Bread (With Compressed Yeast)

3 1/2 quarts flour. l 1/2 tablespoonfuls salt. 1 tablespoonful sugar. 1 tablespoonful lard or butter (softened). l 1/2 quarts warm water. 1/2 cake compressed yeast.

Dissolve the yeast in half a cupful of the water. Stir together the ingredients in the order given, with a strong spoon, and a strong arm. Beat hard and long, until the dough ceases to stick to the spoon. Cover the pan, and set to rise over night. Early in the morning, stir it down with a spoon. Take out at once, on the bread-board, and with a little flour make it into loaves. Let it stand in the pans in a warm place until light, then bake about one hour, according to the size of the loaf.

This will make four loaves, and is very light, spongy bread. It rises faster than other kinds. If set at ten in the morning, it will be ready to bake by five in the afternoon.

Bread With Potato Yeast, Or Baker's Yeast

8 cupfuls flour. 1 tablespoonful salt. 2 tablespoonfuls sugar (may be omitted). 1 tablespoonful shortening. 3 cupfuls tepid water. 1 cupful "Raw Potato Yeast" (shaken).

Mix, and make like the above. Makes two loaves.

Bread Made Quickly

(Miss Corson's Method, Condensed.)

1 cake compressed yeast.

2cupfuls water, warm.

4 cupfuls flour. 1 teaspoonful salt.

The yeast-cake should be about half an inch thick, and two inches long by one wide. Dissolve it in one cupful of water at a temperature of about ninety-eight degrees Fahrenheit. Put into a bread-pan with one cupful of the flour, or enough to make a batter which will hold a drop let fall from the spoon.

Beat until quite smooth, then cover, and place where a moderate degree of heat will strike it equally. To effect this, turn the pan frequently, and never allow it to get so hot that the hand cannot be borne upon the outside of the bowl with perfect comfort.

Strict attention must be paid to this point, to ensure success. If the heat is too great, it will scald the sponge, and prevent fermentation. In about half an hour, it will be like a thick foam, full of air-bubbles.

Then mix with it the salt, dissolved in a second cupful of the lukewarm water, and add about three cupfuls more of flour, or enough to make a soft dough. Put it on a floured board, and knead for about five minutes, or until it no longer sticks to the board or hands, and looks smooth. Divide the dough into two parts, and put into two buttered Russia-iron bread-pans. Cover with a folded towel, and place the pans where the same gentle heat will strike them, turning them often to ensure an even rising, and taking care not to have them too hot. When the dough has risen to twice its original volume, brush over with melted butter, and bake in a moderate oven.

Plain Graham Bread

2 cupfuls "sponge."

2 tablespoonfuls brown sugar.

1 tablespoonful salt.

Graham flour to make a soft dough.

Mix together. Beat hard and set to rise, proceeding as with white bread. Immediately before putting it in the oven, wash over the top of each loaf with water. Bake in a moderate oven about one hour.

Makes three loaves.