COTTAGE BREAD

The English bread-book · Eliza Acton · 1857
Source
The English bread-book
Time
Cook: 120 min Total: 120 min
Yield
4.0 four-pound loaves
Status
success · extracted 11 days ago
Not a recipe
No
Ingredients (4)
Instructions (6)
  1. Mix with about five gallons and a half of flour, a teacupful or about six ounces of salt, and three pennyworth, or rather more than a pint, of yeast.
  2. Make these up into a dough at once, with something more than a gallon of warm water.
  3. Let it stand to rise until it is quite light.
  4. In the meantime, kindle the fire in the oven, and heat it well.
  5. Divide the dough into four-pound loaves, and bake them well.
  6. They will be nicely done in about two hours.
Original Text
COTTAGE BREAD. It is often peculiarly acceptable in London and elsewhere. She makes it even for the family of the clergyman of her parish, when their own servants cannot perform that duty; and the con- stancy with which it is required from her is suf- ficient evidence of their deficiency in that respect. “Mix with about five gallons and a half of flour, a teacupful or about six ounces of salt, and three pennyworth, or rather more than a pint, of yeast. Make these up into a dough at once, with some- thing more than a gallon of warm water; let it stand to rise until it is quite light, and in the meantime, kindle the fire in the oven, and heat it well. A fourpenny faggot is all the fuel that is used for it; but it is always heated once a week, and sometimes twice, so that it requires less than ovens which are not so regularly used. Divide the dough into four-pound loaves, and bake them well. They will be nicely done in about two hours.” This bread, when carefully stored, remains per- fectly good in cool weather for ten days; and has occasionally been found quite eatable at the end of a fortnight, which it would not have been un- less it had been wholesomely made and thoroughly baked. I think it might be slightly improved by diminishing a little the proportion of yeast used for lightening it, and allowing it to lie rather longer after it is kneaded down, before it is put
Notes