_Home-baked bread_ is generally best when made of what is called grist flour; that is, wheat ground at a mill, and only the coarse bran removed from the flour. Twenty-four pounds of this flour will make about thirty-two pounds of bread; but if the best white flour is used, two or three more pounds of it will be required to produce the same quantity of bread. Bread is made either with leaven or yeast. _Leaven_ is made by mixing flour with warm water into a thin paste and then leaving it to ferment. When it begins to rise in bubbles, more water and flour is added, and it is again left to ferment, and then more flour with a little salt is added to make the dough. The dough must be kept warm during the whole operation, as fermentation will not take place unless the heat be from sixty to seventy, or seventy-five degrees. Bread of this kind is very light, but it soon becomes acid. Nearly all the household bread in France is made in this way. When _yeast_ is used, the usual proportion is half a pint of brewer's yeast mixed with a pint of warm water to twenty-four pounds of flour. If no fresh yeast can be procured, it may be made by putting a teacupful of split peas into a basin and pouring about a pint of boiling water over them. A cloth is then put over the basin, and it is set near the fire to keep warm. In about twelve hours it will begin to ferment, and a kind of scum will rise, which may be used as yeast. This is called Turkish yeast; but a better method is practised by the Americans, which is as follows:--Take as much hops as may be held between the thumb and finger, put them with a few slices of apples into a quart of water, and boil the whole for about fifteen or twenty minutes. Then strain the liquid, and when it is lukewarm stir in a little flour with three or four table-spoonfuls of treacle so as to make a thin paste; then set the whole in a warm place, and in a few hours the fermentation will be sufficiently strong to allow enough flour and water to be added to make a proper sponge for bread. If you have a small quantity of yeast it may be increased in the following manner:--Take one pound of fine flour, and mix it to the thickness of gruel with boiling water; add half a pound of brown sugar, mixing the whole well together. Then put three table-spoonfuls of yeast into a large vessel, and pour the mixture upon it. It will ferment violently, and the scum which rises to the top will be good yeast, which may be used immediately, or may be preserved for some time in an earthenware vessel covered closely from the air, and kept in a warm dry place.