HOW TO MAKE BREAD.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 1, Issue 24, 22 November 1849, Page 3

HOW TO MAKE BREAD.

The first thing wanted is leaven. There are several ways of making it, perhaps the best receipt is the one which was printed in the Maori Almanac. It is so simple that it may be made in every village. nECEIPT FOR MAKING LEAVEN. Scrape a good mealy potatoe till it is all in powder, then mix this pulp with tome flour and sugar; put one spoonful of sugar and four of fiour, mix these with some lukewarm water, pour the whole into a bottle, cork it up and put thu bottle to the side of the fire, let it stand Iwenty-loJr hours before it ia use'd. If you have 110 bottle use a jar or n gourd, stir the leaven very often while it is by the lire. You will know when it is fit for ns« it will ferment and have some froih on the top, then wash your hands very clean and begin to make bread. If you have a small tub fill it half full of flour. If you have 110 tub or pail a forpe pot will do, whatever you use wash it quile clenn. Fill it only half full, as you mast leave room for the dough to swell and rise. Scoop a hole in the Hour and pour in the leaven and a little warm water, cover over the whole with a piece of cleun matting and leave the leaven to work. By n:id bye it will have worked its way all nmong the flour, when it has done so then mix the bread, l'our in by degrees as much warm water as will make tho flour into a still" dough. The water must be lukewarm not hot. Knead thu dough well me Ixitli your fis'-S and do not mind being a little tiled. The bread will be the better and ilie lighter, work ut it till all is one iirnt mass with no lumps in it. You must sprinkle a little ll uir now and then over the do igh lest it siicfc to the bottom of the tub or pot, then ewer over the tub and put it near the fire. I'he (lough will rise and swell till it gets up to the top of the tub. When you seo it does so, it is ready for baking. Make the dough then up as quick as you can into loaves, do not press hard on them or they will be heavy. If you have no ovrn baku in a large iron pot, shut the lid closely down, if any air get in it will be heavy, A round pot with a fl it lid is the best, if you hive such ; you can lay some hot ashes on the top. Be caaeful not to a very blazing fire at first, lest the bottom ot the bread be burnt, keep a steady heat above and below that all parts of the loaves may well bake through. You have 110 watches to guide you as to the time, but you will sjon learn how long to keep the loaves in the oven. If they are well baked they will be dry and light, if badly baked they will be wet and heavy. Sometime- the leaven will not be good, then thu bread will be heavy. The quantity of water, if there be much flour, must be about a large gourd full. All these things you will learn for yourselves after you have inndc bread once or twice. You need not make fresh leaven every time, save a piece of dough as big as a very small po'atoc and put it into a clean boulo, cork it uptight. Tho night before you bake again mix little flour and sugar, if you have any, or flour only, in some warm w.«ter, and pour the whole into the bottle, stirring and shaking it now nnd then. Put it by the fire all night. If the battle is not washed each time the leaven will be sour and all the bread too. These are all the directions needful for ma« king bread. But it will of course be better to build brick ovens. Whenever you have an Englishman living among you who knows how to build an oven, have one large one built fjr the use of the wholo village. You will find this much better than an irun-pot. In soma countries where the people uro poor they build one large oven for the use of the whole villagj, one man is baker, ami as they have little money, they pay him in bread. They in ike him dough each in his own bouse and the bring their loaves to be hiked* They each one small loaf for the baker. This is hi* paytutnt. You limy be pure of good bread if you use an oven, and j on can bake six or swell

loaves at a time, an ivcn pot will only hold two at the utmost. If you like to have a tub to make your bread in, you may, buy one big enough to make seven loaves in for a dollar. Vour bread will be much better if you put a little salt in it. Salt is a penny a pound and n pound will last for four bakings. A shilling's worth of salt will be enough to last from January to June—so it will not cost you much money. Remember, if you cat salt you will not want medicine.