the bowl and after it is put into the pans. If it is not
convenient to bake the bread when ready, it may be kneaded again and
kept in a cool place, to prevent souring. Bread should be mixed in a
stone or granite bowl.

The only necessary ingredients for bread are water, flour, salt, and
yeast. Sugar may be added to restore the natural sweetness of the
flour which has been lost during fermentation, but it is not
necessary. If milk is used, and the bread well kneaded, no other
shortening is required; but with water, the addition of a little
butter or dripping makes the bread more tender, therefore it is more
easily penetrated by the digestive fluids. Tough, leathery bread is
not easily digested, no matter how light it may be. As already stated,
by the action of heat the ferment is killed, the starch-grains
ruptured, the gas carried off, and the crust formed. In order that
bread may be thoroughly cooked, and plenty of crust formed, each loaf
should be baked in a pan about 4 inches deep, 4 to 6 inches wide, and
from 8 to 12 inches long. Smaller loaves are even more desirable. It
is very difficult to bake a large loaf so as to insure the escape of
all the carbonic acid gas, and to cook the starch sufficiently without
injuring the crust, besides entailing an unnecessary waste of fuel.
The custom of baking several loaves together in one large pan is
contrary to all scientific rules of bread-making. The oven should be
hot enough to brown a spoonful of flour in five minutes, for bread.
The dough should rise during the first fifteen minutes, then begin to
brown; keep the heat steady for the next fifteen or twenty minutes,
then decrease it. If the oven is too hot a hard crust will form and
prevent the dough from rising, which will not only cause the bread to
be heavy, but will prevent the gas from escaping. If, on the other
hand, the oven is not hot enough, the bread will go on rising until
it becomes sour. A loaf, the size already mentioned, should take from
fifty-five to sixty minutes to bake, and should give a hollow sound,
if tapped, when removed from the oven. Better take too long than not
long enough, as doughy bread is most objectionable and unwholesome. If
the crust is beginning to burn, cover the loaf with brown paper, and
reduce the heat, but have a brown crust, not a whity-brown, which is
usually hard and without flavor. Upon removing the loaves from the
pans, place them on a rack, where the air may circulate freely. Ne