BREAD-MAKING

The old saying, "bread is the staff of life," has a sound rea- son in it. Flour made from wheat, and meal from oats and Indian corn, are rich in the waste-repairing elements, starch and albumen, and head the list of articles of food for man. Good bread makes the homliest meal acceptable, and the coarsest fare appetising, while the most luxurious table is not even tolerable without it. Light, crisp rolls for breakfast, spongy, sweet bread for dinner, and flaky biscuit for supper, cover a multitude of culinary sins; and there is no one thing on which the health and comfort of a famil}- so much depends as the quality of its home-made loaves.

Bread-making seems a simple process enough, but it requires a delicate care and watchfulness, and a thorough knowledge of all the contingencies of the process, dependent on the different qualities of flour, the varying kinds and conditions of yeast and the change of seasons; the process which raises bread successfully in winter making it sour in summer. There are many little things in bread-making which require accu- rate observation, and, while valuable recipes and well-defined methods in detail are invaluable aids, nothing but experience will secure the name merited by so few, though earnestly cov- eted by eveiy practical, sensible house-keeper — uan excellent bread-maker." Three things are indispensible to success — good flour, good yeast, and watchful care. Good flour adheres to the hand, and, when pressed, shows the imprint of the lines of the skin. Its tint is cream white. Never buy that which has a blue- white tinge. Poor flour is not adhesive, can be blown about easily, and sometimes has a dingy look, as though mixed with ashes.