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White Bread (Quick Method cakes)
Quick Method 2 cakes FLEISCHMANN'S YEAST 1 quart lukewarm water 2 tablespoonfuls sugar 2 tablespoonfuls lard or butter, melted 3 quarts sifted flour 1 tablespoonful salt Dissolve yeast and sugar in lukewarm water, add lard or butter, and half the flour. Beat until smooth, then add salt and balance of the flour, or enough to make dough that can be handled. Knead until smooth and elastic, or "throw and roll." Place in greased bowl, cover and set aside in a moderately warm place, 4½ quarts sifted flour tablespoonfuls lard or butter, melted 2 1 tablespoonful salt Dissolve the yeast and sugar in one quart of lukewarm water, and add one and one-half quarts of sifted flour, or sufficient to make an ordinary sponge.
Beat well. Cover and set aside for about one and one-half hours in a warm place.
When well-risen add the pint of lukewarm water, lard or butter, the remainder of the flour, or enough to make a moderately firm dough, and the salt.
Knead thoroughly; place in greased bowl. Cover and let rise from one and one-half to two hours.
When light, mould into loaves and place in well-greased baking pans, cover and let rise again for about one hour.
When light, bake forty to fifty minutes, reducing the heat of oven after first ten minutes.
This recipe makes four large loaves.
The whole process takes from five and one-half to six hours, and if followed closely, will produce excellent results.
If a richer loaf is desired, use milk in place of all or part of the water. 5 2 1 1 2 1
A commercial yeast-company formula of the sort that circulated in bridal cookbooks of the 1910s and 1920s, written for cooks who bought fresh yeast by the cake and measured flour by the quart.
- Yeast cakesFleischmann's compressed cakes of this period were commonly about 0.6 oz each; on that basis two cakes are roughly two packets (about 4½ teaspoons) of modern active dry or instant yeast. That is a generous amount for this quantity of dough and will drive the fast rises the timings assume.
- Flour by volumeThree quarts of sifted flour is about 12 cups, or a little over 3 lb; the longer sponge version's 4½ quarts is about 18 cups, roughly 4½ lb. Sifted flour weighs less per cup than scooped, so add the last quart cautiously and stop when the dough is firm but still tacky.
- Water quantitiesThe sponge method calls for one quart of water at the start and then "the pint of lukewarm water" later, though no pint is listed among the ingredients. Read it as an additional 2 cups added with the fat and remaining flour, and adjust to the flour you are using.
- Oven heat"Reducing the heat of oven after first ten minutes" indicates a hot start for oven spring and crust, then a steady bake; the book gives no figures. In a modern oven, roughly 425F for the first ten minutes and 375F for the remaining thirty to forty will answer. Loaves are done at an internal temperature of 195-200F.
- Throw and rollProbably the old kneading action of lifting the mass, slapping it down, folding and turning, much like the slap-and-fold used today. Eight to ten minutes by hand, or six on a mixer's dough hook, should bring it to smooth and elastic.
- Lard or butterTwo tablespoons of fat in this quantity of dough is a softener, not a flavour, and either works. Melted and cooled is important; hot fat poured onto dissolved yeast will damage it.
- Rising temperature"A moderately warm place" means roughly 75-80F. The stated one and a half to two hours assumes that; a cool modern kitchen at 65F will take considerably longer, and the dough is ready when doubled rather than when the clock says so.
- YieldThe sponge version states four large loaves from the full quantity; the recipe specifies only "well-greased baking pans" and gives no size.
Fleischmann's began promoting compressed yeast at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, and by the early twentieth century the company was distributing its own bread formulas through pamphlets, newspaper advertising and cookbooks like this one -- which is why a brand name sits at the head of a recipe in a domestic-science bread chapter. The two methods printed here mark a real division in home baking of the era: the older sponge process, in which a wet batter of flour, water and yeast ferments on its own before the rest of the flour goes in, and the newer "quick" or straight-dough method that mixes everything at once and leans on a heavier dose of reliable manufactured yeast to make up the time.