IV THE STAFF OF LIFE

Making Bread—Oven and Hearth-baked Bread—Patent Yeasts for Travellers’ Use—Quick Bread; the Damper, Pancake, Flapjack, Chupatty, etc.—Dumplings and Pie-crusts—Uses for Dry Bread, etc.

Bread is one of those things for which civilized man craves, and even in the most out-of-the-way places he is loth to exist without it. The many substitutes for bread rarely satisfy an Englishman, and he is driven to find some way of making a solid loaf. Nevertheless to bake bread presents a difficulty which can only be overcome by building an oven such as before described, or by using hot flat stones; the latter way of baking is as good as any when a little practice has shown how to do it skilfully. But the baking is only one difficulty; another and more serious one is to find a yeast wherewith to make a dough. German and other dried yeasts are usually to be bought in towns or from stores, and wherever there is a brewery barm can be got, but there are also dried and compressed yeasts that are put up in cakes for the use of travellers, which the outgoing colonist might procure, probably, at a ship chandler’s stores. Yeatman’s Yeast Powder is one of these. But failing any way of procuring dried yeasts there is another way of making a liquid yeast that is sure of producing a sweet and wholesome bread. For this the dried Bavarian hops are required, which are to be bought in packets from the chief English stores (they are known as the Phœnix brand), a packet of which will last a considerable time. A handful of these hops is boiled in water in a saucepan until the goodness has been extracted, then strained off, the hops thrown away, and the liquid returned to the pan with a spoonful of sugar, salt, and one or two tablespoonfuls of flour. These are stirred together and boiled up—never mind if it is a little lumpy—and then left to ferment. The mixture is ready for use the following day and will keep good for about ten days or a fortnight. In using, mix enough of this liquid with sufficient flour to make a small soft ball—technically called a “sponge,” setting this in the middle of the panful of flour which is intended for the bread. When this sponge has risen a little make the dough by adding to it warm water slightly salted, and working in the rest of the flour gradually until it can be kneaded with the hand and forms a large ball of dough, not too stiff and yet not too soft. This is then set to rise again in a warm place, and will take some five or six hours. Some people mix up the yeast and flour and water straight away and let one rising suffice. Either way should produce a light and wholesome dough. About four tablespoonfuls of the liquid yeast (or an ounce of dried compressed yeast of another kind, stirred to smooth paste with water), a large tablespoonful of salt and four pounds of flour, will make a nice quantity of bread. The amount of water depends a good deal on the kind of flour, but the result must be a rather firm dough; if too little water is put in the bread will be stiff and dry, if too much it will be puffy and full of holes.

The dough can be mixed in the evening and left to rise all night, provided the pan containing it be set in a warm, sheltered place. The next morning, as soon as the oven has been made hot, or as soon as the hot stones of the hearth are ready, take up the dough, divide it and shape lightly with floured hands into loaves and bake them. The point to bear in mind is that while dough takes several hours to rise, it takes little harm by waiting until the oven is ready for it; but as yeast after it has been mixed with water ferments very quickly, the dough itself should not be made till the whole process of making it can be done right away. The science of the thing is that the introduction of yeast into the moistened flour causes carbonic gas to form, and the formation of these bubbles makes the dough swell out until the fermentation being finished the gas would cease to form and the dough would sink back, having lost its lightness. When the dough has about doubled its proportions, we stop the formation of the gas by baking the bread. Patent dried yeasts operate more quickly than do liquid home-made yeasts, and six hours is quite long enough to allow for the rising. Liquid yeasts might be given a little longer.

If bread is made twice a week, the loaves should be made larger, and for taking out on journeys round flat cakes, made not too thick, are a convenient form; likewise for baking on the hearth these will be the handiest and cook the best. A round and rather thick ball of dough, cut across the top with a blunt knife, will give the Coburg loaf, which is a good shape for baking in an oven.

Combinations of flour and maize meal, or of rice and flour, oatmeal and flour, and so on can be tried when a change is wanted. Where eggs and milk are procurable, there is a delicious American bread which is made by mixing two cupfuls of maize meal with every one of ordinary white flour, adding a little salt, two eggs and a cupful of milk to every three cups of the combined flours, with a spoonful of baking-powder rubbed in before moisture is added. This mixture is shaped into loaves and baked in tins—old biscuit tins floured inside will do quite well. The same mixture could be transformed into a cake of quite excellent quality by rubbing into the flour a little butter or lard, and a few raisins and spice and sugar.

Excellent light buns for supper are quickly made by rubbing a little baking-powder into flour, adding salt, sugar and a few currants and spice, mixing with milk to a stiff dough, rolling out on a board, cutting into triangles and baking on flat hot stones, on both sides. Or if the milk has soured, mix a little soda with it and make up into a dough with flour alone and bake in the same way.

The Australian Damper is really a thick, plain pancake, often merely a handful of flour made into a stiffish batter with water and a little salt and baked over the embers of a wood fire or on the hot stones. But the correct way of making Damper is to take a flat board or a dried sheepskin on which to knead. On this the flour is poured from the sack and sprinkled with salt. A hole is made in the middle of the heap of flour into which water is slowly poured, the right hand being kept moving round and round working the flour and water together to a thick, adhesive dough. This is then kneaded on the floured board until a firm ball is the result, and then with the hands a flat pancake is made about two inches thick. The embers are cleared away to leave a flat, bare place and the damper is lightly dropped upon it and covered with leaves, then the embers are raked back and it is left for about an hour, when it will be baked crisp and brown. A frying-pan without a handle might be inverted over the damper if the ashes were dirty. Fresh eggs beaten up with milk and used instead of water would make a richer and crisper and more nourishing damper. Scotch oatmeal added to a little flour, or the oatmeal alone mixed as for dry oatcake and baked on the hot stones, would be a more nourishing substitute for bread than is damper alone.

The Flapjack is a similar kind of thing to the damper, but it is fried in a pan, with very little fat, that is to say, only enough to grease the pan, and fried on both sides. If made with cornmeal or buckwheat and mixed with milk and eggs, it becomes a very palatable thing, and has the merit of being quickly prepared. These pan cakes are just the thing for eating with sugar-cane syrup or molasses.

A Cornmeal Pone is made with a quart of Indian meal, a teaspoonful of salt, a little melted lard and enough tepid water to make a soft dough. It is moulded lightly with the hands into an oblong mound, higher in the middle than at the sides, is brushed over with melted lard and dry flour, and is baked in hot oven rather crisply and broken into pieces, not cut. A broad leaf is laid over and under the pone if it is baked in the ashes.

A Johnny Cake requires two cupfuls of buttermilk, a teaspoonful of soda, and two of salt, a good bit of butter melted soft, and enough Indian meal to make the cake so that it can be rolled out on a board to an inch in thickness. It is baked on the stones or in the oven in a shallow pan, and is then broken into pieces and eaten with butter.

Buckwheat Cakes want the true Buckwheat flour, and to every four cupfuls a little salt and enough milk to make a thin batter, also a spoonful of yeast to every cupful of flour. The mixture is beaten well and left to rise overnight, and is then fried in greased pans on both sides, and eaten with syrup.

The Chupatty is another form of thin or hastily made bread, and is generally made with Indian meal. If made with ordinary white flour, rub in a saltspoonful of salt to every half-pound, and mix to a light dough with cold milk. Cut this dough into pieces about the size of an egg, roll each piece into long, thin strips not more than an eighth of an inch thick. This is best done with the help of a floured board and a rolling-pin or smooth bottle, as the secret of making nice chupatties lies in the rolling. It should be rolled out at least six times, then the strips are placed on a baking tin and baked in a hot oven for about ten minutes. This is as crisp as water biscuit, and is very digestible. Where a dry biscuit or cake is wanted for a journey the chupatty is very useful.

Any bread that has become stale can be freshened by dipping it in water and putting into a hot oven to steam through for a few minutes.

Dumplings and Pie-Crusts

When baking bread and making a stew or boiling meat with vegetables, small pieces of the dough can be broken off and dropped into the pan to form dumplings. If yeast or baking-powder has been worked into the dough the dumplings will be light though plain, but if they are wanted a little richer they should be made with chopped suet mixed with flour and water.

The ordinary plain suet dumpling requires half as much chopped suet as flour in weight, and a little salt. It is mixed with either water or milk to make into a stiff dough—it is lightest when somewhat stiff—and if tying it up in a cloth to boil in water allow room for the pudding to swell. Boil a suet dumpling for two hours at least; it will not harm by being boiled longer. These plain dumplings are wholesome and excellent food especially in a cold climate, and should be eaten with syrup or butter and sugar. Sugar is, indeed, one of the most necessary items on the colonist’s bill of fare. The plain suet can be varied by mixing with it stoned raisins or currants or by using syrup in place of milk to mix the ingredients, adding a little ginger for flavour. Or the suet paste may be rolled out and spread with jam or soaked dried fruits and treacle, rolled up again, wrapped round with a cloth and boiled in fast boiling water, or folded in a buttered paper and steamed, for a couple of hours, making a light and appetising roll pudding. Or again, the paste may be rolled out and used to line a basin, the interior being filled with sliced apples and other fruits and sugar, covered with a top crust, then tied over and boiled for as long again. Or the centre may be filled with pieces of steak cut small and rolled in flour and seasoned with salt and pepper, a little water put in to make gravy, a top crust put on, and tied down, and this boiled for about four hours.

If the colonist has built him a good oven and is ambitious of making pastry, having a fond recollection of jam tarts and apple pies as made at home, let him take a nice clean board, and put into a basin say a couple of pounds of flour, two big spoonfuls of dry baking-powder, a teaspoonful of salt, and into this flour rub lightly about a pound of lard or good dripping, rubbing till the flour feels like dry breadcrumbs in his hands. Mix this to a stiff paste with cold water, then cut off portions and roll out on a floured board. If a proper rolling-pin is not at hand a bottle will answer the purpose.

If it is a fruit pie that is contemplated, fill a dish with pared and sliced apples, or plums washed clean, or other fruit, cover well with sugar, add a little water and then cover with a crust that has been rolled out to about half an inch thick. Make a little hole in the top for the steam to escape, and pinch the edges well and cut them round even with the edges of the dish. Put into an oven that is very hot and bake long enough to cook the fruit well, shielding the crust if necessary with paper. Fruits like blackberries, bilberries, damsons, etc., want well cooking, and should be partly done before the crust is put on. Where no pie-dish is at hand, roll out a sheet of paste and heap up the cut or picked fruit in the centre, with the sugar, and then fold up the paste to make it like a valise and pinch the edges well. Bake it on a greased tin.

The good old-fashioned turnover or pasty is ever welcome, and needs but to have a piece of paste rolled out to a convenient sized round, and on half is spread the jam, mince, or fruit, and the other half is turned over, the edges pinched together, and it is baked on a tin in hot oven. The Cornish pasty has sliced potatoes, shred bacon, a trifle of onion and pepper and salt, and is folded over and baked in the same way. These are delicious to eat hot. When making a meat pie, cook the meat well before putting on the pastry crust.

This plain short pastry is all that any colonist will require, at least until an elaborate kitchen equipment is at his service, but if he objects to rubbing in the shortening with his hands, he may mix the flour and water to a stiff paste, roll it out on a floured board, spread the shortening on this with the blade of a knife, fold up and roll out again at least twice. This way saves using the hands.