5. A sack of flour weighing 280 lbs. and contain-1 ing 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, tth of the loaf consists of water and salt, the remain ing iths of flour. But the fact is, that the number of quartem loaves that can be made from a sack of flour, depends entirely on the goodness of that ar ticle. Good flour requires more water than bad flour, and old flour than new flour. Sometimes 82, 88, or even 86 loaves may be made out of a sack, sometimes scarcely 80.
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 pailful 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 tire 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 beating the cop per in the oven itself, which is pretty generally prac tised in London. We are persuaded that an oven, constructed upon this principle, would save the baker a considerable annual expence, 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°. ( En
eyclop. Method. Arts et Metiers, 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 black very soon 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 alum• 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 mix ture has cooled down to the temperature of 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; the whole is then covered up. This is called geniis°. 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 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 fur. nish the requisite quantity for each loaf; four pounds fifteen ounces being allowed for every quarters loaf. The method of moulding the dough 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.