How to Bake your own Bread

A Plain Cookery Book for the Working ... · Francatelli, Charles Elmé · 1852
Source
A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes
Time
Cook: 120 min Total: 120 min
Status
success · extracted 14 days ago
Not a recipe
No
Ingredients (7)
Instructions (21)
  1. Put a bushel of flour into a trough, or a large pan.
  2. Make a deep hole in the centre of the flour with your fist.
  3. Put a pint of good fresh yeast into this hollow.
  4. Add two quarts of warm water to the yeast.
  5. Work in as much flour as will serve to make a soft smooth batter.
  6. Strew this batter over with just enough flour to hide it.
  7. Cover up the trough with its lid, or with a blanket to keep all warm.
  8. When the leaven has risen sufficiently to cause the flour to crack all over its surface, throw in a handful of salt.
  9. Work all together.
  10. Add just enough lukewarm soft water to enable you to work the whole into a firm, compact dough.
  11. Knead this dough with your fists until it becomes stiff and comparatively tough.
  12. Shake a little flour over it.
  13. Cover it again with a blanket to keep it warm, in order to assist its fermentation.
  14. If properly managed, the fermentation will be accomplished in rather less than half an hour.
  15. Meanwhile, heat your oven to a satisfactory degree of heat, with a sufficient quantity of dry, small wood faggots.
  16. When all the wood is burnt, sweep out the oven clean and free from all ashes.
  17. Divide your dough into four-pound loaves.
  18. Knead them into round shapes, making a hole at the top with your thumb.
  19. Immediately put them out of hand into the oven to bake, closing the oven-door upon them.
  20. In about two hours' time they will be thoroughly baked.
  21. Take them out of the oven, and allow them to become quite cold before they are put away in the cupboard.
Original Text
No. 131. How to Bake your own Bread. Put a bushel of flour into a trough, or a large pan; with your fist make a deep hole in the centre thereof; put a pint of good fresh yeast into this hollow; add thereto two quarts of warm water, and work in with these as much of the flour as will serve to make a soft smooth kind of batter. Strew this over with just enough flour to hide it; then cover up the trough with its lid, or with a blanket to keep all warm, and when the leaven has risen sufficiently to cause the flour to crack all over its surface, throw in a handful of salt, work all together; add just enough lukewarm soft water to enable you to work the whole into a firm, compact dough, and after having kneaded this with your fists until it becomes stiff and comparatively tough, shake a little flour over it, and again cover it in with a blanket to keep it warm, in order to assist its fermentation. If properly managed, the fermentation will be accomplished in rather less than half an hour. Meanwhile that the bread is being thus far prepared, you will have heated your oven to a satisfactory degree of heat, with a sufficient quantity of dry, small wood faggots; and when all the wood is burnt, sweep out the oven clean and free from all ashes. Divide your dough into four-pound loaves, knead them into round shapes, making a hole at the[69] top with your thumb, and immediately put them out of hand into the oven to bake, closing the oven-door upon them. In about two hours' time they will be thoroughly baked, and are then to be taken out of the oven, and allowed to become quite cold before they are put away in the cupboard.
Notes
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