mass of dough kneaded and baked in an oven. See Baker, Baking, and Barn.
The grains of all vegetables are almost entirely composed of substances very proper for the nourishment of animals; and amongst grains those which contain a farinaceous matter are the most agreeable and most nutritious.
Man, who appears to be designed by nature to eat of all substances which are capable of nourishing him, and still more of vegetables than animals, has, from time immemorial, and in all parts of the earth, used farinaceous grains as the principal basis of his food: but as these grains cannot be without difficulty eaten by men in their natural state, this active and intelligent animal has gradually found means not only to extract the farinaceous part, that is, the only nutritive part of these grains, but also to prepare it so that it becomes a very agreeable and wholesome aliment, such as the bread we now generally eat.
Nothing appears so easy at first sight as to grind corn, to make a paste with the flour and water, and to bake this paste in an oven. They who are accustomed to enjoy the advantages of the finest human inventions, without reflecting on the labour it has cost to complete them, think all these operations common and trivial. However, it appears very certain, that for a long time men no otherwise prepared their corn than by boiling and forming compact viscid cakes, not very agreeable to the taste, and of difficult digestion, before they were able to make bread of good taste and quality, as we have now. It was necessary to invent and complete ingenious machines for grinding corn, and separating the pure flour with little trouble and labour; and that inquiries, or rather some happy chance, which some observing person availed himself of, should discover, that flour mixed with a certain quantity of water is susceptible of a fermentation, which almost entirely destroys its viscidity, heightens its taste, and renders it proper to make a light bread, very agreeable to the taste, and of easy digestion.
This essential operation, on which the good quality of bread depends, is entirely of the province of chemistry. It would add to the honour of the ancient cultivators of chemistry, to attribute to them so useful and important a discovery; but, unhappily, it is too probable that they had no share in it. The ancient chemists were engaged in other pursuits than that of bread and other common objects. They hoped to make gold; and what is bread in comparison with gold?
However that be, to the fortunate invention of raising the paste before baking we owe the perfection of the art of making bread. This operation consists in keeping some paste or dough, till a peculiar spirituous fermentation it swells, rarefies, and acquires a smell and taste quick, pungent, spirituous, somewhat sour, and rather disagreeable. This fermented dough is well worked with some fresh dough, which is by that mixture, and moderate heat, disposed to a similar but less advanced fermentation than that above-mentioned. By this fermentation the dough is attenuated, and divided; air is introduced into it, which, being incapable of disengaging itself from the tenacious and solid paste, forms in it small cavities, holes, and swells it; hence the small quantity of fermented paste which disposes the rest to ferment, is called leaven, from the French word lever, signifying to raise.
When the dough is thus raised, it is in a proper state to be put into the oven; where, while it is baked, it dilates itself still more by the rarefaction of the air, and of the spirituous substance it contains, and it forms a bread full of eyes or cavities, consequently light, and entirely different from the heavy, compact, viscous, and indigested masses made by baking unfermented dough.
The invention of beer, or wine of grains, furnishes a new matter useful in the making of bread. This matter is the froth which forms upon the surface of these liquors during fermentation. When it is mixed with dough, it raises it better and more quickly than ordinary leaven. It is called yeast or barm. By means of this, the finest, lightest bread is made. It often happens, that bread made with leaven dough has a sourish and not agreeable taste; which may proceed from too great a quantity of leaven, or from leaven in which the fermentation has advanced too far. This inconvenience does not happen to bread made with yeast; because the fermentation of this substance is not too far advanced, or because more attention is given to that finer bread.
It may be asked, Why, since dough is capable of fermenting spontaneously and singly, as we see from the leaven, a substance is added to dispose it to ferment? The true reason is, That all the parts of a fermenting substance do not ferment at the same time, nor to the same degree; so that some parts of this substance have finished their fermentation, while others have not yet begun. The fermentable liquors which contain much sugar, as hydromel, and must of wines, give proofs of this truth; for, after these liquors have become very viscid, they have still very distinctly a saccharine taste; and all saccharine matter is still susceptible of fermentation; and, in fact, if viscid hydromel, or must, or even new beer, be distilled, so that all their ardent spirit shall be separated, and the residuum diluted with water, we shall see a second fermentation take place, and a new quantity of ardent spirit formed. The same thing precisely happens to dough, and still more sensibly, from its viscoity and want of fluidity; so that if it be left to ferment alone, and without the help of leaven, as the fermentation proceeds very slowly and successively, the parts which ferment first will have become sour and rapid before all the rest be sufficiently attenuated and changed, by which the bread will acquire a disagreeable taste.
A mixture of a small quantity of leaven with dough effectually prevents this inconvenience; because the effect of this leaven, and of all fermenting substances, is to dispose to a similar fermentation all matters capable of it, with which it is mixed; or rather, by means of leaven, the fermentation of all the parts of such substances is effected more nearly at the same time.
Bread well raised and baked differs from unfermented bread, not only in being less compact, lighter, and of a more agreeable taste, but also in being more easily miscible with water, with which it does not form a viscous mass, which circumstance is of great importance in digestion.
It is observable, that without bread, or somewhat of this form, no nation seems to live. Thus the Laplanders, having no corn of their own, make a sort of bread of their dried fishes, and of the inner rind of the pine, which seems to be used, not so much for their nourishment, as for supplying a dry food. For this mankind seem to have an universal appetite, rejecting bland, slippery, and mucilaginous foods. This is not commonly accounted for, but seems to depend on very simple principles. The preparation of our food depends on the mixture of the animal fluids in every stage. Among others the saliva is necessary, which requires dry food as a necessary stimulus to draw it forth, as bland, slippery, fluid aliment are too inert, and make too short stay in the mouth, to produce this effect, or to cause a sufficient degree of mastication to emulsify that liquor. For this reason we commonly use dry bread along with animal food, which otherwise would be too quickly swallowed. For blending the oil and water of our food nothing is so fit as bread, assisted by a previous mastication. For which purpose, bread is of like necessity in the stomach, as it is proper that a sublance of solid confidence should be long retained there. Now the animal fluids must be mixed with our aliments, in order to change the acuteness it undergoes. But liquid foods would not attain this end, whereas the solid stimulates and emulsifies the glands of the stomach. The bread then appears to be exceedingly proper, being bulky without too much solidity, and firm without difficulty of solution.
Among the ancients we meet with various denominations of bread; as, 1. Panis filigrinus, called also mundus, athleticus, iugia, colipium, and robus, answering to our white bread; being made of the purest flour of the best wheat, and only used by the richer sort. 2. Panis secundus or fecundarius, called also fugacius or filigrinus, the next in purity; being made of fine flour, only all the bran not sifted out. 3. Anoporus, called also fuscumflatus and confusum, made of the whole substance of the wheat, without either retrenching the finer flour or coarser bran; answering to our household bread. 4. Carabaeus, apparently the same with what was otherwise denominated fordilus, as being given to dogs; furfuraceus, furfuraceus, or fur-
Vol. II. of flatfish rolls, and baked in the oven. In the statute of affize of bread and ale, 51 Hen. III. mention is made of wafel-bread, cocket-bread, and bread of treest; which answer to the three kinds of bread now in use, called white, wheaten, and household bread. In religious houses, they heretofore distinguished bread by the names Esquire's bread, panis armeniorum; monks' bread, panis conventualis; boys' bread, panis puerorum; and servants' bread, panis famulorum, called also panis servientalis. A like distribution obtained in the households of nobles and princes; where, however, we find some other denominations; as, messengers' bread, panis nuncius, that given to messengers as a reward of their labour; court bread, panis curialis, that allowed by the lord for the maintenance of his household; eleemosynary bread, that distributed to the poor by way of alms.
It is for the interest of the community that the food of the poor should be as various as possible, that, in times of dearth and scarcity of the ordinary kinds, they may not be without ready and cheap resources. To the discovery of such resources several benevolent philosophers having successfully turned their inquiries, we shall lay before the reader the result of their experiments.
1. Bread of Potatoes. Potatoes, previously deprived of their skin, cut into thin slices, and put between paper, will dry in a heat somewhat less than 35° of Réaumur's thermometer; and, when thus dried, they will preserve their white colour. By this process they lose about two thirds of their weight, and they may then be reduced to a fine powder. A little of this powder thrown upon the fire sends out a smoke, accompanied with a smell resembling burnt bread. As this smell is perceived from all farinaceous vegetables when treated in the same manner, Mr Parmentier thinks it may be considered as the characteristic of the presence of an amylaceous matter. This smell does not, however, he observes, arise from the amylaceous or fibrous part separately, but from both taken together. The powder of potatoes, obtained in the manner described above, has the smell and taste of wheat; and, like it, is devoured by rats and mice; but, even when most finely powdered, it has not the feel or brightness of the flour of wheat; although, on a chemical analysis, it yields the same products. It is also nutritious, and keeps well for a long time.
Finding so great a similarity between the meal of wheat and what may be called the meal of potatoes, Mr Parmentier next endeavoured to make bread of them when mixed in different proportions. His trials were made with one fourth, one third, one half, and two thirds, of the potato-meal, the remainder being flour from wheat. These proportions, with the addition of a little salt and yeast, yielded bread which was well taffed, but which had fermented little, was brown, and covered with hard brown crusts. Bread made from the meal of potatoes alone, with the addition of salt and yeast, was eatable, but very heavy, unfermented, and exceedingly brown. This bread, from the meal of potatoes alone, was apt to crumble into powder. To give it more adhesion, he mixed with the meal a decoction of bran, or a mixture of honey and water; either of which made it lighter and more fermented; it obtained also a crust of a golden colour, became well taffed, and sufficiently adhesive. Mr Parmentier obtained bread also, well fermented, and of a good colour and taste, from a mixture of raw potato-pulp with meal of wheat, or potato-meal, with the addition of yeast and salt.
Potatoes, when used for making bread, are not readily disposed to ferment; without which, bread is very insipid, and not easily digested. But Mr Parmentier found, from a variety of experiments, that good bread might be made from equal quantities of flour and potato-meal. He concludes, therefore, with recommending the mixture of potatoes, in times of scarcity, with the flour of wheat, instead of employing rye, barley, or oats, as has frequently been done.
When grain is altogether wanting, he recommends the use of bread made from a mixture of the amylaceous powder of potatoes and of their pulp, this mixture being fermented with leaven, or with honey. The meal of this root, when diluted with hot water, acquires a tenacious and gluey consistence. However fair the meal of potatoes may be, it always gives a grey colour to the bread made by mixing it with the flour of wheat; but a mixture of the pulp of potatoes with the flour of wheat does not produce brown-coloured bread.
Mr Parmentier made bread, very much like that of wheat, by a mixture of the following four substances, viz. four ounces of amylaceous powder of potatoes, one dram of mucilage extracted from barley, one dram of the bran of rye, and a dram and a half of glutinous matter dried and powdered.
2. Bread from different Vegetables not commonly in Use. Although horse-chestnut has not hitherto been employed, yet it is certain that wholesome bread, without any bitterness, may be obtained from it. Mr Parmentier advises, that the fruit, after the skin is taken off, and the juice pressed from it, be made into a paste. This paste must be diluted in water, and then strained through a sieve. A milky-coloured liquor is thus separated, which, on standing, deposits a fine powder. This, being dried, is without either smell or taste, and very fit for aliment; the paste from which it is procured retaining the bitterness of the fruit.
The roots of the bryonia, when treated in the same manner, yielded a similar white powder. By the same treatment aloes, fine, white, inodorous powders may be procured from the roots of the iris, gladiolus, ranunculus, fumaria, arum, dracunculus, mandragora, colchicum, filipendula, and helleborus; plants which grow spontaneously, and in great abundance.
Of acorns bread has frequently been made; and to this day, in some countries, they are in common use. The method of preparation which Mr Parmentier recommends, is, that they be deprived of their cover by boiling, then dried and powdered, and afterwards baked in the same manner as the flour of wheat. When fully ripe, and made into a paste, they were deprived of their astringency by merely pressing their juice from them. The paste remaining after the pressing, when dried, was easily reduced to a fine powder by no means disagreeable.
The gramin caninum arvense, in its appearance, approaches to corn; and some naturalists have considered it as the original species from which all our grain is produced. Its roots are sweet-tasted, and have long been employed in making ptilans. In the preparation of them for bread, it is only necessary that the roots should be cleansed, cut small, dried, and pounded. This powder, powder, Mr Parmentier observes, does not dissolve in cold water or spirits; but it does in boiling water, which it renders thick and cloudy, and, upon cooling, the whole mass obtains a gelatinous consistence. Upon a chemical analysis, it yields an acid empyreumatic oil, which possesses a singular odour, resembling that which is perceived on burning the plant. The spongy residuum, calcined in the air, gives a fixed alkali. These properties incontrovertibly prove, that it contains an amylaceous (a) matter similar to that of grain, which appears to be the nutritive part of vegetables. This amylaceous matter, formed into a jelly, and diffused in water, keeps for a long time without suffering any change; it then turns acid, and at length putrefies.
The amylaceous matter of acid and poisonous plants, although innocent and nutritive, cannot be converted into bread without the addition of some mucilaginous substance. In times of great scarcity, common bran will answer the purpose; but when potatoes are to be had, the addition of a proper proportion of these is to be preferred.
Mr Parmentier gives an account of the bread which he obtained from the amylaceous powders of the different vegetables mentioned above, with the addition of potatoes and a small quantity of common leaven of grain. This bread appeared in general to be well fermented; it was of a good white colour, and free from any disagreeable odour; but to the taste it was somewhat insipid; which, however, he imagines, might have been corrected by the addition of a proper quantity of salt.
As the resources against scarcity here pointed out can be procured only at particular seasons, the author proposes a method for preserving the matter thus obtained. For this purpose, he advises, that bread prepared in the manner mentioned above should be carefully dried, reduced to powder, and then kept in a close cask. By this means, he is of opinion that it may be preserved for a very long time, and will always be ready to make an agreeable and wholesome panada by the addition of a little butter and salt.
Mr Parmentier, in order to discover the degree of power wherewith this alimentary powder nourished, made himself the subject of experiment; and found, that three ounces of it for dinner, and as much for supper, made into panada with water, was a sufficient quantity of aliment for a day. From his discharge by stool while he used it, he had reason to believe that it is almost totally alimentary. He concludes with recommending it not only as useful in times of scarcity, but as a proper substitute for tea-biscuit, and as a species of food well adapted for armies and hospitals.
3. Cheap method of making wholesome Bread, when wheat-flour is dear, by mixing turnip with it.
"At the time I tried this method, bread was very dear, inasmuch that the poor people, in the country where I live, could hardly afford themselves half a meal a day. This put me upon considering whether some cheaper method might not be found, than making it of wheat-meal. Turnips were at that time very plentiful. I had a number of them pulled, washed clean, pared, and boiled; when they were become soft enough to mash, I had the greatest part of the water pressed out of them, and afterwards had them mixed with an equal quantity in weight of coarse wheat-meal; the dough was then made in the usual manner, with yeast or barm, salt, water, &c. It rose very well in the trough; and after being well kneaded, was formed into loaves, and put into the oven to be baked. I had at the same time some other bread made with common meal in the ordinary way. I baked my turnip-bread rather longer than the other. When they were drawn from the oven, I caused a loaf of each sort to be cut; and found, on examination, the turnip bread was sweeter than the other, to the full as light and as white, but had a little taste (though nowise disagreeable) of the turnip. Twelve hours afterwards I tasted my turnip-bread again, when I found the taste of the turnip in it scarcely perceivable, and the smell quite gone off. On examining it when it had been baked 24 hours, had I not known that there were turnips in its composition, I should not have imagined it: it had, it is true, a peculiar sweetish taste, but by no means disagreeable; on the contrary, I rather preferred it to the bread made of wheat-meal alone. After it had been baked 48 hours, it underwent another examination, when it appeared to me to be rather superior to the other; it eat fresher and moister, and had not at all abated in its good qualities: to be short, it was still very good after a week; and, as far as I could see, kept as well as the bread made of common wheat-meal.
"In my trials of this bread by the taste, I was not
(a) M. Beccari of the Bolognian academy has discovered in the flour of wheat two distinct substances. The one he terms an animal or glutinous matter; the other, an amylaceous matter, or vegetable paste.
The gluten has been supposed to be the nutritive part of corn, from its not dissolving unless in vegetable acids; from its assuming a spongy form in boiling water; from its supposed analogy to the animal lymph; and, lastly, from the similitude which the products it affords, on chemical analysis, bear to those obtained from animal substances. M. Parmentier, however, from various experiments, was led to conclude, with the celebrated Model of Petersburg, that the gluten or animal matter of Beccari exists in the bran, and is not the nutritive part of the wheat. Having made experiments with four different kinds of flour, it appeared that the quantity of animal matter was always proportioned to the coarseness of the flour. Hence, were this gluten the nutritive part, the coarsest bread, or that which contained most bran, would afford the greatest quantity of nourishment. The contrary of this, however, is now known to be fact.
The amylaceous part, or, as some have termed it, the fecula, of wheat and other vegetables, is a peculiar gum, not soluble in spirit of wine, vinegar, or cold water. It contains more acid, and less water, than the ordinary gums. It is found in many of those plants that make the nourishment of men and other animals. Hence Mr Parmentier concludes it to be the nutritive matter.
Though we are not to consider the glutinous matter as the nutritious part of vegetables, yet it is a very necessary ingredient. It is that which preserves the cohesion of the paste in fermenting bread; it is that which forms the viscid pellicle, and stops the air in fermentation; gives the savoury taste to bread; occasions it to be light, to ferment, and which forms the small cells seen in it. It is found especially near the cortical part of grain; and this accounts for its being found in the greatest quantity in coarse brown meal. It is this gluten which renders wheat a superior aliment to the other grains and roots. not satisfied with eating it by itself; I had some of it spread with butter; I tasted it with cheese; I eat of it toasted and buttered, and finally in boiled milk and in soup: in all these forms it was very palatable and good."
Bread in Medicine. Besides the alimentary, bread has also medical qualities.—Decoctions, creams, and jellies of bread are directed in some dispensaries. Bread carefully toasted, and infused or lightly boiled in water, imparts a deep colour, and a sufficiently agreeable refringent taste. This liquor, taken as common drink, has done good service in a weak lax state of the stomach and intestines; and in bilious vomiting and purging, or the cholera morbus: examples are related in the Edinburgh essays of several cases of this kind cured by it, without the use of any other medicine.—In Westphalia there is a very coarse bread eaten, which still retains the opprobrious name given it by a French traveller, of Bonpoiretcel, "good for his horse Nickel." It is the same with what the Romans called panis furfuraceus, or panis impurus, from its not being cleansed from the hull; and panis atre, from the blackness of its colour: though we learn from Pliny, that the Romans for 300 years knew no other bread. The Germans make two sorts of waters by distillation from this bread; the one with, the other without, the addition of a spirituous liquor: to both which great virtues are ascribed. That without any thing spirituous, is made out of the juice of craw-fish, may dew, rose-water, nutmegs, and saffron, distilled from a large quantity of this bread. This is esteemed a great restorative, and given in hectic habits. The other is distilled from this bread and Rhenish wine, with nutmegs and cinnamon. This is given in all the disorders of the stomach, vomiting, loss of appetite, and other complaints of the same kind: and besides these, there is a spirit distilled from it by the retort in the dry way, which, when separated from its fetid oil, is esteemed a powerful sudorific, and very valuable medicine in removing impurities of the blood.
Bread is also medicinal, applied externally, as is vulgarly known. Mr Boyle affirms he drew a menstruum from bread stronger than aquafortis, and which would act even upon glass itself.
Bread-Tree, the English name of the artocarpus (b); the fruit of which not only serves as a substitute for bread among the inhabitants of O-Taheite and the neighbouring islands, but also, variously dressed, composes the principal part of their food. It grows on a tree that is about the size of a middling oak; its leaves are frequently a foot and an half long, of an oblong shape, deeply sinuated like those of the fig-tree, which they resemble in colour and consistence, and in the exuding of a milky juice upon being broken. The fruit is about the size and shape of a new-born child's head; and the surface is reticulated, not much unlike a truffle; it is covered with a thin skin, and has a core about as big as the handle of a small knife. The eatable part lies between the skin and the core; it is as white as snow, and somewhat of the consistence of new bread; it must be roasted before it is eaten, being first divided into three or four parts; its taste is insipid, with a slight sweetness somewhat resembling that of the crumb of wheaten bread mixed with a Jerusalem artichoke. This fruit is also cooked in a kind of oven, which renders it soft, and something like a boiled potatoe; not quite so farinaceous as a good one, but more so than those of the middling sort. Of the bread-fruit they also make three dishes, by putting either water or the milk of the cocoanut to it, then beating it to a paste with a stone pestle, and afterwards mixing it with ripe plantains, bananas, or the four pastes which they call naboie.
The mahoe, which is likewise made to serve as a succedaneum for ripe bread-fruit before the season comes on, is thus made: The fruit of the bread-tree is gathered just before it is perfectly ripe; and being laid in heaps, is closely covered with leaves; in this state it undergoes a fermentation, and becomes disagreeably sweet; the core is then taken out entire, which is done by gently pulling out the stalk, and the rest of the fruit is thrown into a hole which is dug for that purpose generally in the housetop, and neatly lined in the bottom and sides with grass; the whole is then covered with leaves and heavy stones laid upon them; in this state it undergoes a second fermentation, and becomes sour, after which it will suffer no change for many months. It is taken out of the hole as it is wanted for use; and being made into balls, it is wrapped up in leaves and baked; after it is dried, it will keep five or six weeks. It is eaten both cold and hot; and the natives seldom make a meal without it, though to Europeans the taste is as disagreeable as that of a pickled olive generally is the first time it is eaten.
To procure this principal article of their food, (the bread-fruit), costs these happy people no trouble or labour except climbing up a tree; the tree which produces it does not indeed grow spontaneously; but if a man plants ten of them in his life-time, which he may do in about an hour, he will as completely fulfil his duty to his own and future generations, as the native of our less temperate climate can do by ploughing in the cold of winter, and reaping in the summer's heat, as often as these seasons return; even if, after he has procured bread for his present household, he should convert a surplus into money, and lay it up for his children.
Beer-Bread. See Apis, p. 12, par. ult.
Caffada-Bread. See Jatropha.
Earth Bread. In the lordship of Moscow in the Upper Lusatia, a sort of white earth is found, of German E which the poor, urged by the calamities of the wars which raged in those parts, make bread. It is taken out of a hill where they formerly worked at saltpetre. When the sun has somewhat warmed this earth it cracks, and small white globules proceed from it as meal; it does not ferment alone, but only when mixed with meal. Mr Sartiz, a Saxon gentleman, was pleased to inform us, that he has seen persons who in a great measure lived upon it for some time. He affirms us that he procured bread to be made of this earth alone, and of different mixtures of earth and meal; and that he even kept some of this bread by him upwards of six years: he further says, a Spaniard told him, that this earth is also found near Gerona in Catalonia."
Eucharistic or Sacramental Bread, in the Protestant churches, is common leavened bread, in conformity to the ancient practice. In the Roman mass, azymous or unleavened
(b) A new genus of plants; so named from ἀπός (panis) "bread," and ἀπός (fructus) "fruit," and referred to the monocelia monogynia of Linnæus. [Forsteri Charactere, 5.] unleavened bread is used, particularly in the Gallican church, where a sort is provided for this purpose called pain a chanter, made of the purest wheaten flour pressed between two iron plates graven like wafer-moulds, being first rubbed with white wax to prevent the paste from sticking. The Greeks observe divers ceremonies in their making the eucharistic bread. It is necessary the person who bakes it have not lain with his wife the day before; or, if it be a woman, that she have not conversed with her husband. The Abyssinians have an apartment in their churches for this service, being a kind of sacristy. F. Simond, in his disquisition on azymous bread, shews from the council of Toledo, that anciently there were as many ceremonies used in the Latin church in the preparation of their unleavened bread as are still retained in the eastern churches. He cites the example of Queen Radegonda, who distributed with her own hands, in the church, the bread which she herself had made. It appears also from the dispute of cardinal Humbert against the Greeks, that in the Latin church no bread was used for the eucharist, but what was taken out of the sacrificial, and had been made by the deacons, subdeacons, and even priests, who rehearsed several psalms during the process.
Ecclesiastical writers enumerate other species of bread allotted for purposes of religion; as, 1. Calendarium, that anciently offered to the priest at the calends. 2. Prebendaria, the same with capitularia, that distributed daily to each prebendary or canon. 3. Benediction, that usually given to catechumens before baptism, in lieu of the eucharistic bread, which they were incapable of partaking of. The panis benedictus was called also panegium and eulogium, being a sort of bread blessed and consecrated by the priest, whereby to prepare the catechumens for the reception of the body of Christ. The same was used afterwards, not only by catechumens, but by believers themselves, as a token of their mutual communion and friendship. Its origin is dated from the 7th century, at the council of Nantes. In the Gallican church we still find panis benedictus, pain bene, used for that offered for benediction, and afterwards distributed to pious persons who attend divine service in chapels. 4. Consecrated bread is a piece of wax, paste, or even earth, over which several ceremonies have been performed with benedictions, &c. to be set in an Agnus Dei, or relic-box, and presented for veneration. 5. Unleavened bread, panis azymus. The Jews eat no other bread during their passover; and exact search was made in every house, to see that no leavened bread was left. The usage was introduced in memory of their hasty departure from Egypt, when they had not leisure to bake leavened. 6. Shew-bread was that offered to God every sabbath-day, being placed on the golden table in the holy of holies.
Horse Bread is made of wheat, oats, and beans; to which sometimes are added aniseed, gentian, liquorice, fenugreek, eggs, and ale; and sometimes rye and white wine are used.
For race-horses three sorts of bread are usually given with success, for the second, third, and fourth nights feeding: they are all made of beans and wheat worked with barin; the difference consisting chiefly in the proportion of the two former. In the first kind, three times the quantity of beans is used to one of wheat; in the second, equal quantities of both; in the third, three times the quantity of wheat to one of beans.
Sago Bread. See Sago.
Affix of Bread. The price and weight of bread is regulated by the magistrates according to the price of wheat. We have divers tables of the weights of the loaves both of white, wheaten, and household bread, at every price of wheat. If bread want one ounce in 36, the baker formerly was to suffer the pillory; now, to forfeit 5s. for every ounce wanting; and for every defect less than an ounce, 2s. 6d.; such bread being complained of and weighed before a magistrate within 24 hours after it is baked or exposed to sale within the bills of mortality, or within three days in any other place. It is to be observed, bread loses weight by keeping: in some experiments recited by Bartholine, the diminution was near one fourth in six months. The same author affirms us, that in Norway they make bread which keeps 30 or 40 years; and that they are there fonder of their old hard bread, than elsewhere of new or soft; since the older it is, the more agreeable it grows. For their great feasts, particular care is taken to have the oldest bread; so that, at the christening of a child, they have usually bread which had been baked perhaps at the christening of his grandfather. It is made of barley and oat-meal baked between two hollow stones.
Bread-Room, in a ship, that destined to hold the bread or biscuit.
The boards of the bread-room should be jointed and caulked, and even lined with tin plates, or mats. It is also proper to warm it well with charcoal for several days before the biscuit is put into it; since nothing is more injurious to the bread than moisture.
Breadth, in geometry, one of the three dimensions of bodies, which multiplied into their length constitutes a surface.