Thick Gingerbread. The same ingredients are used as for the nuts, but the proportions are different. Use only sufficient treacle to knead the 2 lbs. of flour into a stiff dough: 2 oz. of butter and the same quantity of sugar are sufficient. The whole of the ammonia evaporates during the process of baking.

Another.-Rub lb. of butter into 2 lbs. of flour; add lb. of brown sugar, 2 oz. of powdered ginger, oz. of ground carraway-seeds, and the same of carbonate of soda; mix them well, then work them with 2 lbs. of treacle, and 3 eggs well beaten; pour the mixture into shallow tins, filling them about half full. Bake 1 hour in a moderate oven.

GINGERBREAD-NUTS.

803.- The Yorkshire Receipt.-Mix lb. of flour, the same quantity of butter and of brown sugar, with 3 oz. of ginger, a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda rubbed into the flour, with as much treacle as will make it into a paste. Roll it out thin, and bake it for about 20 minutes in a slow oven.

The Suffolk Receipt.-Put 1 lb. of brown sugar and 1 lb. of honey, with the rind of a lemon grated, into a saucepan, and simmer them well together; then add 4 oz. of good fresh butter and 1 oz. of ginger; mix the whole with 2 lbs. of flour. These two receipts have been strongly recommended.

With Carraway Seeds.-Take 14 lb. of fine flour well dried, add 1 oz. of pounded ginger, oz. of carraway-seeds, and lb. of coarse sugar. Put lb. of treacle and lb. of fresh butter in a pan, and when it boils mix it with the other ingredients into a stiff paste, and set it before the fire to lighten ; then bake in any form that may be desirable.

lb.

Take 2 lbs. of flour, 2 lbs. of treacle, lb. of butter, of sugar, lb. of candied peel, 1 oz. of ground ginger, 1 oz. of coriander and 1 oz. of carraway seeds, finely pounded: mix all well together. Just before it is put into the oven (which must be a moderate one) stir in oz. of carbonate of ammonia, finely powdered; if required lighter, oz. may be used. Some persons use 1 oz. of pearlashes instead of the ammonia, but the latter is preferred.

Or: lb. of flour, lb. of treacle, 1 teaspoonful of cayenne pepper, 2 eggs, a little volatile salts, and 1 tablespoonful of coriander and carraway seeds. Make the treacle hot, and mix in the other ingredients; then make them into nuts as above.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

BREAD.

On the making of bread a few previous observations are necessary.

FLOUR.

804. With regard to that most essential object, the quality of the flour, we need hardly insist that it should not only be good but of the best corn, that being the best economy, both in point of price, and the kind, as well as quantity, of the bread made from it.

Cheap bread must ever be of indifferent quality. The flour of which it is made is always ground either from damaged wheat, or that of the most inferior kind, mixed by the miller with a little of the better sort, and made up by the baker with potato starch, alum, and soda, to render it apparently good.

If you grow your own wheat, winnow it, screen it, scutch it, air it, and do not send it to the mill until 12 months old: even then, do not trust it to the miller, unless under your own eye or that of a confidential servant.

The value of wheaten flour consists, besides its purity, in the quantity which it contains of that portion of the grain termed "gluten," of which there is more in that grown in the southern climates than in those of the north; which may in some degree account for the superiority ascribed to the American flour imported into this country from Virginia. The flour should never be made from corn that is not some months old, and should be kept in a dry part of the house for a few weeks before being baked.

Household Bread of very wholesome quality may be made with coarser flour, or even by merely screening off the out

The American flour imbibes more water than the English on making it into bread; for it has been stated, in comparative experiments, that a stone of 14 lbs. weight of the American flour will make 21 lbs. of bread, but the best sort of English flour only produces about 18 lbs.

ward bran of the wheat, and making the whole into loaves, without sifting the flour into the different sorts of fineness. It is looked upon by medical men as a good remedy for indigestion; and the different effects created by the constant use of white or brown bread have been thus stated :

"Mistaken notions respecting the quality of different sorts of bread have given rise to much waste. The general belief is, that the bread made of the finest flour is the best, and that whiteness is the proof of its quality: but both these opinions are popular errors. The whiteness may be, and generally is, communicated by alum, to the injury of the consumer; and it is well known by men of science that the bread of unrefined flour will sustain life, while that made with the refined will not. Keep a man on brown bread and water, and he will live and enjoy good health; give him white bread and water only, and he will gradually sicken, and probably in a short time die." a

Brown Bread, when divested of the coarser bran, not only merits this preference in point of digestion, but is even thought to nourish better, as proved by the experience of sailors on long voyages, who are always furnished with biscuits made from unrefined flour, and are both strong and healthy. It should be made of unbolted wheat-meal, into 3 quarts of which should be put a gill each of yeast and molasses, with a quart of lukewarm water, and a teaspoonful of pearlash. This quantity will make as much as 2 loaves, when made in the usual mode of household bread.

Bran, indeed, contains few nutritious parts, but then it contains the essential oil and the larger portion of the saline substances of the vegetable. The grain is furnished with two membranes or husks, the second or inner of which is the principal seat of the oil; and it is this oil which imparts that agreeable smell to brown bread so superior to white. In grinding the grain, a large portion of the first skin is divided from the second, and mixes very intimately with the rest; the first is an indigestible husk, a great part of which will be separated by rejecting a third part of the bran, or by scuffling it rapidly in a circular turning machine of wire, the motion of which throws off the outer husk; the finer parts, being thus intermixed, greatly facilitate the digestion of the bread by dividing its more glutinous pulp.

a 'Literary Gazette.'

YEAST.

805.-As to Yeast or Yest, or as some people call it "barm,” there can be no doubt that the best is that taken from good brewers' ale, which not only causes the dough to rise with more certainty than any other composition, but also imparts to the bread a slight aromatic bitter of a very agreeable flavour. This, however, cannot always be got, and although yeast of a good quality may generally be found at most country oil-shops, we here add a few receipts for those who prefer having it made at home: premising that, as these are not so strong as the brewers' yeast, a larger quantity must be used.

To 4 oz. of malt and 2 oz. of hops put a quart of boiling water, and let it remain boiling for 20 minutes, then strain the liquor to 8 oz. of flour; cover it until it ferments, and use it when it rises.

Patent Yeast. The following is copied from the original specification in the patent-office, from which was introduced the system, still in use amongst bakers, of making a ferment with potatoes for raising dough, instead of what was termed "quarter-sponges :"

"To make a yeast-gallon of this composition, such yeastgallon containing 8 beer-quarts, boil in common water 8 lbs. of potatoes, as for eating bruise them perfectly smooth, and mix with them, while warm, 2 oz. of fine honey, and 1 beerquart of common yeast. For making bread, mix 3 beer-pints of the above composition with a bushel of flour, using warm water in making the bread: the water to be warmer in winter than in summer, and the composition to be used in a few hours after it is made; and so soon as the sponge, or the mixture of the composition with the flour, begins to fall the first time, the bread should be made and put into the oven."

Persons who are in the habit of making their own bread can easily manufacture their own yeast, by attending to the following directions:

Boil 1 lb. of good flour, lb. of brown sugar, and oz. of salt, in 2 gallons of water for an hour; when nearly cold, bottle it, and cork it close, and it will be fit for use in 24 hours. 1 pint will make 18 lbs. of bread.

THE OVEN.

806. For the baking of bread there can be no doubt the fire-proof brick oven is the best.

It should be round, not long; the roof from 20 to 24 inches high, the mouth small, and the door of iron to shut close. This construction will save firing and time, and bake better than long and high-roofed ovens.

Brick ovens are also the best for baking all kinds of large cakes and pies; the reason of which is chiefly owing to their being generally capable of retaining the heat a much longer time than one built of iron; unless, indeed, when the latter happens to be very substantially made of wrought iron. When this is the case, they serve all the purposes for a private family. We have had one in constant use for the last 30 years; it is set separately from the kitchen fire, and occupies no more space than a small boiler would. Four tins, being made to fit in without touching the sides, will hold each a loaf of 4 lbs. A fire-proof tile should be placed under the tins to prevent the bread burning at the bottom, and, when half done, the loaves should be changed, the front ones to the back, as there will be the greatest heat: the fire is under the oven, and, after having been once lighted, should be supplied only by cinders, wetted, and a small quantity of small coal mixed with

them.

For the baking of pastry, light bread, rolls, and breakfastcakes, the iron ovens fixed in the usual kitchen ranges have the advantage of requiring but little fire, and enabling the cook to regulate its temperature, so as to increase or diminish its power; but a still better may be found in the French moveable oven, for which see No. 770.

MAKING BREAD.

807. Put the necessary quantity of good flour-say bushel-into a kneading-trough, or broad earthen pan, and make a large hole in the middle of the heap. Have ready a quart of warm water and stir it into a pint of brewers' yeast, or, if home-made, a larger quantity; then pour it through a sieve into the hole, and, with a large wooden spoon, work it round so as to bring it to a batter of moderate toughness, and, when that is done, sprinkle over it a large handful of flour, so as to commence what is called "setting the sponge;"