BRAZILIAN ELEMI, also Accouchi balsam, a resin obtained from the Icica heterophylla. BRAZIL WOOD, Queen's wood.
Brasilienhout, . . Dcv. Pao Brazil, Pao de Bois do bresil, . . FR. Rainha, . . . PORT. Iirasilien-holz, . . GER. Madera del Bresil, . . Sr. Leg-no del Email; Ir.
This wood is employed by cabinetmakers in Europe, but its principal use is in dyeing red. It is, however, a commercial term for woods procured in many parts of the western hemisphere, from one or two species of Cmsalpinia, West Indian and South American trees, but, within the last fifteen years, from the Cam wood imported from Africa. The true Brazil wood is supposed to be the Bahia nitida, which yields a finer and more permanent colour than any other.—Toml. ; Faulkner ; 11PC. See Cresalpinia; Dyes.
BRE. lifxo. Querns Ilex, Eremurus speeta bilis.
BRE, also Pre. Tin. 1-20th of a bushel. BREAD.
Eish, Khabz, . . ARAB. Roti, ..... Hum.
Ching ping, Man•tu, CHIN. Pane, Ir Mien pau, Mo-mo,„ Nan, ..... rims.
Pain, FR. Pan, Sr Brod, GER.
Bread may be leavened, or unleavened or un fermented. In the latter, flour, water, with perhaps the addition of salt, are alone employed. In the former, the substances employed are yeast in Europe, and in Eastern and Southern Asia the palm wines or toddies. And the subatitutes for these are sesqui-carbonate of ammonia ; car bonate of Bode and hydrochloric acid ; or carbonate of soda and tartaric acid. The breadstuffs of commerce consist of nutritious cereal grains, tuberous-rooted plants, and farina yielded by trees. Amongst them wheat, barley. oats, rice, maize, millet, Guinea corn, the sego of palms, the plantain and banana, the bread-fruit tree, the edible root crops, and starch-producing plants, the last a somewhat extensive class, the chief of which, however, are the common potato, yams, cocoa or eddoes, sweet potatoes, the bitter and sweet cassava or manioc, the arrowroot and other plants.
Wheat and wheat-flour, maize, and rico form very important articles of commerce, and enter largely into cultivation in various countries for home consumption and export, a portion being consumed in the arts, as starch for stiffening linens, etc., and for other purposes not coining
under the term of food. 'I he kind of bread in common use in a country depends partly on the taste of the inhabitants, but more on the sort of grain suitable for its soil.
In India, in making bread of wheat, one process is first thoroughly to clean the wheat, and for this one woman will clean 430 lbs. in a day ; then in the evening, the cleaned wheat is placed on a table and thoroughly wetted, and the water left to drain from it during the night. Tho next morning, the still moist grain is ground in handmills by women, a woman grinding 40 lbs. in a day. It is then sifted, and as much fine flour and soojie as can be obtained are laid aside. Tho remainder, then termed naka,' is subjected to a more powerful mill, and an inferior kind of soojie and a second sort of flour obtained from it. The residue is then ground in a large mill, and yields a coarse flour and bran.
Bran is what remains of wheat after the flour and soojie are extracted.
Soojie is the heart of the wheat, and is obtained by coarsely sifting the coarsely ground wheat with sieves and sooras, by which all the small particles of the,bran are separated from it ; one woman can thus clean 50 lbs. a day. It is semolina.
First sort flour is produced by finer sifting from the first grinding of the wheat.
Second sort flour is sifted from the first grinding of the wheat, after the fine is extracted, and also from the second grinding.
Bread.—The materials for bread are GO lbs. of first soojie, 20 lbs. of second sort or naka soojie, and 20 lbs. of first sort flour. 100 lbs. of these ingredients produce 128 lbs. of bread.
Biscuit is made from second sort soojie and flour mixed in the proportion of 75 lbs. of naka soojie and 85 lbs. of second sort flour. This produces only about 85 lbs. of biscuit, which, after being well baked, is dried for two days in a kiln.