SCOTCH BREAD

which should be about 100 degrees Fahr.), and 3^ lbs. of salt. Make all into a nice-sized dough ; let it stand three-quarters of an hour, then scale off.

4.— Scotch Style of making Bread.

The bread-making industry has made great strides in Scot- land. In Glasgow alone there are two firms which each bake over two thousand bags of flour a week — namely, J. and B. Stevenson and Bilsland Brothers — while five other firms each bake from five hundred to one thousand bags a week. In respect to the output, Scotland is a long way in advance of either England or Ireland. I can well remember the time when oatmeal cakes and scones were the staple food in Scot- land ; but such food is now notable by its absence. This brings to mind a story I once heard of an Englishman and a Scotchman who were arguing on the merits of their respective countries. The Englishman said, “ Man Sandy, you are all fed on oatmeal ! Why, in England we only feed our horses on oats.” Sandy’s reply was, “ I don’t na but what you say, man, is a’ very true, but where wull ye get sic horses and where wull ye get sic men ?”

As I have said before, Parisian barm is the kind most used in Scotland ; in fact, nearly all the Scotch advertisements require “ men used to Parisian barm.” However, I have noticed lately that German yeast is steadily making its way in the North. The Scotch used generally to make their bread with what they called potato ferment. Now it is mostly quarter or full sponges. To make 1 sack of flour into bread with a quarter sponge take 1 gallon of water of the required tempe- rature, add \ a gallon of Parisian barm, and sufficient flour to make it into a good stiff dough. This is generally set between one and two o’clock, and is ready to take about half-past four. It should be dropped when ready an inch in the quarter boat

20 BREAD AND BISCUIT BAUER’S ASSISTANT.

or barrel. Empty it into the trough, add io gallons of water, dissolve 2 lbs. of salt, and mix all into a well-beaten sponge. Add 6 gallons of water of the required temperature and 1^ lb. of salt in the morning, or when you take the sponge, and make all into a nice dough. The softer you can work the sponge the clearer and showier will be the loaf.

To make 1 sack of flour with a full sponge, take 1 to d gallons of barm, about 10 gallons of water of the proper tem- perature with 2 lbs. of salt dissolved in it; make all into a nice-sized sponge. When ready add 6 gallons of water of proper temperature, and lb. of salt, and make it into dough.

Care should always be taken to keep the barm clear of grease and churned milk, especially if the milk is sour.

There are a great many substitutes for wheat-flour bread, some of which I will enumerate ; but I do not think it needful to give the recipes for them, as the recipes and formulae I have given are evidently those most popular in the English, Scotch, and Irish bakehouses. Among the many substitutes for wheat bread are the following : bread corn, rice bread, potato bread; bread made of roots, ragwort bread, turnip bread, apple bread, meslin bread, salep bread, Debreczen bread, oat and barley bread. The Norwegians, we are informed, make bread of barley and oatmeal baked between two stones ; this bread is said to improve by age, and may be kept for as long as thirty or forty years. At their great festi- vals the Norwegians use the oldest bread, and it is not unusual at the baptism of infants to have bread made at the time of the baptism of their grandfathers.

5. — Home-made Whole Meal Bread.

Take 1 stone of wheat meal (granulated is best) ; put your flour in the basin or mixing bowl, and make a hole in the centre of the meal : dissolve 2 ozs. of yeast in a gill and a half

WHOLE MEAL BREAD, UNFERMENTED BREAD. 21

of water, about 90° Fahr. ; pour the yeast and water into the hole, and mix in as much of the meal as will make a soft batter ; cover it up, and when it is ready (which you will know by its having a nice cauliflower top), add 2\ ozs. of salt, and sufficient water, at a temperature of say 8o° Fahr., and mix all lightly into a nice mellow dough ; put it past, with a cover over it, till you see it commence to rise ; then divide it into the sizes required and place in tins to prove ; bake in a moderate oven.

Wheat meals, and brown or second flours, do not require so much working, either in the sponge or with the hands, in making it into dough, as do the flours of a finer quality.

6.— Whole Meal Bread.

{For Master Bakers , as generally used in the Trade.)

When setting your ordinary sponges at night for fine bread, dissolve 2 ^ ozs. of yeast and 2\ ozs. of salt in 1 \ gallons of water, about 40 to 6° Fahr., under whatever heat at which you may be setting your fine sponges (according to the nature of the meal you are using) ; take as much whole meal flour as will make this quantity of water into a weak sponge, and in the morning, when it is ready, give it half a gallon of water off same heat as your fine sponges, with 5 ozs. of salt, and make all lightly into a dough so that there is no “ scrape ” about it, and work off in the same way as your ordinary bread.

7. — Unfermented, or Diet Bread.

Take 8 lbs. of granulated wheat meal (or meal made with a mixture of barley meal and wheat meal properly blended), 4 ozs. of cream of tartar, and 2 ozs. of carbonate of soda ; mix the tartar and soda amongst the flour and sift all through a sieve ; make a bay, and add 2 ozs. of crushed salt and 4 ozs. of castor sugar, putting the above in the bay and pouring in a little

22 BREAD AND BISCUIT BAKERS' ASSISTANT.

churned milk to dissolve the salt and sugary then add as much churned milk as will take the 8 lbs. of meal in, and make into a nice-sized dough ; weigh off, and bake in oval tins. They should be put immediately into the oven.

I consider this the very best mode of making wheat meals into bread ; bread thus made eats well, and keeps moist longer than fermented meals.

8. — Rye Bread.

Rye bread used to be in greater favour with the public than it now is, but I consider that is owing to the sodden, heavy way in which it is generally made ; for if rye flour is properly blended with fine flour, instead of the barley meal generally used, it produces a very nice-flavoured loaf.

Set a sponge at night with fine flour — say, i gallon of water, ozs. of yeast, and ozs. of salt ; let your sponge be about the same consistency as for muffin batter; in the morning add i quart of water and 3 ozs. of salt, and make your dough up with rye meal ; let your sponge be set of the same heat as for wheat meal bread.

I have adopted this plan, and find it gives general satisfac- tion. In baking wheat meals, or other meals of the same nature, your oven should be 30° or 40° by the pyrometer under the heat used for fine bread.

9.— Coarse Bread.

Coarse flour (or “ overheads?’ as it is generally called in the south of Scotland) is the cheapest grade of flour made, and if properly manufactured it will vie with any class of flour in the market for a fine, sweet, nutty flavour ; but of course it is dark in colour, and I have seen flour of this grade very strong and carry an exceedingly large quantity of water.