ely around them, and
thus carry off the gas which has been formed, but is no longer needed.

Never leave the bread in the pan or on a pin table to absorb the odor
of the wood. If you like crusts that are crisp do not cover the
loaves; but to give the soft, tender, wafer-like consistency which
many prefer, wrap them while still hot in several thicknesses of
bread-cloth. When cold put them in a stone jar, removing the cloth, as
that absorbs the moisture and gives the bread an unpleasant taste and
odor. Keep the jar well covered and carefully cleansed from crumbs and
stale pieces. Scald and dry it thoroughly every two or three days. A
yard and a half square of coarse table linen makes the best
bread-cloth. Keep in good supply; use them for no other purpose.

Some people use scalding water in making wheat bread; in that case the
flour must be scalded and allowed to cool before the yeast is
added--then proceed as above. Bread made in this manner keeps moist in
summer much longer than when made in the usual mode.

Home-made yeast is generally preferred to any other. Compressed yeast,
as now sold in most grocery stores, makes fine light, sweet bread, and
is a much quicker process, and can always be had fresh, being made
fresh every day.

WHEAT BREAD.

Sift the flour into a large bread-pan or bowl; make a hole in the
middle of it, and pour in the yeast in the ratio of half a teacupful
of yeast to two quarts of flour; stir the yeast lightly, then pour in
your "wetting," either milk or water, as you choose,--which use warm
in winter and cold in summer; if you use water as "wetting," dissolve
in it a bit of butter of the size of an egg,--if you use milk, no
butter is necessary; stir in the "wetting" very lightly, but do not
mix all the flour into it; then cover the pan with a thick blanket or
towel, and set it, in winter, in a warm place to rise,--this is called
"_putting the bread in sponge_." In summer the bread should not be wet
over night. In the morning add a teaspoonful of salt and mix all the
flour in the pan with the sponge, kneading it well; then let it stand
two hours or more until it has risen quite light; then remove the
dough to the molding-board and mold it for a long time, cutting it in
pieces and molding them together again and again, until the dough is
elastic under the pressure of your hand, using as little flour as
possible; then make it into loaves, put the loaves into baking-tins.
The loaves should com