Potatoes are sometimes used in conjunction with flour for bread-making.  They are by no means necessary when good flour is used, but bread made from inferior flour is improved by their use.  Only potatoes that are fully matured should be used for this purpose, and they should be well cooked and smoothly mashed.  Neither sugar nor salt is essential for the production of good bread, though most cook books recommend the use of one or both.  The proportion of the former should not exceed one even tablespoonful to three pints of flour, and the very smallest amount of salt, never more than a half teaspoonful, and better less.  No butter or other free fat is required; the tenderness of texture produced by its use can be secured as well by the use of unskimmed milk and thorough kneading.

UTENSILS.—­For bread-making purposes, earthen or china ware is preferable to either tin or wooden utensils:  being a poor conductor, it protects the sponge from the cold air much more effectually than tin, and is much more easily kept clean and sweet than wood.  The utensil should be kept exclusively for the purpose of bread-making, and should never be allowed to contain any sour substance.  The bowl should be thoroughly scalded before and after each using.  Use silver or granite-ware spoons for stirring the bread.  Iron and tin discolor the sponge.  For measuring the material, particularly the liquid and the yeast, half-pint cups, divided by marks into thirds and fourths, as shown in the cut, are especially serviceable.

[Illustration:  Measuring Cup] [Illustration:  Measuring Cup]

WHEN TO SET THE SPONGE.—­The time to set the sponge for bread-making is a point each housekeeper must determine for herself.  The fact before stated, that temperature controls the activity of fermentation, and that it is retarded or accelerated according to the conditions of warmth, enables the housewife, by keeping the bread-mixture at a temperature of about 50 deg.  F., to set her bread in the evening, if desired, and find it light and ready for further attention in the morning.  In winter, the sponge will need to be prepared early in the evening and kept during the night at as even a temperature as possible.  A good way to accomplish this is to cover the bowl with a clean napkin and afterwards wrap it about very closely with several folds of a woolen blanket.  In extremely cold weather bottles of hot water may be placed around the bowl outside the wrappings.  In case this plan is employed, care must be taken to have sufficient wrappings between the bread and the bottles to prevent undue heat, and the bottles should be covered with an additional blanket to aid in retaining the heat as long as possible.

If the sponge is set in the evening, if in very warm weather, it should be started as late as practicable, and left in a rather cool place.  Cover closely to exclude the air, but do not wrap in flannel as in winter.  It will be likely to need attention early in the morning.