3. To each lb. of flour add, separately, 1-1/4 dr. of bicarbonate of soda,
and 1 dr. of tartaric acid (both perfectly dry, and in very fine powder);
rub them well together with the hands until thoroughly incorporated; then
form the whole into a dough with water, as quickly as possible, and at
once bake in a quick oven. About 8 or 9 oz. of water are required for
every lb. of flour. Answers well when expertly managed.
4. Flour, 1 lb.; bicarbonate of soda, 1 dr.; mix; make a dough with water,
q. s., to which 1 dr. of hydrochloric acid (commercial) has been added,
and further proceed as before.
5. Whiting's PATENT BREAD:--This closely resembles the last. The
proportions are--Flour, 7 lbs.; carbonate of soda and hydrochloric acid,
of each 1 oz.; water, 2-3/4 pints. This method was suggested by Dr Henry
in 1797, and was patented by Dr Whiting in 1836. If the proportions be not
observed, or the mixture be not perfect, the quality of the bread suffers.
The action of the acid on the soda forms common salt in the loaf.
6. AMMONI'ACAL BREAD:--Carbonate of ammonia, 3/4 to 1 oz.; cold water, q.
s.; dissolve, add of flour, 7 lbs.; and make a dough, which must be formed
into loaves and baked immediately, as before.--_Obs._ To ensure success
the carbonate should be recent, and free from bicarbonate, the presence of
which is known by its being white and powdery, and of inferior pungency.
If any of the last salt be present, the bread will have a yellowish
colour, and a slightly alkaline or urinous flavour. The process answers
best for small loaves, cakes, and fancy bread. By employing pure carbonate
of ammonia instead of the commercial sesquicarbonate, the process succeeds
admirably, and the resulting bread is most wholesome. A late writer
recommends the use of bicarbonate of ammonia, but evidently does so in
ignorance, as in practice it is inapplicable, as the author verified by
numerous carefully conducted experiments.
7. It has been at various times proposed to knead the dough with water
highly charged with carbonic acid, on which Dr Ure observes that "the
resulting bread will be somewhat spongy." He states that he endeavoured to
make bread in this way, but never could succeed in producing a light
spongy loaf. The quantity of gas in the water is much too trifling for the
purpose, and the greater part of it escapes in the process of making the
dough, even though all the materials be well cooled, and the operation
conducted in a cold place. The only way of obviating the difficulty is to
conduct the kneading in a trough under considerable atmospheric pressure,
and at a very low temperature, by means of machinery, as is done by Dr
Dauglish, whose method is now protected by letters patent. This method is
not, however, adapted either to domestic use or the small scale.[231]
[Footnote 231: For a full description of Dauglish's process, see Watts'
'Dic. of Chemistry.']
_Obs._ Unfermented bread has been strongly recommended as being more
wholesome, and generally better adapted to bilious and dyspeptic patients,
than fermented bread. It must, however, be confessed, that the unfermented
bread commonly met with has a slight 'raw-grain' taste, which is very
disagreeable to some persons. But this taste is not necessarily present,
being chiefly dependent on bad manipulation, the use of inferior flour,
and insufficient baking. The process of fermentation doubtless modifies
the condition of the starch and gluten of the dough, and renders them
easier of digestion. This species of bread is sadly adulterated with a
variety of indescribable messes. See BISCUITS, BREAD (_antè_), FLOUR,
GINGERBREAD, &c.
=Bread Fruit= (_Artocarpus incisa_, nat. order Graminaceæ). The tree
yielding the bread-fruit is a native of Central America, the South Sea
Islands, and the Islands of the Indian Archipelago. It is principally
composed of starch, sugar, and water, every 100 parts containing 80 of
water. The fruit is gathered when the starch is in a mealy condition; it
is then peeled, wrapped in leaves, and baked by placing it between hot
stones. It then has the taste of sweetbread.
The natives of the countries where this fruit is found practise a method
for preserving it, which consists in allowing the nitrogenous parts of the
fruit to putrefy in water-tight pits. They thus obtain a mass resembling
soft cheese in consistence, and this, when required to be eaten, is baked
in the same manner as the fresh fruit.
=BREAK'FAST= (br[)e]k'-). _Syn._ JENTACULUM L.; DÉJEÛNER, DÉJEÛNÉ, Fr.;
FRÜHSTÜCK, Ger. The first meal of the day; or the food served at it.
The morning meal--the 'early bit' of the Germans--is perhaps the most
important one of the day. According to Erasmus Wilson, it is usually
"taken at eight or nine." The proper time for the purpose must, however,
depend upon that at which the party rises. About an hour, to an hour and a
half, after leaving the bed, will generally be found the most appropriate
time for breakfast, and appears to be the one pointed out by nature, and
the most conducive to health. By that time the powers of the system have
fully recovered from the inactivity of sleep, and the functions of the
stomach and other viscera have again come into full play. The appetite is
excited and seeks appeasing, and both instinct and reason direct us to the
social board. If abstinence be now prolonged, the physical and mental
energies, unsupported by the supply of food which indirectly gives them
birth, gradually lessen, and incipient exhaustion ensues. The fluids of
the stomach and the smaller intestines begin to act upon the coats of
those viscera instead of on the food, and an unpleasant feeling of hunger
or a loss of appetite comes on, with all its depressing consequences. When
breakfast cannot be taken within a reasonable period after rising, the gap
should be filled up by chewing a crust, a biscuit, or the like. A raw egg
or two, sucked from the shell, or broken into a teacup and drank, will be
found most valuable for this purpose. Raw milk, cheese, salted food, and
other indigestible matter, should be particularly avoided at this early
period of the day.
The articles of food to be chosen for the breakfast-table must depend
entirely on the state of the health, the occupations, &c., of those
assembled round it. Coffee appears to be, by common consent, the favourite
beverage. For the delicate, the bilious, and the young, it should neither
be taken too strong, nor very weak, and should be softened down with milk
or cream, and well sweetened with sugar. Tea is more apt to affect the
nerves and stomach than pure unchicoried coffee. Green tea, taken thus
early in the day, often acts as an absolute poison, though a slow one. We
have seen severe fits of vomiting and exhaustion follow its use.
The solid food for breakfast should be easy of digestion, and nutritious.
Females, children, and persons leading a sedentary life, should confine
themselves to a sufficient quantity of good meal-bread with only a
moderate quantity of butter, to which an egg, or a small rasher of mild
bacon, may be advantageously added. For very young children there is no
better breakfast, where it agrees with them, than scalding-hot new-milk
poured on sliced bread, with a slice or two of bread and butter to eat
with it. Parties engaged in active occupations may extend their exploits
somewhat farther, and add to this bill of fare a little ham or cold meat.
When an undue time will elapse before the luncheon or dinner, and
particularly during the colder season of the year, the broiled leg of a
fowl, an under-dressed mutton chop, or a little tender beef-steak, will be
found, by the parties last referred to, most useful; nay, in many cases,
invaluable. But excess must be particularly avoided. The object is to take
enough food to maintain the system in full energy and vigour, and
particularly to avoid offending the stomach by overloading it; a
misfortune easily effected at the breakfast table. Old commercial
travellers--men wise in the mysteries of life and its enjoyments--are
scrupulously careful to make a good, but not a heavy breakfast, before
commencing the arduous duties of the day. See DÉJEÛNER, MEALS, &c.
=Breakfast Pow'der.= _Syn._ RYE'-COFFEE, DILLEN'IUS'S C., HUNT'S
ECONOM'ICAL BREAKFAST POWDER, &c. Rye, roasted along with a little fat,
after the manner of coffee. It was once sold at 2_s._ 6_d._ the lb., and
was formerly extensively used as a substitute for foreign coffee, of which
it is one of the cheapest and best. Since the reduction of duty on coffee
it has nearly fallen into disuse, unless it be by the grocers to
adulterate that article.
=BREAST (Sore).= See NIPPLES.
=Breast Pang.= _Syn._ ANGINA PECTORIS. _Symptoms._--A sudden pain
occurring in the parts covered by the breast-bone and the throat,
accompanied with a feeling of suffocation, and the apprehension of
immediate death. The pain sometimes extends down the arms and through the
back. Summon a medical man without a moment's loss of time. Pending his
speedy arrival give a drachm of ether with one third of a grain of acetate
of morphia. Apply hot applications to the chest and stomach; likewise
friction to the chest, back, and sides with spirits. If the relief be only
partial, the dose of ether may be repeated after twenty minutes.
=BREATH (Fetid).= Scarcely anything is more disagreeable or disgusting
than a stinking breath. Various means have been proposed to remove this
annoyance, depending principally on the administration of aromatics, which
by their odour smother it for a time; but these require continual
repetition, and are liable to interfere with the functions of digestion.
The real cause of stinking breath may generally be traced to a diseased
stomach, or to decayed teeth. When the former is the case, mild aperients
should be administered; and if these do not succeed, an emetic may be
given, followed by an occasional dose of the Abernethy-medicines. When
rotten teeth are the cause, they should be thoroughly cleansed, and then
'stopped,' or if this is impracticable, they should be removed. When this
is impossible or inconvenient, the evil may usually be lessened by keeping
them scrupulously clean. Dirty teeth also often cause the breath to smell;
and hence the use of the tooth-brush should be a daily habit. Occasionally
rinsing out the mouth with a little clean water to which a few drops of
solution of chloride of lime, or of chloride of soda, has been added, is
often an effective method. Mouth-washes of Condy's fluid, and also of
carbolic acid, both very greatly diluted, form useful remedies; as do also
chlorate of potash and tannic acid in the form of mouth-washes. As a
tooth-powder, fresh-burnt charcoal, and particularly areca-nut charcoal,
is without comparison the best. Lozenges, such as the following, have been
strongly recommended to sweeten and purify the breath:--Gum-catechu, 2
oz.; white sugar, 5 oz.; orris powder, 1 oz.; neroli, 5 or 6 drops; make
them into a paste with mucilage, and divide the mass into very small
lozenges. 20 or 30 drops of oil of cloves may be substituted for the orris
and neroli, at will. One or two may be sucked at pleasure. When the breath
of a child or infant, usually so sweet and fresh, smells unpleasantly, it
indicates stomach derangement of some sort. Very frequently it is
indicative of worms. See CACHOU AROMATISÉ, PASTILS, &c.
=BREW'ING.= The art of making beer.
The only ingredients allowed by law to enter into the composition of beer
are malt, sugar, hops, or any substitute for hops, and water, together
with a little yeast.
The apparatus and utensils required under the common system, in brewing
beer, are--
1. A copper or boiler capable of holding fully two thirds of the quantity
proposed to be brewed; with a gauge-stick to determine the number of
gallons of fluid at any given depth therein; and a wooden cover to place
over it before the boiling commences, or when not in use. A copper capable
of holding not less than 140 galls. is a convenient size for brewing a
quarter of malt, and is commonly known as a one-quarter copper.
2. A mash-tub or mash-tun capable of containing one third more than the
copper.