Books by Amy L. Handy
PUBLISHED BY
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
WAR-TIME BREADS AND CAKES.
WAR FOOD. Practical and Economical Methodsof Keeping Vegetables, Fruits, and Meats.
WAR-TIME BREADS
AND CAKES
WAR-TIME BREADS
AND CAKES
BY
AMY L. HANDY
Author of War Food
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
1918
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY AMY L. HANDY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published March 1918
FOREWORD
For the last twenty years the housewivesof our country have been more and more dependingupon the bakers for the bread usedin the homes. In some of our cities the home-bakedloaf is hardly known.
Although the commercial bread has beenof great variety and of excellent quality, ithas never been an economical method ofserving the family with the staff of life.
By depending upon ready-baked bread wehave come to consider it a difficult process tomake good yeast bread and almost a hardshipto try to have home-made bread.
I had fallen into the habit of buying mybread; my family was so small that it hardlyseemed necessary to insist that bread shouldbe made in my kitchen when good breadcould be bought at a reasonable price. Theresult was that when the call came to conservethe wheat, I resorted almost entirely[vi]to quick breads made with baking powder orwith sour milk and soda. However, the experimentsthat I made with these materialsproved so interesting and satisfactory thatI decided to see what I could do with a yeast cakeand other grains than wheat.
My first experiments were failures and Iwas discouraged because, instead of savingfood, I was wasting it, and yet I was unwillingto acknowledge myself defeated by thelittle square of leaven that came to me soattractively done up in tinfoil.
After careful consideration I decided thatI had rushed into undue intimacy with a forceof which I had very little understanding andthat I might do better if I cultivated the acquaintanceby degrees.
My next experiments were made with avery simple sponge of whole wheat flour,water, and yeast, which I allowed to rise forabout four hours. I divided it into four parts,and to one I added scalded corn meal andrye flour; to the second, raw corn meal andwhole wheat flour; to the third, barley flour[vii]and rye; and to the fourth, rice flour. I putsalt in each lot, but no sugar or shortening.As I worked I kept a paper and pencil besideme and made careful notes of everything Idid, also of results that I expected and of anydoubts that occurred to me as to the wisdomof what I was doing. The four little loavesthat resulted taught me many things andwere the beginning of experiments thatlasted through the summ