Yeast and Other Rising Agents

Below are some recipes for yeast and other rising agents from Mrs Owens' cookbook and useful household hints by Frances Emugene Owens ©1884

BAKING POWDER.
6 ounces of starch.
6 ounces of bi-carbonate of soda.
4 ounces of tartaric acid.
Powder and sift several times, and you will have a cheaper article than you can buy, and will have it pure. Keep it from the air. The main thing in preparing one's own baking powder is to sift it times enough. The above is a reliable formula, and may be safely used.
Since the alarming adulterations of almost everything used in cooking, a chemist advises the use of tartaric acid in place of cream of tartar. It costs about twice as much, but half the quantity suffices, and there is no difficulty in procuring this pure.

SUBSTITUTING ONE "RISING" FOR ANOTHER.
In recipes calling for 1/2 teaspoon soda and 1 of cream of tartar, baking powder may be used instead, using about 2 teaspoons. If baking powder is called for, soda and cream of tartar may be used instead, using about £ less of both together, than the amount of baking powder in the recipe. For instance, if 3 teaspoons of baking powder is called for, you can use 2/3 teaspoon soda and twice as much cream of tartar, which together will make 2 teaspoons, which is 1/3 less than 3 teaspoons baking powder. If sour milk is substituted for sweet, soda must be substituted for baking powder, and in those cases the cream of tartar must not be used at all, the sour milk furnishing the acid. One teaspoon soda to a pint of sour milk is about right. If sweet milk or water is substituted for sour milk, and the recipe calls for 1 teaspoon soda, baking powder may be used, and it would be safe to put in 2 heaping teaspoons or even 3. Sweet milk and water may be used interchangeably. Many good cooks prefer water to milk for their nicest cake. So never discard a recipe that calls for milk because you have none, as water will answer very well. Recipes calling for whites of eggs only, require very little, if any, baking powder, and recipes giving a large number of eggs, generally use none, as. the whites are beaten very light and added last, and lighten the batter sufficiently.

HOP YEAST.
Put 1 cup hops in 3 quarts cold water. Boil 15 minutes, strain, set back on stove and add 5 large potatoes, peeled and grated, 1/2 cup salt, same of sugar. Stir well, let boil up, take off, cool and add a cup of yeast. Beat thoroughly. Set by the stove until it is light. If preferred, the potatoes may be boiled in the hop water, and then mashed, adding salt, sugar, and yeast, as above.

POTATO YEAST.
Mrs. Carrie S. Carr, New Lisbon, Wis.
Take 3 large potatoes, peel and grate as rapidly as possible, so they will not turn dark. Pour on 1 quart boiling water and cook 1/2 hour. Add 1/2 cup sugar, same of salt, shortly before it is done. When sufficiently cool, put in any good yeast to raise it; stir well together. The next day it will be as light as a foam. A tea-cup of this yeast will be enough to raise 4 or 5 loaves of bread. Keep in a cool place, and in summer renew every fortnight.