5 JUNE 1941, Page 14

The National Loaf Judging by the correspondence I have received,

many people besides myself have had difficulty in either getting or successfully making the wholemeal-loaf. (In many shops the loaf is damned by the label " Standard Bread.") Nearly all these letters contain simple and excellent tips for baking. One, originally the recipe of a miller's wife, is so good that I give it in full. The period of making is five minutes (we have frequently set aside a whole evening for a moderate baking). Ingredients : 2 pints very warm water, 3 lbs. flour, I oz. yeast, 2 on. granulated sugar, 2 ozs. salt ; method: mix ingredients well, pour on water, stir as for plum pudding. No kneading. Set mixture to rise in tins for one hour ; bake for one hour. The bread thus made is certainly excellent. Finally, a doctor provides a nice comment on the intelligence of the age. All you need to do, he says, is to see your nearest miller, ask him for a supply of wheat-germ, and put it back (ro ozs. to 7 lbs. flour) into the flour from which it has been so carefully extracted. No need to use wholemeal-flour. Wheat-germ costs 3d. a pound. It is also sold as (a well-known proprietary article, whose vitamin percentages make one dizzy) at 2S. rod. a pound. Are we really sharp? as they say in the country.