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To Make Good Bread,

"Up in the morning early, just at the peep of day," in summer time, to prevent the sponge becoming sour by too long standing, and in winter to be getting materials warmed and in readiness for use. A large, seamless tin dish-pan with handles and a tight-fitting cover, kept for this purpose alone, is better than a wooden bowl for bread. It should be thoroughly washed and scalded every time it is used. Measure and sift the flour. It is convenient to keep two quart cups, one for dry and the other for liquid measuring. In winter always warm the flour (by placing it in a pan in a warm oven for a few minutes or by setting it over night where it will be kept at the same temperature as the sponge) and also the sponge. Put the flour in a bread pan, make a large well in the center, into which pour the sponge, adding two level tea-spoons of salt (this is the quantity for four loaves of bread); mix well, being careful not to get the dough too stiff'; turn out on the bread-board, rub the pan clean, and add the "rubbings" to the bread. Knead for from forty-five minutes to one hour, or until the dough ceases to stick to either the board or hands. Do not stop kneading until done. Any pause in the process injures the bread. The process of kneading is very important. Use just as little flour in kneading as will prevent sticking, and practice will enable one to make a little flour go a great way. Some good bread-makers knead with the palm of the hands until the dough is a flat cake, then fold once, repeating this operation until the dough is perfectly smooth and elastic; others close the hands and press hard and quickly into the dough with the fists, dipping them into the flour when the dough sticks; or, after kneading, chop with the chopping knife and then knead again; others still knead with a potato-masher, thinking it a great saving of strength. Another method, used by good bread-makers, is to raise the whole mass and drop or dash it with considerable force upon the mixing-board or table for several minutes. No exact directions can be given, but experience and practice will prove the best guides. After the bread is thoroughly kneaded, form into a round mass or large loaf, sprinkle the bread-pan well with flour, and, having placed the loaf in it, sprinkle flour lightly on the top (some grease the top with salted lard or butter instead of sprinkling with flour); cover closely, and set to rise in a warm temperature; let it rise to twice its original size this time, say from one to two hours, differing in time with the season of the year. Then knead down in the pan, cut into equal parts, place one at a time on the board, mold each into a smooth, oblong loaf, not too large, and put one after another into a well-greased baking-pan; grease the tops of the loaves with salted lard or butter, and set to rise. Or the loaves may be made by buttering the hands, and taking enough from the mass to form a loaf, molding it into shape in the hands, without using flour. This insures a nice, brown, tender crust. Loaves made in the French style, long and narrow, are about half crust, and more easily digested, the action of heat anticipating part of the digestive process. In molding, do not leave any lumps or loose flour adhering to the outside, but mold until the loaves are perfectly smooth. No particular directions can be given in regard to the time bread should stand after it is molded and placed in the pans, because here is the point where observation and discretion are so indispensable. In hot weather, when the yeast is very good and the bread very light, it must not stand over fifteen minutes before placing to bake. If it is cold weather, and the yeast is less active, or the bread not perfectly raised, it may sometimes stand an hour in the pans without injury. When it is risen so as to seam or crack, it is ready for the oven; if it stands after this it becomes sour, and even if it does not sour it loses its freshness and sweetness, and the bread becomes dry sooner after baking. Bread should undergo but two fermentations; the saccharine or sweet fermentation, and the vinous, when it smells something like foaming beer. The housewife who would have good, sweet bread, must never let it pass this change, because the third or acetous fermentation then takes place. This last can be remedied by adding soda in the proportion of one tea-spoon to each quart of wetting; or, which is the same thing, a tea-spoon to four quarts of flour; but the bread will be much less nutritious and healthful, and some of the best elements of the flour will be lost. Always add salt to all bread, biscuit, griddle-cakes, etc., but never salt sponge. A small quantity of white sugar is an improvement to all bread dough. Bread should always be mixed as soft as it can be handled, but in using the "new process" flour, made from spring wheat, the dough requires to be much harder than is necessary when using that made from winter wheat.