6 cups best bread flour, 1 pint water, 1/2 ounce compressed yeast, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 tablespoon oil, 1 tablespoon salt.

Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and make it hollow in the middle; dissolve the yeast in the warm water, add the salt, sugar, and oil, and pour into the flour. Take out from the side a good handful of flour to be used on the board, draw in the flour with a large spoon and make it into a dough, turn out on a floured board; rub off all the particles of dough sticking to the sides and bottom of the dish, and knead until it is elastic to the touch and does not stick to the board, using just as little flour as possible to keep the bread from sticking to the board. By keeping the bread in motion continuously, very little flour will be needed. The kneading of white bread will take about twenty minutes or more. Oil the bowl and drop bread in, turn it over in the bowl so it leaves the top oiled, which will help to keep a crust from drying on. Cover well and let it rise until it doubles its bulk and does not respond to the touch, using the test given above. This will take about three hours or more, then knock it down in the center and work it together, turn it over in the bowl, and let it rise until it is about one-half more than its former bulk, then turn it out on a slightly floured board and work it together for a few minutes. Divide it into three pieces, knead each loaf into a hard ball, flatten down and roll the dough up into a hard roll, and drop it into an oiled bread tin. In molding the bread into loaves, it is very important that each loaf be well worked together. If the bread is put into pans in soft loaves, that is, soft because they were not worked enough, the bread will rise flat on top instead of rounded, and will be apt to fall when put into the oven. After being put into pans, brush over the top of each loaf with oil to keep a crust from drying on.

Bread should be baked in a quick oven to begin with. The oven should not be so hot as to burn the outside of the loaf before the inside of the loaf is cooked, but should be of such a temperature that the bread may rise for the first ten minutes or more, and then have sufficient crust to hold it up, when the fire should be closed up to hold a steady heat until the bread is done. For the small loaves, forty to forty-five minutes is generally sufficient; for the larger ones or those of ordinary size, one hour to an hour and a quarter. A well baked loaf may be lifted from the pan and placed upon the palm of the hands without burning it. This should always be the case when bread is well baked and the moisture evaporated. When done remove from the pans and lay on the side on a wire rack to cool. If brushed over the top with warm water just after taking them out of the oven, the crust of the bread will keep softer and it will give it a nice color.