Although bread-making seems a simple process, it yet requires delicate
care and watchfulness. There are fifty ways to spoil good bread; There
are a hundred little things to be considered and allowed for, that
require accurate observation and experience. The same process that
will raise good bread in cold weather will make sour bread in the heat
of summer; different qualities of flour require variations in treatment
as also different sorts and conditions of yeast; and when all is done,
the baking presents another series of possibilities which require exact
attention.
A well-trained mind, accustomed to reflect, analyze, and generalize,
has an advantage over uncultured minds even of double experience. Poor
as your cook is, she now knows more of her business than you do. After
a very brief period of attention and experiment, you will not only
know more than she does, but you will convince her that you do, which
is quite as much to the purpose.
In the same manner, lessons must be given on the washing of silver and
the making of beds. Good servants do not often come to us; they must
be _made_ by patience and training; and if a girl has a good disposition
and a reasonable degree of handiness, and the housekeeper understands
her profession, a good servant may be made out of an indifferent one.
Pages:
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469