water into a dough and baked, is divided into three sorts, namely;—1.
Unleavened bread; 2. Leavened bread; and, 3. Bread made with yeast.
Unleavened bread contains all the component parts of the flour but
little altered. The meal is simply mixed with water, and baked into
cakes. It is heavy, dry, friable, and not porous. The oatmeal bread of
Scotland, is unleavened bread; as also sea biscuit, and all other kinds
of biscuit.
The bread that is eaten by the Jews during the passover is unleavened.
The usage of which was introduced in commemoration of their hasty
departure from Egypt, [Exodus, chap. 12, v. 14 to 17.] when they had not
leisure to bake leavened bread, but took the dough before it was
fermented and baked unleavened cakes.
In Roman catholic countries it is still used, and prepared with the
finest wheaten flour, moistened with water, and pressed between two
plates, graven like wafer moulds, being first rubbed with wax to prevent
the paste from sticking, and when dry it is used. Unleavened bread is
hardly less nutritious than loaf or fermented bread, but it is generally
speaking neither so wholesome nor so digestible.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
To make Oatmeal Cakes.
To a peck of oatmeal add a few table-spoonsful of salt; knead the
mixture into a stiff paste, with warm water, roll it out into thin
cakes, and bake it in an oven or on embers.
In some cottages oatmeal bread undergoes a partial fermentation, whereby
it is rendered lighter; but the generality of the people in the more
humble walks of life, where oatmeal bread is eaten, merely soften their
oatmeal with water, and having added to it a little salt, bake it into
cakes. To strangers oatmeal bread has a dry, harsh, unpleasant taste,
but the cottagers of Scotland, in particular, most commonly prefer it to
wheaten bread.
Mixed Oatmeal and Pease Bread.
To a peck of pease flour, and a like quantity of oatmeal, previously
mixed by passing the flour through a sieve, add three or four ounces of
salt, knead it into a stiff mass with warm water, roll it out into thin
cakes, and bake them in an oven. In some parts of Lancashire and
Scotland, this kind of bread is made into flattened rolls, and the
cottagers usually bake them in an iron pot.
In Norway they make unleavened bread of oatmeal and barley, which keeps
thirty or forty years, and is considered the better for being old, so
that at the baptism of a child, bread is sometimes used which has been
baked perhaps at the baptism of its great grandfather.
Unleavened Maize Bread.
The bread made of maize flour, which is in common use in North America,
is unleavened bread. The maize flour is kneaded with a little salt and
water into a stiff mass; which, after being rolled out into thin cakes,
is usually baked on a hot broad iron hoe.
Another kind of unleavened _maize cakes_, which is a North American
bread, called _Hoe cake_, is made in the following manner.[3]
Take maize, boil it with a small proportion of kidney beans, until it
becomes almost a pulp, and bake it over embers into a cake.
Footnote 3:
This and several other of the directions here given, for making
various species of bread, are taken from Edlin’s excellent Treatise on
bread making, a small work, long ago out of print.
Unleavened Bean-Flour Bread.
Take a quarter of a peck of bean-flour and one ounce of salt, mix it
into a thick batter with water, pour a sufficient quantity to make a
cake into an iron kettle, and bake it over the fire, taking care to turn
it frequently.
Unleavened Buckwheat Bread.[4]
Footnote 4:
From the Reports of the Board of Agriculture.
Take a gallon of water, set it over a fire, and when it boils, let a
peck of the flour of buckwheat be mixed with it, little by little, and
keep the mixture constantly stirred, to prevent any lumps being formed
till a thick batter is made. Then add two or three ounces of salt, set
it over the fire again, and allow it to boil an hour and a half, pour
the proper proportion for a cake into an iron kettle and bake it.
Unleavened Acorn Bread.
Take acorns, fully ripe, deprive them of their covers and beat them into
a paste, let them lay in water for a night, and then press the water
from them, which deprives the acorns entirely of their astringency. Then
dry and powder the mass for use. When wanted, knead it up into a dough
with water, and roll it out into thin cakes, which may be baked over
embers.
Bread made after this method is by no means disagreeable, and even to
this day, it is said to be made use of in some countries.
Sea Biscuit.
The process of biscuit-baking for the British navy is as follows, and it
is equally simple and ingenious. The meal, and every other article,
being supplied with much certainty and simplicity, large lumps of dough,
consisting merely of flour and water, are mixed up together; and as the
quantity is so immense as to preclude, by any common process, a
possibility of kneading it, a man manages, or, as it is termed, rides a
machine, which is called a horse. This machine is a long roller,
apparently about four or five inches in diameter, and about seven or
eight feet in length. It has a play to a certain extension, by means of
a staple in the wall, to which is inserted a kind of eye, making its
action like the machine by which they cut chaff for horses. The lump of
dough being placed exactly in the centre of a raised platform, the man
sits upon the end of the machine, and literally rides up and down
throughout its whole circular direction, till the dough is equally
indented; and this is repeated till it is sufficiently kneaded; at which
times, by the different positions of the lines, large or small circles
are described, according as they are near to or distant from the wall.
The dough in this state is handed over to a second workman, who slices
it with a prodigious knife; and it is then in a proper state for the use
of those bakers who attend the oven. These are five in number; and their
different departments are as well calculated for expedition and
correctness, as the making of pins, or other mechanical employments. On
each side of a large table, where the dough is laid, stands a workman;
at a small table near the oven stands another; a fourth stands by the
side of the oven, to receive the bread; and a fifth to supply the peel.
By this arrangement the oven is as regularly filled and the whole
exercise performed in as exact time, as a military evolution. The man on
the further side of the large table, moulds the dough, having previously
formed it into small pieces till it has the appearance of muffins,
although rather thinner, and which he does two together, with each hand;
and, as fast as he accomplishes this task, he delivers his work over to
the man on the other side of the table, who stamps them with a docker on
both sides with a mark. As he rids himself of this work, he throws the
biscuits on the smaller table next the oven, where stands the third
workman, whose business is merely to separate the different pieces into
two, and place them immediately under the hand of him who supplies the
oven, whose work of throwing, or rather chucking, the bread upon the
peel, must be so exact, that if he looked round for a single moment, it
is impossible he should perform it correctly. The fifth receives the
biscuit on the peel, and arranges it in the oven; in which duty he is so
very expert, that though the different pieces are thrown at the rate of
seventy in a minute, the peel is always disengaged in time to receive
them separately.
As the oven stands open during the whole time of filling it, the
biscuits first thrown in would be first baked, were there not some
counteraction to such an inconvenience. The remedy lies in the ingenuity
of the man who forms the pieces of dough, and who, by imperceptible
degrees, proportionably diminishes their size, till the loss of that
time, which is taken up during the filling of the oven, has no more
effect to the disadvantage of one of the biscuits than to another.
So much critical exactness and neat activity occur in the exercise of
this labour, that it is difficult to decide whether the palm of
excellence is due to the moulder, the marker, the splitter, the chucker,
or the depositor; all of them, like the wheels of a machine, seeming to
be actuated by the same principle. The business is to deposit in the
oven seventy biscuits in a minute; and this is accomplished with the
regularity of a clock; the clack of the peel, during its motion in the
oven, operating like the pendulum.
The biscuits thus baked, are dried in lofts over the oven till they are
perfectly dry, to prevent them getting mouldy when stored for use.
One-hundred and twelve pounds of flour produce one hundred and two
pounds of perfectly dry biscuits.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leavened Bread,
Or bread made with a portion of fermented sour dough, obtained by
keeping some bread dough till the acetous fermentation takes place, when
it swells, rarifies, and acquires a taste somewhat sour, and rather
disagreeable. This fermented dough is well worked up with some fresh
dough, which is, by that mixture and moderate heat, disposed to ferment;
and by this fermentation the dough is attenuated and divided, carbonic
acid is extricated, which being incapable of disengaging itself from the
tenaceous and solid dough, forms it into small cavities, and raises and
swells it; hence, the small quantity of fermented dough which disposes
the rest of the mass to ferment is called _leaven_.
Most of the bread used by the people in the lower walks of life in
France, Germany, Holland, and other European countries, is made in this
manner.
Leavened bread, therefore, differs from unleavened bread, in being
fermented by means of _leaven_, which is nothing more than a piece of
dough kept in a warm place, till it undergoes a process of fermentation,
swelling, becoming spongy, and full of air bubbles, and at length
disengaging an acidulous vapour, and contracting a sour taste. Leaven
must, therefore, be considered as dough which has fermented and become
sour, but which is still in its progress towards greater acidity.
The addition of leaven, or this species of ferment to fresh dough,
produces an important change in the bread, for when a small portion of
leaven is intimately mixed with a large proportion of fresh dough, it
gradually causes the whole mass to ferment throughout, a quantity of
carbonic acid gas is extracted from the flour, but remaining entangled
by the tenacity of the mass in which it is expanded by heat, this raises
the dough, and as soon as the mass has acquired a due increase of bulk
from the carbonic acid gas which endeavours to escape, it is judged to
be sufficiently fermented and fit for the oven, the heat of which, by
driving off the water, checks the fermentation, and forms a bread full
of small cavities, entirely different from the heavy, compact, viscous
masses, made by baking unfermented dough.
A great deal of nicety is required in conducting this operation, for if
it is continued too long, the bread will be sour, and if too short a
time has been allowed for the dough to ferment and rise, it will be
heavy.
Bread raised by leaven is usually made of a mixture of wheat and rye,
not very accurately cleared of the bran. It is distinguished by the name
of _rye bread_; and the mixture of these two kinds of grain is called
bread-corn, in many parts of the kingdom, where it is raised on one and
the same piece of ground, and passes through all the processes of
reaping, thrashing, grinding, &c. A mixture of one-hundred pounds of
equal parts of wheat and rye flour, produce from one-hundred and
fifty-four to one-hundred and fifty-six pounds of leavened bread.
Leavened Rye Bread.
Take a piece of dough, of about a pound weight, and keep it for use—it
will keep several days very well. Mix this dough with some warm water,
and knead it up with a portion of flour to ferment; then take half a
bushel of flour, and divide it into four parts; mix a quarter of the
flour with the leaven, and a sufficient quantity of water to make it
into dough, and knead it well. Let this remain in a corner of your
trough, covered with flannel, until it ferments and rises properly; then
dilute it with more water, and add another quarter of the flour, and let
it remain and rise. Do the same with the other two quarters of the
flour, one quarter after another, taking particular care never to mix
more flour till the last has risen properly. When finished, add six
ounces of salt; then knead it again, and divide it into eight loaves,
making them broad, and not so thick and high as is usually done, by
which means they will be better baked. Let them remain to rise, in order
to overcome the pressure of the hand in forming them; then put them in
the oven, and reserve a piece of dough for the next baking. The dough
thus kept, may with proper care, be prevented from spoiling, by mixing
from time to time small quantities of fresh flour with it.
It requires some attention to be able to determine the exact quantity of
leaven necessary for the proper fermentation of the dough. When it is
deficient in quantity, the process of fermentation is interrupted, and
the bread thus prepared is solid and heavy, and if too much leaven be
used, it communicates to the bread a disagreeable sour taste.
Hungarian Rye Bread.
Two large handfuls of hops are boiled in four quarts of water: this is
poured upon as much wheaten bread as it will moisten, and to this are
added four or five pounds of leaven. When the mass is warm, the several
ingredients are worked together till well mixed. It is then deposited in
a warm place for twenty-four hours, and afterwards divided into small
pieces, about the size of a hen’s egg, which are dried by being placed
on a board, and exposed to a dry air, but not to the sun; when dry, they
are laid up for use, and may be kept half a year. The ferment, thus
prepared, is applied in the following manner: for baking six large
loaves, six good handfuls of these balls are dissolved in seven or eight
quarts of warm water; this water is poured through a sieve into one end
of the bread trough, and after it three quarts of warm water; the
remaining mass being well pressed out. The liquor is mixed up with
flour, sufficient to form a mass of the size of a large loaf; this is
strewed over with flour: the sieve, with its contents, is put upon it,
and the whole is covered up warm, and left till it has risen enough, and
its surface has begun to crack; this forms the leaven. Fifteen quarts of
warm water, in which six handfuls of salt has been dissolved, are then
poured upon it through the sieve; the necessary quantity of flour is
added, and mixed and kneaded with the leaven: this is covered up warm,
and left for about half an hour. It is then formed into loaves, which
are kept for another half-hour in a warm room; and after that they are
put into the oven, where they remain two or three hours, according to
their size.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bread made with Yeast.
The principal improvement that has been made in the art of fabricating
bread, consists in the substitution of yeast, (or the froth that rises
to the surface during the fermentation of malt liquors,) instead of
common flour dough, in a state of acescency, called _leaven_, to rise
the bread dough, made of flour and water, before it is baked. This
substance very materially improves the bread. Yeast makes the dough rise
more effectually than ordinary _leaven_, and the bread thus produced is
much lighter, and free from that sour taste which may often be perceived
in bread raised with leaven; because too much has been added to the
paste, or because the dough has been allowed to advance too far in the
process of fermentation before it was baked.
The discovery of the application of yeast, to improve the panification
of bread flour, was made and first secretly adopted by the bakers of
Paris; but when the practice was discovered, the College of Physicians
there, in 1688, declared it prejudicial to health, and it was not till
after a long time that the bakers succeeded in convincing the people,
that bread made with yeast was superior to bread made with sour dough or
leaven.
The bread used in this metropolis and in most other large towns in
England, is made of wheaten flour, water, yeast, and salt. The average
proportion are two pints by weight, of water, to three of flour, but the
proportions vary considerably with the diversity of climate, years,
season, age, and grinding of the wheat. There are some kinds of wheat
flour that require precisely three-fourths of their weight of water.
That flour is always the best which combines with the greatest possible
quantity of water. Bakers and pastry-cooks judge of the quality of flour
from the characters of the dough. The best flour forms instantly by the
addition of water a very gluey elastic paste, whereas bad flour produces
a dough that cannot be elongated without breaking.
The flour, in this case, being seldom mixed up oftener than twice, that
is, the yeast previously diluted with water, is added to a part of the
flour, and well kneaded; in a short time, swells and rises in the baking
trough, and is called by the bakers, _setting the sponge_. The remainder
of the flour is afterwards added, with a sufficient quantity of warm
water to make it into a stiff dough, and then allowed to ferment. It is
of essential consequence that the whole of the yeast should be
intimately mixed with the two-thirds of the quantity of the flour put
into the kneading trough, in order that the fermentation of the dough
may commence in every part of the mass at the same time. The dough is
then covered up, and the water which is mixed with the yeast being warm,
speedily extricates air in an elastic state, and as it is now by
kneading, diffused through every part of the dough, every particle must
become raised, and the viscidity of the mass retains it, when it is
again well kneaded and made up into loaves, and put into the oven. The
heat converts the water also into an elastic vapour, and the loaf swells
more and more, till at last it is perfectly porous.
During the baking, a still greater quantity of gazeous matter is
extricated by the increased heat; and as the crust of the bread becomes
formed, the air is prevented from escaping, the water is dissipated, the
loaf rendered somewhat dry and solid, and between every particle of
bread there is a particle of air, as appears from the spongy appearance
of the bread.
It is curious that new flour does not afford bread of so good a quality
as that which has been kept some months. The flour of grain too, which
has suffered incipient germination, is much inferior in the quality of
bread prepared from it: and from this principally appears to arise the
injury which wheat sustains from a wet harvest. Various methods have
been employed to remedy the imperfections of bread from inferior flour,
such as washing the grain with hot water if it is musty, proposed by Mr.
Hatchet;[5] drying and heating it even to a certain extent; adding
various substances, such as magnesia, &c. Some experiments on this
subject have been given by Mr. E. Davy. See a Treatise on Adulterations
of Food, Second Edition, p.137.
Footnote 5:
See a Treatise on Adulterations of Food and Culinary Poisons, Second
Edition, p. 143.
METHOD OF MAKING WHEATEN BREAD, AS PRACTISED BY THE LONDON BAKERS.
To make a sack of flour into bread, the baker pours the flour into the
kneading trough, and 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. Two ounces of alum are then dissolved in about a
quart of boiling water, and the solution (technically called liquor,) is
poured into _the seasoning-tub_. Four or five pounds of salt are
likewise put into the tub, and a pailful of hot water. When this mixture
has cooled to the temperature of about 84°, from three to four pints of
yeast are added; the whole is mixed, strained through the seasoning
sieve, emptied into a hole made in the mass of 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
sacks or cloths. This operation is called setting _quarter sponge_.
In this situation it is left three or four hours. It gradually swells
and breaks through the dry flour scattered on its surface. An additional
quantity, (about one pailful,) of warm (liquor) water, in which one
ounce of alum is dissolved, is now added, and the dough is made up into
a paste as before; the whole is then covered up. In this situation it is
left for four or five hours. This is called _setting half sponge_.
The whole is then intimately kneaded with more water, (about two pails
full,) for upwards of an hour. The dough is cut into pieces with a
knife, and penned to one side of the trough; some dry flour is sprinkled
over it, and it is left to _prove_ in this state for about four hours.
It is then kneaded again for half an hour. The dough is now taken out of
the trough, put on the lid, cut into pieces, and weighed, in order to
furnish the requisite quantity for each loaf.
The operation of moulding is peculiar, and can only be learnt by
practice; it consists in cutting the mass of dough destined for a loaf,
into two equal portions: they are kneaded either round or long, and one
placed in a hollow made in the other, and the union is completed by a
turn of the knuckles on the centre of the upper piece.
The loaves are left in the oven about two hours and a half, or three
hours, when taken out of the oven, they are turned with their bottom
side upwards to prevent them from splitting. They are then covered up
with a blanket to cool slowly.
QUANTITY OF BREAD OBTAINABLE FROM A GIVEN QUANTITY OF WHEATEN FLOUR.
A sack of flour, weighing two hundred and eighty pounds, is made with
five pounds of salt, and from three to four pints of yeast, into dough,
with the requisite quantity of water, which varies according to the
quality of the flour.
The older the flour, provided the wheat has been sound, and the flour
well preserved, the greater will be the quantity of water required to
convert it into a stiff dough, and the greater the produce of bread.
The quantity of flour for a quartern loaf is reckoned at an average,
three pounds and a half, which produces, if the flour be of the best
quality, five pounds avoirdupoise of dough. The quartern loaf produced
from this quantity of flour weighs four pounds, five ounces and a half,
and hence the dough loses, during baking, eleven ounces and a half.
The quantity of bread obtainable from the same quantity of flour is,
however, much influenced by the manner in which the dough is fermented,
and the skilful regulation of the heat employed for baking the bread.
A variation of temperature also makes a considerable difference to the
baker’s profit or loss. In summer, a sack of flour will yield a quartern
loaf more than in winter; and the sifting it, before it is wetted, if it
does not make it produce more bread, certainly causes the loaves to be
larger.
The loss of weight occasioned by the heat is proportional to the extent
of the surface of the loaf, and to the length of time it remains in the
oven. Hence the smaller the surface, or the nearer the figure of the
loaf approaches to a globe, the smaller is the loss of weight sustained
in baking; and the longer the loaf continues in the oven the greater is
the loss.
A loaf that weighed just four pounds when taken out of the oven, after
the usual baking, was put in again, and after ten minutes was found to
have lost two ounces, and in ten minutes more it lost another ounce. The
longer bread is kept the lighter it is, unless it be kept in a damp
place, or wrapt round with a wet cloth, which is an excellent method of
preserving bread fresh and free from mould, for a long time.
Home-made Wheaten Bread.