EXCELLENT DAIRY-BREAD, MADE WITHOUT YEAST.
Some years since, when unfermented bread was first becoming known, I had it tried very successfully in the following manner; and I have since been told that an almost similar method of preparing it is common in many remote parts both of
England and Ireland, where it is almost impossible to procure a constant supply of yeast. Blend well together a teaspoonful of pounded sugar and fifty grains of the purest carbonate of soda; mix a salt spoonful of salt with a pound of flour, and rub the soda and sugar through a hair sieve into it. Stir and mingle them well, and make them quickly into a firm but not hard dough, with sour buttermilk. Bake the loaf well in a thoroughly heated but not fierce oven. In a brick, or in a good iron oven, a few minutes less than an hour would be sufficient to bake a loaf of similar weight. The buttermilk should be kept till it is quite acid; but it must never be in the slightest degree rancid, or otherwise bad. All unfermented bread, it must be repeated, should be placed in the oven directly it is made, or it will be heavy. For a larger baking, allow rather less than an ounce of soda to the gallon (7 lbs.) of flour.