In selecting flour first look to the color. If it is white, with a yellowish straw-color tint, buy it. If it is white, with a bluish cast, or with black specks in it, refuse it. Next examine its adhesiveness - wet and knead a little of it between your fingers; if it works soft and sticky, it is poor. Then throw a little lump of dried flour against a smooth surface; if it falls like powder, it is bad. Lastly, squeeze some of the flour tightly in your hand; if it retains the shape given by the pressure that, too, is a good sign. It is safe to buy flour that will stand all these tests.

Three things are indispensable to success in bread making; good flour, good yeast, and watchful care; a fourth might be added: experience.

In winter, always warm the flour for bread, and keep the sponge near the stove, where it will not get chilled.

Bread should be put into a rather hot oven. An hour is the time usually allowed for baking.

Bolls and biscuits should bake quickly. To make them a nice color, rub them over with warm water just before putting them into the oven, to glaze them, brush lightly with milk and sugar.

Baking powder and soda biscuit should be made as rapidly as possible, laid into hot pans and put in a quick oven.

Gem pans should be heated and well greased.

Fritters should be made quickly and beaten very thoroughly.

Pancakes should be well beaten, the eggs separately, the whites to a stiff froth and added the last thing.

Vienna Bread

The following is the recipe by which the Vienna bread was made that became so famous on the Centennial grounds: Sift in a tin pan four pounds of flour; bank up against the sides; pour in one quart of milk and water. and mix into it enough flour to form a thin batter; then quickly and lightly add one pint of milk, in which is dissolved one ounce of salt and one and three-quarter ounces of yeast; leave the remainder of the flour against the sides of the pan; cover the pan with a cloth, and set in a place free from draught for three-quarters of an hour; then mix in the rest of the flour until the dough will leave the bottom and sides of the pan, and let it stand two and a half hours; finally, divide the mass into one-pound pieces, to be cut in turn into twelve parts each; this gives square pieces about three and a half inches thick, each corner of which is taken up and folded over to the center, and then the cases are turned over on a dough-board to rise for half an hour, when they are put in a hot oven that bakes them in ten minutes.

Bread

The first thing is the yeast, which is made with hops, a small handful boiled and stirred into flour with a little salt, and sometimes a little ginger and brown sugar. To "set" the sponge, the flour is sifted carefully, and into the center is poured the yeast, thoroughly mixed with water and salt, and about a peck of finely-mashed potatoes is needed for a baking of a dozen loaves of medium size. This mixture is made thoroughly fine, and the ingredients when mixed (about new milk-warm in summer, and a little warmer in colder weather) poured slowly upon the flour, and made into a fine batter. It is at night, which is our plan; the first thing in the morning it is again worked and. set to rise before breakfast, so that by dinner time our large baking is finished. The potatoes, without a doubt, keep the bread moist, are a healthful addition, and where cheap effect a saving in flour of some importance.