BREAD. The earliest and most primitive way of making B. was to soak the grain in water, subject it to pressure, and then dry it by natural or artificial heat. An improve ment upon this, was to pound or bray the grain in a mortar or between two flat stones, before moistening and heating, and from this braying operation some etymologists pro pose to derive the word bread (as if brayed). A rather more elaborate bruising or grinding of the grain leads to such simple forms of bread as the of Scotland, which are prepared by moistening oat-meal (coarsely bruised oats) with water containing some common salt, kneading with the hands upon a baking-board, rolling the mass into a thin sheet, and ultimately heating before a good fire, or on an iron plate, called a girdle, which is suspended above the fire. In a similar manner, the barley-meal and peas-meal bann,ocks of Scotland are prepared ; and in the East Indies (especially the Punjab and Afghanistan), as well as in Scotland, flour is kneaded with water, and rolled into thin sheets, as scones. The passorer cakes of the Israelites were also prepared in this way. A similar preparation of wheat-flour, but where the sheet of dough is made much thicker, forms the dampers of Australia. The Indian corn-meal, kneaded with water and fired, affords the of America. The kinds of B. referred to above are designated unleavened, as no leaven has been added to the dough to excite fermentation. Even in the time of Moses, however, learen was employed in making bread. It is held probable that the Egyptians were the first to use leaven; that the secret afterwards became known to the Greeks; and that the Greeks communicated the process to the Romans, who spread the invention far and wide in the northern countries during their campaigns.
The grain of wheat is generally employed in the manufacture of B. among the better classes and more advanced nations, though rye, barley, Indian corn, and rice are also extensively used. The average composition of the grain of wheat when dried, so as to evaporate about 14 per cent of moisture, is— Gluten and albumen 131 Starch 541 • Gum, sugar, oil, and fiber 30 Saline matter.... . 2 The proportion of these ingredients varies, however; and though the native country of wheat is unknown, yet it is found that within the wheat zone (see WHEAT), the quality improves as we travel south. Titus, Scotch wheat is inferior to English, the latter to French, that to the Italian; and the finest wheat in the world is grown in Barbary and Egypt. The principal constituents of wheat may be separated from each other without much difficulty. Thus, if wheat-flour be placed in a cloth-bag with the mouth well closed,
and the whole introduced into a basin of water, and pressed by the fingers for some time, the starch is squeezed through the cloth as a fine white powder, and the gluten is left in the cloth as a viscid or sticky substance. Again, if wheat-flour be burned on a porcelain plate on a fire, or oven, or gas-lamp, till it can burn no longer, it leaves behind a small amount of ash or saline matter.
Previous to being employed in the fabrication of B., the grain of wheat undergoes the process of grinding, with the double object of reducing it to a fine state of division, and separating the more hard and indigestible parts. See MILL. During the grinding operations, the wheat as it passes from grain to flour nearly doubles its bulk. The pro ducts come from the dressing-machine divided into different qualities, a quarter of wheat yielding— Bushels. Pecks.
Fine flour 5 3 • • • • Second flour 0 2 Fine middlings.... 0 1 Coarse middlings 0 Bran 3 0 Twentypenny.... 3 0 Pollard 2 0 14 21 In the making of B. in Great Britain, the finest flour is employed in making firsts or the fine loaf; a coarser flour is made into seconds or household B. ; and a still coarser into thirds or coarse bread. There is no bran in firsts, but a greater or less pro portion of the finer bran in seconds and thirds. In the making of good B. three things. are absolutely requisite: flour or meal, yeast or leaven, and water containing salt. The yeast (q.v.), or leaven (q.v.), is added to give a start to the fermentation (q.v.) process, thereby supplying carbonic acid, which communicates a spongy or light texture to the bread. Leaven is the more primitive ferment, and is simply n portion of moistened flour or dough in which the putrefactive agencies have begun to work. It may be pro cured by allowing moistened flour to lie in a warm apartment (summer heat)for six or eight days, and when sufficiently formed, has an acid taste and reaction, and a some what fusty odor. When brought in contact with a new portion of flour and water, and incorporated therewith by kneading, it very quickly acts as a ferment, and develops partial fermentation in the whole. Hence it is that where leaven is used, it is custom ary to retain a portion of the leavened dough for the next baking. On the continent, leaven is still very extensively employed, especially in districts far from breweries. In Britain, yeast is generally used as the ferment.