THE BAKER.

BAKING OVEN AND KNEADING TROUGH.

Of all the trades that are carried on in large towns there is none more important than that of the Baker. In some parts of the country, where people make their own bread at home, or at all events have all the materials for making it, and know how to mix the different ingredients, it is of lessconsequence; but only imagine what would be our dismay in London, if we got up some morning and heard that all the bakers had agreed not to send in the rolls for breakfast, and that we must be satisfied to live upon puddings and vegetables until they set to work again to make bread.

And yet, in the early part of their history, several nations of which we read at school had no knowledge of the trade of a Baker. Until they discovered the art of making proper bread, and somebody showed them the use of an oven, the Romans made their meal into a sort of porridge, or knew no better than to mix it into flat cakes, which they cooked on hot stones or in the wood ashes of their fires. The Anglo-Saxons were a little better off, for they mixed leaven with their dough, to make the cakes lighter and better; but you will remember—by the story of King Alfred, who when he was in disguise and going to watch the Danish camp, was left in the neatherd’s hut to watch the cooking of the cakes—that they were baked in the embers of burnt wood upon the hearth.

In many parts of Europe they still use a sort of cake-bread or rolls instead of loaves; and in some parts of northern Germany and Russia the bread of the peasants is nearly black, and is so coarse and sour that few English people could eat it, especially as it is kept till it grows quite hard, and sometimes has to be cut with a saw.

The Eastern nations understood the use of ovens, however, and the Jews especially were very good Bakers, as were probably the Egyptians, for we read of Pharaoh’s Baker, whose dream Joseph interpreted. The trade of baking was held in very high esteem amongst the nations of antiquity, and included not only the making of bread, but of those cakes and sweetmeats of which all Oriental people, andsome European people too, are so fond. By reading the history of the Jews and the Egyptians we learn that fermented or leavened bread was in common use amongst them, at a very early period of their history, so that the pulse-eating people, or the people of Europe who could only eat grain made into porridge, or simply cooked, were for a long time behind the Orientals in this respect. It was not till 600 years after the establishment of the Roman state that a public bakery was opened in Rome itself, and before this time, which was about 167 years before the birth of Christ, all the baking and bread making was done, amongst the rest of the family cooking, in the kitchens of private houses.

When the public bakeries were established, however, those who followed the trade were held in great respect, and a code of laws was made to regulate the manner in which their business should be conducted. The same importance was given to the trade in England, when Bakers first set up business in the large towns, and people began to buy their loaves instead of making them at home. The early statutes and laws place Bakers above mere handicraftsmen, and ranked them with gentlemen, and very severe punishments were inflicted on fraudulent Bakers, who neglected to mark their loaves so that “wheaten” bread might be distinguished from “household;” the same laws condemned that Baker to the pillory who gave short weight, even by so much as the fraction of an ounce, and the bakehouses were placed under the control of the magistrates.

There are many people who think that some such stringent laws might be usefully employed now, and there can be no doubt that the Baker has too many opportunities of adulterating his bread, or sending short weight: the firstseriously injuring the health, and the second the pockets, of his customers. One of the worst features of the Baker’s trade in our time, however, is the dirty condition of the bakehouses and places where bread is made, the filthy habits which such places give rise to, and the very long hours during which journeymen Bakers are at work. All these matters have lately been made the subject of inquiry, and it may be hoped that they will be greatly improved.

Egg Whisk. Flour Basket and Scoop. Egg Brush.

Sieve. Brush. Rasp. Cleaning Net. Paste Cutter. Biscuit Marker. Knife. Iron Peel. Wooden Peel.

The tools that are used in most bakeries are, beside theoven, where the bread is baked, and thekneading trough, in which the dough is mixed: aseasoning tubfor mixing other ingredients to be mingled with the dough, awire sievefor sifting the flour, and aseasoning sievemade of tin pierced with small holes; aflour basketlined with tin, and aflour scoop, apail, abowl, asalt-bin, which should be near the oven, ayeast tub, adough knife,scalesandweightsfor weighing the dough before it is moulded into a loaf, ascraperfor removing the dough from the trough and the board where the loaves are shaped, wooden and ironpeels, asort of shovels with long handles, for placing the bread in the oven or removing loaves, dishes and cakes, after they are baked, arasp, like a coarse broad file with a bent handle, for rasping off any portion of burnt crust; adusting brushfor sweeping away refuse of flour or dust from the boards where the loaves are made or placed after baking, anegg whiskfor beating eggs used in pastry, and anegg brushfor putting a glazing of egg on the outside of buns or cakes,differently shapedtinsormouldsfor rolls or other articles of fancy bakery, coarse squares ofbaizeorflannelfor covering the dough or the newly-made bread, and ascuttle,swabber, orcleaning net, made of a quantity of rough netting fastened on the end of a pole, and which, after being wetted, is used for the final removal of all dirt from the oven just before “setting the batch,” or placing the loaves for baking. Beside these there are in most bakehousesset ups, or oblong pieces of beech wood, to be placed in the oven for the purpose of keeping the loaves in their places.

Tin for French Rolls. Tin for Sponge Cakes.

Scales and Weights.

It would be impossible to give instructions here how to make the various sorts of bread, but the ordinary kind sold by London Bakers is made much in the following way:—

Suppose that the Baker desires to make up a sack of flour; he empties it into the kneading trough, and then proceeds to sift it, in order to make it lie more lightly and to break up any lumps.

He then takes from eight to ten pounds of potatoes and boils them, without removing the skins, afterwards mashing them in the seasoning tub, with about half the quantity of flour, and adding a couple of pails of water. To this mixture he pours about two quarts of yeast, made from the liquor of boiled hops, malt, and patent yeast already made and sold for the purpose. This is the leaven, which makes the difference between bread and meal-cake, or the English loaf and the Australian “damper,” which is made only of flour and water, and baked at a bush fire; the yeast or leaven is, in fact, meal in its early state of decomposition.

This mixture then is left in the seasoning tub, covered with a sack for several hours, and allowed to ferment. Then the Baker separates about a quarter of the flour in the trough by means of a board, and piles it up at one end apart from the larger quantity, and it is upon this that he pours the contents of the seasoning tub, taking care that it passes through a sieve placed on a couple of sticks across the trough.

This portion upon which the liquor has been poured is called thesponge, and he proceeds to “set it” by thoroughly mixing, and finally giving it a dust of flour at the top, after which it is kept for five or six hours, or until it has twice “risen,” or puffed out by means of the fermenting liquor within it.

Just as it has risen a second time, and air bubbles are breaking through it to the surface, about three more pailfuls of water are poured upon it, and in this water about threepounds of salt have been dissolved; this is well mixed with the sponge, and then, the board being removed, the sponge and the rest of the flour is worked into one mass. It is this kneading and breaking up the sponge which is the hard labour of the Baker, and that it is hard labour may be known from the fact that he works nearly naked, and that, as he lifts and pummels the tenacious mass, he heaves great sighs and groans like those with which paviors ram down the stones in the roads. In many of the best bakehouses now a machine is used, which supersedes this manual labour; the mass of dough being placed in a cylinder, within which an axle fitted with bent blades, or arms of iron, revolves, passing through and through the dough as it moves from end to end.

By another system (that of Dr. Dauglish) the use of yeast is dispensed with, and the bread, made by machinery, is leavened by carbonic acid gas, which is forced into the cylinder after the atmospheric air is pumped out, and so goes through the dough and produces the results of fermentation.

The dough having been thoroughly mixed in the trough, is left for an hour or two to “prove,” and then, after being sprinkled with flour to prevent its sticking, is thrown out upon a board, or the lid of the next trough, and cut into pieces which are weighed, and afterwards moulded into loaves. The moulding is only learnt by practice. The piece of dough is cut in half and shaped according to the kind of loaf required, one piece forming the top of the loaf, being laid in a hollow of that which is to be the bottom, and the joint made by a skilful turn of the knuckles. The loaves are placed in the oven by means of the peel, and are packed at the back and sides as closely as possible, the cottagebread only being separate, that it may be crusted all round. The batch takes about two hours to bake. Biscuits are now mostly made by machinery, which in large establishments turns them out ready for the oven; but when they are wholly or partially made by hand, the dough is prepared and afterwards moulded into shapes, and each shape pricked with thedocker, before being placed in the oven.

Cornfield.

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