BREAD.
I may say without hesitation that very few bread-makers hit off perfection at starting. The beginner must be prepared to struggle through a few disheartening attempts before he can succeed in turning out the extract thing he wants. The common mistakes are overworking the dough, and using too much liquid. The mixing of dough with the proper quantity of fluid can only be acquired by practice, and all beginners knead too heavily through overzeal. Watch a professor. A cook who understands pastry and bread-making will not require much more than three-quarters of a breakfast-cupful of water to moisten a pound of flour, and carries out the operation with a light hand very quickly.
It is quite possible to use two wooden spoons to work the dough with, the result is satisfactory as regards the lightness of the bread, and to those who have an antipathy to the employment of fingers the system is especially attractive. If by any chance your dough has been made too sloppily, and from its putty-like consistency you have a suspicion that it will be heavy, bake it in a tin. Semolina, known in India as soonji, is more easily moistened than ordinary flour, i.e., less liquid is required to form dough with it. Proportion:—half a pint to a pound of flour, but the same to one pound two ounces of semolina.
The equipment of the camp-baker should be:—a large enamelled iron milk basin, two wooden spoons a flour dredger, scales to weigh the flour, some patty-pans for rolls, some small tins for ditto, a baking-sheet, a half-pound and pound leaf tin, and a cake tin: these various things are not expensive, they should be kept as clean as possible, and be scrupulously reserved for their own purposes. Having provided yourself with this equipment, you should use Yeatman's baking powder, the best Vienna, colonial, or home-made flour you can get, wholemeal and oatmeal occasionally, salt, and either good butter, if procurable, or that of some well-known purveyor preserved in tin.