scarce, the use of bolted flour is most culpable, for from 18 to 20 per cent, is lost in bran. Brown bread has, of late years, become very popular; and many physicians have recommended it to invalids with weak digestions with great success. This rage for white bread has introduced adulterations of a very serious character, affecting the health of the whole community. Potatoes are added for this purpose; but this is a comparatively harmless cheat, only reducing the nutritive property of the bread; but bone-dust and alum are also put in, which are far from harmless.

1670. Bread-making is a very ancient art indeed. The Assyrians, Egyptians, and Greeks, used to make bread, in which oil, with aniseed and other spices, was an element; but this was unleavened. Every family used to prepare the bread for its own consumption, the trade of baking not having yet taken shape. It is said, that somewhere about the beginning of the thirtieth Olympiad, the slave of an archon, at Athens, made leavened bread by accident. He had left some wheaten dough in an earthen pan, and forgotten it; some days afterwards, he lighted upon it again, and found it turning sour. His first thought was to throw it away; but, his master coming up, he mixed this now acescent dough with some fresh dough, which he was working at. The bread thus produced, by the introduction of dough in which alcoholic fermentation had begun, was found delicious by the archon and his friends; and the slave, being summoned and catechised, told the secret. It spread all over Athens; and everybody wanting leavened bread at once, certain persons set up as bread-makers, or bakers. In a short time bread-baking became quite an art, and “Athenian bread” was quoted all over Greece as the best bread, just as the honey of Hyamettus was celebrated as the best honey.

1671. In our own times, and among civilized peoples, bread has become an article of food of the first necessity; and properly so, for it constitutes of itself a complete life-sustainer, the gluten, starch, and sugar, which it contains, representing azotized and hydro-carbonated nutrients, and combining the sustaining powers of the animal and vegetable kingdoms in one product.

1672. WHEATEN BREAD.

—The finest, wholesomest, and most savoury bread is made from wheaten flour. There are, of wheat, three leading qualities,— the soft, the medium, and the hard wheat; the last of which yields a kind of bread that is not so white as that made from soft wheat, but is richer in gluten, and, consequently, more nutritive.

1673. RYE BREAD.

—This comes next to wheaten bread: it is not so rich in gluten, but is said to keep fresh longer, and to have some laxative qualities.

1674. BARLEY BREAD, INDIAN-CORN BREAD, &c.

—Bread made from barley, maize, oats, rice, potatoes, &c. “rises” badly, because the grains in question contain but little gluten, which makes the bread heavy, close in texture, and difficult of digestion; in fact, corn-flour has to be added before panification can take place. In countries where wheat is scarce and maize abundant, the people make the latter a chief article of sustenance, when prepared in different forms.

BREAD-MAKING.

1675. PANIFICATION,

or bread-making, consists of the following processes, in the case of Wheaten Flour. Fifty or sixty per cent. of water is added to the flour, with the addition of some leavening matter, and, preferably, of yeast from malt and hops. All kinds of leavening matter have, however, been, and are still used in different parts of the world: in the East Indies, “toddy,” which is a liquor that flows from the wounded cocoa-nut tree; and, in the West Indies, “dunder,” or the refuse of the distillation of rum. The dough then undergoes the well-known process called kneading. The yeast produces fermentation, a process which may be thus described:—The dough reacting upon the leavening matter introduced, the starch of the flour is transformed into saccharine matter, the saccharine matter being afterwards changed into alcohol and carbonic acid. The dough must be well “bound,” and yet allow the escape of the little bubbles of carbonic acid which accompany the fermentation, and which, in their passage, cause the numerous little holes which are seen in light bread.

1676. The yeast must be good and fresh, if the bread is to be digestible and nice. Stale yeast produces, instead of vinous fermentation, an acetous fermentation, which flavours the bread and makes it disagreeable. A poor thin yeast produces an imperfect fermentation, the result being a heavy unwholesome loaf.

1677. When the dough is well kneaded, it is left to stand for some time, and then, as soon as it begins to swell, it is divided into loaves; after which it is again left to stand, when it once more swells up, and manifests, for the last time, the symptoms of fermentation. It is then put into the oven, where the water contained in the dough is partly evaporated, and the loaves swell up again, while a yellow crust begins to form upon the surface. When the bread is sufficiently baked, the bottom crust is hard and resonant if struck with the finger, while the crumb is elastic, and rises again after being pressed down with the finger. The bread is, in all probability, baked sufficiently if, on opening the door of the oven, you are met by a cloud of steam which quickly passes away.

1678. One word as to the unwholesomeness of new bread and hot rolls. When bread is taken out of the oven, it is full of moisture; the starch is held together in masses, and the bread, instead of being crusted so as to expose each grain of starch to the saliva, actually prevents their digestion by being formed by the teeth into leathery poreless masses, which lie on the stomach like so many bullets. Bread should always be at least a day old before it is eaten; and, if properly made, and kept in a cool dry place, ought to be perfectly soft and palatable at the end of three or four days. Hot rolls, swimming in melted butter, and new bread, ought to be carefully shunned by everybody who has the slightest respect for that much-injured individual—the Stomach.

1679. AERATED BREAD.

—It is not unknown to some of our readers that Dr. Dauglish, of Malvern, has recently patented a process for making bread “light” without the use of leaven. The ordinary process of bread-making by fermentation is tedious, and much labour of human hands is requisite in the kneading, in order that the dough may be thoroughly interpenetrated with the leaven. The new process impregnates the bread, by the application of machinery, with carbonic acid gas, or fixed air. Different opinions are expressed about the bread; but it is curious to note, that, as corn is now reaped by machinery, and dough is baked by machinery, the whole process of bread-making is probably in course of undergoing changes which will emancipate both the housewife and the professional baker from a large amount of labour.

1680. In the production of Aërated Bread, wheaten flour, water, salt, and carbonic acid gas (generated by proper machinery), are the only materials employed. We need not inform our readers that carbonic acid gas is the source of the effervescence, whether in common water coming from a depth, or in lemonade, or any aërated drink. Its action, in the new bread, takes the place of fermentation in the old.

1681. In the patent process, the dough is mixed in a great iron ball, inside which is a system of paddles, perpetually turning, and doing the kneading part of the business. Into this globe the flour is dropped till it is full, and then the common atmospheric air is pumped out, and the pure gas turned on. The gas is followed by the water, which has been aërated for the purpose, and then begins the churning or kneading part of the business.

1682. Of course, it is not long before we have the dough, and very “light” and nice it looks. This is caught in tins, and passed on to the floor of the oven, which is an endless floor, moving slowly through the fire. Done to a turn, the loaves emerge at the other end of the apartment,—and the Aërated Bread is made.

1683. It may be added, that it is a good plan to change one’s baker from time to time, and so secure a change in the quality of the bread that is eaten.

1684. MIXED BREADS.—Rye bread is hard of digestion, and requires longer and slower baking than wheaten bread. It is better when made with leaven of wheaten flour rather than yeast, and turns out lighter. It should not be eaten till two days old. It will keep a long time.

1685. A good bread may be made by mixing rye-flour, wheat-flour, and rice-paste in equal proportions; also by mixing rye, wheat, and barley. In Norway, it is said that they only bake their barley broad once a year, such is its “keeping” quality.

1686. Indian-corn flour mixed with wheat-flour (half with half) makes a nice bread; but it is not considered very digestible, though it keeps well.

1687. Rice cannot be made into bread, nor can potatoes; but one-third potato flour to three-fourths wheaten flour makes a tolerably good loaf.

1688. A very good bread, better than the ordinary sort, and of a delicious flavour, is said to be produced by adopting the following recipe:—Take ten parts of wheat-flour, five parts of potato-flour, one part of rice-paste; knead together, add the yeast, and bake as usual. This is, of course, cheaper than wheaten bread.

1689. Flour, when freshly ground, is too glutinous to make good bread, and should therefore not be used immediately, but should be kept dry for a few weeks, and stirred occasionally, until it becomes dry, and crumbles easily between the fingers.

1690. Flour should be perfectly dry before being used for bread or cakes; if at all damp, the preparation is sure to be heavy. Before mixing it with the other ingredients, it is a good plan to place it for an hour or two before the fire, until it feels warm and dry.

1691. Yeast from home-brewed beer is generally preferred to any other: it is very bitter, and, on that account, should be well washed, and put away until the thick mass settles. If it still continues bitter, the process should be repeated; and, before being used, all the water floating at the top must be poured off. German yeast is now very much used, and should be moistened, and thoroughly mixed with the milk or water with which the bread is to be made.

1692. The following observations are extracted from a valuable work on Bread-making, [Footnote: “The English Bread-Book.” By Eliza Acton. London: Longman.] and will be found very useful to our readers:—

1693. The first thing required for making wholesome bread is the utmost cleanliness; the next is the soundness and sweetness of all the ingredients used for it; and, in addition to these, there must be attention and care through the whole process.

1694. An almost certain way of spoiling dough is to leave it half-made, and to allow it to become cold before it is finished. The other most common causes of failure are using yeast which is no longer sweet, or which has been frozen, or has had hot liquid poured over it.

1695. Too small a proportion of yeast, or insufficient time allowed for the dough to rise, will cause the bread to be heavy.

1696. Heavy bread will also most likely be the result of making the dough very hard, and letting it become quite, cold, particularly in winter.

1697. If either the sponge or the dough be permitted to overwork itself, that is to say, if the mixing and kneading be neglected when it has reached the proper point for either, sour bread will probably be the consequence in warm weather, and bad bread in any. The goodness will also be endangered by placing it so near a fire as to make any part of it hot, instead of maintaining the gentle and equal degree of heat required for its due fermentation.

1698. MILK OR BUTTER.—

Milk which is not perfectly sweet will not only injure the flavour of the bread, but, in sultry weather, will often cause it to be quite uneatable; yet either of them, if fresh and good, will materially improve its quality.

1699. To keep bread sweet and fresh, as soon as it is cold it should be put into a clean earthen pan, with a cover to it: this pan should be placed at a little distance from the ground, to allow a current of air to pass underneath. Some persons prefer keeping bread on clean wooden shelves, without being covered, that the crust may not soften. Stale bread may be freshened by warming it through in a gentle oven. Stale pastry, cakes, &c., may also be improved by this method.

1700. The utensils required for making bread, on a moderate scale, are a kneading-trough or pan, sufficiently large that the dough may be kneaded freely without throwing the flour over the edges, and also to allow for its rising; a hair sieve for straining yeast, and one or two strong spoons.

1701. Yeast must always be good of its kind, and in a fitting state to produce ready and proper fermentation. Yeast of strong beer or ale produces more effect than that of milder kinds; and the fresher the yeast, the smaller the quantity will be required to raise the dough.

1702. As a general rule, the oven for baking bread should be rather quick, and the heat so regulated as to penetrate the dough without hardening the outside. The oven door should not be opened after the bread is put in until the dough is set, or has become firm, as the cool air admitted will have an unfavourable effect on it.

1703. Brick ovens are generally considered the best adapted for baking bread: these should be heated with wood faggots, and then swept and mopped out, to cleanse them for the reception of the bread. Iron ovens are more difficult to manage, being apt to burn the surface of the bread before the middle is baked. To remedy this, a few clean bricks should be set at the bottom of the oven, close together, to receive the tins of bread. In many modern stoves the ovens are so much improved that they bake admirably; and they can always be brought to the required temperature, when it is higher than is needed, by leaving the door open for a time.

Bread Recipes from Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management [1861]

TO MAKE YEAST FOR BREAD.

1716. INGREDIENTS.—1-1/2 oz. of hops, 3 quarts of water, 1 lb. of bruised malt, 1/2 pint of yeast.

Mode.—Boil the hops in the water for 20 minutes; let it stand for about 5 minutes, then add it to 1 lb. of bruised malt prepared as for brewing. Let the mixture stand covered till about lukewarm; then put in not quite 1/2 pint of yeast; keep it warm, and let it work 3 or 4 hours; then put it into small 1/2-pint bottles (ginger-beer bottles are the best for the purpose), cork them well, and tie them down. The yeast is now ready for use; it will keep good for a few weeks, and 1 bottle will be found sufficient for 18 lbs. of flour. When required for use, boil 3 lbs. of potatoes without salt, mash them in the same water in which they were boiled, and rub them through a colander. Stir in about 1/2 lb. of flour; then put in the yeast, pour it in the middle of the flour, and let it stand warm on the hearth all night, and in the morning let it be quite warm when it is kneaded. The bottles of yeast require very careful opening, as it is generally exceedingly ripe.

Time.—20 minutes to boil the hops and water, the yeast to work 3 or 4 hours.

Sufficient.—1/2 pint sufficient for 18 lbs. of flour.

KIRKLEATHAM YEAST.

1717. INGREDIENTS.—2 oz. of hops, 4 quarts of water, 1/2 lb. of flour, 1/2 pint of yeast.

Mode.—Boil the hops and water for 20 minutes; strain, and mix with the liquid 1/2 lb. of flour and not quite 1/2 pint of yeast. Bottle it up, and tie the corks down. When wanted for use, boil potatoes according to the quantity of bread to be made (about 3 lbs. are sufficient for about a peck of flour); mash them, add to them 1/2 lb. of flour, and mix about 1/2 pint of the yeast with them; let this mixture stand all day, and lay the bread to rise the night before it is wanted.

Time.—20 minutes to boil the hops and water.

Sufficient.—1/2 pint of this yeast sufficient for a peck of flour, or rather more.

TO MAKE GOOD HOME-MADE BREAD.

(Miss Acton’s Recipe.)

1718. INGREDIENTS.—1 quartern of flour, 1 large tablespoonful of solid brewer’s yeast, or nearly 1 oz. of fresh German yeast, 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 pint of warm milk-and-water.

Mode.—Put the flour into a large earthenware bowl or deep pan; then, with a strong metal or wooden spoon, hollow out the middle; but do not clear it entirely away from the bottom of the pan, as, in that case, the sponge (or leaven, as it was formerly termed) would stick to it, which it ought not to do. Next take either a large tablespoonful of brewer’s yeast which has been rendered solid by mixing it with plenty of cold water, and letting it afterwards stand to settle for a day and night; or nearly an ounce of German yeast; put it into a large basin, and proceed to mix it, so that it shall be as smooth as cream, with 3/4 pint of warm milk-and-water, or with water only; though even a very little milk will much improve the bread. Pour the yeast into the hole made in the flour, and stir into it as much of that which lies round it as will make a thick batter, in which there must be no lumps. Strew plenty of flour on the top; throw a thick clean cloth over, and set it where the air is warm; but do not place it upon the kitchen fender, for it will become too much heated there. Look at it from time to time: when it has been laid for nearly an hour, and when the yeast has risen and broken through the flour, so that bubbles appear in it, you will know that it is ready to be made up into dough. Then place the pan on a strong chair, or dresser, or table, of convenient height; pour into the sponge the remainder of the warm milk-and-water; stir into it as much of the flour as you can with the spoon; then wipe it out clean with your fingers, and lay it aside. Next take plenty of the remaining flour, throw it on the top of the leaven, and begin, with the knuckles of both hands, to knead it well. When the flour is nearly all kneaded in, begin to draw the edges of the dough towards the middle, in order to mix the whole thoroughly; and when it is free from flour and lumps and crumbs, and does not stick to the hands when touched, it will be done, and may again be covered with the cloth, and left to rise a second time. In 3/4 hour look at it, and should it have swollen very much, and begin to crack, it will be light enough to bake. Turn it then on to a paste-board or very clean dresser, and with a large sharp knife divide it in two; make it up quickly into loaves, and dispatch it to the oven: make one or two incisions across the tops of the loaves, as they will rise more easily if this be done. If baked in tins or pans, rub them with a tiny piece of butter laid on a piece of clean paper, to prevent the dough from sticking to them. All bread should be turned upside down, or on its side, as soon as it is drawn from the oven: if this be neglected, the under part of the loaves will become wet and blistered from the steam, which cannot then escape from them. To make the dough without setting a sponge, merely mix the yeast with the greater part of the warm milk-and-water, and wet up the whole of the flour at once after a little salt has been stirred in, proceeding exactly, in every other respect, as in the directions just given. As the dough will soften in the rising, it should be made quite firm at first, or it will be too lithe by the time it is ready for the oven.

Time.—To be left to rise an hour the first time, 3/4 hour the second time; to be baked from 1 to 1-1/4 hour, or baked in one loaf from 1-1/2 to 2 hours.

ITALIAN MILLET, or Great Indian Millet, is cultivated in Egypt and Nubia, where it is called dhourra, and is used as human food, as well as for the fermentation of beer. It will grow on poor soils, and is extremely productive. It has been introduced into Italy, where they make a coarse bread from it; and it is also employed in pastry and puddings: they also use it for feeding horses and domestic fowls. It is the largest variety, growing to the height of six feet; but it requires a warm climate, and will not ripen in this country. A yellow variety, called Golden Millet, is sold in the grocers’ shops, for making puddings, and is very delicate and wholesome.

TO MAKE A PECK OF GOOD BREAD.

1719. INGREDIENTS.—3 lbs. of potatoes, 6 pints of cold water, 1/2 pint of good yeast, a peck of flour, 2 oz. of salt.

Mode.—Peel and boil the potatoes; beat them to a cream while warm; then add 1 pint of cold water, strain through a colander, and add to it 1/2 pint of good yeast, which should have been put in water over-night, to take off its bitterness. Stir all well together with a wooden spoon, and pour the mixture into the centre of the flour; mix it to the substance of cream, cover it over closely, and let it remain near the fire for an hour; then add the 5 pints of water, milk-warm, with 2 oz. of salt; pour this in, and mix the whole to a nice light dough. Let it remain for about 2 hours; then make it into 7 loaves, and bake for about 1-1/2 hour in a good oven. When baked, the bread should weigh nearly 20 lbs.

Time.—About 1-1/2 hour.

THE RED VARIETIES OF WHEAT are generally hardier and more easily grown than the white sorts, and, although of less value to the miller, they are fully more profitable to the grower, in consequence of the better crops which they produce. Another advantage the red wheats possess is their comparative immunity from the attacks of mildew and fly. The best English wheat comes from the counties of Kent and Essex; the qualities under these heads always bearing a higher price than others, as will be seen by the periodical lists in the journals.

RICE BREAD.

1720. INGREDIENTS.—To every lb. of rice allow 4 lbs. of wheat flour, nearly 3 tablespoonfuls of yeast, 1/4 oz. of salt. Mode.—Boil the rice in water until it is quite tender; pour off the water, and put the rice, before it is cold, to the flour. Mix these well together with the yeast, salt, and sufficient warm water to make the whole into a smooth dough; let it rise by the side of the fire, then form it into loaves, and bake them from 1-1/2 to 2 hours, according to their size. If the rice is boiled in milk instead of water, it makes very delicious bread or cakes. When boiled in this manner, it may be mixed with the flour without straining the liquid from it. Time.—1-1/2 to 2 hours.

INDIAN-CORN-FLOUR BREAD.

1721. INGREDIENTS.—To 4 lbs. of flour allow 2 lbs. of Indian-corn flour, 2 tablespoonfuls of yeast, 3 pints of warm water, 1/4 oz. of salt. Mode.—Mix the two flours well together, with the salt; make a hole in the centre, and stir the yeast up well with 1/2 pint of the warm water; put this into the middle of the flour, and mix enough of it with the yeast to make a thin batter; throw a little flour over the surface of this batter, cover the whole with a thick cloth, and set it to rise in a warm place. When the batter has nicely risen, work the whole to a nice smooth dough, adding the water as required; knead it well, and mould the dough into loaves; let them rise for nearly 1/2 hour, then put them into a well-heated oven. If made into 2 loaves, they will require from 1-1/2 to 2 hours baking.

Time.—1-1/2 to 2 hours.

MAIZE.—Next to wheat and rice, maize is the grain most used in the nourishment of man. In Asia, Africa, and America, it is the principal daily food of a large portion of the population, especially of the colonists. In some of the provinces of France, too, it is consumed in large quantities. There are eight varieties of the maize; the most productive is the maize of Cusco. The flour of maize is yellow, and it contains an oily matter, which, when fresh, gives it an agreeable flavour and odour; but the action of the air on it soon develops rancidity. If carried any distance, it should be stored away in air-tight vessels. An excellent soup is prepared with meat and maize-flour. The inhabitants of some countries, where wheat is scarce, make, with maize and water, or milk and salt, a kind of biscuit, which is pleasant in taste, but indigestible. Some of the preparations of maize-flour are very good, and, when partaken in moderation, suitable food for almost everybody.

SODA BREAD.

1722. INGREDIENTS.—To every 2 lbs. of flour allow 1 teaspoonful of tartaric acid, 1 teaspoonful of salt, 1 teaspoonful of carbonate of soda, 2 breakfast-cupfuls of cold milk.

Mode.—Let the tartaric acid and salt be reduced to the finest possible powder; then mix them well with the flour. Dissolve the soda in the milk, and pour it several times from one basin to another, before adding it to the flour. Work the whole quickly into a light dough, divide it into 2 loaves, and put them into a well-heated oven immediately, and bake for an hour. Sour milk or buttermilk may be used, but then a little less acid will be needed.

Time.—1 hour.

POLISH AND POMERANIAN WHEAT are accounted by authorities most excellent. Large raft-like barges convey this grain down the rivers, from the interior of the country to the seaports. This corn is described as being white, hard, and thin-skinned; and it yields a large quantity of flour, having a small proportion of bran.

EXCELLENT ROLLS.

1723. INGREDIENTS.—To every lb. of flour allow 1 oz. of butter, 1/4 pint of milk, 1 large teaspoonful of yeast, a little salt.

Mode.—Warm the butter in the milk, add to it the yeast and salt, and mix these ingredients well together. Put the flour into a pan, stir in the above ingredients, and let the dough rise, covered in a warm place. Knead it well, make it into rolls, let them rise again for a few minutes, and bake in a quick oven. Richer rolls may be made by adding 1 or 2 eggs and a larger proportion of butter, and their appearance improved by brushing the tops over with yolk of egg or a little milk.

Time—1 lb. of flour, divided into 6 rolls, from 15 to 20 minutes.

HOT ROLLS.

1724. This dish, although very unwholesome and indigestible, is nevertheless a great favourite, and eaten by many persons. As soon as the rolls come from the baker’s, they should be put into the oven, which, in the early part of the morning, is sure not to be very hot; and the rolls must not be buttered until wanted. When they are quite hot, divide them lengthwise into three; put some thin flakes of good butter between the slices, press the rolls together, and put them in the oven for a minute or two, but not longer, or the butter would oil; take them out of the oven, spread the butter equally over, divide the rolls in half, and put them on to a very hot clean dish, and send them instantly to table.

TO MAKE DRY TOAST.

1725. To make dry toast properly, a great deal of attention is required; much more, indeed, than people generally suppose. Never use new bread for making any kind of toast, as it eats heavy, and, besides, is very extravagant. Procure a loaf of household bread about two days old; cut off as many slices as may be required, not quite 1/4 inch in thickness; trim off the crusts and ragged edges, put the bread on a toasting-fork, and hold it before a very clear fire. Move it backwards and forwards until the bread is nicely coloured; then turn it and toast the other side, and do not place it so near the fire that it blackens. Dry toast should be more gradually made than buttered toast, as its great beauty consists in its crispness, and this cannot be attained unless the process is slow and the bread is allowed gradually to colour. It should never be made long before it is wanted, as it soon becomes tough, unless placed on the fender in front of the fire. As soon as each piece is ready, it should be put into a rack, or stood upon its edges, and sent quickly to table.

TO MAKE HOT BUTTERED TOAST.

1726. A loaf of household bread about two days old answers for making toast better than cottage bread, the latter not being a good shape, and too crusty for the purpose. Cut as many nice even slices as may be required, rather more than 1/4 inch in thickness, and toast them before a very bright fire, without allowing the bread to blacken, which spoils the appearance and flavour of all toast. When of a nice colour on both sides, put it on a hot plate; divide some good butter into small pieces, place them on the toast, set this before the fire, and when the butter is just beginning to melt, spread it lightly over the toast. Trim off the crust and ragged edges, divide each round into 4 pieces, and send the toast quickly to table. Some persons cut the slices of toast across from corner to corner, so making the pieces of a three-cornered shape. Soyer recommends that each slice should be cut into pieces as soon as it is buttered, and when all are ready, that they should be piled lightly on the dish they are intended to be served on. He says that by cutting through 4 or 5 slices at a time, all the butter is squeezed out of the upper ones, while the bottom one is swimming in fat liquid. It is highly essential to use good butter for making this dish.

MUFFINS.

1727. INGREDIENTS.—To every quart of milk allow 1-1/2 oz. of German yeast, a little salt; flour.

Mode.—Warm the milk, add to it the yeast, and mix these well together; put them into a pan, and stir in sufficient flour to make the whole into a dough of rather a soft consistence; cover it over with a cloth, and place it in a warm place to rise, and, when light and nicely risen, divide the dough into pieces, and round them to the proper shape with the hands; place them, in a layer of flour about two inches thick, on wooden trays, and let them rise again; when this is effected, they each will exhibit a semi-globular shape. Then place them carefully on a hot-plate or stove, and bake them until they are slightly browned, turning them when they are done on one side. Muffins are not easily made, and are more generally purchased than manufactured at home. To toast them, divide the edge of the muffin all round, by pulling it open, to the depth of about an inch, with the fingers. Put it on a toasting-fork, and hold it before a very clear fire until one side is nicely browned, but not burnt; turn, and toast it on the other. Do not toast them too quickly, as, if this is done, the middle of the muffin will not be warmed through. When done, divide them by pulling them open; butter them slightly on both sides, put them together again, and cut them into halves: when sufficient are toasted and buttered, pile them on a very hot dish, and send them very quickly to table.

Time.—From 20 minutes to 1/2 hour to bake them.

Sufficient.—Allow 1 muffin to each person.

CRUMPETS.

1728. These are made in the same manner as muffins; only, in making the mixture, let it be more like batter than dough. Let it rise for about 1/2 hour; pour it into iron rings, which should be ready on a hot-plate; bake them, and when one side appears done, turn them quickly on the other. To toast them, have ready a very bright clear fire; put the crumpet on a toasting-fork, and hold it before the fire, not too close, until it is nicely brown on one side, but do not allow it to blacken. Turn it, and brown the other side; then spread it with good butter, cut it in half, and, when all are done, pile them on a hot dish, and send them quickly to table. Muffins and crumpets should always be served on separate dishes, and both toasted and served as expeditiously as possible.

Time.—From 10 to 15 minutes to bake them.

Sufficient.—Allow 2 crumpets to each person.

TEA-CAKES.

1786. INGREDIENTS.—2 lbs. of flour, 1/2 teaspoonful of salt, 1/4 lb. of butter or lard, 1 egg, a piece of German yeast the size of a walnut, warm milk.

Mode.—Put the flour (which should be perfectly dry) into a basin mix with it the salt, and rub in the butter or lard; then beat the egg well, stir to it the yeast, and add these to the flour with as much warm milk as will make the whole into a smooth paste, and knead it well. Let it rise near the fire, and, when well risen, form it into cakes; place them on tins, let them rise again for a few minutes before putting them into the oven, and bake from 1/4 to 1/2 hour in a moderate oven. These are very nice with a few currants and a little sugar added to the other ingredients: they should be put in after the butter is rubbed in. These cakes should be buttered, and eaten hot as soon as baked; but, when stale, they are very nice split and toasted; or, if dipped in milk, or even water, and covered with a basin in the oven till hot, they will be almost equal to new.

Time.—1/4 to 1/2 hour.

Average cost, 10d.

Sufficient to make 8 tea-cakes.

Seasonable at any time.

TO TOAST TEA-CAKES.

1787. Cut each tea-cake into three or four slices, according to its thickness; toast them on both sides before a nice clear fire, and as each slice is done, spread it with butter on both sides. When a cake is toasted, pile the slices one on the top of the other, cut them into quarters, put them on a very hot plate, and send the cakes immediately to table. As they are wanted, send them in hot, one or two at a time, as, if allowed to stand, they spoil, unless kept in a muffin-plate over a basin of boiling water.

THE LADY’S OWN COOKERY BOOK, AND NEW DINNER-TABLE DIRECTORY; [1844]

Yest.

Boil one ounce of hops in three quarts of water until reduced to about three pints. Pour it upon one pound of flour; make it into a batter; strain it through a colander, and, when nearly cold, put to it one pint of home-brewed yest. Put it into a bottle, and keep it for use. It should stand twenty-four or thirty hours before it is used.

Excellent Yest.

Put a pint of well boiled milk into a hasty-pudding, and beat it till cold and there are few lumps remaining; then put to it two spoonfuls of yest and two of white powdered sugar, and stir it well. Put it in a large bowl not far from the fire, and next morning you will find it risen and light. Put it all to your flour, which must be mixed with as much warm milk and water as is necessary to make it into dough, and put it to rise in the common way.

Potato Yest.

Boil rather more than a quarter of a peck of potatoes; bruise them through a colander; add half a pound of fine flour, and thin it with cold water till it is like a thick batter. Add three table-spoonfuls of good yest; let it stand for an hour, and make your bread.

This yest will always serve to make fresh from.

Another way.

Weigh four pounds of raw potatoes pared; boil them in five pints of water. Wash and rub them through a sieve with the water in which they were boiled. Add four table-spoonfuls of good brown sugar; when milk-warm, put to the mixture three pennyworth of fresh yest; stir it well, and let it work in an open vessel. It will be fit for use in about twelve or fourteen hours.

About a pint and a half of this mixture will raise eighteen pounds of coarse flour; it may be put to rise over-night and will be ready to knead the first thing in the morning. It should be left to rise in the loaf four or five hours, before it is put in the oven.

Rolls.

Take two pounds of flour; divide it; put one half into a deep pan; rub two ounces of butter into the flour; the whites of two eggs whisked to a high froth; add one table-spoonful of yest, four table-spoonfuls of cream, the yolk of one egg, a pint of milk, rather more than new milk warm. Mix the above together into a lather; beat it for ten minutes; then cover it, and set it before the fire for two hours to rise. Mix in the other half of the flour, and set it before the fire for a quarter of an hour. These rolls must be baked in earthenware cups, rubbed with a little butter, and not more than half filled with dough; they must be baked a quarter of an hour in a very hot oven.

Another way.

Take one quart of fine flour; wet it with warm milk, and six table-spoonfuls of small beer yest, a quarter of a pound of butter, and a little salt. Do not make the dough too stiff at first, but let it rise awhile; then work in the flour to the proper consistency. Set it to rise some time longer, then form your rolls of any size you please; bake them in a warmish oven; twenty minutes will bake the small and half an hour the large ones.

Excellent Rolls.

Take three pounds of the finest flour, and mix up the yolks of three eggs with the yest. Wet the flour with milk, first melting in the milk one ounce of butter, and add a little salt to the flour.

Little Rolls.

One pound of flour, two or three spoonfuls of yest, the yolks of two eggs, the white of one, a little salt, moistened with milk. This dough must be made softer than for bread, and beaten well with a spoon till it is quite light; let it stand some hours before it is baked; some persons make it over-night. The Dutch oven, which must first be made warm, will bake the rolls, which must be turned to prevent their catching.

Breakfast Rolls.

Rub exceedingly fine two ounces of good butter in a pound and three quarters of fine flour. Mix a table-spoonful of yest in half a pint of warm milk; set a light sponge in the flour till it rises for an hour; beat up one or two eggs in half a spoonful of fine sugar, and intermix it with the sponge, adding to it a little less than half a pint of warm milk with a tea-spoonful of salt. Mix all up to a light dough, and keep it warm, to rise again for another hour. Then break it in pieces, and roll them to the thickness of your finger of the proper length; lay them on tin plates, and set them in a warm stove for an hour more. Then touch them over with a little milk, and bake them in a slow oven with care. To take off the bitterness from the yest, mix one pint of it in two gallons of water, and let it stand for twenty-four hours; then throw off the water, and the yest is fit for use; if not, repeat it.

Another way.

With two pounds of flour mix about half a pound of butter, till it is like crumbled bread; add two whole eggs, three spoonfuls of good yest, and a little salt. Make it up into little rolls; set them before the fire for a short time to rise, but, if the yest is very good, this will not be necessary.

Brentford Rolls.

Take two pounds of fine flour; put to it a little salt, and two spoonfuls of fine sugar sifted; rub in a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, the yolks of two eggs, two spoonfuls of yest, and about a pint of milk. Work the whole into a dough, and set it to the fire to rise. Make twelve rolls of it; lay them on buttered tins, let them stand to the fire to rise till they are very light, then bake them about half an hour.

Dutch Rolls.

Into one pound of flour rub three ounces of butter; with a spoonful of yest, mixed up with warm milk, make it into light paste; set it before the fire to rise. When risen nearly half as big again, make it into rolls about the length of four inches, and the breadth of two fingers; set them again to rise before the fire, till risen very well; put them into the oven for a quarter of an hour.

French Rolls. No. 1.

Seven pounds of flour, four eggs leaving out two yolks—the whites of the eggs should be beaten to a snow—three quarters of a pint of ale yest. Beat the eggs and yest together, adding warm milk; put it so beat into the flour, in which must be well rubbed four ounces of butter; wet the whole into a soft paste. Keep beating it in the bowl with your hand for a quarter of an hour at least; let it stand by the fire half an hour, then make it into rolls, and put them into pans or dishes, first well floured, or, what is still better, iron moulds, which are made on purpose to bake rolls in. Let them stand by the fire another half hour, and put them, bottom upwards, on tin plates, in the middle of a hot oven for three quarters of an hour or more: take them out, and rasp them.

French Rolls. No. 2.

Take two or three spoonfuls of good yest, as much warm water, two or three lumps of loaf-sugar, and the yolk of an egg. Mix all together; let it stand to rise. Meanwhile take a quartern of the finest flour, and rub in about an ounce of butter. Then take a quart of new milk, and put into it a pint of boiling water, so as to make it rather warmer than new milk from the cow. Mix together the milk and yest, and strain through a sieve into the flour, and, when you have made it into a light paste, flour a piece of clean linen cloth well, lay it upon a thick double flannel, put your paste into the cloth, wrap it up close, and put it in an earthen pan before the fire till it rises. Make it up into ten rolls, and put them into a quick oven for a quarter of an hour.

French Rolls. No. 3.

To half a peck of the best flour put six eggs, leaving out two whites, a little salt, a pint of good ale yest, and as much new milk, a little warmed, as will make it a thin light paste. Stir it about with your hand, or with a large wooden spoon, but by no means knead it. Set it in a pan before the fire for about an hour, or till it rises; then make it up into little rolls, and bake it in a quick oven.

Milton Rolls.

Take one pound of fine rye flour, a little salt, the yolk of one egg, a small cupful of yest, and some warm new milk, with a bit of butter in it. Mix all together; let it stand one hour to rise; and bake your rolls half an hour in a quick oven.

Rusks.

Take flour, water, or milk, yest, and brown sugar; work it just the same as for bread. Make it up into a long loaf, and bake it. Then let it be one day old before you cut it in slices: make your oven extremely hot, and dry them in it for about two minutes, watching them all the time.

Another way.

Put five pounds of fine flour in a large basin; add to it eight eggs unbeat, yolks and whites; dissolve half a pound of sugar over the fire, in a choppin (or a Scotch quart) of new milk; add all this to the flour with half a mutchkin, (one English pint) of new yest; mix it well, and set it before a good fire covered with a cloth. Let it stand half an hour, then work it up with a little more flour, and let it stand half an hour longer. Then take it out of the basin, and make it up on a board into small round or square biscuits, place them upon sheets of white iron, and set them before the fire, covered with a cloth, till they rise, which will be in half an hour. Put them into the oven, just when the bread is taken out; shut the oven till the biscuits turn brown on the top; then take them out, and cut them through.

Rusks, and Tops and Bottoms.

Well mix two pounds of sugar, dried and sifted, with twelve pounds of flour, also well dried and sifted. Beat up eighteen eggs, leaving out eight whites, very light, with half a pint of new yest, and put it into the flour. Melt two pounds of butter in three pints of new milk, and wet the paste with it to your liking. Make it up in little cakes; lay them one on another; when baked, separate them, and return them to the oven to harden.

Sally Lunn.

To two pounds of fine flour put about two table-spoonfuls of fresh yest, mixed with a pint of new milk made warm. Add the yolks of three eggs, well beat up. Rub into the flour about a quarter of a pound of butter, with salt to your taste; put it to the fire to rise, as you do bread. Make it into a cake, and put it on a tin over a chaffing-dish of slow coals, or on a hot hearth, till you see it rise; then put it into a quick oven, and, when the upper side is well baked, turn it. When done, rasp it all over and butter it; the top will take a pound of butter.

Bread.

Forty pounds of flour, a handful of salt, one quart of yest, three quarts of water; stir the whole together in the kneading trough. Strew over it a little flour, and let it stand covered for one hour. Knead it and make it into loaves, and let them stand a quarter of an hour to rise, before you put them in the oven.

Diet Bread, which keeps moist.

Three quarters of a pound of lump sugar, dissolved in a quarter of a pint of water, half a pound of the best flour, seven eggs, taking away the whites of two; mix the liquid sugar, when it has boiled, with the eggs: beat them up together in a basin with a whisk; then add by degrees the flour, beating all together for about ten minutes; put it into a quick oven. An hour bakes it.

Tin moulds are the best: the dimensions for this quantity are six inches in length and four in depth.

Potato Bread.

Boil a quantity of potatoes; drain them well, strew over them a small quantity of salt, and let them remain in the vessel in which they were boiled, closely covered, for an hour, which makes them mealy: then peel and pound them as smooth as flour. Add eight pounds of potatoes to twelve of wheaten flour; and make it into dough with yest, in the way that bread is generally made. Let it stand three hours to rise.

Rice Bread.

Boil a quarter of a pound of rice till it is quite soft; then put it on the back of a sieve to drain. When cold, mix it with three quarters of a pound of flour, a tea-cupful of milk, a proper quantity of yest, and salt. Let it stand for three hours; then knead it very well, and roll it up in about a handful of flour, so as to make the outside dry enough to put into the oven. About an hour and a quarter will bake a loaf of this size. When baked, it will produce one pound fourteen ounces of very good bread; it is better when the loaves are not made larger than the above-mentioned quantity will produce, but you may make any quantity by allowing the same proportion for each loaf. This bread should not be cut till it is two days old.

Rye Bread.

Take one peck of wheaten flour, six pounds of rye flour, a little salt, half a pint of good yest, and as much warm water as will make it into a stiff dough. Let it stand three hours to rise before you put it into the oven. A large loaf will take three hours to bake.

Buttered Loaves.

Take three quarts of new milk; put in as much runnet as will turn it; whey the curds very clean; break them small with your hands; put in nine yolks of eggs and one white, a handful of grated bread, half a handful of flour, and a little salt. Mix these well together, working it well with your hands; roll it into small loaves, and bake them in a quick oven three quarters of an hour. Then take half a pound of butter, four spoonfuls of clear water, half a nutmeg sliced very thin, and a little sugar. Set it on a quick fire, stirring it quickly, and let it boil till thick. When the loaves are baked, cut out the top and stir up the crumb with a knife; then pour some of the butter into each of them, and cover them up again. Strew a little sugar on them: before you set them in the oven, beat the yolk of an egg and a little beer together, and with a feather smear them over with it.

Egg Loaf.

Soak crumb of bread in milk for three hours; strain it through a sieve; then put in a little salt, some candied citron and lemon-peel cut small, and sugar to your taste. Put to your paste the yolks only of six or eight new-laid eggs, and beat it till the eggs are mixed. Whip the whites of the eggs till they are frothed; add to the other ingredients, and mix them well. Butter the pan or dish in which you bake your loaf. When baked, turn it out into your dish, scrape some fine sugar upon it, and glaze with a hot shovel.

Buns. No. 1.

Two pounds of flour, a quarter of a pound of butter; rub the butter in the flour like grated bread; set it to the fire to dry: put in one pound of currants and a quarter of a pound of moist sugar, with a few caraway seeds, and two spoonfuls of good yest; make the dough into small buns; set them to rise half an hour: you may put two or three eggs in if you like.

Buns. No. 2.

One pound of fine flour, two pounds of currants, a few caraway seeds, a quarter of a pound of moist sugar, a pint of new milk, and two table-spoonfuls of yeast; mix all well together in a stiff paste, and let it stand half an hour to rise; then roll them out, and put them in your tins; let them stand another half hour to rise before you bake them. The above receipt answers equally well for a cake baked in a tin.

Buns. No. 3.

Take flour, butter, and sugar, of each a quarter of a pound, four eggs, and a few caraway seeds. This quantity will make two dozen. Bake them on tins.

Bath Buns.

Take a quarter of a pound of loaf sugar finely powdered, the same quantity of butter, and nearly double of flour dried before the fire, a walnut-shell full of caraway-seeds just bruised, and one egg. Work all these up together into a paste, the thickness of half-a-crown, and cut it with a tea-cup, flour a tin; lay the cakes upon it; take the white of an egg well beat and frothed; lay it on them with a feather, and then grate upon them a little fine sugar.

Another way.

Take one pound of fine flour, dry it well by the fire, sift it, and rub into it a pound of butter, the yolks of four eggs, the whites of two, both beaten light, three spoonfuls of cream, and the like quantity of white wine and ale yest. Let this sponge stand by the fire to rise; then beat it up extremely well and light with your hand; grate in a nutmeg; continue beating till it is ready for the oven; then add a pound of rough caraway seeds, keeping a few out to strew on the top of the cakes before they are put into the oven.

Plain Buns.

Take three pounds of flour, six ounces of butter, six ounces of sugar sifted fine, six eggs, both yolks and whites. Beat your eggs till they will not slip off the spoon; melt the butter in a pint of new milk, with which mix half a pint of good yest; strain it into the flour, and throw in half an ounce of caraway seeds. Work the whole up very light; set it before the fire to rise; then make it up into buns of the size of a penny roll, handling them as little as possible. Twenty minutes will bake them sufficiently.

Tea Cakes.

Take loaf sugar, finely powdered, and butter, of each a quarter of a pound, about half a pound of flour, dried before the fire, a walnut-shellful of caraway seeds, just bruised, and one egg. Work all together into a paste, adding a spoonful of brandy. Roll the paste out to the thickness of a half-crown, and cut it with a tea-cup. Flour a tin, and lay the cakes upon it. Take the white of an egg, well beaten and frothed, dip a feather in this, and wash them over, and then grate upon them a little fine sugar. Put them into a slackish oven, till they are of a very pale brown.

Dry Tea Cakes.

Boil two ounces of butter in a pint of skimmed milk; let it stand till it is as cold as new milk; then put to it a spoonful of light yest, a little salt, and as much flour as will make it a stiff paste. Work it as much, or more, than you would do brown bread; let it lie half an hour to rise; then roll it into thin cakes; prick them very well quite through, to prevent their blistering, and bake them on tin plates in a quick oven. To keep crisp, they must be hung up in the kitchen, or where there is a constant fire.

Yorkshire Cakes.

Take two pounds of flour, three ounces of butter, the yolks of two eggs, three spoonfuls of yest that is not bitter; melt the butter in half a pint of milk; then mix them all well together; let it stand one hour by the fire to rise; then roll the dough into cakes pretty thin. Set them a quarter of an hour longer to the fire to rise; bake them on tins in a moderate oven; toast and butter them as you do muffins.

The Art of Cookery Made Easy and Refined By John Mollard, Cook, [1802]

To make English Bread.

Take a peck of the best white flour, sift it into a trough, make a cavity in the center, and strain through a hair sieve (mixed together) a pint of good yest and a pint of lukewarm water; mix them lightly with some of the flour till of a light paste, set it in a warm place covered over to prove for an hour; then mix the whole with two quarts of lukewarm water and a little salt, knead it, let it be of a good stiffness, prove it an hour more and knead it again; prove it another hour, mould it into loaves or batch two pieces together, and bake them in a brisk oven.

N. B. A middling-size loaf will require an hour and a half in baking.

French Bread.

Sift a peck of fine flour into a trough, make a cavity in the center with the hand, strain into it (mixed together) a pint of lukewarm milk and a pint of good yest; mix them with some of the flour till of a light sponge, set it in a warm place covered over to prove for an hour; then add to it two quarts of lukewarm milk, half a pound of fresh butter, an ounce of sifted loaf sugar, and a little salt; knead it till of a nice stiffness, let it prove an hour more, knead it again, and let it prove another hour; then mould it into bricks, lay them on tins, put them into a very slack oven or warm place to prove for half an hour, and bake them in a brisk oven.

The Queen-like Closet or Rich Cabinet by Hannah Woolley Stored with all manner of RARE RECEIPTS For Preserving, Candying and Cookery. Very Pleasant and Beneficial to all Ingenious Persons of the FEMALE SEX. [1670] 2nd Edition

To make very fine Rolls for Noble Tables.

Take half a Peck of fine Flower, the yolks of 4 Eggs and a little Salt, with a Pint of Ale yest, mix them together, and make them into a Paste with warm Milk and a little Sack, them mould it well, and put it into a warm Cloth to rise, when your Oven is hot, mould it again, and make it into little Rolls, and bake them, then rasp them, and put them into the Oven again for a while, and they will eat very crisp and fine.

To make short Rolls.

Take half a peck of fine Flower, and break into it one pound and half of fresh Butter very small, then bruised Coriander seeds, and beaten Spice with a very little Salt and some Sugar, and a Pint of Ale-yest, mix them well together, and make them into a Paste with warm Milk and Sack:

Then lay into it a warm Cloth to rise, and when your Oven is hot, make it into Rolls, and prick them, and bake them, and when they are baked, draw them and cover them till they be cold; these also eat very finely, if you butter some of them while they are hot.

error: Content is protected !!