Homemade bread is healthier, satisfies hunger better, and is cheaper than bakers’ bread. Make bread yourself if you possibly can. Use “middlings” if you can possibly get them; they contain the best elements of wheat. “Household Flour” has similar qualities, but is sometimes made from inferior kinds of wheat. Both are darker and cheaper than fine white flour; and bread made from them takes longer to “rise” than that made from fine flour. Bakers’ bread is generally made from poor flour mixed with a little of the better sort; or with a little alum, which added to the wheat grown in wet seasons, keeps the bread from being pasty and poor in taste.

The prices of bakers’ bread upon the streets in the eastern and western parts of the city are as follows: ordinary white bread, five cent loaf weighs three quarters of a pound: six cent loaf weighs fourteen ounces: eight cent loaf weighs one pound and ten ounces; black bread, two eight cent loaves weigh, respectively, one pound eight, and one pound ten ounces; fine French bread, eight cent loaf weighs three quarters of a pound; in the French quarter a six cent loaf weighs one pound. We advise the purchase of new flour in preference to old, because, unless flour is cooled and dried before it is packed, the combined action of heat and dampness destroys its gluten, and turns it sour; gluten is the nutritive part of the flour, that which makes it absorb water, and yield more bread. If you do not have a good oven, your bread can be baked at the baker’s for about a cent a loaf. When bread is made too light it is tasteless, and lacks nourishment, because the decay caused in the elements of the flour used to make it by the great quantity of yeast employed, destroys the most nutritious parts of it. A pint of milk in a batch of four loaves of bread gives you a pound more bread of better quality, and helps to make it moist. Scalded skim milk will go as far as fresh whole milk, and you can use the cream for some other dish. One pound of pea-meal, or ground split-peas, added to every fourteen pounds of flour used for bread increases its nourishment, and helps to satisfy hunger.

Keep your bread in a covered earthen jar; when it is too stale to eat, or make into bread broth, dry it in a cool oven, or over the top of the fire, roll it with a rolling-pin, sift it through a sieve, and save the finest crumbs to roll fish or chops in for frying, and the largest for puddings. If a whole loaf is stale put it into a tight tin can, and either steam it, or put it into a moderately warm oven for half an hour; it will then be as good as fresh bread to the taste, and a great deal more healthy.

A good allowance of bread each day is as follows: for a man two pounds, costing six cents; for boys and women one pound and a half, costing five cents; for children a pound each, costing three cents.

Homemade Bread. Put seven pounds of flour into a deep pan, and make a hollow in the centre; into this put one quart of lukewarm water, one tablespoonful of salt, one teaspoonful of sugar, and half a gill of yeast; have ready three pints more of warm water, and use as much of it as is necessary to make a rather soft dough, mixing and kneading it well with both hands. When it is smooth and shining strew a little flour upon it, lay a large towel over it folded, and set it in a warm place by the fire for four or five hours to rise; then knead it again for fifteen minutes, cover it with the towel, and set it to rise once more; then divide it into two or four loaves, and bake it in a quick oven. This quantity of flour will make eight pounds of bread, and will require one hour’s baking to two pounds of dough. It will cost about thirty cents, and will last about two days and a half for a family of six. In cold weather, the dough should be mixed in a warm room, and not allowed to cool while rising; if it does not rise well, set the pan containing it over a large vessel of boiling water; it is best to mix the bread at night, and let it rise till morning, in a warm and even temperature.

Rice Bread. Simmer one pound of rice in three quarts of water until the rice is soft, and the water evaporated or absorbed; let it cool until it is only luke-warm; mix into it nearly four pounds of flour, two teaspoonfuls of salt, and four tablespoonfuls of yeast; knead it until it is smooth and shining, let it rise before the fire, make it up into loaves with the little flour reserved from the four pounds, and bake it thoroughly. It will cost about twenty-five cents, and make more than eight pounds of excellent bread.

Potato Bread. Take good, mealy boiled potatoes, in the proportion of one-third of the quantity of flour you propose to use, pass them through a coarse sieve into the flour, using a wooden spoon and adding enough cold water to enable you to pass them through readily; use the proper quantity of yeast, salt, and water, and make up the bread in the usual way. It will cost about twenty-four cents if you use the above quantities, and give you eight pounds or more of good bread.

Pulled Bread. Take from the oven an ordinary loaf of bread when it is about half baked, and with the fingers, while it is yet hot, pull it apart in egg-sized pieces of irregular shape; throw them upon tins, and bake them in a slow oven to a rich brown color. This bread is excellent to eat with cheese or wine. An ordinary sized loaf, costing about three cents makes a large panful.

Bread made with Baking Powder. Where bread is made with baking powder the following rules should be closely observed: if any shortening be used, it should be rubbed into the flour before it is wet; cold water or sweet milk should always be used to wet it, and the dough should be kneaded immediately, and only long enough to thoroughly mix it and form it in the desired shape; it should then be placed in a well-heated oven and baked quickly otherwise the carbonic acid gas will escape before the expanded cells are fixed in the bread, and thus the lightness of the loaf will be impaired.

Breakfast Rolls. Mix well by sifting together half a pound of flour, (cost two cents,) a heaping teaspoonful of baking powder, a level teaspoonful of salt, and a heaping teaspoonful of sugar, (cost one cent;) rub into a little of the above one ounce of lard, (cost one cent,) mix it with the rest of the flour, and quickly wet it up with enough cold milk to enable you to roll it out about half an inch thick, (cost two cents;) cut out the dough with a tin shape or with a sharp knife, in the form of diamonds, lightly wet the top with water, and double them half over. Put them upon a tin, buttered and warmed, and bake them in a hot oven. This receipt will cost about six cents, and will make about nine good sized rolls.

Tea Biscuit. Mix as above, using the same proportions, and cutting out with a biscuit-cutter; when they are baked, wash them over with cold milk, and return them to the oven for a moment to dry. The cost is the same.

Macaroni. This is a paste made from the purest wheat flour and water; it is generally known as a rather luxurious dish among the wealthy; but it should become one of the chief foods of the people, for it contains more gluten, or the nutritious portion of wheat, than bread. It is one of the most wholesome and economical of foods, and can be varied so as to give a succession of palatable dishes at a very small cost. The imported macaroni can be bought at Italian stores for about fifteen cents a pound; and that quantity when boiled yields nearly four times its bulk, if it has been manufactured for any length of time. Good macaroni is yellow or brownish in color; white sorts are always poor. It should never be soaked or washed before boiling, or put into cold or lukewarm water; wipe it carefully, break it in whatever lengths you want it, and put it into boiling water, to every quart of which half a tablespoonful of salt is added; you can boil an onion with it if you like the flavor; as soon as it is tender enough to yield easily when pressed between the fingers, drain it in a colander, saving its liquor for the next day’s broth, and lay it in cold water until you want to use it. When more macaroni has been boiled than is used it can be kept perfectly good by laying it in fresh water, which must be changed every day. After boiling the macaroni as above, you can use it according to any of the following directions. Half a pound of uncooked macaroni will make a large dishful.

Macaroni, Farmers’ Style. Boil half a pound of macaroni as above, and while you are draining it from the cold water, stir together over the fire one ounce each of butter and flour, and as soon as they bubble gradually pour into the sauce they make, a pint of boiling water, beating it with a fork or egg whip until it is smooth; season it with a level teaspoonful of salt and a level saltspoonful of pepper, and put the macaroni in it to heat; then cut an onion in small shreds, and brown it over the fire in a very little fat; when both are done dish the macaroni, and pour the onion out of the frying pan upon it. It is excellent; and ten cents will cover the cost of all of it.

Macaroni with Broth. Put half a pound of macaroni, boiled as above and washed in cold water, over the fire with any kind of broth, or one pint of cold gravy and water; season it to taste with pepper and salt, and let it heat slowly for an hour, or less if you are in a hurry; then lay it on a flat dish, strew over it a few bread crumbs, which you will almost always have on hand if you save all the bits I speak of in the article on BREAD; then set the dish in the oven, or in front of the fire to brown. It will cost less than ten cents, and be delicious and very hearty.

Macaroni with White Sauce. Warm half a pound of macaroni, boiled and washed in cold water, as above, in the following sauce, and use it as soon as it is hot. Stir together over the fire one ounce each of butter and flour, pouring in one pint of boiling water and milk, as soon as the butter and flour are mixed; season it with salt and pepper to taste, and put the macaroni into it. This dish costs less than ten cents, and is very good and wholesome.

Macaroni with Cheese. Boil half a pound of macaroni, as above, put into a pudding dish in layers with quarter of a pound of cheese, (cost four cents,) grated and mixed between the layers; season it with pepper and salt to taste; put a very little butter and some bread crumbs over it, and brown it in the oven. It will make just as hearty and strengthening a meal as meat, and will cost about twelve cents.

Macaroni Milanaise Style. Have ready some sauce, made according to the receipt for Tomato Sauce given below, or use some fresh tomatoes passed through a sieve with a wooden spoon, and highly seasoned, and two ounces of grated cheese; put half a pound of imported Italian macaroni, (cost eight cents,) in three quarts of boiling water, with two tablespoonfuls of salt, one saltspoonful of pepper, and a teaspoonful of butter, (cost one cent;) boil rapidly for about twenty minutes, then drain it in a colander, run plenty of cold water from the faucet through it, and lay it in a pan of cold water until you are ready to use it. Put into a sauce-pan one gill of tomato sauce, (cost two cents,) one ounce of butter, (cost two cents,) and one gill of any meat gravy free from fat, and stir until they are smoothly blended: put a half inch layer of macaroni on the bottom of a dish, moisten it with four tablespoonfuls of the sauce, sprinkle over it half an ounce of the grated cheese; make three other layers like this, using all the macaroni, cheese, and sauce, and brown the macaroni in a hot oven for about five minutes; serve it hot. It will cost about thirteen cents.

Macaroni with Tomato Sauce. Boil half a pound of macaroni as already directed, and lay it in cold water. Make a tomato sauce as follows, and dress the macaroni with it, using only enough to moisten it, and sprinkling the top with an ounce of grated cheese, (cost one cent;) serve it hot.

Tomato Sauce. Boil together for one hour quarter of a can of tomatoes, or six large fresh ones, (cost five cents,) one gill of broth of any kind, one sprig of thyme, one sprig of parsley, three whole cloves, three peppercorns, and half an ounce of onion sliced; (cost two cents;) rub them through a sieve with a wooden spoon, and set the sauce to keep hot; mix together over the fire one ounce of butter, and half an ounce of flour, (cost two cents,) and when smooth incorporate with the tomato sauce. The cost of the tomato sauce will be about ten cents, and of the entire dish about eighteen cents. If you do not wish to use all the tomato sauce, and you do not need to, save it to use with fried chops of any kind.

Rice. Rice is largely composed of starch, and for that reason is less nutritious than flour, oatmeal, Indian meal, or macaroni; but it is a wholesome and economical food when used with a little meat broth, drippings, or molasses. It is a very safe food for children, especially if used with a little molasses. The following is an excellent supper dish.

Rice Panada. Boil half a pound of rice, (which costs five cents,) quarter of a pound of suet, (at two cents,) with one tablespoonful of salt, and one of sugar, (cost one cent,) fast in boiling water for fifteen minutes; meantime mix half a pound of flour, (cost two cents,) gradually with one quart of water, and one gill of molasses, (cost two cents;) stir this into the boiling rice, and boil it for about five minutes; this makes a nice supper of over five pounds of good, nutritious food for twelve cents.

Boiled Rice. Another good dish of rice for supper can be made as follows. Wash half a pound of rice (cost five cents,) throw it into one quart of boiling water, containing two teaspoonfuls of salt, and boil it fast ten minutes; drain it in a colander, saving the water to use with broth next day; meantime just grease the pot with sweet drippings, put the rice back in it, cover it, and set it on a brick on the top of the stove, or in a cool oven, and let it stand ten minutes to swell; be careful not to burn it. The addition of a very little butter, sugar, molasses, nutmeg, lemon juice, or salt and pepper, will give it different flavors; so that you can vary the taste, and have it often without getting tired of it, and it need never cost you over seven cents.

Rice, Milanaise Style. Fry one ounce of butter, (cost two cents,) light brown; put into it half a pound of rice, (cost five cents,) well picked over, but not washed, and one ounce of onion, chopped fine; stir and brown for about five minutes, then add a pint of gravy from meat, season with a level teaspoonful of salt, quarter that quantity of pepper, and as much cayenne as you can take on the point of a very small pen-knife blade; the onion and seasoning will cost less than two cents; stew gently for fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning, and serve as soon as the rice is tender. This makes a palatable dish for about ten cents.

Rice, Japanese Style. Put half a pound of well washed rice into a double kettle, with one pint of milk or water, one heaping teaspoonful of salt, and quarter of a medium sized nutmeg grated; boil it until tender, about forty minutes; if it seems very dry add a little more liquid, taking care not to have it sloppy when it is cooked. When milk is used it may be served with milk and sugar as a breakfast or tea dish; when water takes the place of milk, the addition of an ounce of butter, and half a saltspoonful of pepper makes a nice dinner dish of it.