Bread made with Yeast.

The principal improvement that has been made in the art of fabricating bread, consists in the substitution of yeast, (or the froth that rises to the surface during the fermentation of malt liquors,) instead of common flour dough, in a state of acescency, calledleaven, to rise the bread dough, made of flour and water, before it is baked. This substance very materially improves the bread. Yeast makes the dough rise more effectually than ordinaryleaven, and the bread thus produced is much lighter, and free from that sour taste which may often be perceived in bread raised with leaven; because too much has been added to the paste, or because thedough has been allowed to advance too far in the process of fermentation before it was baked.

The discovery of the application of yeast, to improve the panification of bread flour, was made and first secretly adopted by the bakers of Paris; but when the practice was discovered, the College of Physicians there, in 1688, declared it prejudicial to health, and it was not till after a long time that the bakers succeeded in convincing the people, that bread made with yeast was superior to bread made with sour dough or leaven.

The bread used in this metropolis and in most other large towns in England, is made of wheaten flour, water, yeast, and salt. The average proportion are two pints by weight, of water, to three of flour, but the proportions vary considerably withthe diversity of climate, years, season, age, and grinding of the wheat. There are some kinds of wheat flour that require precisely three-fourths of their weight of water. That flour is always the best which combines with the greatest possible quantity of water. Bakers and pastry-cooks judge of the quality of flour from the characters of the dough. The best flour forms instantly by the addition of water a very gluey elastic paste, whereas bad flour produces a dough that cannot be elongated without breaking.

The flour, in this case, being seldom mixed up oftener than twice, that is, the yeast previously diluted with water, is added to a part of the flour, and well kneaded; in a short time, swells and rises in the baking trough, and is called by the bakers,setting the sponge. The remainder of the flour is afterwards added, with a sufficient quantity of warm water to make it into a stiff dough, and then allowed to ferment. It is of essential consequence that the whole of the yeast should be intimately mixed with the two-thirds of the quantity of the flour put into the kneading trough, in order that the fermentation of the dough may commence in every part of the mass at the same time. The dough is then covered up, and the water which is mixed with the yeast being warm, speedily extricates air in an elastic state, and as it is now by kneading, diffused through every part of the dough, every particle must become raised, and the viscidity of the mass retains it, when it is again well kneaded and made up into loaves, and put into the oven. The heatconverts the water also into an elastic vapour, and the loaf swells more and more, till at last it is perfectly porous.

During the baking, a still greater quantity of gazeous matter is extricated by the increased heat; and as the crust of the bread becomes formed, the air is prevented from escaping, the water is dissipated, the loaf rendered somewhat dry and solid, and between every particle of bread there is a particle of air, as appears from the spongy appearance of the bread.

It is curious that new flour does not afford bread of so good a quality as that which has been kept some months. The flour of grain too, which has suffered incipient germination, is much inferior in the quality of bread prepared from it: and from this principally appears to arise the injury which wheat sustains from a wetharvest. Various methods have been employed to remedy the imperfections of bread from inferior flour, such as washing the grain with hot water if it is musty, proposed by Mr. Hatchet;[5]drying and heating it even to a certain extent; adding various substances, such as magnesia, &c. Some experiments on this subject have been given by Mr. E. Davy. See a Treatise on Adulterations of Food, Second Edition, p.137.

5.See a Treatise on Adulterations of Food and Culinary Poisons, Second Edition, p. 143.

To make a sack of flour into bread, the baker pours the flour into the kneading trough, and sifts it through a fine wire sieve, which makes it lie very light, andserves to separate any impurities with which the flour may be mixed. Two ounces of alum are then dissolved in about a quart of boiling water, and the solution (technically called liquor,) is poured intothe seasoning-tub. Four or five pounds of salt are likewise put into the tub, and a pailful of hot water. When this mixture has cooled to the temperature of about 84°, from three to four pints of yeast are added; the whole is mixed, strained through the seasoning sieve, emptied into a hole made in the mass of the flour, and mixed up with the requisite portion of it to the consistence of a thick batter. Some dry flour is then sprinkled over the top, and it is covered up with sacks or cloths. This operation is called settingquarter sponge.

In this situation it is left three or four hours. It gradually swells and breaksthrough the dry flour scattered on its surface. An additional quantity, (about one pailful,) of warm (liquor) water, in which one ounce of alum is dissolved, is now added, and the dough is made up into a paste as before; the whole is then covered up. In this situation it is left for four or five hours. This is calledsetting half sponge.

The whole is then intimately kneaded with more water, (about two pails full,) for upwards of an hour. The dough is cut into pieces with a knife, and penned to one side of the trough; some dry flour is sprinkled over it, and it is left toprovein this state for about four hours. It is then kneaded again for half an hour. The dough is now taken out of the trough, put on the lid, cut into pieces, and weighed, in order to furnish the requisite quantity for each loaf.

The operation of moulding is peculiar, and can only be learnt by practice; it consists in cutting the mass of dough destined for a loaf, into two equal portions: they are kneaded either round or long, and one placed in a hollow made in the other, and the union is completed by a turn of the knuckles on the centre of the upper piece.

The loaves are left in the oven about two hours and a half, or three hours, when taken out of the oven, they are turned with their bottom side upwards to prevent them from splitting. They are then covered up with a blanket to cool slowly.

QUANTITY OF BREAD OBTAINABLE FROM A GIVEN QUANTITY OF WHEATEN FLOUR.

A sack of flour, weighing two hundred and eighty pounds, is made with five pounds of salt, and from three to four pints of yeast, into dough, with the requisite quantity of water, which varies according to the quality of the flour.

The older the flour, provided the wheat has been sound, and the flour well preserved, the greater will be the quantity of water required to convert it into a stiff dough, and the greater the produce of bread.

The quantity of flour for a quartern loaf is reckoned at an average, three pounds and a half, which produces, if the flour be of the best quality, five pounds avoirdupoiseof dough. The quartern loaf produced from this quantity of flour weighs four pounds, five ounces and a half, and hence the dough loses, during baking, eleven ounces and a half.

The quantity of bread obtainable from the same quantity of flour is, however, much influenced by the manner in which the dough is fermented, and the skilful regulation of the heat employed for baking the bread.

A variation of temperature also makes a considerable difference to the baker’s profit or loss. In summer, a sack of flour will yield a quartern loaf more than in winter; and the sifting it, before it is wetted, if it does not make it produce more bread, certainly causes the loaves to be larger.

The loss of weight occasioned by the heat is proportional to the extent of thesurface of the loaf, and to the length of time it remains in the oven. Hence the smaller the surface, or the nearer the figure of the loaf approaches to a globe, the smaller is the loss of weight sustained in baking; and the longer the loaf continues in the oven the greater is the loss.

A loaf that weighed just four pounds when taken out of the oven, after the usual baking, was put in again, and after ten minutes was found to have lost two ounces, and in ten minutes more it lost another ounce. The longer bread is kept the lighter it is, unless it be kept in a damp place, or wrapt round with a wet cloth, which is an excellent method of preserving bread fresh and free from mould, for a long time.

Home-made Wheaten Bread.

Take a bushel of wheaten flour, and put two third parts of it in one heap into a trough or tub; then dilute two pints of yeast with three or four pints of warm water, and add to this mixture from eight to ten ounces of salt. Make a hole in the middle of the heap of flour, pour the mixture of yeast, salt, and water into it, and knead the whole into an uniform stiff dough, with such an additional quantity of water as is requisite for that purpose, and suffer the dough to rise in a warm place.

When the dough has risen, and just begins again to subside, add to it gradually the remaining one third part of the flour; knead it again thoroughly,taking care to add gradually so much warm water as is sufficient to form the whole into a stiff tenaceous dough, and continue the kneading. At first the mass is very adhesive and clings to the fingers, but it becomes less so the longer the kneading is continued; and when the fist, on being withdrawn, leaves its perfect impression in the dough, none of it adhering to the fingers, the kneading may be discontinued. The dough may be then divided into loaf pieces, (of about 5lb. in weight). Knead each piece once more separately, and having made it up in the proper form, put it in a warm place, cover it up with a blanket to promote the last rising; and when this has taken place, put it into the oven. When the loaves are withdrawn they should be covered up with a blanket to cool as slowly as possible.

To make Pan Bread.

Mix up the flour, salt, and yeast, (See page97), with the requisite portion of warm water, into a moderately stiff paste; but instead of causing part of the flour to ferment, (or setting the sponge), as stated in the preceding process, suffer the whole mass to rise at once. Then divide it into earthenware pans, or sheet iron moulds, and bake the loaves till nearly done, in a quick oven; at that time remove them out of the pans, or moulds, and set them on tins for a few minutes, in order that the crust may become brown, and when done wrap them up in flannel, and rasp them when cold.

Bread made in this manner is muchmore spongy or honeycombed, than bread made in the common way. It is essential that the dough be not so stiff, as when intended for common bread, moulded by the hand.

Suppose a Winchester bushel of good wheat weighs fifty-nine pounds, let it be sent to the mill and ground; including the bran, the meal will weigh fifty-eight pounds, for not more than a pound will be lost in grinding.

Mix it up with water, yeast, and salt, like the dough of common bread, (See page97); the mass, before it is put into the oven, will weigh about eighty-eight pounds.

Divide it into eighteen loaves, and putthem into the oven; when thoroughly baked, and after they are drawn out and left two hours to cool, they will weigh seventy-four pounds and a half.

Take a peck of wheaten flour, the same quantity of oatmeal, and half a peck of boiled potatoes, skinned and mashed; let the mass be kneaded into a dough, with a proper quantity of yeast, salt, and warm milk; make the dough into loaves, and put them into the oven to bake.

The bread, thus prepared, rises well in the oven, is of a light brown colour, and by no means of an unpleasant flavour; it tastes so little of the oatmeal, as to be taken, by those who are unacquainted with its composition,for barley or rye bread. It is sufficiently moist, and, if put in a proper place, keeps well for a week.

The dough of which rolls are made by the generality of the London bakers, is suffered toprove, that is to rise more, than dough intended to be made into loaf-bread. It is, therefore, left in the kneading trough, whilst the loaves made of the same dough are in the oven. During this period it rises more, and the fermentation is further promoted, by placing the rolls, when moulded, in a warm place, to cause the dough to expand as much as possible. When this has taken place, they are put inthe oven to be baked, which is effected in about twenty or thirty minutes. When taken out of the oven they are slightly brushed over with a buttered brush, which gives the top crust a shining appearance, they are then covered up with flannel to cool gradually.

I have witnessed at a baker’s, who has the reputation for making excellent rolls, forty-eight pounds of dough moulded into one hundred (penny) rolls; they weighed, when drawn out of the oven, twenty-six pounds.

The bread called in this metropolis French rolls, and French bread, is made precisely in the same manner, namely, from common bread dough, but of a less stiff consistence; they are suffered to rise to a greater extent than dough intended for loaf-bread.

Some bakers make rolls and French bread of a superior kind, for private families, in the following manner:

Put a peck of flour into the kneading trough, and sift it through a wire sieve, then rub in three quarters of a pound of butter, and, when it is intimately blended with the flour, mix up with it two quarts of warm milk, a quarter of a pound of salt, and a pint of yeast; let these be mixed with the flour, and a sufficient quantity of warm water to knead it into a dough; suffer it to stand two hours to prove, and then mould it into rolls, which are to be placed on tins, and set for an hour near the fire or in the proving closet. They are then put into a brisk oven for about twenty minutes, and when drawn, the crust is rasped.

The cakes, called in this metropolis,muffinsandcrumpets, are baked, not in an oven, but on a hot iron plate.

For muffins, wheaten flour is made with water, or milk, into a batter or dough. To a quarter of a peck of flour is usually added three quarters of a pint of yeast, four ounces of salt, and so much water (or milk) slightly warmed, as is sufficient to form a dough of rather a soft consistence. Small portions of the dough are then put into holes, previously made in a layer of flour, about two inches thick, placed on a board, and the whole is covered up with a blanket and suffered to stand near a fire, to cause the muffin dough to rise. When this has been effected, the small cakes will exhibit a semi-globular shape. They are then carefully transferred on the heated iron plate to be baked, and when the bottomof the muffin begins to acquire a brown colour, they are turned and baked on the opposite side.

Crumpetsare made of a batter composed of flour, water (or milk), and a small quantity of yeast. To one pound of the best wheaten flour is usually added three table-spoonsful of yeast. A portion of the liquid paste, after having been suffered to rise, is poured on a heated iron plate, and quickly baked, like pancakes in a frying pan.

Barley, next to wheat, is the most profitable of the farinaceous grains, and when mixed with a small proportion of wheat flour, may be made into bread. Barley bread is not spongy, and feels heavier in the hand than wheaten bread.

To remedy this defect in part, it is always best to set thespongewith wheat flour only, for barley flour does not readily ferment with yeast, and adding the barley flour, when the dough is intended to be made. Bread made in this way requires to be kept a longer time in the oven than wheaten bread, and the heat of the oven should also be somewhat greater; but barley bread is sometimes made without the addition of wheaten flour.

Suppose a bushel of barley to weigh fifty-two pounds and a half to be made into bread; let it be sent to the mill, and have the bran taken out, which, with what is lost in grinding and dressing, will probably reduce it to forty-four pounds. If the meal be kneaded into dough, with water, yeast, and salt, suffered to rise, and then divided into eight loaves, andthoroughly baked, they will weigh about sixty pounds, after drawn out of the oven, and left two hours to cool.

Barley bread is eaten by many of the farmers and labourers in husbandry, also by the miners in Devonshire and Cornwall.

Take four bushels of wheat ground to form one sort of flour, extracting only a very small quantity of the coarser bran.[6]Add to it three bushels and a half of barley flour, mix up the flour into a dough in the usual manner, with salt, yeast, and warm water, (See page97), let it be divided into loaves, and put them into the oven madehotter than it would be for baking wheaten bread. Let them remain in the oven three hours and a half. In Yorkshire, bread made from a mixture of these grains is esteemed more wholesome to those who are used to it, than bread made from wheat alone.

6.From the Reports of the Board of Agriculture.

Rye is a grain whose cultivation is not much encouraged in this kingdom, but in the northern parts of Europe it is in very extensive use as a nourishing food for mankind. When made into bread alone, it is of a dark brown colour, and sweetish taste, and if eat by people unaccustomed to its use, it is found to have a laxative effect. In some parts of this kingdom, a mixture of rye and wheat is reckoned anexcellent bread. In Yorkshire, bread made from a mixture of these two grains is esteemed.

The following method of making household rye bread, has been recommended by the board of agriculture.[7]

7.Account of Experiments tried by the Board of Agriculture, p. 12.

Suppose a bushel of rye to weigh sixty pounds, add to it a fourth part, or fifteen pounds of rice; this when ground has only the broad bran taken out, which seldom exceeds four and a half or five pounds for that quantity; it is thus directed to be prepared for household rye bread.

Take fourteen pounds of the mixed flour, a sufficient quantity of yeast, salt, and warm water, and let it be made in a dough, and baked in the usual way. Itwill produce twenty-two pounds weight of bread, which is a surplus of three pounds and a half in fourteen pounds, over and above what is usually produced in the common process of converting household wheat flour into bread.

A very good turnip bread may be made by the following process: Let the turnips be pared and boiled. When they are soft enough, for being mashed, the greater part of the water should be pressed out of them, and they should be mixed with an equal quantity in weight of wheat flour. The dough may then be made in the usual manner, with yeast, salt, and warm water. It will rise well in the trough, and afterbeing kneaded, it may be formed into loaves, and put into the oven. It requires to be baked rather longer than ordinary bread, and when taken from the oven is equally light and white, rather sweeter, with a slight but not disagreeable taste of the turnip. After it has been allowed to stand twelve hours, this taste is scarcely perceptible, and the smell is totally lost, and after an interval of twenty-four hours, it cannot be known that it has turnips in its composition, although it has still a peculiar sweetish taste, but by no means unpalatable. It keeps for upwards of a week.

Rice Bread.

Rice, though one of the roughest and driest of farinaceous vegetables, is converted by the Americans into a very pleasant fermented bread. The process is as follows: The grain is first washed by pouring water upon it, then stirring it, and changing the water until it be sufficiently cleansed. The water is afterwards drawn off, and the rice, being sufficiently drained, is put, while yet damp, into a mortar, and beaten to powder; it is now completely dried, and passed through a common hair sieve. The flour, thus obtained, is generally kneaded with a small proportion of Indian corn meal, and boiled into a thickish consistence; or sometimes it is mixed withboiled potatoes, and a small quantity of leaven, or yeast, is added to the mass. When it has fermented, sufficiently, the dough is put into pans, and placed in an oven. The bread made by this process is light and wholesome, pleasing to the eye, and agreeable to the taste. But rice flour will make excellent bread, without the addition of either potatoes, or any kind of meal. Let a sufficient quantity of the flour be put into a kneading trough; and at the same time let a due proportion of water be boiled in a cauldron, into which throw a few handfuls of rice in grain, and boil it till it break. This forms a thick and viscous substance, which is poured upon the flour, and the whole kneaded with a mixture of salt and yeast; the dough is then covered with warm clothes, and left to rise. In the process of fermentation,this dough, firm at first, becomes liquid as soup, and seems quite incapable of being wrought by the hand. To obviate this inconvenience, the oven is heated while the dough is rising; and when it has attained a proper temperature, a tinned box is taken, furnished with a handle long enough to reach to the end of the oven; a little water is poured into this box, which is then filled with dough, and covered with cabbage leaves and a leaf of paper. The box is thus committed to the oven, and suddenly reversed. The heat of the oven prevents the dough from spreading, and keeps it in the form which the box has given it. This bread is both beautiful and good; but when it becomes a little stale, loses much of its excellence. It comes out of the oven of a fine yellow colour, like pastry which has yolks of eggs in it. Othermethods of making rice bread are the following:

1. Boil a quarter of a pound of rice till it is quite soft; then put it on the back part of a sieve to drain, and when it is cool, mix it up with three quarters of a pound of wheaten flour, a spoonful of yeast, and two ounces of salt. Let it stand for three hours, then knead it well, and roll it in about a handful of wheaten flour, so as to make the outside dry enough to put it in the oven. About an hour and a quarter will bake it, and it will produce one pound fourteen ounces of very good white bread, but it should not be cut till it is two days old. Another way is the following:

2. Take half a peck of rice flour, and one peck of wheaten flour, mix them together and knead the dough up with a sufficient quantity of salt, yeast, and warmwater, as stated in page 97. Suffer it to ferment, divide it into eight loaves, and bake them.

3. Take a peck of rice, boil it over night till it becomes soft, then put it in a pan, and the next morning it will be found to have swelled prodigiously. A peck of potatoes should now be boiled, skinned, and mashed into a fine pulp, and while hot, be well kneaded up with the rice, and a peck of wheaten flour; a sufficient quantity of yeast and salt must now be added, and the dough left in the kneading trough to prove or ferment; and when well risen it may be divided into loaves and baked in the usual way.

Potatoe Bread.

Potatoes, mixed in various quantities, with flour, make a wholesome, nutritive, and pleasant bread. Various methods are employed for preparing the potatoes.

1. Pare a peck of potatoes, put them into a proper quantity of water, and boil them till they are reduced to a pulp, then beat them up into a smooth mass with the water they boiled in, and knead the mass, with two pecks of wheaten flour, with a sufficient quantity of yeast and salt, into a dough; cover it up, and allow it to ferment like common wheaten bread, then make it up into loaves and bake them. Another method is the following:

2. Take twelve pounds of the most mealysort of peeled potatoes, boil and press them through a fine wire sieve, in such a manner as to reduce the roots, as nearly as possible, to a state of dry flour. Mix it up with twenty pounds of wheaten flour; and of this mixture make, and set the dough in the same manner as if the whole were wheaten flour. See page97.

3. Take three pounds of potatoes, boil, skin, and mash them, and whilst warm, bruise them with a spoon, and put them into a dish before the fire, to let the moisture evaporate, stirring them frequently, that no part grows hard; when dry, rub them as fine as possible and add nine pounds of wheaten flour, and with a sufficient quantity of yeast and salt, knead it up as other dough; lay it a little while before the fire to ferment, and then divideit into loaves and bake them in a very hot oven. Another method is the following:

4. Boil and peel the potatoes as for eating, reduce them without any water to a fine meal or stiff paste. Add to two parts by weight of the paste, one part of potatoe starch, and half a part of wheaten flour, and having added to it salt and yeast, suffer it to ferment; mould the dough into loaves, and bake them in the usual manner.

M. Parmentier found, from a variety of experiments, that good bread might be made from a mixture of raw potatoe-pulp and wheaten meal, with the addition of yeast and salt; and Dr. Darwin asserts, that if eight pounds of good raw potatoes be grated into cold water, and after stirring the mixture the starch be left to subside,and when collected, mixed with eight pounds of boiled potatoes, the mass will make as good bread as that from the best wheaten flour.

Bruise four pounds of boiled and skinned potatoes, with as much milk as will just produce a mass, which readily may be squeezed through a cullender, add this mass to wheaten flour paste of a middling stiffness, obtained from six pounds of wheaten flour; put it before a fire to rise, make it into rolls, and bake them in a quick oven. The rolls thus made will be more porous and light than common rolls.

Apple Bread.

M. Duduit de Maizieres, a French officer of the king’s household, has invented and practised with great success, a method of making bread of common apples, very far superior to potatoe bread. After having boiled one third of peeled apples, he bruised them, while quite warm, into two-thirds of flour, including the proper quantity of yeast, and kneaded the whole without water, the juice of the fruit being quite sufficient. When this mixture had acquired the consistency of paste, he put it into a vessel, in which he allowed it to rise for about twelve hours. By this process he obtained a very excellent bread, full of eyes, and extremely palatable and light.

Domestic Oven for Baking Bread.

Thefigure on the title pageexhibits a convenient culinary oven for families who bake their own bread. It is usually erected on one side of the kitchen fire-place, and heated by a flue that passes from the fire-grate under the bottom of the oven. Although this is in many respects a convenient and neat way of heating the oven, yet the manner of managing the fire renders it only economical in families where a large fire is always kept up in the kitchen-grate. In small families it is far more economical to heat the oven by means of a separate fire-place built underneath it. A fire-place six inches wide, nine inches long, and six inches deep, is sufficient to heat anoven eighteen inches wide, twenty-four inches long, and from twelve to fifteen inches high, which is a convenient size for the baking of bread. The grate should be placed at least twelve inches below the bottom of the oven when the fuel employed is pit-coal; and, in order to prevent the fire from operating with too much violence upon any part of the oven, the brick-work should be sloped outwards and upwards on every side, from the top of the burning fuel, to the ends and sides of the bottom of the oven, that the whole may be exposed to the direct rays of the fire. If the fire-place be built in this manner, and properly managed, it is almost incredible how small a quantity of fuel will answer for heating the oven, and keeping it hot. In this small fire-place there is always a very strong draft of air passing into it, and thiscircumstance, which is unavoidable, renders it necessary to keep the fire-place door constantly closed, and to leave but a small opening, for the passage of the air, through the ash-pit. If these precautions are neglected, the fuel will be consumed very rapidly, the bottom of the oven will be burnt, and the oven get chilled as soon as the fire-place ceases to be filled with burning fuel. In an oven of this description, I have baked two loaves, each weighing five pounds, and fifteen rolls weighing two pounds, by means of half a peck (ten pounds) of coal.

The figures on the plate facing the titlepage[SeeNote] exhibit an oven to be heated with pit-coal for baking bread, now generally employed in this metropolis.

The oven from which this design has been made, is eight feet wide, and seven deep. The fire-place, called by the bakers, thefurnace, for heating the oven, is placed at the side, and enters the oven diagonally; it is furnished with a grate, ash holes, and iron door, similar to a common fire-place for heating a boiler, but having a partition to separate it from the oven, and to allow the fire to enter into the oven; it, therefore, forms a canal, by which the flame is directed into the oven. Over the fire-place or furnace is erected, and lets into the brick-work, a boiler furnished with a pipe, to supply warm water as occasion may require.

When the oven is required to be heated, the boiler is filled with water, and the fire being kindled in the furnace, the flame passes into the oven, and the smoke escapes into the chimney.

The sides of the oven are nearly straight, and turned as sharp as possible at the shoulder, for this form has been foundbetter calculated to retain the heat than any other.

The flues to carry off the smoke is over the entrance door, as shown by the dotted lineaof the figure here exhibited, exhibiting the plan of the oven.

A piece of cast iron covers the space before the door of the oven, exactly level with its floor; the opening underneath is applied to no particular use, but is generally made a receptacle for coal.

Fig. 1, is anelevationof the oven. The mouth is closed with a cast iron door,in which is a small sight-hole with a slide valve. To heat the oven, the door is thrown back, and abloweris applied to the mouth, so contrived, as not only to cover the mouth of the oven completely, but to enclose also the throat of the chimney; by this contrivance the draft is quickly so much increased, that the oven becomes speedily heated, and if at anytime it is too hot, it is only necessary to throw open the door of the fire place, and to put up theblowerfor a few minutes; the current of cool air which is thus made to pass through it, soon lowers the heat to the temperature required. In thebloweris also an opening of the same kind as that in the oven door, which may be opened and shut at pleasure; the course of the flue is described by the dotted lines at (b).

Fig. 2, is theblowerbefore mentioned for regulating the heat of the oven.

Fig. 3, is a transverse section fromAtoBon the plan, looking towards the opening, the fire-place entering the oven atc, the crown of the oven is turned with the bricks on end, and in building the oven instead of centering the arch, the whole space is filled with sand, which is well trod down and shaped to the shape which it is intended the crown of the oven shall be of. When the upper work is finished, the sand is dug out at the mouth of the oven.

Fig. 4, is a longitudinal section of the oven fromCtoD. In this sketch the situation of the flue is evident, and the sectional line of theblower, fig. 2, when in its place, is shown by the dotted lined, the open spacea, under the oven, has been before spoken of.

Popular Errors concerning the Quality of Bread.

The great advantage of eating pure and genuine bread must be obvious. Every part of the wheat, which may be called flour, was not only intended to be eaten by man, but it really makes the best bread. The delusion, however, by which so many persons are misled to think that even the whole flour is not good enough, obliges them to pay much dearer for their bread than they need, to gratify a perverted and fanciful appetite. Had it not been for the custom of eating whiter bread than the whole of theflourcan make, the miller and baker would not have employed their art to render the bread as white as possible, and to make the consumer pay for the artificialwhiteness. The average quantity of flour, from an unvaried series of experiments, made from age to age, through the course of many hundred years, appears to be three-fourth parts in weight of the whole grain of wheat, taking all wheats together, being more in the finer sorts, and less in the coarser; and the bread made from this flour has always been deemed the standard of the food of bread corn. But, by insensible degrees, the manufacture of bread became separated into two distinct employments.

In consequence of this alteration, the baker, having no further connexion with the market for corn, became dependant solely on the mealman for supplying him with flour, who, not considering himself amenable to the then existing assize laws, made different kinds of flour, some extremelyfine and white, while others were very coarse and unpalatable. These artificial whites, when made into bread, were so pleasing to the eye and taste, that, in the course of a few years, they got into such general use that the people refused any longer to purchase the bread made of the whole of the grain.

“Our forefathers[8]neverrefinedso much: they never preyed so much on each other; nor, I presume, made so many laws necessary for their restraint, as we do.”

8.The great advantage of eating pure and genuine bread, comprehending the heart of the wheat with all its flour. Shewing how this may be a means of promoting health and plenty, preserving infants from the grave, by destroying the temptation to the use of alum and other ingredients in our present wheaten bread. By an advocate for the trade. London, 1773. See also Important considerations upon the act of the thirty-first of George II. relative to the assize of bread. London: T. Becket, Strand, 1768.

“In looking back, for some hundred years, it appears that they adopted a certain plan, supposing that nature had given nothing in vain, and that every part of the wheat which may be called flour, was not only intended to be eaten bymen, but that it really made the best bread, as that might be called thebest, which is best adapted to general use, and in itself so fine, as to contain no parts of the coat, or husks of grain.”

“The inference which I mean to draw from what is premised, is to remind my fellow citizens of the unfortunate delusion of thinking that even thewhole flourof the wheat is not good enough forthem; that part of it must be taken away, and given tobirdsorbeasts.”

“By this delusion, supposing a certain quantity of wheat appropriated to their use,(and this is the view they should see it in,) they lose one third part of the flour, and consequently have so much the less bread to supply their wants.”

“Is it not then monstrous to hear them complain? Is it not absurd to talk of poverty, and yet pay aseventhoreighth partmore than they need, to gratify a fantastic appetite? Had it not been from the custom of eating whiter bread than the whole flour of the wheat will make, should we have thus imposed on ourselves? Would the miller or baker employ all his art to make the bread aswhiteas possible, and oblige us to pay for thisartificialwhiteness? They tell the consumer, thewhiter it is, thefiner; and the finer, the more nutritive. Thus we becomedupesso far as to overlook the essential good properties of genuine bread, made of all theflour of the wheat, and likewise the difference in the price.”

“We are taught to favour a gross delusion at the suggestion of interested persons, against our own substantial welfare. It is the interest of every one to behonest, and say nothing contrary to his real sentiments, as it is the duty of those who have knowledge, to inform such as are ignorant. Those who have never eaten bread of all the flour in a pure state, with the native taste of wheat, and the moisture which it preserves, can know nothing of the comparative excellence of it with respect to the whitened city bread which they have been accustomed to eat all their lives.”

“The dictates of the understanding will ever yield to the pleasures of the imagination: and the provident will be attentive to take the advantage of the extravagant.Thus it happens that the poor have been bewildered, and deprived of the object they sought.”

“The event depends on the good sense of masters and mistresses of families, and their right understanding of what they mean to eat,that is, of what parts of the wheat the bread they consume is made. If they are satisfied that the bread is more pure than what they used to eat, andsufficiently fine, we may presume, if they are in their right minds, they will prefer it for domestic use. Every family of fourteen or fifteen persons, consuming at the rate of one pound each, in a day, pays near 16s.a week: if they can save 2s.6d.or 1s.6d.it is an object: to a poor man who spends 5s.in bread, if he can save eight or ten pence, it may purchase two or three pounds of animal substance towards making one feast in a week.”

“In regard to the patriotic miller, he does not pretend to consult our good in preference to his own; on the contrary, he reasons very deeply, as if it were best for us to live on the essence of a leg of mutton, brought within the compass of a pint, than feed on such porterly food as the mutton prepared in the ordinary way of roasting or boiling. He maintains, that the finer the bread, though the quantity be smaller, the more nutritive.”

The wheaten bread, of the London baker, is acknowledged to be whitened by a mixture of alum, which serves to keep the loaf in better shape, renders it the whiter, and causes it to imbibe the more water to increase the quantity of the bread. Thus he consults his interest, without regard to the consumer: the whiter it is, the more adulterated; and,as constant experience proves, such bread, after it is two days old, becomes dry and husky.”

“If bread, made in a private family, of the same flour as the baker uses, will not be so white, we must suppose that there is an art of whitening; and that this would be no secret, if it were not pernicious.”

“The bread recommended, made of all the flour of the wheat, retains all the good properties of bread; it is eatable at the distance of eight or ten days: is it not on this account the most eligible?”

“Take a loaf of the wheaten London bread, made by the baker in his usual way; let the same baker make another with all the flour of the wheat, without any attempt to whiten or otherwise adulterate it. Let him keep both in the same temperature of air, and produce a specimen of each atany reasonable distance of time, and it will be easily seen what the difference is. This arises not only frommixtures, but thepeculiar manner of raising the sponge.”

“In regard to the difference of consuming new bread of the first day, and that which has been made for three, four, or five days, it is computed to be at least a fourth part. If our present wheaten bread cannot be eaten with pleasure beyond the second day, it is not wonderful to discover at last that we are lighting our candle at both ends.”

“That the vitiated bread agrees with some people, whether by the force of habit, or the mixtures it contains, is not disputed; but in general it is very hurtful.”

“Great numbers of our fellow-subjects eat their bread much coarser than the Londoners: are they weaker? they aregenerally stronger. Some part of the advantage must be carried to this account.”

“Let us have time to subdue our prejudices, and we shall find that bread of all the flour of the wheat, for the general use, is better both in quality and price than the present wheaten bread.”

“In regard to theLondon baker, ask him of what parts of the wheat his bread is made, and he frankly acknowledges he cannot tell; and how should he? He can buy only what is to be sold; and the quality is not ascertained with any such precision as to enable him to answer the question. He,poor mandoes the best he can, not to give a sweet wholesome aliment, but something which iswhite. He knows that bread made of a proper proportion of the wheat, not only differs in colour, but is moister at the end of eightdays thanhisthe third day; he likewise knows that it is sweeter, and has the native grateful flavour of the wheat, as the God of Nature hath given it, and not as it hath been adulterated.”

“If the parliament had required us to eat plum-cake, seed-cake, or sugar-cake, we should have known that plums, seed, and sugar, constituted the difference; but from the moment the law made distinctions in the division of the flour for three different kinds of bread for common use, we were exposed to the mercy of the miller to give the baker what he pleased, and call it by what name he pleased; we could only judge whether the bread pleased us or not. The miller and the baker divide and subdivide; and instead of flour for bread, and the bran that remained, according to ancient practice, whereby the beggar aswell as the prince was pleased,breadbecame a mystery, and we no longer knew what we were eating.”

“Our misfortune, in regard to bread, is, that we eat it too fine; we decline the use of barley in bread, having hardly enough for beer. Oats and pease are rejected: at length we reject evenwheaten flour,—unless we are supplied with the finest parts only!—What will befall us in the end?”

“Customoften makes a law more forcible thanLaw-givers, and we have now to contend withcustom.—The first consideration should be, that theflourwhich representsthree-fourths of the wheat, shall be really such, and brought to market in sacks, markedStandard: the value of it may be more easily ascertained, than that of which is made the wheaten bread we now eat.”

“The baker may be a little the more reluctant to come into this salutary proposal, as knowing that if he is to decline the use of alum, flour that is in any degree musty, or made of wheat that has grown or vegetated before gathered in, as sometimes happens, he cannot work it up so advantageously in the bread now proposed to be made, as in the wheaten bread.—Be this as it may, as soon as the baker finds thisstandardflour is vendable in bread, he will buy it; and knowing what part of the wheat it ought to be, he will work it into bread with so much the more satisfaction; and being sensible that we mean to eatgenuinebread, he will cease towhitenit by any hurtful art. We shall all understand what we eat, and the trade will be familiar to us; we shall be so much happier as we become so much the more honest, and more healthy than we were before. Such is theserious light in which I see the subject before me.”

“Every occupation hath its mystery; and the professors are gratified in thinking themselves wiser than the rest of the world in their own way. Every professedcookof the first rate can melt down a large ham into the contents of half a pint. The confectioner uses bitter almonds, which are poisonous; the oilman colours his pickles withcopper, to render them green; and the baker uses alum towhitenhis bread, and make his flour imbibe the more water, by which he makes the more bread out of the same quantity of flour. This, and otheroccasionalmixtures of the flour of different grains, renders his bread husky, dry, and disagreeable the third day.—Are we thebetterfor any such mysteries?”

“Whether the wheat be all of one kind, ormarried, which is the phrase for mixing of wheats of different kinds, it will be easy for people of condition, by experiment, or by the comparison with genuine bread made in their families, to know whether justice be done; though we may easily discover that the baker for thepublic, is generally a better master of his trade than most housewives are. Themysterymay be thus developed; our health and pleasure promoted; and our bread be as much cheaper than it is now, as the gain on theflourwill make it, by usingallthat the wheat produces.”

“Every one may try by grinding and bolting his own grain, and baking his own bread, and the manufacturers of bread may find nearly as good account in bread of allthe flour, which can be so easily ascertained;as they do in the wheaten, which is involved in difficulties.”

“The public have administered to their own delusion, their eyes are shut to their own advantage. If the wealthy will adopt the use of the bread in question, the labouring part of our fellow-subjects will certainly follow the example; and as topaupers, they will gladly comply.”

“Common sense, in all ages, has achieved wonders.”

The adulteration of bread and bread flour is forbidden by law, as is obvious from the following acts of parliament:

“No person shall put into any corn,[9]meal, or flour, which shall be ground, dressed, bolted, or manufactured for sale, any ingredient or mixture whatsoever, whereby the same may be adulterated, or shall sell any flour of one sort of grain as for the flour of another, but shall only sell the real genuine meal or flour of the grain the same shall import to be, under the penalty of five pounds for every such offence.”

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