and set it near the fire, but not so near that it will scald. When it
rises so as to crack on the top, set the oven on coals; have the lid
hot, cut the loaf slightly across the top, dividing it in four; stick it
with a fork and put the lid on, when it is on a few minutes, see that it
does not bake too fast, it should have but little heat at the bottom,
and the coals on the top should be renewed frequently, turn the oven
round occasionally.

If baked slowly, it will take an hour and a half when done, wrap it in a
large cloth till it gets cold.


To Bake in a Brick Oven.

If you have a large family, or board the laborers of a farm, it is
necessary to have a brick oven, so as to bake but twice a week; and to
persons that understand the management of them, it is much the easiest
way. If you arrange every thing with judgment, half a dozen loaves of
bread, as many pies or puddings, rusk, rolls or biscuit may be baked at
the same time. Some persons knead up their bread over night in winter,
to do this, the sponge should be made up at four o'clock in the
afternoon. If you wish to put corn flour in your bread, scald one quart
of it to six loaves, and work it in the flour that you are going to stir
in the rising, to make six loaves of bread, you should have three quarts
of water and a tea-cup of yeast.

Scalded corn flour, or boiled mashed potatoes, assists bread to rise
very much in cold weather. Have a quart of potatoes well boiled and
rolled fine with a rolling-pin on your cake board; mix them well in the
rising after it is light; if the oven is not ready, move the bread to a