When you find good flour, notice _the brand_, and afterwards purchase the same kind. The writer knows a family that for eleven years purchased flour in this way, without once having a poor barrel; then the mills passed to another owner, and though the brand was the same, the flour was good no more.
If you raise wheat, or buy it in the grain, always wash it before sending it to the mill. Take two or three bushels at a time, pour in water and stir it, and then pour off the water. Repeat this till the water is clear. Do not let the grain stand in the water, as it will swell and be injured; spread it on a large cloth in the sun, or where it will have warmth and fresh air, and stir it often, and in a day or two it will be dry. The flour is much improved by this process.
Newly ground flour which has never been packed, is very superior to barrel flour, so that the people in Western New York, that land of finest wheat, say that New England people do not know what good flour is.
Indian meal, also, is much the best when freshly ground. The meal made of Southern corn is often injured by salt water, or _dampness_ acquired in the hold of a ship.
_Rye flour_ is very apt to be _musty_ or _grown_. There is no way to detect this but by trial. It is well to engage a farmer to supply you with the same he provides for his own family.
_Good yeast_ is indispensable to good bread. Many of the compounds sold for yeast are unfit for use.
The best kinds are _dry yeast_, _soft hop yeast_, and _potato yeast_. The hard yeast should be made in the month of May, or _early_ in June, for summer use, and in September or October, for the winter. This kind sometimes loses its vitality during the damp weather of August, but it is not invariably the case. Soft hop, or potato yeast, should be made once a week in the summer, and once in two weeks in the winter. No soft yeast can be fit for use, if kept week after week; it may be rectified with saleratus, but the bread will not be very good.
Every housekeeper should make sure, by her own personal attention, that the yeast is properly made, and the jar well scalded. A jar having a close cover is best. Bottles will burst, and you cannot be perfectly sure that a jug is cleansed from every particle of old yeast. To scald the jar, put it into a kettle of boiling water. This must be done every time you make yeast. Stone ware is liable to be cracked by the pouring of boiling water into it.