ith most meats and
vegetables, bread has practically no waste and is very completely
digested, but it is usually too poor in proteins to be fittingly used
as the sole article of diet, but when eaten with due quantities of
other food, it is invaluable and well deserves its title of "Staff of
Life."

When the housewife "sets" bread sponge to rise over night, she should
mix the sponge or dough quite late, and early in the morning mold it
at once into shapely-looking loaves (should the sponge have had the
necessary amount of flour added the night before for making a stiff
dough).

Being aware of the great nutritive value of raisins and dried
currants, Aunt Sarah frequently added a cup of either one or the
other, well-floured, to the dough when shaping into loaves for the
final rising.

Aunt Sarah frequently used a mixture of butter and lard when baking on
account of its being more economical, and for the reason that a lesser
quantity of lard may be used; the shortening qualities being greater
than that of butter. The taste of lard was never detected in her bread
or cakes, they being noted for their excellence, as the lard she used
was home-rendered, almost as sweet as dairy butter, free from taste or
odor of pork. She always beat lard to a cream when using it for baking
cakes, and salted it well before using, and I do not think the small
quantity used could be objected to on hygienic principles.

I have read "bread baking" is done once every three or four weeks, no
oftener, in some of the farm houses of Central Europe, and yet stale
bread is there unknown. Their method of keeping bread fresh is to
sprinkle flour into a large sack and into this pack the loaves, taking
care to have the top crusts of bread touch each other. If they have to
lie bottom to bottom, sprinkle flour between them. Swing the sack in a
dry place. It must swing and there must be plenty of flour between the
loaves. It sounds more odd than reasonable, I confess.

"BUCKS COUNTY" HEARTH-BAKED RYE BREAD (AS MADE BY AUNT SARAH)

1 quart sweet milk (scalded and cooled).
1 tablespoonful lard or butter.
2 table spoonsful sugar.
1/2 tablespoonful salt.
1 cup wheat flour.
3 quarts rye flour (this includes the one cup of wheat flour).
1 Fleischman yeast cake or 1 cup of potato yeast.

[Illustration: "BUCKS COUNTY" RYE BREAD]

Pour 1 quart of luke-warm milk in a bowl holding 7 quarts. Add butter,
sugar and salt, 1-1/2 quarts rye flour and 1 cup of yeas