Housekeeping in the Tropics

Bread

A LOAF of bread. What is there in it? That depends on the baker. It may be full ot all sorts of ill-effects, of which indigestion is the least. Or it may be “the staff of life,” as when made and baked by the housewife who knows “that there is more religion in a loaf of bread, than many think.”

How, then, to make light, nutty, delicious bread, on which the children will thrive and beg for more? Follow these well tried directions and it will be your proud and justifiable boast that your bread is the best in the district.

Choose the right flour. Wheatmeal provides the body with, probably, twice as much mineral salts as does white flour. The latter is also deficient in the all-important vitamins. How, then, can children especially become sturdy and well nour ished, if given devitalised and anaemic-looking white bread? How can they derive robust health and vigour, strong bones, and beautiful teeth, from denatured white bread?

Phosphorus, iron and calcium, very necessary to adults, and vitally so to the children, are found in the bran and the germ, yet these are carefully sieved away in the preparation of white flour, and the life-giving bran, pollard and sharps are fed to poultry and animals. Rickety children are fed on whole-meal bread, preferably to white, because of the mineral-salts so necessary in the cure of their disease.

It is necessary to have the wheat fairly finely ground, in order to make it digestible for children, and also in order that the body may derive maxi mum benefit from the mineral salts. Again, if the flour be finely ground, it is possible to make a very light loaf with a larger proportion of brown flour. On the other hand, to grind it too finely kills something in the wheat.

How To Make Yeast

Now for the yeast. Here is an excellent and well tried recipe; Boil a pinch of hops (about / 2 teaspoon) very thoroughly in li pints of water. Allow to cool.

Sieve the liquid into a jug.

Add two heaped up tablespoonsful of white flour, 1 level tablespoon sugar, l / 2 teaspoon salt.

Mix well and bottle. A beer bottle should be almost full to the top. Stand the bottle in an empty tin to exclude sunlight, which kills the yeast. Leave for at least twelve hours before using. If a new bottle is being used, this process will have to be repeated two or three times, to make a really live yeast.

Next comes the dough. Mix with the yeast and water—never put milk into bread. Water bread keeps sweet longer after baking than milk bread; nor does it dry so quickly. Milk causes bread to ferment in the stomach, and last but not least in these days, water is cheaper than milk.

Recipe For Wholemeal Bread

Wholemeal flour, 4 breakfast cups; salt, 2 tea spoonsful; yeast, \y 2 pts. (one beer bottle, full to two inches of the top); white flour, 3 breakfast cups; water may not be necessary for this quan tity, it depends on the grade of flour used.

Method: Put wholemeal flour and salt into bowl an - ™ IX well - Add yeast, and, if necessary, just sufficient warm water to make a stiff batter. Mix very thoroughly, then cover and leave overnight in the safe.

Next morning, add white flour, and mix with a spoon. Knead thoroughly until the dough no longer sticks to the fingers or bowl, and until there are cracking sounds caused by the bubbles of gas bursting. Much of the success depends on

thorough kneading.

Divide into two equal portions and put into well greased tins (coconut or salad oil are excellent for the . purpose of greasing) and cover with plates and a thick cloth.

Allow to rise in a warm place, turning the tins round occasionally, to ensure that the dough is evenly warmed, and so rises evenly.

The tins must not be allowed to get hot, or the dough will be sour. Take care not to over-rise the dough, or the bread will be coarse and of poor flavour and will lose an undue amount of nourishment.

During the first seven to ten minutes in the oven, the bread should be rising and scarcely browning at all If the oven is too hot a hard dry crust will be formed, which will hinder proper cooking. L ndercooked bread is most dangerous.

A reliable test for the heat of the oven is to put a piece of white paper in for two minutes, when it will have taken on a nice brown tinge without burning.

After the first seven to ten minutes, the bread should brown gently, and the fire should be care fully regulated until the bread is well baked throughout. It takes li hours for this size of loaf.

It is a great mistake to make bigger loaves.

To test the loaf, tap with the knuckles, when there should be a hollow sound. The top of the loaf should be crisp, golden brown and dome shaped. The sides and underneath should be light brown, but not hard.

To cool, allow steam to escape by standing up or leaning the loaf against the tin. If the steam goes back into the bread it will make it sag.

Do not put on to the table until the next day, as new bread is extremely difficult, if not impos sible, to digest. There are three good reasons for this. First, it is s3ft and moist and, there fore, difficult to masticate. Second, being moist, it cannot mix with the saliva. Third, when it reaches the stomach, it forms stodgy, gummy masses, which hinder the working of that organ.

Because of the activity of the germ, brown flour does not keep well. It is an excellent plan, there fore, to have a small machine and grind the wheat as it is needed. The larger size of coffee machine will do the work quite well. —“EVO ” Bougainville, New Guinea.