Loaf Bread
Three quarts of flour (for four loaves), one teaspoonful salt, one tablespoonful sugar and one tablespoonful of lard, dissolved in hot water, three-fourths cupful of milk and small yeast cake soaked half hour in tablespoonful of tepid water. Stir all together with knife until knife stands up in the sponge. Let rise over night. Knead out and put in pans not quite half full, that it may rise to the edge in about an hour. Bake in oven of moderate heat about an hour and a half.
A straightforward overnight sandwich loaf — the recipe makes four at once, raised with a single yeast cake and baked in a moderate oven.
- Scaling the flour“Three quarts of flour” is about 12 cups for four loaves — roughly 3 cups per loaf. Divide the whole recipe down if you want just one or two.
- “Small yeast cake”Read this as about one modern packet, 2¼ tsp active dry yeast, softened in the tablespoon of tepid water.
- Season a little moreOne teaspoon of salt for 12 cups of flour is light to today’s taste; 1–2 tablespoons total gives a far better-flavored loaf.
- “Knife stands up”A homey doneness cue — stir until the sponge is stiff enough to hold a knife upright, then set it to rise overnight.
- Moderate oven“Moderate heat” is about 350°F, and an hour and a half suits large loaves. They’re done at an internal 190–200°F and sound hollow when tapped underneath.
For most of the nineteenth century, bread was made at home on a weekly rhythm, and a recipe yielding four loaves at once made good sense in a large household that baked seldom but ate steadily. This one uses the sponge method — a loose, wet batter set to rise overnight before the final shaping — which develops flavor and lets a small amount of yeast do a great deal of work. The shift from temperamental homemade yeast “starts” to the purchased yeast cake is what made such dependable, next-morning loaves possible for the ordinary cook.
From page 51 of the 1904 edition.
Original page from the book
