The manner of getting it good, is to mix (the day before one intends to bake, and before going to bed) a little of the old dough before mentioned, with a third of of the flour intended to make bread : the whole is to be mixed and diluted with cold water : this forms a firm and compact dough, which ought to be left all night in a corner of the trough, covered with a proportion of flour, raised in rolls and pressed hard to give it more solidity and to prevent the leaven from extending itself out of its limits. The day after, at about six in the morning, it is fit to be used ; with cold water it takes commonly seven or eight hours to be ready, with warm water about three, but the dough is always soft.
If found that on the following day, the leaven was passed, that is, already turned sour, as may happen in the great heat of summer, or when a storm has taken place during the night ; it is sufficient then to renew and to refresh it, by adding to it half of its weight in new flour and cold water : three hours after, it is fit to be used.
When the leaven is thus prepared, they begin by putting it entire without breaking it, with a proportion of water and it ought to be diluted very quickly and very exactly, to prevent any lumps from remaining ; when it is sufficiently diluted, they add to it the remainder of the water, which ought to be cold in summer, and tepid or warm on the contrary in winter, to counteract the effects of the hands in the two seasons, and to produce an opposite one. They then mix all the flour destined to be employed with that leaven, and assemble the whole in a lump which they work with the hands, carrying it from left to right, heaving it up, cutting and dividing it with the open hands, nipping and pulling the
