New hot bread is generally rated as a bugbear to any except those of abnormally strong digestive powers—but lovers of good things to eat, who in fear of their lives have refrained from enjoying it, should take a stale loaf, wrap a wet towel around it and set it in a brisk oven for a while. The result will be a hot loaf that tastes better than one fresh from the baker—yet won't worry the digestion at all ! For French bread, just dip the loaf in water and set it in the oven without any cloth around it.
Bread should be kept in an air-tight show-case, box or receptacle which must be frequently scalded and aired—and thoroughly dried before using again.
In other countries, under various circumstances, bread has been made from a great variety of grains, vegetables and nuts. Beans, peas, potatoes, etc., produce fair bread if mixed with wheat or rye to prevent sogginess ; rice makes bread of pleasing flavor and attractive appearance ; the chestnut bread of the Corsican mountaineers is agreeable and healthful and will keep fresh for as long as two weeks, and acorns, mosses and innumer able roots have also served—either alone or mixed with cereals.
very popular in London, is made by charging the water used for wet ting the dough with carbon-dioxide (gas), then working it up in enclosed iron kneading machines and putting directly into the oven, instead of allowing the gas to form in the dough from the fermentation caused by the working of yeast. The advantage is that bread can be thus made more quickly and cheaply and chemically purer—but, to the American palate, aerated bread has a rather flat taste. An objection in the trade is that owing to its firm crust it does not show its staleness and when taken away by the bakers is sometimes returned again as fresh—to the injury of the grocer, whose cus tomers naturally complain.
is made from rye, cornmeal and graham flour, well sweetened, principally with molasses, cooked by steaming, boiling or baking, and generally served smoking hot. It was originated in New England and is still very popular there. With in recent years it has attained also a considerable sale in other parts of the country, with a growing use in canned form. It is very nutritious but not as easily digested as wheat bread.
has never attained full favor in the North, but in different forms it is an important article of food in the South, where it is consumed as "corn bread," "corn muf fins," "Johnny Cake," "Corn Pone," etc.
as generally known in this c mntry, is a long narrow loaf —often eighteen inches long and upward—of crisp crust and proportionately little crumb. In France, there are two distinct types of bread. The kind already mentioned, in Paris some times reaching a length of three to five feet, is known as "Pain ordinaire" (ordinary bread ). The other is "Pain riche" (rich bread)—a finer variety mixed with milk and made in all sorts of shapes ( crescents, etc.), generally of small size.
is made from ordinary flour dough subjected to straining and pressing
under a stream of water until most of the starch is worked out, leaving the gluten as the principal component. Properly made, the result is a light elastic loaf especially suitable for diabetic and other patients from whose diet starch (and its product, sugar) should be excluded.
or Entire Wheat Bread. Graham Bread is generally made from flour which contains all of the "bran coat," or at all events the "aleurone layer" (see WHEAT ) , but its composition varies considerably. As gen erally eaten nowadays, it is in other respects made in the same way as "white" bread, but the original Graham bread was made without yeast—the few "holes" in it being due probably to some minor fermentation. In flavor it was sweet and fairly palatable, but a good deal heavier than yeast bread. Whole Wheat or Entire Wheat bread is made from flour which consists sometimes of the entire grain ground up ; at others, merely a coarse flour containing part. of the aleurone layer and grading between "Graham" and "ordinary" flour.
The comparative advantages of "ordinary" or "white," Graham and Whole Wheat breads have been in dispute a long time. Advocates of Graham and Whole Wheat breads claim for them greater nourishing properties—others contend that "white" bread is more easily digested by the average person and that therefore more food value is assimilated by its use, irrespective of the chemical analyses of the loaves. To a disin terested party, the comparative advantages or otherwise seem to be principally a matter of individual taste and digestion. The chemical difference is slight.