SOMETHING PRACTICAL FOR MISSIONARY HOUSEWIVES.
By Mrs. D. A. Fitch
MRS. D. A. FITCH.
(Guadalajara, Mexico.) MANY and varied are the experiences of the bread maker. The existence of certain conditions is necessary, and perhaps no other article of food requires closer attention than does yeast bread. When thinking the art about mastered, we may be confronted with some new variety of flour, some change of climatic conditions, as difference in temperature or altitude. Whatever the circumstances, yeast has much to do with successful bread making. To those who are dealing with the bread problem, our experience in a tropical country with an altitude of five thousand feet, may be of value. While success had crowned the efforts of an occasional baking, yet the general verdict here is that “good bread cannot be made of the flour manufactured from the soft wheat of Mexico.” On being introduced to a sample of it, I gave a handful a gentle pressure, and as it fell, retaining its shape perfectly, my courage fell too. Rubbing it between my fingers, it felt much like putty. There is nothing granular about it, like the flour in the northern part of the United States. Our bread was never sour nor soggy, but was coarse grained, with a tendency to dry rapidly. We could not obtain compressed yeast, so we had to do our best with the common dry yeasts. Not totally discouraged, we concluded to make a start from the very beginning. We set a trap to catch yeast germs from the air. Success crowned this effort—the yeast seemed to be right; but, Would it make good bread from this flour? was the question at issue. Believing the Lord wished to vindicate right principles, we made the trial, and such was the success that we wished to show everybody a loaf. Now after a trial of several months with no failures, we wish to say, to our fellow missionaries who may be having an experience like our early one, that on application we will be glad to write you how to start yeast as we did, or if preferred, will send some of the yeast in dry form, with directions for its use. To others who may be desirous of trying this new product we will send a trial sample on receipt of five or ten cents, according to quantity desired.