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Rolls, Baker's
No. 1.--Put three pounds of fine flour into a large bowl, scoop a hole in the centre not quite to the bottom, and put into this a tea-spoonful of baking-powder dissolved in half a tea-cupful of hot water, a tea-spoonful of salt, and a table-spoonful of fresh yeast. Add a little hot milk, and knead the whole to a smooth shining dough. Throw a cloth over it, and put it into a warm place for two hours. When it is lightly risen, knead it again thoroughly with the fists, let it rise once more, and divide it into pieces the size of a large turkey's egg. Roll these between the hands to the length of a finger, put them on floured baking-tins, leaving a little distance between them, and brush the tops lightly over with milk. When the tops are brightly browned, break open one of the rolls, and if it is done enough take the rest out of the oven. Serve hot. Time to bake, fifteen to twenty minutes. Probable cost, 1/2d. each. No. 2.--Mix a tea-spoonful of salt with two pounds of flour in a bowl. Rub into this a piece of butter the size of an egg, and make a hole in the centre of the flour, not quite to the bottom of the bowl. Pour into this a tea-spoonful of fresh light yeast, with three-quarters of a pint of warm milk and an egg, add as much more milk as will make a thin batter, sprinkle a little flour over it, and leave it in a warm place to rise. In about three hours knead it thoroughly with the fists, and divide the dough into rolls. Lay these on a floured baking-tin, let them rise again for ten or fifteen minutes, brush over with milk, and bake in a well-heated oven. Time to bake, about a quarter of an hour. Probable cost, 1d. each. No. 3.--Stir a slice of fresh butter into half a pint of new milk until it is dissolved. Add half an ounce of sweet German yeast dissolved in a little warm water, and stir the whole into two pounds of flour which has been mixed with half a tea-spoonful of salt. Knead the dough thoroughly with the fists till it is smooth and shining, cover with a cloth, and set it on a warm hearth to rise. Divide it into rolls, lay these on a floured baking-tin, let them rise before the fire for half an hour, and bake in a moderate oven. When rolls are wanted fresh for breakfast, this dough may be kneaded overnight, and left on the hearth till morning. Time to bake, fifteen to twenty minutes. No. 4.--Put a pint of hot milk into a bowl, and stir into it until dissolved two ounces of butter and two ounces of lard. Add a beaten egg, and let the milk cool, then stir the whole into a pound of flour. Knead it well, and put it into a warm place to rise. When light, add another half-pound of flour, and let the dough rise again. Roll it out, stamp it into cakes, lay these in buttered pans, cover them, and let them rise. When light, prick them, and bake in a quick oven. Time to bake, fifteen to twenty minutes. Probable cost, 1 1/2d. each.
Four bakers' roll doughs of increasing richness, from a plain water-and-yeast dough to one enriched with milk, butter, lard and egg. The instructions assume a cook who already knows what bread dough should feel like, so the useful modern notes are about yeast, liquid temperature and oven heat.
- Liquid temperature is the hingeWhere the text says hot milk or hot water, it means hot enough to melt butter and no hotter by the time the yeast meets it. No. 4 spells out the intention: dissolve the fat in hot milk, then let the milk cool. Fresh yeast begins to suffer above about 110F and is killed somewhere around 130-140F; blood heat is the target throughout.
- Yeast quantitiesA tablespoon of fresh yeast is roughly half an ounce of compressed cake yeast, which is what No. 3 states outright. Modern instant or active dry yeast is used at about a third of that weight, so half an ounce fresh translates to roughly a teaspoon and a half of dried.
- "Sweet German yeast"Compressed yeast sold in blocks, of the kind imported from the Continent; "sweet" is generally taken to mark it off from the sour barm skimmed from beer, which carried a bitter tang, though the usage is not documented as a formal distinction. Fresh cake yeast is the direct descendant; dried yeast substitutes cleanly.
- Baking powder plus yeast in No. 1Apparently an insurance policy against unreliable yeast. A single teaspoon in three pounds of flour does almost nothing over two risings and can be left out without changing the result.
- Oven heat"Well-heated" and "quick" correspond to roughly 425-450F; "moderate" to somewhere around 350-375F, though the book gives no temperatures. Rolls of this size are best at about 425F for the stated fifteen to twenty minutes. The book's doneness test is to break one open; an internal temperature of 195-200F says the same thing without sacrificing a roll.
- SizingA large turkey's egg is around 3 oz, so No. 1 divides into pieces of about 85-90 g. Three pounds of flour with its liquid gives something over twenty rolls at that size, the two-pound doughs proportionally fewer.
- The overnight methodNo. 3 allows the dough to be kneaded overnight and left on the hearth till morning. Modern yeast at room temperature overnight will overproof and collapse; a cold retard in the refrigerator gives the same convenience and better flavour.
- CostsThe prices are pre-decimal pence per roll, useful only as a record of relative expense: 1/2d each for the plain dough against 1d for No. 2 and 1 1/2d for the richest. No price is given for No. 3.
The progression through the four numbers is essentially a ladder of cost, from flour, water, salt and yeast up to a dough carrying a pint of milk, butter, lard and egg, and the per-roll prices printed at the end let a Victorian housekeeper decide how far up that ladder her household could afford to climb. The reliance on fresh compressed yeast, sold by the ounce and needing to be used within days, may explain the hedging with baking powder in No. 1 and the insistence that the yeast be "fresh" and "light". Kneading "with the fists" was the standard direction in an era before stand mixers, and the shaping of No. 1 into finger lengths gives what later British bakers would call a finger roll.