1. The business of the Baker consists in making bread, rolls,
biscuits, and crackers, and in baking various kinds of provisions.
2. Man appears to be designed by nature, to eat all substances capable
of affording nourishment to his system; but, being more inclined to
vegetable than to animal food, he has, from the earliest times, used
farinaceous grains, as his principal means of sustenance. As these,
however, cannot be eaten in their native state without difficulty,
means have been contrived for extracting their farinaceous part, and
for converting it into an agreeable and wholesome aliment.
3. Those who are accustomed to enjoy all the advantages of the most
useful inventions, without reflecting on the labour expended in their
completion, may fancy that there is nothing more easy than to grind
grain, to make it into paste, and to bake it in an oven; but it must
have been a long time, before men discovered any better method of
preparing their grain, than roasting it in the fire, or boiling it in
water, and forming it into viscous cakes. Accident, probably, at
length furnished some observing person a hint, by which good and
wholesome bread could be made by means of fermentation.
4. Before the invention of the oven, bread was exclusively baked in
the embers, or ashes, or before the fire. These methods, with
sometimes a little variation, are still practised, more or less, in
all parts of the world. In England, the poor class of people place the
loaf on the heated hearth, and invert over it an iron pot or kettle,
which they surround with embers or coals.
5. The invention of the oven must have added much to the conveniences
and comforts of the ancients; but it cannot be determined, at what
period, or by whom, it was contrived. During that period of remote
antiquity, in which the people were generally erratic in their habits,
the ovens were made of clay, and hardened by fire, like earthenware;
and, being small, they could be easily transported from place to
place, like our iron bake-ovens. Such ovens are still in use in some
parts of Asia.
6. There are few nations that do not use bread, or a substitute for
it. Its general use arises from a law of our economy, which requires a
mixture of the animal fluids, in every stage of the process of
digestion. The saliva is, therefore, essential; and the mastication of
dry food is required, to bring it forth from the glands of the mouth.
7. The farinaceous grains most usually employed in making bread,
are,--wheat, rye, barley, maize, and oats. The flour or meal of two
of these are often mixed; and wheat flour is sometimes advantageously
combined with rice, peas, beans, or potatoes.
8. The component parts of wheat, rye, and barley flour, are,--fecula,
or starch, gluten, and saccharine mucilage. Fecula is the most
nutritive part of grain. It is found in all seeds, and is especially
abundant in the potato. Gluten is necessary to the production of light
bread; and wheat flour, containing it in the greatest proportion,
answers the purpose better than any other. The saccharine mucilage is
equally necessary, as this is the substance on which yeast and leaven
act, in producing the internal commotion in the particles of dough
during fermentation.
9. There are three general methods of making bread; 1st. by mixing
meal or flour with water, or with water and milk; 2d. by adding to the
foregoing materials a small quantity of sour dough, or leaven, to
serve as a fermenting agent; and, 3d. by using yeast, to produce the
same general effect.
10. The theory of making light bread, is not difficult to be
understood. The leaven or yeast acts upon the saccharine mucilage of
the dough, and, by the aid of heat and moisture, disengages
carbonaceous matter, which, uniting with oxygen, forms carbonic acid
gas. This, being prevented from escaping by the gluten of the dough,
causes the mass to become light and spongy. During the process of
baking, the increased heat disengages more of the fixed air, which is
further prevented from escaping by the formation of the crust. The
superfluous moisture having been expelled, the substance becomes firm,
and retains that spongy hollowness which distinguishes good bread.
11. Many other substances contain fermenting qualities, and are,
therefore, sometimes used as substitutes for yeast and leaven. The
waters of several mineral springs, both in Europe and America, being
impregnated with carbonic acid gas, are occasionally employed in
making light bread.
12. The three general methods of making bread, and the great number of
materials employed, admit of a great variety in this essential article
of food; so much so, that we cannot enter into details, as regards the
particular modes of manufacture adopted by different nations, or
people. There are, comparatively, but few people on the globe, among
whom this art is not practised in some way or other.
13. It is impossible to ascertain, at what period of time the process
of baking bread became a particular profession. It is supposed, that
the first bakers in Rome came from Greece, about two hundred years
before the Christian era; and that these, together with some freemen
of the city, were incorporated into a college, or company, from which
neither they nor their children were permitted to withdraw. They held
their effects in common, without possessing any individual power of
parting with them.
14. Each bake-house had a patron, or superintendent; and one of the
patrons had the management of the rest, and the care of the college.
So respectable was this class of men in Rome, that one of the body was
occasionally admitted, as a member of the senate; and all, on account
of their peculiar corporate association, and the public utility of
their employment, were exempted from the performance of the civil
duties to which other citizens were liable.
15. In many of the large cities of Europe, the price and weight of
bread sold by bakers, are regulated by law. The weight of the loaves
of different sizes must be always the same; but the price may vary,
according to the current cost of the chief materials. The law was such
in the city of London, a few years ago, that if a loaf fell short in
weight a single ounce, the baker was liable to be put in the pillory;
but now, he is subject only to a fine, varying from one to five
shillings, according to the will of the magistrate before whom he may
be indicted.
16. In this country, laws of a character somewhat similar have been
enacted by the legislatures of several states, and by city
authorities, with a view to protect the community against impositions;
but whether there is a law or not, the bakers regulate the weight,
price, and quality of their loaves by the general principles of trade.
17. There is, perhaps, no business more laborious than that of the
baker of loaf bread, who has a regular set of customers to be supplied
every morning. The twenty-four hours of the day are systematically
appropriated to the performance of certain labours, and to rest.
18. After breakfast, the yeast is prepared, and the oven-wood
provided: at two or three o'clock, the _sponge is set_: the hours from
three to eight or nine o'clock, are appropriated to rest. The baking
commences at nine or ten o'clock at night; and, in large bakeries,
continues until five o'clock in the morning. From that time until the
breakfast hour, the hands are engaged in distributing the bread to
customers. For seven months in the year, and, in some cases, during
the whole of it, part of the hands are employed, from eleven to one
o'clock, in baking pies, puddings, and different kinds of meats, sent
to them from neighboring families.
19. In large cities, the bakers usually confine their attention to
particular branches of the business. Some bake light loaf bread only;
others bake unleavened bread, such as crackers, sea-biscuit, and cakes
for people of the Jewish faith. Some, again, unite several branches
together; and this is especially the case in small cities and towns,
where the demand for different kinds of bread is more limited.
[Illustration: CONFECTIONER.]