To Make Leaven Bread

Bread made without barm, must be by the assistance of Jeaven. Take a lump of dough, about two pounds of the last making, which has been raised by barm. Keep it in a wooden vessel, cover it well with flour, and this will be the leaven. The night before baking, put the leaven to a peck of flour, and work them well together with warm water. Let it lie in a dry wooden vessel, well covered with a linen cloth and blanket, and keep it in a warm place. This dough, kept warm, will rise again next morning, and will be sufficient to mix with two or three bushels of flour, being mixed up with warm water and a little salt. When it is well worked up, and thoroughly mixed with the flour, let it be well covered with the linen and blanket, until it begins to rise. Then knead it well and work it up into bricks or loaves, making the loaves broad, and not so thick and high as is frequently done, by which means the bread will be better baked. Always keep two or more pounds of the dough of the last baking, well covered with flour, to make leaven to serve from one baking day to another; and the more leaven put to the flour, the lighter the bread will be. The fresher the leaven, the less sour will be the bread.

To Make French Bread

Put a pint of milk into three quarts of water; in winter, let it be scalding hot, but only little more than milk-warm in summer. Having put in salt sufficient to the taste, take a pint and a half of good ale yeast; but take care that it is not bitter. Lay it in a gallon of water the night before ; pour it off the water, stir the yeast into the milk and water, and then with the hand break in a little more than a quarter of a pound of butter. Work it well till it is dissolved, then beat up two eggs in a bason, and stir them in. Take about a peck and a half of flour, and mix it with the liquor. In winter, the dough must be made pretty stiff, but more slack in summer; to use a little more or less flour, according to the stiffness of the dough ; but mind to mix it well, and the less it is worked, the better. Stir the liquor into the flour as for pie crust; and after the dough is made, cover it with a cloth, and let it lie to rise while the oven is heating. When they have lain in a quick oven about a quarter of an hour, turn them on the other side, and let them lie about a quarter longer. Then take them out, and chip all the French bread with a knife, which will be better than rasping it, making it look spongy, and of a fine yellow; whereas the rasping takes off that fine colour, and makes it look too smooth.

To Make Oat-Cakes And Muffins

Take a pint and a half of good ale yeast from pale malt, because that is whitest. Let the yeast lie in water ail night, the next day pour off the water clear, make two gallons of water just milk-warm, but not so hot as to scald the yeast, and two ounces of salt. Mix the water, yeast, and salt well together for a quarter of an hour. Then strain it, and with a bushel of Hertfordshire white flour mix up the dough as light as possible, and let it lie in the trough an hour to rise. Then roll it with the hand, and pull it into little pieces about as big as a large walnut. Roll them with the hand in the shape of a ball, lay them on a table, and as fast as they are done, lay a piece of flannel over them, and be sure to keep the dough covered with flannel. When all the dough is rolled out, begin to bake the first made, and by that time they will be spread out in a right form. Lay them on the iron, and as soon as one side is sufficiently coloured, turn them on the other ; but take great care that they do not burn, or be too much discoloured. If the iron is too hot, as will sometimes be the case, put a brick-bat or two in the middle of the fire to slacken the heat. Here it is undoubtedly necessary to mention in what manner the thing baked on must be made. Build a place as if going to set a copper; but instead of a copper, place a piece of iron all over the top, in form just the same as the bottom of an iron pot, and make the fire underneath with coal, as in a copper. Observe, that muffins are made the same way, with this difference only, that, when pulled to pieces, roll them in a good deal of flour, and with a rolling pin roll them thin. Then cover them with a piece of flannel, and they will rise to a proper thickness ; but, if too big or too little, roll the dough accordingly. Muffins must not be the least discoloured.