I know of what I am speaking, having watched my grandmother bake bread in an old-fashioned brick oven, and have eaten hearth-baked rye bread, baked directly on the bottom of the oven, and know, if this recipe be closely followed, the young housewife will have sweet, wholesome bread.

Some Germans use Kumel or Caraway seed in rye bread.
Aunt Sarah's loaves of rye bread, baked from the above recipe, were invariably 3-1/2 inches high, 14-1/2 inches in diameter and 46 inches in circumference and always won a blue ribbon at Country Fairs and Farmers' Picnics.
In the oven of Aunt Sarah's range was always to be found a piece of sheet iron 17 inches in length by 16 inches in width.

The three edges of the sheet iron turned down all around to a depth of half an inch, the two opposite corners being cut off about a half inch, to allow of its being turned down.

It is a great convenience for young housewives to possess two of these sheet-iron tins, or "baking sheets," when baking small cakes or cookies, as being raised slightly from the bottom of the oven, cakes are less liable to scorch and bake more evenly.

One sheet may be filled while baking another sheetful of cakes.