Bread and milk

“ If you do not have a good oven, your bread can be baked at the baker's for about a cent a loaf. When bread is made too light it is tasteless, and lacks nourishment, because the decay caused in the elements of the flour used to make it by the great quantity of yeast employed, destroys the most nutritious parts of it. A pint of milk in a batch of four loaves of bread gives you a pound more bread of better quality, and helps to make it moist. Scalded skim milk will go as far as fresh whole milk, and you can use the cream for some other dish. ”

“ Take then such a quantity of meal, in a perfectly clean and sweet bread trough, as is necessary for the quantity of bread desired, and having made a hollow in the centre, turn in as much yeast as a judgment matured by sound experience shall deem requisite; then add such a quantity of water, milk and water, or clear milk, as is necessary to form the meal into a dough of proper consistency. Some prefer bread mixed with water alone; others prefer that which is mixed with milk and water; and others think that bread mixed with good milk is much richer and better ”

“ The proportions for porridge made in this way are a heaped tablespoonful of coarse oatmeal to a pint of water.
“It is scarcely necessary to give directions for making—
“Bread and Milk, for everyone knows how this should be done. It may be said that the preparation has a better appearance if the bread is cut very small before the boiling milk is poured on it, and also that the addition of a small pinch of salt takes away the insipidity. Rigid economists sometimes swell the bread with boiling water, then drain this off and pour milk in its place. ”

“ It has been stated that "a quart of milk, three-quarters of a pound of moderately lean beef, and five ounces of wheat flour contain about the same amount of nutritive material;" but we pay different prices for them, and they have different values for nutriment. The milk comes nearest to being a perfect food. It contains all the different kinds of nutritive materials that the body requires. Bread made from wheat flour will support life. ”

“ The results of this milk-starvation in the country are readily observed; the children suffer much from want of good milk, and, hardly less, many of the adults. Milk and meat are rare commodities among the peasantry who are not so situated as to secure supplies on the estates of their masters. The loss of meat can be far better borne than that of milk. A good supply of vegetables, with cheese and onions, will make up for loss of much animal food, especially if wholesome brown, or whole meal, bread be eaten. ”

“ Milk is often used in place of water for cooking cereals, beverages, puddings, soups, etc. This is good practice and should be followed whenever possible, for when milk is added it serves to increase the nutritive value of the food. It should be observed, however, that more time is required to cook grains or cereals in milk than to cook them in water, because milk contains more solid matter than water and is not absorbed so quickly. Another frequent use of milk is in breads and biscuits, where, as is explained in Bread and Hot Breads, it produces a browner and more tender crust than water. ”

“ I have drinked little else for the last five years, at any time of the day. Skim-milk I mean. If you have not milk enough to wet up your bread with (for a bushel of flour requires about 16 to 18 pints,) you make up the quantity with water, of course; or, which is a very good way, with water that has been put, boiling hot, upon bran, and [Pg 66] then drained off. This takes the goodness out of the bran to be sure; but really good bread is a thing of so much importance, that it always ought to be the very first object in domestic economy. ”

“ The persons in the “unkent places” before mentioned, dry the malt in their oven! But let us hope that the labourer will soon be able to get malt without exposing himself to punishment as a violater of the law.
KEEPING COWS.
111. As to the use of milk and of that which proceeds from milk, in a family, very little need be said. At a certain age bread and milk are all that a child wants. At a later age they furnish one meal a day for children. Milk is, at all seasons, good to drink. In the making of puddings, and in the making of bread too, how useful is it! ”

“ There is almost none in meat and bread, none in common fats and sugars, and comparatively few common foods can be taken alone and digested in large enough quantities to insure an adequate supply; whereas a pint of milk (whole, skim, or buttermilk) will guarantee to a grown person a sufficient amount, and a quart a day will provide for the greater needs of growing children. Whatever other foods we have, we cannot afford to leave milk out of the diet because of its lime. ”

“ If it meets and neutralizes an acid either in the bread-tray or the stomach, the residuum is a new chemical compound diffused through the bread, which is more or less injurious, according to its nature and quantity.
Milk is objectionable on the score of its tendency to render the bread more indigestible than when it was wet with water, and perhaps by rendering it too nutritious. For good bread without the milk is already too nutritious for health, if eaten exclusively, for a long time. That man should not live on bread alone, is as true physically as it is morally. ”

“ We all know how difficult it is to obtain pure milk and butter, or pure bread from pure flour, or jams made with sugar from fresh and good fruit. Bread may be made from flour which has passed through no less than seven processes,—a sad contrast this to the old home-made bread, the product of home-ground meal, whole and sweet as nature made it. ”

“ One ounce of Flesh-substance, Two ounces of Fuel-substance, and Ninety grains of Mineral-substance, To twenty-two ounces of Water.
The most extensively and generally used of all the articles of human diet is bread. It has been fittingly called “the staff of life.” Now it is a curious and remarkable fact that bread contains in itself just the same principles as milk; but it is of course drier, and has proportionally more fuel and less flesh-making substance. The flour, from which it is made, is composed of a stiff, sticky paste, and a fine white powder, well mixed up together. ”

“ The flour depends upon the quality of the wheat used in its manufacture. Hence the same brand of bread prepared in the same way and baked in the same manner must necessarily vary in composition from season to season and even from day to day. It must be understood also that it is a very common custom in the United States to use milk in the mixing of dough, and thus a food product is introduced which of itself is not of constant character. Some bakers use whole milk, others skimmed, and others sour milk. ”

“ When we were called to dinner to-day, we had no meat, and a very short supply of bread; our meal being composed of badly cooked sweet potatoes, some bread, and a very small quantity of sour milk. From this time our allowance of meat was withdrawn from us altogether, and we had to live upon our bread, potatoes, and the little milk that our mistress permitted us to have. ”

“ As the milk teeth come through, other farinaceous matter may be gradually blended with the milk, and there is nothing better than to begin at about eight months with a teaspoonful of baked flour, well boiled in a pint of milk and water, or in the water, to be afterwards cooled with milk. Oftentimes a little salt, as well as sugar, will materially help its digestion. The child will do well on that food—the quantity being duly increased—until it has cut almost all its milk teeth, when it may eat bread and butter, rice, and egg puddings, and occasionally eat a boiled egg once a day. ”

“ A pound of bread or six pounded crackers, one quart of milk, six eggs, a large spoonful of flour, a teacup of sugar, one nutmeg, a teaspoonful of cinnamon, half a one of powdered clove, a piece of butter the size of an egg, the same quantity of chopped suet, and a pound of raisins. Boil the milk. It is very well to soak the bread in the milk over night; then the entire crust becomes soft, and mixes well with the other ingredients. ”

“ Notwithstanding a Child is advancing, I still recommend, that Milk and Water with Bread, or Milk-porridge, or Rice-milk, be it’s constant Breakfast. Parents may sometimes alter their Course, may easily contrive little Changes in a Child’s Diet, that will be very pleasing, without either seeming to humour it, or varying it so sensibly, as to hurt the Quality. For Example, in Summer, pour warm Water on Milk to take off its Rawness, and let the Child with a Piece of Bread bite and sup: in Winter let it have Milk-porridge, or Rice-milk. Milk is accounted to lose of its natural Sweetness by boiling ”

“ Divide it into convenient sized loaves, shape them up, wash over with a little milk, and bake in a quick oven. It is very necessary to get the loaves into the oven with the greatest despatch, for the baking-powder very soon loses its virtue, and if the operation is protracted after the dough is moistened, the bread will be heavy. Although milk is given as one of the ingredients, water may be used if economy is a consideration. ”

“ Wheaten bread might partially supply the place of meat to-day, but meat was easier to procure than bread in the eighth century. Again, a thousand years ago, tea or coffee there was none and even milk was often difficult or impossible to procure in winter. ”

“ We have an abundance of milk,—so fresh from the cow that it is covered with froth, and the jug which contains it is quite warm,—eggs, cold meat, home-made bread in huge brown loaves, good butter, and strong clear coffee. ”

“ Give the child purely a milk diet, Graham bread, milk crackers and milk, or a little milk thickened with boiled rice, a little jelly, apple sauce, etc., may be safely used. Cracked wheat, oatmeal, wheat germ, or anything of that kind thoroughly cooked and served with a little cream and sugar, is an excellent food. ”

“ Fresh meat and raw milk contain them, although animals seem incapable of making them. In summer, milk is richer in them than in winter, because of the difference in feed for the cattle. They are contained also in yolks of eggs, whole grains, potatoes, carrots, beans, peas, lentils—in fact, practically all green garden vegetables, and fruit. In the grains, they are found in the dark layer near the outer surface or branny layer, and in the germ. In potatoes and other vegetables, they lie immediately under the skin. Yeast bread contains more than baking powder breads. ”

“ Milk Bread With White Flour.—Scald and cool on pint of unskimmed milk. Add to the milk when lukewarm, one fourth of a cup, or three tablespoonfuls, of liquid yeast, and three cups of flour. Give the batter a vigorous beating, turn it into a clean bread bowl or a small earthen crock, cover, and let it rise over night. In the morning, when well risen, add two or three cupfuls of warm flour, or sufficient to knead. Knead well until the dough is sufficiently elastic to rebound when struck forcibly with the fist. Allow it to rise again in mass ”

“ As far as it is possible, have bits of bread eaten up before they become hard. Spread those that are not eaten, and let them dry, to be pounded for puddings, or soaked for brewis. Brewis is made of crusts and dry pieces of bread, soaked a good while in hot milk, mashed up, and salted, and buttered like toast. Above all, do not let crusts accumulate in such quantities that they cannot be used. With proper care, there is no need of losing a particle of bread, even in the hottest weather. ”

“ Brother named it Penny right away. If the milk-man does not bring us good fresh milk, Penny will not touch it. Mamma says the milk inspectors ought to have such a "taster."
I wonder if any of the little girls know how to make light, spongy-bread without yeast? Just use flour and water; some call it salt-rising, and some milk-rising, but it can be made nice without milk.
We are always glad when Young People comes.
Nora M. H.
Will not Nora ask her mamma to send Our Post-office Box the precise receipt for this bread? ”

“ Thank you, pretty cow, that made
Pleasant milk to soak my bread,
Every day and every night,
Warm, and fresh, and sweet, and white. ”

“ For there stood a bowl filled with sweetened milk, in which swam tiny pieces of white bread. He almost laughed with joy, for he now had a much greater hunger than in the morning, and he immediately dipped his head almost up to and over his eyes down into the milk. But he soon drew it back again in disappointment, not just because it was difficult for him to eat on account of his delicate left side (he could eat only if his entire panting body worked in a coordinated way) ”

“ Such a food is milk; and, if the human supply is insufficient, we obtain in its place that of the cow, chiefly; and during the first year of life milk constitutes the best form of food. After that time other kinds of nourishment, mostly well-cooked wheaten flour in various shapes, begin to be added to the milk which long continues to be a staple source of nourishment to the young animal. ”

“ The feed most commonly used consists of finely ground grain, mixed to a batter with buttermilk or sour skim-milk. The favorite grain for the purpose is oats finely ground and the hulls removed. Oats may be used as the sole grain, and is the only grain recommended as suitable to be fed alone. Corn is used, but not by itself. Shorts, ground barley or ground buckwheat are sometimes used. Beans, peas, linseed and gluten meals may be used in small quantities. When milk products are obtainable they are a great aid to successful fattening. ”

“ Whole milk contains everything necessary for growth and maintenance, protein, fat, milk-sugar, salts, water, and the unknown but invaluable accessory substances. It is of such prime importance that each family should have this admirable food that I have suggested that no family of five should ever buy meat until they have bought three quarts of milk. The insistence by scientific men upon the prime importance of milk has probably had something to do with its rapid enhancement in price. ”