hours before it is used or baked, it should be kept at a temperature of
about 50°. But in the ordinary way of making bread, a temperature
varying from 60° to 70°, or about summer heat, is perhaps as near right
as it can well be made.
Prof. Thomson gives the following directions for making yeast in large
quantities:—“Add ten pounds of flour to two gallons of boiling
water;—stir it well into a paste, let this mixture stand for seven
hours, and then add about a quart of good 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 make 120 quartern loaves” (of 4 lbs.
each.)
A much smaller quantity can be made by observing due proportions of the
ingredients.
To raise bread in a very short time without yeast, Prof. Thomson gives
the following recipe:
“Dissolve in water 2 ounces, 5 drams and 45 grains of common
crystallized carbonate of soda, and mix the solution well with your
dough, and then add 7 ounces, 2 drams and 22 grains of muriatic acid of
the specific gravity of 1,121, and knead it as rapidly as possible with
your dough;—it will rise immediately—fully as much, if not more than
dough mixed with yeast—and when baked, will be a very light and
excellent bread.” Smaller quantities would be required for small batches
of bread.
A tea-spoonful or more (according to the quantity of dough or batter) of
super-carbonate of soda dissolved in water, and flour stirred in till it
becomes a batter, and then an equal quantity of tartaric acid dissolved
and stirred in thoroughly, will in a few minutes make very light batter
for griddle or pancakes; or if it be mixed into a thick dough, it will
make light bread.
Good lively yeast, however, makes better bread than these alkalies and
acids: howbeit these are very convenient in emergencies, when bread or
cakes must be prepared in a very short time; or when the yeast has
proved inefficient.
We see then that wheat meal consists of certain proportions of starch,
gluten, sugar, bran, &c.; and that in making loaf bread, we add yeast or
leaven, in order to produce that kind of fermentation peculiar to
saccharine matter or sugar, which is called vinous, and by which the gas
or air is formed that raises the dough. But the sugar is an incorporate
part of every particle of the meal, and is therefore equally diffused
throughout the whole mass; and hence if we would make the very best loaf
bread, the fermentive principle or yeast must also be equally diffused
throughout the whole mass, so that a suitable portion of yeast will be
brought to act at the same time on every particle of saccharine matter
in the mass.
But let us endeavor to understand this process of fermentation. To speak
in the language of chemistry, sugar is composed of certain proportions
of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. The yeast, acting on the sugar,
overcomes those affinities by which these substances are held in the
constitutional arrangement of sugar, and the process of decay or
decomposition of the sugar takes place, which is called vinous
fermentation. By this process of decay, two other forms of matter are
produced, of an essentially different nature from each other and from
the sugar. One of them is called carbonic acid gas or air, being formed
by a chemical combination of certain proportions of carbon and oxygen.
The other is known by the name of alcohol, and consists of a chemical
combination of certain proportions of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen.
Carbonic acid gas is also produced by animal respiration or breathing,
by the combustion of wood, coal, &c. &c. and in other ways of nature and
of art: but neither in nature nor in art is there any known way by which
alcohol can be produced, except by that process of the decay or
destruction of sugar called vinous fermentation.
The carbonic acid gas, produced in the manner I have stated, is the air
which inflates or puffs up and swells out the bread, when there is
sufficient gluten or other cohesive matter in the dough to prevent its
escape.
If the dough be permitted to stand too long in a warm place, the
fermentation, having destroyed most or all of the sugar, will begin to
act on the starch and mucilage, and destroy their nature, and produce
vinegar; and therefore this stage of it is called the acetous
fermentation: and if it still be permitted to go on, it will next
commence its work of destruction on the gluten; and this is called the
putrefactive fermentation, because it in many respects resembles the
putrefaction of animal matter.
The vinous fermentation, therefore, by which the dough is raised and
made light, may be carried to all necessary extent, and still be limited
in its action to the saccharine matter or sugar—leaving the starch and
gluten, and other properties of the meal, uninjured; and this is the
point at which the fermentation should be arrested by the heat that
bakes the dough. If it be permitted to go beyond the sugar, and act on
the mucilage and starch, and produce acidity, the excellence of the
bread is in some degree irreparably destroyed. The acid may be
neutralized by pearlash or soda, so that the bread shall not be sour;
but still, something of the natural flavor of the bread is gone, and it
is not possible by any earthly means to restore it; and this injury will
always be in proportion to the extent to which the process of the
acetous fermentation is permitted to go in destroying the nature of the
starch, and the bread will be proportionably destitute of that natural
sweetness and delicious richness essential to good bread. Yet it is
almost universally true, both in public and domestic bread-making, that
the acetous fermentation is allowed to take place; and saleratus, or
soda, or some other chemical agent is employed to neutralize the acid.
By this means we may have bread free from acidity, it is true, but it is
also destitute of the best and most delicious properties of good bread;
and generally, by the time it is twenty-four hours old—and this is
particularly true of bakers’ bread—it is as dry and tasteless and
unsavory as if it were made of plaster of Paris.
Many bread-makers mix their saleratus or soda with their yeast, or
introduce it when they mix their dough, so that if the acetous
fermentation does take place, the acid is neutralized by the alkali, and
therefore, not being perceived, it is supposed never to have existed,
and the bread is called sweet and good; especially if a small quantity
of molasses be employed in making the dough. Others far more wisely
withhold their alkali till the dough is raised enough to mould into the
loaf, and then if it is found to be in any degree acid, a solution of
saleratus or soda is worked into it, so as just to neutralize the acid,
and no more. This is infinitely better that no have sour bread, which,
after all, is almost everywhere met with; yet the very best bread that
can be made in this way is only second best. Happy are they who can make
good light and sweet bread, without the use of molasses—without
suffering the least degree of acetous fermentation to take place, and
without employing saleratus, soda, or any other kind of alkali.
The third or putrefactive stage of fermentation rarely takes place in
domestic bread-making; but it is by no means uncommon in public
bakeries. Indeed it is thought necessary in the manufacture of certain
kinds of crackers, in order to make them split open, and render them
brittle, and cause them readily to become soft when dipped into water.
But dyspepsia crackers, and all other kinds of bread made in this way
are, to say the least of them, miserable stuff. For besides the fact
that all the best qualities of the flour or meal have been destroyed by
fermentation, the great quantity of alkali employed in neutralizing the
acid, is necessarily injurious to the digestive organs.
PREPARATION OF BREAD.
Mixing. Much kneading necessary. Rising, or fermentation. Use of
alkalies, saleratus and soda. Baking. Ovens. Alcohol in bread.
Preservation of bread.
Now, then, the business of the bread-maker is, to take the wheat meal,
prepared in the manner I have stated, and with all the properties I have
described, and convert it into good, light, sweet, well-baked bread,
with the least possible change in those properties; so that the bread,
when done, will present to the senses of smell and taste, all the
delicious flavor and delicate sweetness which pure organs perceive in
the meal of good new wheat, just taken from the ear and ground, or
chewed without grinding; and it should be so baked that it will, as a
general statement, require and secure a full exercise of the teeth in
mastication.
In order to do this, as we have seen, it is necessary, in the first
place, that the wheat should be of the best kind, and well cleansed, and
the meal properly prepared. In the next place, it is necessary that the
yeast should be fresh, lively and sweet; and in the third place, it is
necessary that the dough should be properly mixed, raised and baked.
Take then such a quantity of meal, in a perfectly clean and sweet bread
trough, as is necessary for the quantity of bread desired, and having
made a hollow in the centre, turn in as much yeast as a judgment matured
by sound experience shall deem requisite; then add such a quantity of
water, milk and water, or clear milk, as is necessary to form the meal
into a dough of proper consistency. Some prefer bread mixed with water
alone; others prefer that which is mixed with milk and water; and others
think that bread mixed with good milk is much richer and better; while
others dislike the animal odor and taste of bread mixed with milk.
Perhaps the very best and most wholesome bread is that which is mixed
with pure soft water, when such bread is made perfect. But whether
water, milk and water, or milk alone is employed, it should be used at a
temperature of about blood heat.
Here let it be understood, that the starch of the meal is of such a
nature that, by a delicate process peculiar to itself, it becomes
changed into sugar or saccharine matter; and when the fluid used in
mixing the dough is of a proper temperature, and the dough is properly
mixed and kneaded, this process, to some small extent, takes place, and
a small portion of the starch is actually converted into sugar, and
thereby increases the sweetness of the bread. Let it also be recollected
here, that the saccharine matter on which the yeast is to act, is
equally diffused throughout the whole mass of the meal; and therefore if
the yeast be not properly diffused throughout the whole mass, but is
unequally distributed, so that an undue quantity of it remains in one
part, while other parts receive little or none, then the fermentation
will go on very rapidly in some parts of the mass, and soon run into the
acetous state, while in other parts it will proceed very slowly or not
at all; and consequently large cavities will be formed in some parts of
the dough, while other parts of it will remain as compact and heavy as
when first mixed, and sometimes even more so. I need not say that such
dough cannot be made into good bread; yet it is probably true, that more
than nine tenths of the bread consumed in this country is more or less
of this character. Nor, after what I have said, should it seem necessary
for me to remark, that good bread cannot be made by merely stirring the
meal, and yeast, and water or milk together into a thin dough or sponge,
and suffering it to ferment with little or no working or kneading. Bread
made in this manner, if it is not full of cavities large enough for a
mouse to burrow in, surrounded by parts as solid as lead, is almost
invariably full of cells of the size of large peas and grapes; and the
substance of the bread has a shining, glutinous appearance; and if the
bread is not sour, it is because pearlash or some other kind of alkali
has been used to destroy the acid.
The very appearance of such bread is forbidding, and shows, at a glance,
that it has not been properly mixed—that the yeast has acted unequally
on different portions of the meal, and that the fermentation has not
been of the right kind.
But if the yeast be so diffused throughout the whole mass, as that a
suitable portion of it will act on each and every particle of the
saccharine matter at the same time, and if the dough be of such a
consistency and temperature as not to admit of too rapid a fermentation,
then each minute portion of saccharine matter throughout the whole mass
will, in the process of fermentation, produce its little volume of air,
which will form its little cell, about the size of a pin’s head, and
smaller; and this will take place so nearly at the same time, in every
part of the dough, that the whole will be raised and made as light as a
sponge, before the acetous fermentation takes place in any part. And
then if it be properly moulded and baked, it will make the most
beautiful and delicious bread—perfectly light and sweet, without the use
of any alkali, and with all the gluten and nearly all the starch of the
meal remaining unchanged by fermentation.
Proper materials, proper care, a due amount of labor, a suitable length
of time, and proper temperature, are all, therefore, necessary to the
making of good bread.
With your meal, and yeast, and water or milk brought together before
you, then, proceed in the light of the instruction you have now
received, to mix your dough; and remember that the more thoroughly you
knead it, the more equally you diffuse the yeast throughout the whole
mass, and bring it to act on every particle of the saccharine matter at
the same time, and the whiter, lighter, and more delicious you make your
bread.
Who that can look back thirty or forty years to those blessed days of
New England’s prosperity and happiness, when our good mothers used to
make the family bread, but can well remember how long and how patiently
those excellent matrons stood over their bread troughs, kneading and
moulding their dough? and who with such recollections cannot also well
remember the delicious bread that these mothers used invariably to set
before them? There was a natural sweetness and richness in it which made
it always desirable; and which we cannot now vividly recollect, without
feeling a strong desire to partake again of such bread as our mothers
made for us in the days of our childhood.
Let it be borne in mind, then, that without a very thorough kneading of
the dough, there can be no just ground of confidence that the bread will
be good. “It should be kneaded,” says one of much experience in this
matter, “till it becomes flaky.” Indeed I am confident that our loaf
bread would be greatly improved in all its qualities, if the dough were
for a considerable time subjected to the operations of the machine which
the bakers call the break, used in making crackers and sea-bread.
The wheat meal, and especially if it is ground coarsely, swells
considerably in the dough, and therefore the dough should not, at first,
be made quite so stiff, as that made of superfine flour; and when it is
raised, if it is found too soft to mould well, let a little more meal be
added.
When the dough has been properly mixed and thoroughly kneaded, cover it
over with a clean napkin or towel, and a light woollen blanket kept for
the purpose, and place the bread trough where the temperature will be
kept at about 60° F., or about summer heat, and there let it remain till
the dough becomes light. But as it is impossible to regulate the
quantity and quality of your yeast, the moisture and temperature of your
dough, and several other conditions and circumstances, so as to secure
at all times precisely the same results in the same time, it is
therefore necessary that careful attention should be given that the
proper moment should be seized to work over and mould the dough into the
loaf, and get it into the oven, just at the time when it is as light as
it can be made by the vinous fermentation, and before the acetous
fermentation commences.
If, however, by any means there should unfortunately be a little acidity
in the dough, take a small quantity of saleratus, or, what is better,
carbonate of soda, and dissolve it in some warm water, and carefully
work in just enough to neutralize the acid. The best bread-makers are so
exceedingly careful on this point, that they dip their fingers into the
solution of saleratus or soda, and thrust them into the dough in every
part, as they work it over, so as to be sure that they get in just
enough to neutralize the acid, and not a particle more.
I must here repeat, that they who would have the very best of bread,
must always consider it a cause of regret, that there should be any
necessity to use alkali; because the acetous fermentation cannot in any
degree take place, without commensurately and irremediably impairing the
quality of the bread. And here it should be remarked, that dough made of
wheat meal will take on the acetous fermentation, or become sour, sooner
than that made of fine flour. This is probably owing principally to the
mucilage contained in the bran, which runs into the acetous fermentation
sooner than starch.
While the dough is rising, preparations should be made for baking it.
Some bake their bread in a brick oven, some in a stove, some in a
reflector, and some in a baking kettle. In all these ways very good
bread may be baked; but the baking kettle is decidedly the most
objectionable. Probably there is no better and more certain way of
baking bread well than in the use of the brick oven. Good bread-makers,
accustomed to brick ovens, can always manage them with a very great
degree of certainty; and as a general fact, bread is sweeter, baked in
this way, than in any other. Yet, when it is well baked in tin
reflectors, it is certainly very fine; and so it is also when well baked
in iron stoves. But the baking of bread requires almost as much care and
judgment as any part of the process of bread-making. If the oven is too
hot, the bread will burn on the outside before it is done in the centre;
if it is too cold, the bread will be heavy, raw and sour. If the heat is
much greater from below than from above, the bottom of the loaf will
burn before the top is done: or if the heat is much greater from above
than from below, the top of the loaf will burn before the bottom is
done.
All these points therefore must be carefully attended to; and no small
excuse ought to be considered a satisfactory apology for sour, heavy,
raw or burnt bread; for it is hardly possible to conceive of an absolute
necessity for such results; and the cases are extremely rare in which
they are not the offspring of downright and culpable carelessness.
The best bread-makers I have ever known, watch over their bread troughs
while their dough is rising, and over their ovens while it is baking,
with about as much care and attention as a mother watches over the
cradle of her sick child.
Dough made of wheat meal requires a hotter oven than that made of fine
flour; and it needs to remain in the oven longer. Indeed, it is a
general fault of bread of every description, made in this country, that
it is not sufficiently baked. Multitudes eat their bread hot and smoking
from the oven in a half-cooked state; and very few seem to think there
is any impropriety in doing so. But they who would have their bread
good, not only a few hours after it comes from the oven, but as long as
it can be kept, must see that it is thoroughly baked.
I have said that the process of vinous fermentation converts a portion
of the saccharine matter of the meal into carbonic acid gas or air, by
which means the dough is raised and made light; and that the same
process converts a portion of the saccharine matter into alcohol. The
alcohol thus generated is mostly if not entirely driven off by the heat
of the oven when the dough is baking;—and in modern times, ovens have
been so constructed in England, as to serve the double purpose of ovens
and stills; so that while the bread is baking, the alcohol is distilled
off and condensed, and saved for the various uses of arts and
manufacture.
The question has, however, been frequently started, whether a portion of
the alcohol thus generated, is not contained in the bread when it comes
from the oven.
This question cannot be answered with entire certainty; but there are
some facts in relation to it of considerable importance.
It is perfectly certain that if two portions of wheat meal or flour be
taken from the same barrel or sack, and one portion be made into
unleavened bread, and the other portion be made into the very best
fermented or raised bread, and both be eaten as soon as they are baked,
the fermented bread will digest with more difficulty, and oppress and
disturb the stomach more than the unleavened bread will. Indeed it is
well known and very generally understood, that few of the articles which
compose the food of man in civic life, are so trying to the human
stomach, and so powerful causes of dyspepsia, as fresh-baked raised
bread.
It is now well known also that alcohol wholly resists the action of the
solvent fluid of the stomach, and is entirely indigestible; and always
retards the digestion of those substances which contain it. How far all
this may be true of carbonic acid gas, is not yet ascertained; but it is
difficult to account for the difference between leavened and unleavened
bread, as above stated, without supposing that the alcohol or carbonic
acid gas, or both of them, are in some degree concerned in rendering the
leavened bread, when newly baked, peculiarly oppressive and injurious to
the stomach.
This, be it remembered, is purely a conjecture of my own; and I am not
entirely certain that it is correct; but I see no other way of meeting
the difficulty.
Be it as it may, however, it is very certain that when the bread has
been drawn from the oven, and permitted to stand in a proper place
twenty-four hours, either by evaporation or some other means, it becomes
perfectly matured, and so changed in character, that it is, if properly
made, one of the most wholesome articles entering into the diet of man;
and at that age, there is not the slightest reason to believe that a
particle of alcohol remains in the bread.
When therefore the bread is thoroughly baked, let it be taken from the
oven and placed on a perfectly clean and sweet shelf, in a perfectly
clean and well ventilated pantry. Do not, as you value the character of
your bread, put it into a pantry where you set away dishes of cold meat,
cold potatoes, and other vegetables, and keep your butter, cheese and
various other table provisions—in a pantry which perhaps is seldom
thoroughly cleansed with hot water and soap, and where the pure air of
heaven seldom if ever has a free circulation. The quality of your bread
should be of too much importance to allow of such reprehensible
carelessness, not to say sluttishness. And if you will have your bread
such as every one ought to desire to have it, you must pay the strictest
attention to the cleanliness and sweetness of the place where you keep
it.
If in baking, the outer crust should become a little too dry and crispy,
you can easily remedy this by throwing a clean bread or table cloth over
it for a short time when it first comes from the oven; but if this is
not necessary, let the bread stand on an airy shelf, till it becomes
perfectly cool, and when it is twenty-four hours old, it is fit for use;
and if it is in all respects properly made, and properly kept, it will
continue to be sweet and delicious bread for two or even three weeks,
except perhaps in very hot and sultry weather.
When we have acquired the art of making such bread as I have described,
in the very best manner, then have we carried the art of cooking to the
very height of perfection; for it is not only true, that there is no
other artificially prepared article in human diet of so much importance
as bread, but it is also true that there is no other preparation in the
whole round of cooking, which requires so much care, and attention, and
experience, and skill, and wisdom.
WHO SHOULD MAKE BREAD.
Making bread by rule. Bakers. Domestics. Sour bread. An anecdote. Mrs.
Van Winkle. Bad bread need not be made. How cake is made. Bread-making
a drudgery. Excellent example of a mother. Eating bad bread.
Importance of having good bread.