Peck loaf...........................................17 6 0 Half-peck...........................................8 11 0 Quartern.............................................4 5 8
Before these loaves are put into the oven they weigh,
Peck loaf...........................................19 12 Half-peck............................................9 14 Quartern.............................................4 15
From this it appears that the average loss of the quartern loaf in weight by baking is 9½ ounces, or not quite so much as one seventh of the whole. From the experiments of Tillet and the other French commissioners who were appointed to examine the subject in 1783 (in consequence of an opinion prevailing in Paris that the bakers did not give the full weight, while these tradesmen declared that they put the proper quantity of flour in the loaves), it appears that the French loaf loses a considerably greater weight in the oven. A loaf which, when put into the oven, weighed 4·625 lbs., when taken out of the oven weighed at an average only 3·813 lbs., or 0·812 lb. less than at first. This amounts to somewhat more than one sixth, or very nearly to 1/9ths of the whole. This greater loss is chiefly owing to the difference between the shape of the English and French loaf. The English has nearly a cubic form, while the French loaf is very long and slender. For it is obvious that the loaf which presents the greatest surface must lose most weight in the oven.
The French commissioners, however, found that this loss of weight was by no means uniform, even with respect to those loaves which were in the oven at the same time, of the same shape, in the same place, and which were put in and taken out at the same instant. The greatest difference in these circumstances amounted to 0·2889 or 7·5 parts in the hundred, which is about 1/13th part of the whole. According to this rate, we may suppose that an English quartern loaf, when taken out of the oven, may vary in weight 1/13th part, which amounts to rather more than 4½ ounces. So that the law which subjects the baker to a penalty if his bread weighs one ounce less than it ought to do, seems too severe, and must have a tendency to injure the goodness of the bread, by making the baker more solicitous about the weight than the quality of his loaf. To this we ascribe in part the badness of the London bread in general, compared with the bread in other places, particularly in Edinburgh, where it is remarkably good. But there are other causes for this deterioration of the London bread, which we believe to be of recent date. These we shall notice hereafter.
Number of loaves in a sack.
5. A sack of flour weighing 280 lbs. and containing five bushels, is supposed capable of being baked into 80 loaves in the acts of Parliament regulating the assize upon bread. According to this estimate, one fifth of the loaf consists of water and salt, the remaining four fifths of flour. But the fact is, that the number of quartern loaves which can be made from a sack of flour depends entirely on the goodness of that article. Good flour requires more water than bad flour, and old flour more than new flour. Sometimes 82, 83, or even 86 loaves, may be made out of a sack, sometimes scarcely 80.
Process of baking.
6. Let us now proceed to give a short description of the mode of baking as practised in Great Britain.
The bakehouse ought to be a large room. On one side should be erected a dresser with suitable shelves above it; on another side a kneading-trough, about seven feet long, three feet high, two feet and a half broad at top, and nineteen inches at bottom, with a sluice-board to pen the dough up at one end, and a lid to shut down like that of a box. On a third side should be a copper capable of holding three or four pailfuls of water, with a fire-place to warm the liquid. The oven of course occupies the fourth side. It is a square apartment, about three or four feet high, with an arched circular roof and a brick or stone floor, and furnished with a door which may be shut close. It is the general custom to heat the oven with wood, either faggots or brushwood; but it would be much more economical and cleanly to employ pit-coal for that purpose. The requisite fire-place should be erected at one side of the oven, and the heat may be easily communicated by making the flue wind round the oven. This fire may also be employed to heat the copper and the water in it, which would save an additional fire, or spare the baker the disagreeable necessity of heating the copper in the oven itself, which is pretty generally practised in London. We are persuaded that an oven constructed upon this principle would save the baker a considerable annual expense, which for many years past has been continually increasing. Indeed it is obvious that the price of wood must keep pace with the augmentation of the population and wealth of the country.
The temperature to which the oven must be raised to fit it for baking bread is 450°. (Encyclop. Méthod. des Arts et des Métiers, i. 275.) The bakers do not employ a thermometer; but they reckon the oven sufficiently heated when flour thrown on the floor of it becomes very soon black without taking fire.
Let us suppose that a baker is going to convert a sack of flour into loaves. He pours the flour into the kneading-trough, and then sifts it through a fine wire sieve, which makes it lie very light, and serves to separate any impurities with which the flour may be mixed. An ounce of alum1 is then dissolved over the fire in a tin pot, and the solution poured into a large tub, called by bakers the seasoning tub. Four pounds and a half of salt are likewise put into the tub, and a pailful of hot water. When this mixture has cooled down to the temperature of 84°, three English pints of yeast are added; the whole is well mixed together, strained through the seasoning sieve, emptied into a hole in 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 cloths. This operation is called in London setting quarter-sponge.
In this situation it is left about three hours. It gradually swells and breaks through the dry flour scattered on its surface. An additional pailful of warm water is now added, and the dough is made up into a paste as before; then the whole is covered up. This is called setting half-sponge. In this situation it is left about five hours.
Three pailfuls of warm water are now added; the whole is intimately blended and kneaded upwards of an hour. The dough is then cut out in pieces with a knife, thrown over the sluice-board, and penned to one side of the trough. Some dry flour is sprinkled over it, and it is left in this state for four hours. It is then kneaded again for half an hour. The dough is now cut into pieces, and weighed in order to furnish the requisite quantity for each loaf; four pounds fifteen ounces being allowed for every quartern loaf. The method of moulding the dough
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1 In London, where the goodness of bread is estimated entirely by its whiteness, it is usual with those bakers who employ flour of an inferior quality to add as much alum as common salt to the dough; or, in other words, the quantity of salt added is diminished one half, and the deficiency supplied by an equal weight of alum. This improves the look of the bread very much, rendering it much whiter and firmer. into a loaf can scarcely be described, and can only be learned by ocular inspection. The loaves are left in the oven about two hours and a half. When taken out, they are carefully covered up, to prevent as much as possible the loss of weight.
The above description applies only to the mode of baking as practised in London. No doubt, slight differences exist in different countries. The French loaf, which is baked in a pan, requires obviously a different process from the English loaf, and it is kept a longer time in the oven.
Alum is not added by all bakers. The writer of this article has been assured by several bakers of respectability, both in Edinburgh and Glasgow, on whose testimony he relies, and who made excellent bread, that they never employed any alum. The reason for adding it, given by the London bakers, is, that it renders the bread whiter, and enables them to separate readily the loaves from each other. This addition has been alleged by medical men, and is considered by the community at large, as injurious to the health, by occasioning constipation; but if we consider the small quantity of this salt added by the baker, not quite 3½ grams to a quarter loaf, we will not readily admit these allegations. Suppose an individual to eat the seventh part of a quarter loaf a day, he would only swallow eight tenths of a grain of alum, or in reality not quite so much as half a grain; for one half of this salt consists of water. It seems absurd to suppose that half a grain of alum swallowed at different times during the course of a day should occasion constipation.
7. The addition of the yeast of beer to make the dough swell is an improvement of the original practice. Leaven was used by the ancients for this purpose. Hence we read in the Old Testament of unleavened bread, as distinguished from loaf-bread. The method of baking by means of leaven is this: A quantity of flour is made up into dough with water; and this dough being set in a warm place, is left for about thirty-six hours. During that period it swells considerably, and becomes of a thinner consistency; in short, it undergoes a species of fermentation. It has now acquired a peculiar smell and a disagreeable sour taste, and is the substance known by the name of leaven. If this substance be mixed with a quantity of fresh dough, it occasions the whole to undergo a speedy fermentation, and to swell precisely in the same manner as dough mixed with yeast. Bread skilfully baked in this manner is not inferior to yeast bread; but when unskilfully managed, it has a sour taste, and contains a quantity of acetic acid. According to the experiments of Mr Edlin, a pound of flour, when converted into leaven, contains as much acetic acid as requires 40 grains of carbonate of potash to neutralize it. If by carbonate of potash, means, as is probable, bicarbonate of potash, 40 grains of it contain 21 grams of potash, which require for saturation 22½ grams of acetic acid.
Pliny informs us that yeast in his time was employed in Spain and Gaul as a ferment of bread. Galliae et Hispaniae fragmento in potum resoluta, quibus diximus generibus, spuma illa concreta pro fermento utatur. Qua de causa lector illis quam exeteris panis est. (Hist. Nat. lib. xviii. c. 7.) From this passage we see that the Romans employed leaven to raise their bread, but that they were sensible of the superiority of yeast. Leaven, however, made its way both into France and Spain, and was universally employed in the manufacture of bread till towards the end of the seventeenth century, when the bakers of Paris began to import yeast from Flanders, and to employ it pretty generally as a substitute for leaven. We have here a striking instance of the blindness and obstinacy of the learned and the powerful, and the readiness with which they are disposed to arm themselves against all alterations and improvements. The bread by this substitution was manifestly improved both in appearance and in flavour. This variation excited attention; the cause was discovered; the faculty of medicine in Paris declared it prejudicial to the health; the French government interfered, and the bakers were prohibited, under a severe penalty, from employing yeast in the manufacture of bread.
But it is in vain for governments, colleges, and universities, to oppose themselves to those improvements which take place in the arts and manufactures essential to civilized society. The ingenuity and perseverance of self-interest is proof against prohibitions, and contrives to elude the vigilance of the most active government. The laws of Queen Elizabeth, however tyrannical and absurd, did not prevent the introduction of indigo as a dye-stuff into England. Neither did the authority of Louis the Fourteenth, nor the decision of the physicians, deter the Parisian bakers from persisting in their improved mode of making bread. The yeast in Flanders was put into sacks; the moisture was allowed to drop out; and in this comparatively dry state it was carried to the capital of France.
The superiority of yeast bread became gradually visible to all; the decisions of the medical faculty were forgotten; and the prohibition laws were allowed tacitly to sink into oblivion. The new mode of baking by degrees extended itself to other countries, and is now, we believe, practised everywhere. In warm climates, where the yeast of beer cannot be had, other substitutes are employed, which answer the same purpose. In the East Indies, bread is raised by means of the liquor called toddy, which flows out of the cocoa-nut tree when its branches are cut, and which ferments so rapidly, that in two or three hours it becomes an intoxicating liquor. In the West Indies dundur is employed for the same purpose. This is the liquid which remains in the still after the rum is distilled off, and is therefore analogous to what our distillers call spent wash. It no doubt consists of a solution of unaltered sugar, prevented from fermenting by the alcohol which the liquid contained before distillation, and mixed, doubtless, with a quantity of yeast. In that warm climate it undergoes a very speedy fermentation, and on that account answers all the purposes of yeast in the baking of bread. In this country it is no uncommon thing to convert the spent wash into small beer, which the workmen drink with avidity; but it only undergoes this change when fermented in the usual way with yeast.
8. The appearance of wheat flour is too familiar to every person to require any description here. The ancients knew that it consisted chiefly of a substance called wheat starch, which, as Pliny informs us, was first separated flour from wheat by the inhabitants of the island of Chio; and in his time the starch of Chio was considered as the best and lightest, because it was made from wheat which was not ground. (Hist. Nat. xviii. 7.) This is the mode still followed by the manufacturers of starch, and is no doubt the reason why the other constituents of wheat were so long in being discovered. About the year 1728 Beccaria, an Italian philosopher, discovered another constituent of wheat, to which the name of gluten has been given. His method of obtaining it was this: He took a quantity of flour, and formed it into dough with water; this dough he kneaded continually between his fingers, while a small stream of water dropt upon it. He continued the kneading as long as the water ran off milky. By this process, the whole of the starch was washed away, and there remained in his hand a gray-coloured, elastic, and very adhesive substance, which was the gluten. (Collect. Académ., partie étrang. x. 1.) No other grain besides wheat contains gluten in any considerable quantity. Traces of it may be discovered in barley. But the gluten of barley cannot be separated by washing. It is obtained by solution in water; for gluten is soluble in a small proportion in cold water. But when that liquid is heated to 120° or 130° the gluten coagulates, and falls down in gray-colored floes. By this method gluten may likewise be discovered in the leaves of many trees.
The water employed to wash out the starch soon deposits that substance in the form of a white powder. If this water be now filtered, evaporated to a small quantity, filtered again to separate the coagulated gluten, clarified with white of egg, and then evaporated to the consistence of a syrup, it deposits, according to Mr Edlin, crystals of sugar in four-sided prisms, with dihedral summits. (Edlin On Bread Making, p. 49.) If this experiment be correct, wheat contains a portion of common sugar. But we have great doubts respecting it. We scarcely believe it possible to obtain in regular crystals the very small quantity of sugar that must be contained in a pound of wheat by the process described by Mr Edlin, for he merely set the syrup aside to crystallize in a cool place. Common sugar thus treated would concrete into a hard mass, but would not crystallize. We believe that wheat flour contains a portion of saccharine matter, but it is a species different from common sugar. We have never, indeed, made any experiments on the sugar of wheat, but we have made a great many on the saccharine matter of barley, which we found similar in its properties to the sugar into which starch is converted by being long boiled in very dilute sulphuric acid. There is every reason to believe that the sugar in wheat is similar to that in barley. Now the sugar in barley crystallizes in spheres similar to candied honey.
9. Starch, the first, the most important, and by far the most abundant constituent of wheat flour, is a white, crisp, crystalline-like substance, insoluble in cold water, but forming with hot water a thick paste, which has the property of gluing bodies together. If it be roasted on the fire till it assume a brown colour, it becomes soluble in water, and acquires the properties of gum. If it be boiled for forty-eight hours in water holding one hundredth part of its weight of sulphuric acid in solution, it is dissolved and converted into a species of sugar. This sugar is heavier than the starch from which it was formed; the sulphuric acid remains unaltered; and no gaseous body is either absorbed or emitted. Hence it has been concluded that this sugar is merely a combination of starch and water, and that the acid acts only by promoting the solution of the starch, without which it is incapable of uniting with water. Starch is one of the most nourishing articles of food, and is undoubtedly the portion of the wheat flour that renders bread so nutritive.
10. The gluten, the second constituent of wheat flour, is but small in quantity when compared with the starch. It is a gray substance, exceedingly elastic and adhesive. It is not sensibly soluble in water after it has been collected into an adhesive mass, nor does it dissolve in alcohol or ether. When dried, it becomes brown and semitransparent; and when thrown on hot coals, it emits a smell similar to that of burning horn. If it be put into a vessel, moist, and set in a damp place, it undergoes a species of fermentation. Bubbles of gas separate from it. After some days it becomes of a much thinner consistence, and may then be employed to agglutinate substances together. In about ten days or a fortnight it acquires exactly the smell and taste of cheese, which it resembles in everything but the colour, which is too dark. This caseous fermentation, if the expression may be permitted, distinguishes gluten from all other vegetable bodies with which we are acquainted. It is to the gluten that wheat flour owes the property of being converted into loaf-bread. All other grains are unfit for that purpose; but they become fit as soon as we add to them a sufficient quantity of gluten, or mix them with wheat flour. In this way barley, potatoes, and even turnips, may be made into very good bread.
11. The sugar is by far the smallest in proportion, of all the constituents of wheat flour. If it be starch sugar, as we believe it to be, it possesses the following properties: It does not crystallize in prisms like common sugar, but assumes the form of spheres like honey. It is not so hard as common sugar, neither is it so soluble in water. Its sweetening power, according to Kirchhoff, is to that of common sugar as 1 to 2½. But the most distinguishing property is, that, when dissolved in water, it ferments itself, without the addition of any yeast; whereas common sugar does not undergo that process unless yeast be mixed with its aqueous solution. Hence the reason why the dough of wheat flour ferments, and is converted into leaven. This fermentation does not take place if the saccharine matter be washed out of it by water, as Mr Edlin ascertained by direct experiment. The fermentation of wheat flour is at first confined to the saccharine matter. It first undergoes the vinous fermentation: here the process, if possible, ought to be stopped. But as this is usually not possible, the acetous fermentation commences, and vinegar is formed. Probably at last the starch itself is acted on, and occasions the bad taste of ill-baked leavened bread, though this is doubtful.
12. As to the proportions of these three constituents, they differ so much in different kinds of wheat flour, that nothing precise on the subject can be determined. The greater the proportion of gluten, the better in all cases is the flour. When the wheat has not fully ripened, or when it has been exposed to rain while lying on the field, the gluten cannot easily be separated from the starch by the process above described; nor does it form an elastic, adhesive mass, but a friable substance, distantly resembling the fibrous matter of potatoes. Hence the goodness of the flour may be determined by the state of the gluten. The writer of this article has repeatedly applied this test to London flour, but he has been always unlucky enough to find it decidedly bad. From the flour furnished by two or three different bakers in different parts of the town, he either was unable to obtain any gluten, or it wanted the adhesiveness which characterizes the gluten of good wheat. No doubt there must be abundance of excellent flour in London, but we believe (and our opinion is founded on the bread, which in general is greatly inferior in goodness to the Edinburgh bread) that a very considerable proportion of the flour used is bad. The inhabitants of London pride themselves on the goodness of their bread, but never was any set of men more mistaken. The London bread is indeed whiter, but, in other respects, worse than any we have met with in Great Britain, except the bread baked in Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is very bad, owing entirely to the unskilfulness of the bakers.
To furnish an idea of the proportions of the constituents of flour in good wheat, we shall give the result of an analysis of Mr Edlin's. He separated a pound avoirdupois of wheat into the following ingredients:
| Ingredient | Quantity | |------------|----------| | Bran | 3 oz | | Starch | 10 | | Gluten | 0 | | Sugar | 0 | | Loss | 2 |
Total: 16
In this case it appears that the gluten amounted to ¼ of the whole flour, the sugar was ¼ th part, the bran ¾ th, and the starch almost ¾ ds of the whole flour. 13. The yeast which is employed to ferment or raise the dough is obtained in London from the brewers of ale. In Edinburgh the greater part of the yeast used by the bakers is either prepared by these tradesmen themselves, or procured from those who manufacture yeast on purpose to supply the bakers. Various methods and various ingredients are used for this purpose; but the following method is, we believe, as good as any.
Add ten pounds of flour to two gallons of boiling water; stir it very well into a paste. Let this mixture stand for seven hours, and then add about a quart of yeast. In about six or eight hours this mixture, if kept in a warm place, will have fermented, and produced as much yeast as will bake a hundred and twenty quarten loaves.
Yeast made in this way answers the purposes of the baker much better than brewers' yeast, because it is clearer, and free from the hop mixture, which sometimes injures the yeast of the brewer. Some years ago the bakers of London, sensible of the superiority of this artificial yeast, invited a company of manufacturers from Glasgow to establish a manufactory of it in London, and promised to use no other. About L5000, accordingly, were laid out on buildings and materials, and the manufactory was begun on a considerable scale. The ale-brewers, finding their yeast, for which they had drawn a good price, lie heavy on their hands, invited all the journeymen bakers to their cells, gave them their full of ale, and promised to regale them in that manner every day, provided they would force their masters to take all their yeast from the ale-brewers. The journeymen accordingly declared in a body that they would work no more for their masters unless they gave up taking yeast from the new manufactory. The masters were obliged to comply; the new manufactory was stopped, and the inhabitants of London were obliged to continue to eat worse bread, because it was the interest of the ale-brewers to sell their yeast. Such is the influence of journeymen bakers in the metropolis of England.
What the substance in yeast is which induces fermentation, has not yet been determined. Beer yeast may be dried, and kept in that state for a considerable length of time; and if moistened again with water, it becomes capable of acting again as a ferment. If it be washed in alcohol, its fermenting power is destroyed. If it be kept in a moist place, it undergoes a change very similar to the caseous fermentation of gluten. But yeast and gluten are distinct substances; for gluten is incapable of producing the vinous fermentation. Sugar of starch ferments itself when diluted with water; and the juice of grapes also ferments of its own accord, because it contains a quantity of sugar similar to the sugar of starch.
But, as far as baking is concerned, the knowledge of the peculiar substance which occasions fermentation is not material. The only useful purpose which fermentation in dough serves, is to generate a quantity of carbonic acid gas. If the dough be impregnated with this gas by any other method, fermentation is not necessary. Mr Henry of Manchester found, that if flour be kneaded into dough with water saturated with carbonic acid gas, the dough rises as well, and the bread is as light and well tasted, as when it is baked with yeast. Hence those bakers who live near Seltzer water, or any water impregnated with carbonic acid gas, may substitute that liquid for yeast without injuring the quality of their bread. The quantity of salt contained in a quarten loaf may be reckoned about an ounce avoirdupois, or 437 grains. If, instead of the ounce of salt, you dissolve in water 2 oz. 5 dr. 45 gr. of the common crystallized carbonate of soda, and mix the solution well with your dough; if you now add 7 oz. 2 dr. 22 gr. of muriatic acid, of the specific gravity of 1-121, and knead it as rapidly as possible with the dough, it will rise immediately, fully as much, if not more, than dough mixed with yeast, and, when baked, will constitute a very light and excellent bread.
14. These examples are sufficient to explain what is Panary called the panary fermentation. There is, in fact, no such fermentation as a fermentation peculiar to bread. But wheat flour contains a portion of saccharine matter, which readily undergoes the vinous fermentation. During this fermentation, carbonic acid gas is evolved in every part of the dough. This gas is prevented from escaping by the gluten, which forms everywhere through the dough an adhesive web, through which gaseous substances cannot make their way. Hence the dough swells in every direction, the particles of starch are separated from each other, and by the heat of the oven they are arrested in that position; so that the loaf, when cut, appears full of round and oblong cavities, each of which in the dough had been filled with a globule of carbonic acid gas. It is to the presence of these cavities that the bread owes its lightness, its agreeable taste, and its easy digestion. Even its colour is owing, in a great measure, to the same cause; for when loaves of wheat flour are baked without the addition of yeast, or the presence of carbonic acid, they constitute one solid, dark-coloured, disagreeable-tasted mass, which has been found not only nauseous to the palate, but likewise of difficult digestion. These disagreeable qualities are, in a great measure, obviated by converting the dough into thin cakes, and baking them rapidly on a hot iron plate over the fire. Accordingly, this is the method followed when wheat flour is converted into bread without fermentation.
Thus, then, the theory of bread-making is completely developed. Nothing can be simpler or more ingenious qualities of than the process followed by the baker. Nor ought the wonderful composition of wheat flour, which adapts it so well for the manufacture of bread, to be passed over in silence. Without the presence of the saccharine matter, the fermentation could not be produced in it, carbonic acid gas would not be evolved, and the bread would be hard, heavy, black, and difficultly digestible. Without the presence of the gluten, the carbonic acid would make its escape as soon as formed, and the advantages of the fermentation would be lost. And, finally, without the presence of the starch in such a notable proportion, the bread would neither be a palatable nor a nourishing article of food. It has been supposed, indeed, that the gluten is the substance which renders bread so nourishing. But we conceive this to be a mistake. In the first place, its quantity, when compared with that of the starch, is trifling; and, in the second place, we know from other circumstances, that starch is peculiarly fitted for being the food of animals. Nearly one half of the human race live almost wholly on rice, a grain which consists almost entirely of starch; and the small quantity of that grain which constitutes the daily food of an inhabitant of Hindostan, and which supports his life, is truly astonishing.
15. As no other grain except wheat flour contains these three constituents in the requisite proportions, it would be in vain to attempt to convert them into bread by the same process as is followed by the baker in making wheaten bread. Potatoes, for example, contain no sensible quantity of saccharine matter. It would be in vain, therefore, to expect them to ferment like wheat dough when mixed with yeast; but we have little doubt that mashed potatoes might be made into very good bread if they were kneaded with water impregnated with carbonic acid gas, or still better, if, instead of common salt, the constituents of that substance were added in the proper proportions, as they have been already given in this article. Potatoes contain a very great proportion of water, and when boiled in water, they communicate a brown colour, and give the liquid a disagreeable taste and smell.
It is proper that this substance, which some have considered as of a poisonous nature, should be previously removed. Einhof has given us the following substances as the constituents which he found in potatoes:
| Substance | Amount | |-----------------|--------| | Water | 72·6 | | Starch | 15·0 | | Fibrous matter | 7·0 | | Albumen | 1·4 | | Mucilage | 4·0 |
100·0
Dr Pearson's analysis is somewhat similar, only he obtained a greater proportion of water. Einhof found both tartaric and phosphoric acid in potatoes. The fibrous matter in potatoes seems to be a peculiar modification of starch. It supplies the place of the gluten in wheat flour, and gives to the paste of potatoes considerable stiffness and adhesiveness. It is upon these properties that we found our opinion, that if the paste of potatoes were properly impregnated with carbonic acid gas, it would make a good-looking and well-tasted loaf. There is, however, the less occasion for this attempt, as potatoes, when properly boiled, constitute an agreeable substitute for bread without any further preparation. When made into bread, they are always mixed with wheat flour. A mixture of two parts flour and one potatoes makes an agreeable bread, which cannot be distinguished from wheaten bread. The starch of potatoes is remarkably beautiful, and goes farther than wheat starch. We have been assured, that what is sold in the shops under the name of Indian arrow root, is nothing else than potato starch mixed with a little gum tragacanth. It is well known what an agreeable food this preparation is capable of furnishing.
Rye bread. Rye is very much used as an article of food in northern countries. In Sweden it constitutes almost the only bread of the common people, not baked in loaves, but made up into cakes, which are usually as hard as wood. When baked into loaves, it has a brown colour and a sweetish taste, which gives it a considerable resemblance to gingerbread. Rye, according to the analysis of Einhof, is composed of the following constituents:
| Substance | Amount | |-----------------|--------| | Albumen | 3·27 | | Moist gluten | 9·48 | | Mucilage | 11·09 | | Starch | 61·09 | | Saccharine matter| 3·27 | | Husk | 6·38 | | Moisture | 5·42 |
100·00
The saccharine matter present in this grain is probably sufficient to cause it to undergo fermentation; but the proportion of gluten is very small, probably not amounting to 3 per cent. Accordingly, when rye flour is washed in water, the whole of the gluten is dissolved in that liquid. Hence it is obvious, that, in order to make good rye bread, it ought to be mixed with a quantity of wheat flour. This kind of bread is very much used in the counties of Northumberland and Durham, and we have no doubt that it is both palatable and nourishing. Certainly it is very superior to the rye cakes used by the peasants in Sweden.
We have been told that rice flour may be made into loaf-bread; but we have never had an opportunity of seeing these loaves, and do not know how far they resemble those of wheat flour. Rice has never been subjected to chemical analysis. We do not know, therefore, what its constituents are, though there is every reason, from its properties, to consider it as almost entirely composed of starch.
16. Gingerbread is composed of flour, treacle, butter, common potashes, and alum. After the butter is melted, and the potashes and alum dissolved in a little warm water, these three ingredients, along with the treacle, are poured into the flour which is to form the basis of the bread. The whole is then kneaded into a stiff dough. The alum renders the bread crisper and lighter, and accelerates the period at which the dough is fit for baking; for gingerbread dough must stand over from three or four to eight or ten days before it is fit for baking. The reason of this is, that the carbonic acid gas, by means of which the bread is to be raised, exists in the potashes, which, so far as they are useful, consist of carbonate of potash. This gas is evolved by the action of an acid on the carbonate, derived chiefly from the fermentation of the treacle, and its partial conversion into acetic acid. This conversion is more or less rapid in different circumstances. Hence the uncertainty respecting the time when the dough becomes fit for being baked.
This method of making gingerbread, at present universally followed, is obviously a bad one. The length of time that the dough must lie before it becomes fit for baking is apt to injure its quality. The large quantity of potash used affects the taste of the bread, unless it be concealed by the addition of some aromatic ingredient. It would be much better, therefore, to substitute some other less injurious method. Were we, for every 7½ parts of common salt which would be required for the bread, to add 104 parts of bicarbonate of soda, and then incorporate the dough with 13½ parts by weight of the common muriatic acid of commerce, the carbonic acid gas evolved would be amply sufficient to render the bread exceedingly light, and the dough would be immediately fit for baking, while the additions thus made would be merely equivalent to the quantity of common salt used in baking loaf-bread.
Dr Colquhoun, in his Essay on Baking, published in the Annals of Philosophy (2d series), vol. xii. p. 276, has proposed the following mode, which he found by trial to make excellent gingerbread. "Take a pound of flour, a quarter of an ounce of carbonate of magnesia, and one eighth of an ounce of tartaric acid. Let the butter, treacle, and aromatics, be added in the same way as at present. The magnesia should be intimately mixed with the flour before the latter is wetted. Dissolve the tartaric acid in a small quantity of water, and pour it, together with the melted butter and treacle, into the flour. Let the whole be incorporated into a mass of dough by kneading, and then set aside the dough for an hour. If now baked, it makes a light, spongy, pleasant bread." The baker would accomplish the same object if he were to mix bicarbonate of potash with the dough, in the proportion of four parts bicarbonate to three parts tartaric acid.
17. Having now given a description of the method of baking bread, and explained the nature of the process, we might here conclude this article. But it may be of some utility, if we give a short statement of the principal laws which have been enacted in Great Britain respecting bread, and we endeavour to lay before the public the present state of the bread trade in London, and explain the abuses and frauds which are practised by those concerned in it in that capital. We despair of seeing these abuses rectified, but it is a great point at least to make them known.
In the period of English history between the Norman conquest and the reign of Edward the First, the price of wheat fluctuated enormously. Thus, in the 43d year of Henry the Third, it was sold for 20s. or 60s. of our money Multitudes of poor people were forced to live upon the bark of trees, and upon horse-flesh, and above 20,000 died in London of famine. In the same reign, as appears from the statutes, the price of wheat was as low as 1s. a quarter. These prodigious fluctuations show the little communication at that time existing between the different countries of Europe. Farming must then have been in a very low state in England. When wheat was very cheap, the farmer could not dispose of his crop, which lay rotting on his hands. When it was dear, there was such a scarcity that he could hardly procure seed for sowing his fields, or was unable to afford money to purchase it.
It was conceived that these evils would be in a great measure remedied by fixing the price of bread, which was accordingly done by a proclamation of King John. This absurd innovation being found ineffectual, it was repealed by the statute of assize, enacted in the 51st year of Henry the Third, A.D. 1267. By this law the price of bread was regulated by the price of wheat, and the baker was allowed 7½d. for baking a quarter of wheat, and furnishing salt and the other ingredients which are added to bread; besides the profit which accrued from the additional loaves made from a quarter of wheat beyond what the statute allows. This money allowance was gradually augmented to the baker in different reigns, according to the following statement:
| Reign | d. | |-------------|----| | Edward I | 1 | | Henry VII | 2 | | Elizabeth | 6 | | Anne | 12 | | George II | 15 | | George III | 14 |
This last regulation took place in the year 1798. By this act, the magistrates were enjoined to set the assize from a sack of flour, instead of a quarter of wheat, and to allow the baker 11s. 8d. for his expenses. The new duty on salt, during the French revolutionary war, raised this sum to 12s., at which it continued. By the act of parliament, the baker was supposed to make 80 quarten loaves from the sack of flour; whatever greater number the sack produced was so much more profit to the baker.
Very particular laws were enacted, obliging the corn-factors to give in the quantities and prices of the flour sold, and the bakers the quantities and prices at which they bought it. Penalties were enacted to prevent false returns, to prevent adulterations and improper combinations between the bakers, or the corn-factors and bakers. The weight of the loaf was determined, and all loaves deficient in weight one ounce, or not marked with the letters W, S W, H, according to the quality of the bread, may be seized; and the baker, besides the loss of his bread, is subjected to a penalty. These laws are so numerous and so minute that it would be tedious to copy them. Nothing would be learned from them but the amount of the penalty for each offence, varying from L50 to 1s., according to the supposed enormity of the transgression.
It is the business of the magistrates in towns, and of justices of the peace in the country, to regulate the assize; and the price of bread is determined by the price of wheat, according to a table given in one of the acts. When that price varies 6s. the quarter, then the price of the loaf is varied one assize, or a halfpenny the quarten loaf. Magistrates likewise may alter the price of the loaf half an assize, or a farthing in the quarten loaf.
Whoever considers the indecent way in which oaths are administered in English courts (for it is upon the oaths of the bakers and corn-factors that the acts depend for the accuracy of the returns), and the little regard paid to them by merchants and manufacturers, partly in consequence of this indecency, partly in consequence of their multiplicity, and partly on account of the many absurd impediments that the legislature has thrown in the way of merchants and manufacturers; whoever considers these things, will be at no loss to conclude, that all these checks, and penalties, and oaths, have entirely failed in producing the intended effects. In London, where the number of bakers is great, and the competition in consequence ought to insure the best bread at the lowest possible price, the bread-laws, by making the prices of all bakers the same, have destroyed this competition; formed the bakers into a regular company, having occasional meetings to consult their peculiar interest; and raised in them a feeling of honour, which makes them consider it unhandsome to undersell their neighbours. The price of flour is easily regulated between the bakers and the corn-factors; the consequence of which regulation is, that the quarten loaf is always 2d. dearer than in any other part of Great Britain. The reason assigned is, that the finest flour only is employed in London, and that the London bread is better than any other. The writer of this article is well aware of the contrary. The London bread is, in his opinion, nearly the worst bread in Great Britain; and the flour is greatly inferior to that which is used by the bakers in Edinburgh. He has frequently examined flour purchased from bakers in both cities, and the Edinburgh flour, except in bad years, when the crop had been injured, was uniformly superior in quality to the London flour.
The magistrates of London have at last become sensible of the truth of these facts; and that the government, by their officious interference and their minute enactments, have injured instead of improved the quality of the bread. They have, in consequence, applied to parliament, and by their influence, the assize on bread, as far as it affects London and its environs, has been taken off. But the good effects expected have not yet resulted from this judicious measure. The spirit of monopoly has been sunk so deep into the minds of the bakers by the assize laws, that some time must elapse before it can be eradicated. It is said that they have a weekly meeting, and settle the assize privately in the same manner as it was before publicly done by the lord mayor and aldermen of London. But this esprit de corps cannot continue very long. Where there are 1600 bakers, as in London and Westminster, it is not consistent with the nature of things to suppose that they can long continue united, so as to act only together and by concert. Self-interest will induce first one individual, and then another, to consult his own private advantage, and to endeavour to secure an increase of business by underselling his neighbours. The bond will thus be broken asunder, and every one will be obliged to serve the community at the lowest possible rate.
It is a pity that the legislature would not see that the same liberty which has been given to the baker ought to be extended to the corn trade in general. The depreciation of money, which was the consequence of the unnatural state into which Europe was brought by the French revolution, our almost total seclusion from the Continent, and a series of bad crops for several years, raised the price of corn in this country to an enormous height. The landlords took advantage of this increase to raise the rents, while government loaded the farmer with heavy taxes. But in a state of peace, and supposing the seasons to be tolerably favourable, the prices cannot be kept up. The landed proprietors, indeed, conceived that the price of corn could be continued in this country at its unnatural height, simply by prohibiting the importation of foreign corn. It was with this view that the corn-bill was brought into parliament and carried in the year 1815 by a great majority, notwithstanding the almost universal expression of the inhabitants of Great Britain against the measure. These legislators did not consider that the average deficiency of corn in Great Britain does not amount to a week's consumption; that though they may prevent corn from being imported into Great Britain, they cannot prevent such of the inhabitants as choose it from going to those places where corn is cheap. The corn-bill will not have the effect of keeping up the price of corn; but it will act as an encourager of emigration. Suppose the population of Great Britain to be 16,000,000, the emigration of 100,000 inhabitants would probably be sufficient to prevent the necessity of importing corn. Perhaps a smaller number would be sufficient, as those who will be obliged to emigrate are chiefly families with small fortunes, who may be supposed to consume more wheaten bread than the very lowest of the people. The hardships of the farmer cannot be alleviated in any other manner than by lowering his rent, and easing him of his oppressive taxes. The present mode of allowing the importation of foreign corn at a tax which diminishes as the price advances, till it is reduced at last to 1s. per quarter, is an improvement on the old mode, but it is still defective. Prices never can become steady till all restrictions on the trade of corn are removed.
18. About sixty years ago the dealers in corn in London carried on their business at Bear Quay; but, this situation being very inconvenient, the Corn Exchange in Mark Lane was erected by a company of proprietors, for the accommodation of the factors and dealers. Seventy-two stands were allotted on which the samples of corn are exposed to sale. Sixty-four of these stands are let out on lease to factors or dealers, and the remaining eight are appropriated to the use of the Kentish hoymen. "Although the Corn Exchange is considered as open to all who come to buy and sell, yet no person can carry on the business of a corn-factor, to any considerable extent, unless he is in possession of one of these stands. Here the factors are at liberty, either to expose all their samples at the same time, or as few of them as they think fit; so that a buyer has no means whatever of judging, from the appearance of the samples exposed on the stands, during any period of the market, what the supply is, or what quantities of corn are imported, coastwise or from abroad." (Report of the Committee of the House of Commons respecting Corn.)
Here the millers, mealmen, and corn-chandlers, transact their business with the corn-factor, and not with the seller. These men purchase the wheat, carry it down to Essex and other counties, convert it into flour, and bring it back to London to supply the bakers. The profits of the baker are but small, supposing him to carry on his trade without any fraud. Let us suppose him to bake twelve sacks a week, which, from the evidence of the bakers examined before the committee of the House of Commons, seems to be a fair average. They are allowed 12s. for each sack, which amounts in the week to L7. Let us suppose further, that every sack yields eighty-two loaves instead of eighty, so that they have a profit of two loaves on each sack. This, when the quarter loaf is at 10d., will amount to L1 more. And let us suppose still further, that the puddings, pyes, and meat, which they bake, will defray the expense of their fuel. By this statement, their weekly income will be L8, out of which they have to pay for salt and yeast, and likewise their journeymen's wages. Now, L4 seems as little as can well be allowed for these purposes. According to this statement, L208 a year seems to be the amount of an ordinary baker's income in London, supposing him not to practise any fraud.
The consequence of this small profit is, that men of capital seldom embark in the trade. The bakers in London are mostly poor men, who begin the world without any capital, and, in consequence of the great competition, are never able to deal so extensively as to acquire one. It is scarcely necessary to observe what must be the consequence of this. They are at the mercy of the mealmen, who supply them with flour as they think proper, of what quality they think proper, and at what price they think proper. Hence the high price and the badness of the London bread. The profits go all into the pockets of the mealmen, who keep the bakers in a state of comparative slavery, and oblige the inhabitants of London to eat the worst and the dearest bread in Great Britain.
Some ingenious bakers in London, in order to make up for the smallness of their profits, have hit upon the plan of mixing potatoes with their flour; and we are credibly informed that not less than 300 tons of potatoes are consumed for this purpose every week. Perhaps the quality of the bread is not much injured by this practice; for some of the bakers most in repute employ potatoes to a considerable extent, and the consumption of wheat is very materially diminished by it. But the grievance is, that the same price is taken for a potato loaf as for a loaf of the finest wheaten flour, though it must cost the baker much less.
The reader will find some account of the substitutes which have been proposed for wheat flour, in seasons of scarcity, under the article Bread.