Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/1638

1464 them into a clean wooden bucket. Take a rolling-pin and pound the potatoes down with it; add about ½ a lb. of flour, and mix it well into the scalding hot potatoes with the rolling-pin; add 1 quart of water, and stir all the ingredients well up together, and when it has cooled down to 75° Fahr., shake well, and add ½ a pint of the previously made yeast. Stir well in with the hand, breaking up the potatoes, and then cover over with a clean cloth, and let it stand the same as the yeast, in a warm place to work or ferment. In about 3 hours it will have come up and dropped, and it is necessary, to ensure good bread, that it should drop. Prepare the flour in a large pan, or wooden trough; make a hole in the centre of the flour, if the pan is used, and if a trough, at one end, and strain in the ferment or "comp.," add about 3 ozs. of salt, or more if liked, and sufficient water to wet the 20 lbs. of flour into dough, knead it well, and leave it as dry as possible; cover over with a cloth, and leave it to prove in a warm place for about 3 hours, then give it another good kneading over with flour, cover, and prove for another hour. Then turn out to the board, divide into suitable-sized pieces, mould up into loaves, and when nicely proved bake in a moderate oven.

Ingredients.—2 ozs. of hops, 6 quarts of water, 1 lb. of ground malt, ½ a lb. of brown sugar, 1 lb. of flour, ½ a pint of yeast.

Method.—Proceed exactly in the same manner as directed in the previous recipe, but place the sugar and malt in the bottom of the tub, and strain the scalding-hot liquor from the hops upon it; then cover over, and when cooled down to 70° Fahr., stir in the yeast and flour, and leave it to work as before directed. It can be made into bread in exactly the same way as described, and will make most excellent bread; but during the process particular care must be taken to exclude all draughts, and all the utensils used must be scrupulously clean.