Our lesson this afternoon is on quick breads and the use of soda and baking powder.

I want to explain why I have devoted the lesson to these quick breads, that is, breads that are made in a moderately short length of time, like the baking powder and soda mixtures. We believe in yeast bread mixtures for regular use, but it is not always convenient to have it. In every family there is occasionally a time when something extra in bread form is required, something desired for variety; so please do not get the idea that I am substituting the baking powder and soda mixtures for the yeast bread. It is simply for occasional use, and, as I said before, for variety. All of these breads are easily made and most of them cooked in a short length of time, with the exception of the steamed bread, which requires considerable time. That, however, is so easily mixed, and the cooking is so simple that it can scarcely. be called a difficult thing to make.

If we are going to use warm breads of any kind, it is far better to use warm baking powder mixtures than the yeast bread. A warm baking powder, mixture is more easily digested, but in either case it depends largely upon the baking and the thorough mastication after the dish is ready to eat. Many times people find warm breads indigestible, when they might not do so if they were thoroughly masticated, and that is the main reason that hot breads are likely to cause indigestion. They go into the stomach in the form of partly digested dough and are scarcely assimilated at all.

Steamed Brown Bread.

RECIPE.

Sift together one cup each of rye meal, corn meal and whole wheat flour (or one and one-half cups each of graham and corn meal may be used) with one and one-half level teaspoons of soda and two of salt. Add three-fourths

of a cup of molasses, a pint of sour milk, and steam from one to three hours, according to size of molds used.

The first part of the work this afternoon will be the preparation of the steamed brown bread, and in preparing all the different dishes which we have in our lesson, as a rule, there is always some other way that may be followed in preparing the dish, something that may be substituted for an article called fór in the recipe, so as far as possible I will explain about those things in going along-tell how the same recipe may be used in several different ways by slight changes. I am always sorry for the woman who is tied to the cook book. If she does not understand enough about proportions and food substitutes to be able to use her ingenuity and individuality and a little inventive ability, she is sadly equipped, not only so far as economy is concerned, but in simplifying the labor. So we call attention to the different things that may be substituted in that way, in order to make one recipe do double or treble duty. What we need to understand is the proportion, and why things are put together in a certain way. It seems to me that the greatest difficulty with our cooking is because we do not understand the reasons for things. We do things because our grandmothers and our mothers did, and yet we cannot explain the reasons for many of the processes which we carry out-and that is largely the secret of success or failure in our cooking, understanding why. If we fail in making a dish a certain time and do not know why we failed, what is to prevent our failing the next time? Absolutely nothing! If we cannot see the reason and rectify it the next time, we are no better off than we were in the first place. The fact is, what we look for most in our cooking is the reason for things and the principle that lies back of it. Cooking is a science, providing we only understand

some of its principles. We hear people

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talk a great deal about luck. You hear people say: I had bad luck with my bread yesterday and good luck with my cake today. It does not show a great deal of thought put into our work. If we take a certain combination of materials and put them together in a certain way and apply a certain degree of heat, we ought to get a certain result. There ought not to be a question in our mind as to whether anything is going to turn out right or not, but when we put our materials together carelessly, when we fail to recognize proportions, then we cannot expect to succeed. always pays to measure materials, for in that way we insure success. We can save time if we do not stop to measure, but do we save time in the long run? Don't we have something we have to throw out quietly and not say anything about it? That is all waste, and it is even worse waste if it is eaten when it is not fit to eat. If by taking two or three minutes longer, we insure success, doesn't it pay to take those two or three minutes? Some people say that experienced cooks do not measure, but after all they measure in this way: by their judgment and experience; they measure by the eye, as we say. An experienced cook can tell in an instant by the appearance of dough or batter whether it is of the right consistency or not. It is only the practical housekeeper who can be certain of results. The average woman does not take the pains to measure. She takes a coffee cup to measure her flour and a teacup to measure her milk, and says she has had bad luck. We figure on the half pint measuring cup. It does not make so much difference in the exact size of the cup, provided we use the same size for all material. But all our cook books are written with the half pint cup for a basis. These sized cups are more convenient, too, as they are marked off in thirds and fourths, so we can tell if we have just the right proportion without measuring.

For this steamed bread I have given you the proportion as it was given originally, the old-fashioned New England brown bread, where it was made with corn meal and graham flour and rye meal. I very rarely find it possible to secure genuine rye meal, so that instead of using the rye meal I have

given the proportion also in using the corn meal and flour together, and whole wheat flour can be substituted for the graham flour, so the bread may be made with either of these two flours and the meal. The bread may be made with a smaller amount of meal, say one cup of the meal and two of the graham flour. There is one thing we have to make a difference in if we use the Graham flour and no corn meal, and that is the quantity of flour in proportion to the milk. There is no meal or flour that thickens so much as corn meal, so if we omit the corn meal we will have to use more flour in order to get the right consistency to our batter. Corn meal mixtures are always made softer than any other of our batters and dough, on account of the swelling in the cooking - on account of this swelling of the meal-so we will simply bear that in mind when we make this bread simply with graham or whole wheat flour. I am going to make it this afternoon with graham flour and corn meal.

We always sift the graham flour first and throw away the bran. A great many years ago when graham flour was first used it was supposed this bran in the flour was very useful, and undoubtedly it is to some people, but the truth of the matter is that this bran is very irritating and to a great many people it is decidedly objectionable. It is better to be on the safe side and not use the bran rather than run the risk of irritating the intestines. If the bran is thoroughly masticated it is all right in certain cases. Bran works in such a fashion that it causes the material to pass right through the system instead of being assimilated. that is why in using graham flour it is well to sift it first and throw the bran away. In buying graham flour it is economy to buy that which has the smallest amount of bran; and this flour should be measured after sifting; this calls for the flour that has already been sifted. If we measure it first there is all of this bran to be discarded and the batter would be too thin. We sift all of our dry material together first. I shall not be able to make the full recipe this afternoon, for the mold that I use is a little small. The rule will fill three one pound baking powder

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cans. When the bread is raised and cooked in one large mold, it will be necessary to cook it for about three hours in order to have it thoroughly done. In the one pound can we can cook it in an hour or an hour and a quarter. The idea of having this tube through the center is that the loaf will cook in less time on account of the circulation of water and steam in the inside, as well as on the outside. I can cook it in an hour and a quarter, or an hour and a half in the tube mold. We are careful in greasing these molds to grease the mold and lid as well, because if the mold is filled two-thirds full the batter will rise to the top and touch the lid. If the lid is not greased, we are likely to break the crust off the bread.

I want to explain now about the use of soda in using baking soda for mixtures of this sort. Instead of dissolving the soda in the old-fashioned way with milk or water, we find it more satisfactory to sift it with the flour for two reasons: where soda is wet it is very apt not to be thoroughly dissolved, and you have often noticed, undoubtedly, a loaf of ginger bread that had yellow spots all through it, or corn bread that had brown streaks in it from the soda being only partly dissolved. There is that objection, and one other also: where we wet it, it will lose some of the strength of it. As soon as it is wet, it begins to effervesce, and just so long as it is wet before the cooking begins, just so much strength is lost in this way. In olden times where people used saleratus instead of baking soda, it did not make so much difference in wetting it, on account of the extra strength of it.

The flour sifter is not fine enough, so I use a very fine strainer, or a piece of cheese cloth, but the wire sieve is convenient for other things, too, and it takes less time if we rub the soda right into the flour. We are always very careful in measuring soda, a level teaspoonful always means a level teaspoonful-not a particle more. I am using about two-thirds the recipe. This bread may be made with buttermilk or sour milk, sweet milk or water, so you see there are four changes in making the bread. The buttermilk and sour milk are more desirable, because they make a more tender bread, but we can

make a very good bread with the sweet milk, or use water with it, or the water alone, if we have not the milk conyenient. We make no difference at all in using the soda with either sweet or sour milk where we have molasses, because molasses contains acid to be neutralized; we may use either sweet or sour milk, it makes no difference so far as the soda is concerned. Of course, if we have the sour or buttermilk it is better to use it.

It is always more convenient and satisfactory in making doughs and breads of all sorts to pour the liquor into the dry rather than the dry into the liquor. I notice so many times people in making bread will pour all the water or milk into the bowl first and then stir in flour; it lumps every single time. If we put a little of the flour in our bowl first and pour in the liquor gradually, we can keep the dough much more smooth, and so we always follow that method in mixing batter.

I am going to make this this afternoon with sweet milk and mix it with the molasses to a soft consistency, so that it will pour readily, on account of the corn meal we have. In this rule we have only three-fourths of a cup of molasses for the full rule. There is a good deal of difference in molasses. If I have a strong, dark molasses, I would rather dilute it with a little warm water than to have that strong taste which the bread is apt to have. On the other hand, with the light quality of molasses we can use the full amount the rule calls for. I do not like to use syrup, as it will make a sticky, light bread, neither does it contain the necessary acid. I prefer a high grade New Orleans molasses, and it is best to purchase this in sealed cans. We are then certain of the grade and cleanliness of it.

Question - Does the New Orleans brown sugar have the same effect on soda as the molasses does?

Mrs. Armstrong-No; we only find the acid in the molasses.

Question-How sour should the milk

be?

Mrs. Armstrong-If the milk is sour enough to have separated and a scum is formed on top it is too sour. When we speak of using sour milk, we use

milk that is thickly clabbered. As a rule, a level teaspoonful of soda is used for a scant pint of sour milk.

Question-Sometimes milk isn't clabbered, but sour.

Mrs. Armstrong-Yes, that is true, but it is not so satisfactory to use unless it is really thickened.

Sometimes raisins are added to this brown bread, sometimes nuts. Either would be mixed with the flour before the milk and molasses are added. If they are dry, there is no reason why they should sink to the bottom of the bread, unless the batter is too thin, then they will fall to the bottom.

Another thing I want to call your attention to is the difference in flour. Of course, most of you realize that all of our recipes do have to be varied according to the flour we use. Some flour thickens more than other flour, so often we have to use either less flour or more milk than the recipe calls for. I will show you the consistency of this batter when we have it ready to pour in the mold, and we never fill the mold more than two-thirds full. We want plenty of room for it to raise. That is the consistency we have it—so that it pours readily from the spoon, but if there were no corn meal in there we would make it stiffer. This comes to just about two inches from the top of the mold. It would be about the same consistency with buttermilk. The sour milk and the buttermilk both make a thicker batter, so where we use sweet milk it will take a little less of the milk to have the same consistency.

I will show you how I am going to cook this. Instead of using a steamer, I am going to cook this in a deep kettle of water, and I have a piece of pasteboard in the bottom of the kettle. Several folds of paper, or half a dozen nails-or anything that will raise the mold from the bottom of the kettlewill answer the purpose. It is simply to prevent the batter from cooking to the mold. There is no objection, of course, to using a steamer - that is more commonly used-but oftentimes it is more convenient to do the cooking directly in the water. I make no difference in the length of time whether I use the steamer or the water for the cooking. We must have a kettle or pail deep enough to leave a space between

the top of the mold and the lid itself. The water must be boiling from the time the work is begun until the work is finished. The idea is to have enough steam to completely cook the bread, it must boil and boil hard, for all of these breads and puddings which we put in the water. It is more convenient to cook it in the water than in the steamer, and it is easier to add water in the kettle than in the steamer, unless you have a steamer that has a funnel at one side so the water can be poured in without moving the bread, for, in adding water to this, if I jar the mold, the mixture might fall. Where the bread has partly raised and then been jarred or disturbed during the raising, it often has a hole through the center. The amount of water to be used must be determined by the size of the mold. If the cover fitted absolutely tight, I could have it high enough to come over the top, but this does not fit tight enough to run that risk. If I were using small molds, then I should have to use a smaller amount of water on account of the mold being so light that the volume of boiling might displace it. If that water cooks away, we must have hot water in readiness to add; it never should be cold water that is poured into that. If we do not have a mold that has a tight cover, it is better to place a piece of greased paper over the top. It is likely that the steam which rises from the water will condense against the lid and fall back and make it soggy. A piece of greased paper will answer just as well, if tied on the top of the can, as the lid. In using a kettle that has a loosely fitting cover, it will help some to lay a soft towel under the cover, to prevent escape of steam. The more of the steam that is lost, the more slowly it will cook. When we understand all that and realize just what difference these things make, we can use any of the recipes for steamed puddings and breads and boil them instead of steaming. The only advantage in the steamer is that we can cook something else underneath, and for certain things it is easier to use the steamer, but for the brown bread I would just as soon cook it, provided I have something to cover it. I do not like to have to add any more water during the first half hour.