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SECTION II.

GENERAL RULES FOR BAKING BREAD.

As a general rule, bread requires a rather quick oven to bake it properly. Occasionally it will be light and well flavoured when slowly baked, but seldom of good colour. The heat should always be so regulated as to penetrate the dough entirely before the outside becomes hard. If it be seized or caught, as it is termed, at first, the surface will often be perfectly black, while the inside still remains mere dough; and for this it is difficult to find any remedy; for leaving it a longer time than usual in the oven will only burn the outside more and more, and leave the interior still watery, rendering the whole uneatable.
    It is useless to endeavour to complete the baking of bread which has been withdrawn from the oven before it was done and allowed to become cold; for the heat has then no further effect upon it. If returned to the oven while still hot, the defect may be remedied.
    "When bread has been made too lithe," that is to say, when so much liquid has been used in mixing the dough that it spreads about instead of remaining in shape when moulded into loaves, "it should be put into a rather slow oven; otherwise the outside will speedily harden and lock up the moisture,"* and the inside, not being sufficiently baked, will be unwholesome eating; and in warm weather will soon become sour or mouldy.
    Loaves which are baked in tins or pans should be loosened from them directly they are taken from the oven and, like all other bread, turned upside down, or the steam, not being able to escape, will cause the under-crusts to be wet and blistered. To render bread soft it is covered with a thick flannel while cooling, or wrapped in it.
    A proper instrument for rasping French rolls or loaves is sold at the ironmongers'.
    Observation.—To ascertain whether dough be light enough to bake, let the knuckles be pressed hard upon it, and leave it for a short time, when, if the impression of them has disappeared, it will be a proof that it is ready for the oven, to which it should be despatched quickly after it has been made up into loaves, unless it is required very spongy, when it may be kept, as directed in some of the following receipts, in a warm place to rise or prove, after it is moulded.
    While bread is being baked the door of the oven should be opened as seldom as possible, particularly until the dough has set, or become firm, as cold draughts of air admitted to it will have an unfavourable effect upon it, and cool the oven quickly at the same time.

THE OVEN.
Management of a brick oven.—Much of the quality of bread depends on its being well baked, and therefore, the nature and construction of the oven used for it, when it is required in large quantities, are very important. Of all that are in common use amongst us at present, a brick oven, heated with wood, is generally considered as the best adapted to it; and, certainly, no bread seems so sweet and wholesome as that which is so baked in private families, when perfect cleanliness has been observed in all the operations connected with it, and they have been performed with care and skill. To ensure a sufficient degree of heat to bake bread properly, and a variety of other things in succession after it when they are required, the oven should be well heated, then cleared and cleansed ready for use, and closely shut from half an hour to an hour, according to its size. It will not then cool down as it would if the baking were commenced immediately after the fire was withdrawn, but will serve for cakes, biscuits, sweet puddings, fruit, meat-jelly, jars of sago, tapioca, rice, and other preparations, for several hours after the bread is taken out.
    I have known a very large brick oven, heated in the middle of the day with one full sized faggot or rather more, and a log or two of cord-wood*, which was added when the faggot was partly consumed, still warm enough at eight or nine o'clock in the evening to bake various delicate small cakes, such as macaroons and mesingues, and also custards, apples, &c.
    It is both a great convenience and a considerable economy in many families to have such a means of preparing food for several days' consumption, and renders them entirely independent both of bakers and confectioners.
    To restore the freshness of pastry, biscuits, or bread, when they begin to taste stale, it is only necessary to heat them through, without hardening them, in a gentle oven of any kind.
    To heat a large brick oven.—Lay a quantity of shavings or other dry light fuel into the centre of the oven, and some small branches of faggot-wood upon them; over these place as many of the larger branches as will make a tolerably large fire, and set light to the shavings. As the wood consumes keep adding more, throwing in, after a time, amongst the live embers the stout poles of the faggot, and, lastly, two or three moderate-sized logs of cord-wood, when the oven is of large dimensions and the heat is wanted to be long-sustained. When no cord-wood is at hand, the necessary quantity of large faggot or other wood must be used instead.
    From an hour and a half to two hours will be required to heat thoroughly a full-sized brick oven. The fire should be spread over it in all parts towards the end of the time, that the whole of the floor may be in a proper state for baking.
    After all the embers and ashes have been cleared out, a large mop, kept exclusively for the purpose, dipped into hot water and wrung very dry, should be passed in every direction over it, to cleanse it perfectly for the reception of the bread.
    As the heat is greatest at the further part of the oven (and at the sides frequently), it is usual to place loaves of the largest size there, and those which require less baking nearer to the mouth of the oven.
    To ascertain whether a brick oven be heated to the proper degree for baking bread, it is customary for persons who have not much experience to throw a small quantity of flour into it. Should it take fire immediately, or become black, the oven is too hot*, and should be closed, if the state of the dough will permit it to wait, until the temperature is moderated: this is better than cooling it down quickly by leaving the door open. It may also be tested by putting into it small bits of dough about the size of walnuts, which will soon show whether it be over heated or not sufficiently so.
    When, from want of due calculation or any other point of good management, the dough is not ready when the oven is fit to receive it, and the heat has too much abated by the time it is so to permit it to be properly baked, the economist should bear in mind that the cost of having it heated anew to the proper degree will be a very trifling consideration compared with the loss of the bread itself, if it should be spoiled by insufficient baking. The price of half a bushel of flour would purchase a large number of faggots.
    Cottage brick oven.—To bake half a bushel of bread in the oven of a working man's cottage, a fourpenny faggot—in those counties where wood is to be obtained at a reasonable price—is usually found sufficient. The bread in many cases is divided into eight or nine large loaves, which are baked for about two hours. The fire is kindled in the oven immediately after the dough is made; but it is not commonly left to rise so long as two hours, much more yeast being used for it oftener than is really needed, and the fermentation being much quickened in consequence.
    Iron ovens. — It is not easy to give very precise directions for heating these; they vary so exceedingly in size and in construction. Those which have a fire under them will sometimes bake extremely well if they are carefully attended to, and not over-heated; but in general they are a little difficult to manage, being apt to burn the surface of bread or pastry before they are half baked; and another disadvantage attached to them is that the iron-plate at the bottom, being so near the fire, becomes greatly over-heated, and quickly blackens what is placed upon it. A remedy for this is, to withdraw the sliding sheet of iron which usually separates these ovens into two compartments, and to set some clean bricks close together on the oven floor to receive the tins of bread or other preparations. A thick layer of sand placed between two sheets of iron will likewise prevent the excess of heat; but the bricks are somewhat preferable. In many of the cooking-stoves of the present day the ovens are so much improved that they bake admirably; and they can always be brought to the required temperature when it is higher than is needed, by leaving the door open for a time.
    American ovens.—It is possible to bake bread well in an American oven of moderate size; but the loaves must not be very large; and they must receive constant attention to prevent their being scorched in one part before they are sufficiently baked in another. They should not be placed too close to the fire at first, nor at any time quite near to it. They should be watched and turned round from time to time that the heat may reach them equally; and paper should be laid over the tops if they should accidentally take too much colour before they are done. They will answer best in this kind of oven if put into tins suited to its dimensions. Persons who use the American oven habitually will find it a great advantage to have a tin-mould nearly the size of the interior (or two smaller ones fitted easily to it), of about an inch and a half or two inches in depth, and the same size at the top and bottom. This shallow mould or tin permits bread, cakes, and many other preparations, to be baked in the best manner that an oven of the above construction will permit, and renders it altogether far more useful than those which are simply fitted with the common tin tray usually sold in them.
    If dough be very evenly pressed into a slightly buttered mould of the height that has been named, to within a third or rather more of its depth, and slightly cut once or twice across the top, it will form an exceedingly nice loaf provided the baking be well conducted. Light cakes, thick gingerbread, various kinds of puddings also, may be baked in it with equal facility.
    Care must be taken to place the American ovens always in such a manner that the heat of the fire may reach the lower as well as the upper compartment of them, otherwise the baking will be very imperfect. They are extremely useful when their management is once thoroughly understood, and answer best with a moderate and not a very fierce fire.
    Ball's* revolving oven.—This is a simple but very ingenious invention by which bread is baked in the same way that meat is roasted, by revolving in front of the fire; and it is so contrived that it may be suspended from the chimney-piece of any room at pleasure, which, in many cases, is a great convenience. It answers perfectly where the bars of the grate are straight and of the same width at the top and bottom, but not when the stove is of circular form, because it is essential that the heat should reach without impediment the lower part of the oven. Bread baked in it, if properly attended to, will be very light and good. Should the top not take colour sufficiently by the time the loaf ought to be done, the oven must be lowered, and left so until it is browned. It may be suspended from a bottle-jack, and will then require no attention beyond that of keeping up a proper fire while it is in operation; but when it is merely hooked to a woollen cord or a common string it must be closely watched, and kept turning, or the bread will burn. It is desirable to screen it from strong draughts of air during the process by placing something suited to the purpose before the fire. When there is no other oven of any sort in a house adapted to baking bread, this will be found very serviceable, particularly in remote country places, and in families who possess but scanty accommodation for domestic purposes. At a common kitchen-range, with a sound roasting-fire, a two-pound loaf will be done in an hour and ten minutes, and a four-pound loaf in nearly two hours. The price of these little ovens is very moderate, and they are light and portable. They do not require to be heated before the bread is put into them.
    Observation.—There can scarcely be a stronger proof of the value of home-made bread in London than the avidity with which the specimen-loaves are sought which are made by Mrs. Ball, and baked in the one or two of her husband's ovens, which are always to be seen in operation in their own shop.