Flour sack

“ The quartern loaf produced from this quantity of flour weighs four pounds, five ounces and a half, and hence the dough loses, during baking, eleven ounces and a half.
The quantity of bread obtainable from the same quantity of flour is, however, much influenced by the manner in which the dough is fermented, and the skilful regulation of the heat employed for baking the bread.
A variation of temperature also makes a considerable difference to the baker’s profit or loss. In summer, a sack of flour will yield a quartern loaf more than in winter ”

“ Flour should be packed in stout double canvas sacks well sewed, a hundred pounds in each sack. Butter may be preserved by boiling it thoroughly, and skimming off the scum as it raises to the top until it is quite clear like oil. ”

“ The softer you can work the sponge the clearer and showier will be the loaf.
To make 1 sack of flour with a full sponge, take 1 to 11⁄2 gallons of barm, about 10 gallons of water of the proper temperature with 2 lbs. of salt dissolved in it; make all into a nice-sized sponge. When ready add 6 gallons of water of proper temperature, and 11⁄4 lb. of salt, and make it into dough.
Care should always be taken to keep the barm clear of grease and churned milk, especially if the milk is sour.
There are a great many substitutes for wheat-flour bread, some of which I will enumerate ”

“ The definition is a sack of compressed flour contained in a thimble. ”

“ To make a baked Sack Pudding:—Take a pint of cream, and turn it to a curd with a sack; then bruise the curd very small with a spoon; then grate in two Naples-biskets, or the inside of a stale penny-loaf, and mix it well with the curd, and half a nutmeg grated; some fine sugar, and the yolks of four eggs, the whites of two, beaten with two spoonfuls of sack; then melt half a pound of fresh butter, and stir all together till the oven is hot. Butter a dish, and put it in, and sift some sugar over it, just as 'tis going into the oven half an hour will bake it. ”

“ The oil must be heated to a temperature of 350∞, and a frying-basket must be used. Instead of flouring the substances employed to make them dry, before being dipped into the batter, which is an essential point in making fritters, we must use finely powdered sugar, and it will be found a saving of both time and trouble to buy pounded sugar for the purpose. It is sold by grocers under the name of castor sugar. We cannot make this at home in a pestle and mortar to the same degree of fineness any more than we could grind our own flour. We cannot compete with machinery. ”

“ The quantity of alum requisite to produce the required whiteness and porosity depends entirely upon the genuineness of the flour, and the quality of the grain from which the flour is obtained. The mealman makes different sorts of flour from the same kind of grain. The best flour is mostly used by the biscuit bakers and pastry cooks, and the inferior sorts in the making of bread. The bakers' flour is very often made of the worst kinds of damaged foreign wheat, and other cereal grains mixed with them in grinding the wheat into flour. ”

“ Potato flour or starch is not used to any extent today, manufacturers finding that there is a great deal of trouble attached to the manufacture of sausage containing these ingredients, on account of the liability to sour and spoil. Corn flour is the best filler that can be used, being less liable to ferment, while it absorbs the water quickly. While fillers are used to a great extent, the sausage manufacturer should [383] remember that the quality of sausage is deteriorated proportionately to the amount of water that is worked in. ”

“ This dough is immediately scaled and moulded into loaves, which after being allowed to prove or rise for some time are baked as before. This method is used for flours which do not yield good bread when they are submitted to long fermentation. In such cases the mellow flours, which will only stand a very short fermentation, are first weighed out into the mixing trough, and a depression made in the mass of flour into which a quantity of strong flour which can be fermented safely for a long time is added. ”

“ Rub to a powder sufficient sage-leaves to make four ounces when done. Mix the sage with three ounces of fine salt, two ounces of brown sugar, an ounce of powdered black pepper, and a quarter of an ounce of cayenne. Add this seasoning to the chopped pork, and mix it thoroughly. Pack the sausage-meat down, hard and closely, into stone jars, which must be kept in a cool place, and well covered. When wanted for use, make some of it into small, flat cakes, dredge them with flour, and fry them well. The fat that exudes from the sausage-cakes, while frying, will be sufficient to cook them in. ”

“ When the grain bursts easily under the finger, and gives out a milky white liquor when squeezed, it is judged to be sufficiently softened and fermented. In this state, the grains are taken out of the water by a sieve, and put into a canvas sack, and the husks are separated and rubbed off, by beating and rubbing the sack upon a plank: the sack is then put into a tub filled with cold water, and trodden or beaten till the water becomes milky and turbid, from the starch which it takes up from the grain. A scum sometimes swims upon the surface of the water, which must be carefully removed ”

“ The wheat is poured into boxes which feed the millstones, and these cast the flour, when ground, on to flat tables, upon one of which I noticed a dirty old cap being used to sweep it up. The Kashgar millers had by no means a good reputation for honesty. A customer’s grain is weighed before grinding, yet when it is returned to him as flour it will probably be mixed with some inferior cereal or even with sand, of which there is enough and to spare. ”

“ While the preponderance of crust over crumb is the most important aspect of Parisian bread, there are a number of other things to which it owes its excellence. For a high-class product it is important to select flour made of wheat which has a particularly fine flavor. The Flavor is also largely affected by the milling, the way the dough is made and kneaded, the quick or slow fermentation, the kind of oven used and its temperature, the length of leaving the bread exposed to the heat, and many other things. ”

“ The last-named evils are avoided by the use of wheat containing no fungus, none of the eggs of the weavil, nor of other insects, and enclosing the freshly ground flour in packages not accessible to infection. Even then it is advisable to consume the flour as soon as convenient after the milling process. Many manufacturers and experts contend that flour is improved by keeping for a certain length of time, and this contention is based on the assumption that the flour assumes a lighter color and improves in flavor on keeping. ”

“ Salt retards the rising, so it is better in cold weather to add that when the bread is made up.
Whole Wheat Sponge
Scald three cups of milk and let it stand till it is lukewarm. Add one teaspoonful of salt and one tablespoonful of molasses and one yeast cake that has been dissolved in one half cup of warm water. Stir in enough whole wheat flour to make a drop batter. Beat well and put it in a covered dish to rise. Use as directed in the bread recipes. Water can be used in place of milk. ”

“ With us, wheat is chiefly employed for the fabrication of bread. It is, in fact, the only grain of which light porous bread can be made; but rye and barley are also used as bread-corn. The farina of the other cerealia afford also a nutritive and wholesome bread; though their flour is not so susceptible of the panary fermentation, it cannot be made into the white texture of the wheaten loaf. The bread formed from them is consequently much inferior to that prepared from wheat. ”

“ To aid fermentation, a little sugar may be used in starting bread, but not enough to cover the sweet taste of the flour.
At a great altitude, bread rises very quickly; and requires less yeast.
Do not allow bread to get over light, even if it does not become sour; for the sweet taste will be destroyed, and if in the loaf, it will fall in the oven.
Whole wheat and graham bread will be lighter if 1⁄3 white flour is used; and if white flour alone is used for the sponge the bread will not be so apt to sour. ”

“ So much flour is now imported that we always have a good supply. If one country fails, another succeeds. In bygone times, when there was little or no foreign corn, if the corn sprouted in shock there was bad bread for the community until a better season came round, for sprouted corn and bad flour cannot be made into good bread, even with all the skilful manipulation of the modern baker.
Good Flour is Dry, and does not lose more than 12 per cent, in weight when heated in an oven. To grind corn damp, and so increase its weight, is not an uncommon practice. ”

“ To facilitate inspection, it is advisable to portion off the stock of provisions for each week in separate sacks, and never to open a fresh sack till the previous one has been emptied. The contents of the sacks for the latter weeks should be increased a fifth-part at least above the normal weight; because hunger with its accompanying loss of strength generally grows in a distressing manner. The provisions should consist of boiled beef, hard bread, extract of meat, chocolate, grits, pea-sausages, sugar, rice, condensed milk, and coffee. ”

“ In one corner of the bin is the mouth of a pipe, which, even while we look, discharges an avalanche of flour into the water; at the same moment some invisible power causes the shaft to revolve—slowly at first, that the light dust may not entirely blind us; then, as the flour becomes more and more saturated with water, rapidly and more rapidly, until the whole is thoroughly mixed up together; and in the space of four and a half minutes, one hundred-weight of flour is converted into dough. ”

“ Take three quarters of a pound of raw salt, fat pork, chopped very fine; then pour on a pint of boiling water, one cup of sugar, two cups of molasses, two teaspoonfuls of cloves, one of cinnamon, one nutmeg, two teaspoonfuls of saleratus, one pound and a half of raisins, also a pound of citron and currants if liked, and flour as stiff as can be stirred; bake very slowly an hour, or longer if necessary, as it will burn without great care. This will make three loaves, and will keep well. This is convenient in the winter when eggs are scarce. ”

“ They have not only succeeded by such means, in making light and white bread out of extremely poor flour, but they have also been able so to disguise their adulterations, as to work in with their flour, without being detected by the consumers, a 45portion of the flour of beans, peas and potatoes—and even chalk, pipe clay and plaster of Paris, have been employed to increase the weight and whiteness of their bread. ”

“ Take 8 lbs. of granulated wheat meal (or meal made with a mixture of barley meal and wheat meal properly blended) , 4 ozs. of cream of tartar, and 2 ozs. of carbonate of soda; mix the tartar and soda amongst the flour and sift all through a sieve; make a bay, and add 2 ozs. of crushed salt and 4 ozs. of castor sugar, putting the above in the bay and pouring in a little [22] churned milk to dissolve the salt and sugar; then add as much churned milk as will take the 8 lbs. of meal in, and make into a nice-sized dough; weigh off, and bake in oval tins. ”

“ One can readily see, being more nutritious, in point of economy, even, this flour is invaluable. It is preferable for making anything that is ordinarily made from white flour; makes better pie crust, better cake, and griddle-cakes, and for toast, pudding and gems, has no comparison with other flour. Still further, what will with many be considered the best argument for its use, the taste of this flour is sweeter and more “nutty.” Once accustomed to the “Flour of the Entire Wheat,” white flour seems tasteless and insipid, and none will return to its use from choice. ”

“ Inferior grades of flour are largely exported, while the best are mainly used at home. Graham flour is ground wheat from which the bran has not been removed.
Flour is put up in barrels of one hundred and ninety-six pounds net weight, and in muslin sacks of various weights. Families everywhere invariably want “the best,” and dealers often adopt the excellent plan of buying quantities of some very choice and tried grade of flour and selling it in convenient sized packages for family trade, under their own brand and guarantee. ”

“ Had it not been for the custom of eating whiter bread than the whole of the flour can make, the miller and baker would not have employed their art to render the bread as white as possible, and to make the consumer pay for the artificial 134whiteness. The average quantity of flour, from an unvaried series of experiments, made from age to age, through the course of many hundred years, appears to be three-fourth parts in weight of the whole grain of wheat, taking all wheats together, being more in the finer sorts, and less in the coarser ”

“ Whole wheat flour, entire wheat flour, improperly so called, is fine wheat meal from which a part of the bran has been removed.
Gluten flour is the product made from flour by the removal of starch, and contains not less than five and six-tenths (5.6) percent of nitrogen and not more than ten (10) percent of moisture.
Age of Flour. —The freshly ground flour is most highly esteemed by many consumers on account of palatability and freedom from all danger of mold and ferments. Older flours are likely to lose flavor, become moldy and infested with weavil and other insect pests. ”