mixed from liquid yeast
(usually home-made potato yeast is used) and a small part of the flour
required for making the bread. This batter was usually set to rise at
night and mixed up in the centre of a quantity of flour, in an
old-fashioned wooden dough tray. The following morning enough flour
was kneaded in to form a dough, and when well-raised and light, this
dough was formed into loaves and placed in pans for the final rising.
The more easily and more quickly made "straight" dough, when using
Fleischman's compressed yeast, is mixed in the morning and all the
ingredients necessary are added at one time. It is then set to rise
and, when the dough has doubled in bulk, it is kneaded down and when
risen to once and half its size, shaped into loaves, placed in pans to
rise and, when risen to top of pans, bake.

Better bread may be made from flour not freshly milled. Flour should
be kept in a dry place; it improves with moderate age. Stand flour in
a warm place to dry out several hours before using if you would have
good bread.

When baking bread the heat of the oven should not be _too great_ at
_first_, or the outside of the bread will harden too quickly and
inside the loaves will not be thoroughly baked before the crust is
thick and dark. The temperature of the oven and time required for
baking depend upon the size of the loaves, yet the bread should be
placed in rather a quick oven, one in which the loaves should brown in
about fifteen minutes, when the heat may be reduced, finishing the
baking more slowly.

Small biscuits and rolls can stand a much hotter oven and quicker
baking than large loaves, which must be heated slowly, and baked a
longer time. A one-pound loaf should bake about one hour. On being
taken from the oven, bread should be placed on a sieve, so that the
air can circulate about it until it is thoroughly cooled. In the
_Farmers' Bulletin_, we read: "The lightness and sweetness depend as
much on the way bread is made as on the materials used." The greatest
care should be used in preparing and baking the dough and in cooking
and keeping the finished bread. Though good housekeepers agree that
light, well-raised bread can readily be made, with reasonable care and
attention, heavy, badly-raised bread is unfortunately very common.
Such bread is not palatable and is generally considered to be
unwholesome, and probably more indigestion has been caused by it than
by any other badly-cooked food. As compared w