We have hitherto considered bread as made of the flour of wheat ; but there are many other farinaceous vegetables, from the seeds or roots of which salutary and pleasant bread can be prepared. Oaten bread is common not only throughout Scotland, but likewise in Lancashire, and seVeral of the northern counties of En gland. In this country (Scotland) we have likewise excellent bread made of barley meal ; and pease bread, which, though much relished by many of our peasantry, is dry, heavy, and hard of digestion. In times of scar city, many attempts have been made to compensate for the want of corn, by the substitution of other vegetable substances, in the fabrication of bread. For this pur pose, recourse has been had to the herb ragwort, the thick root of which, when taken out of the ground, is soft and viscous, but becomes hard in a short time, and may be preserved in that state for years, without chang ing, or requiring the slightest care. This root is easily ground, and yields a fine flour, which has an agreeable taste resembling that of a nut. It is said likewise to be easily digested, and to be more nutritive and exhilarating than wheaten bread. The same pro perties and effects are attributed to radishes. From the acorn, too, a kind of meal is produced which makes excellent bread, provided that a little barley meal be mingled with it, to counteract its astringent qualities. In the wars of Westphalia, bread of this description was very commonly used ; and when made with milk, was extremely pleasant and nutritious. The slightest preparation is sufficient to remove the harsh and disa greeable taste which the acorn has in its natural state. Roasting or boiling it is all that is requisite to render it quite palatable. This kind of bread has been mended by physicians, especially for labouring people : the acorns that arc best calculated for this purpose are those of the white oak. M. Parmentier, chief apothe cary in the Hotel des Invalides, has publishi d some beautiful and successful experiments on the vegetables which might be substituted in times of scarcity, for those usually employed for the nourishment of animals. Upon examining, with the most careful attention, what was the nutritive part of farinaceous vegetables, he dis covered that it was their starch ; and by a series of well conducted experiments, he ascertained the identity of the farina of plants with the starch of wheat. The ve getables from which he extracted this substance, are the bryony, the iris, gladiolus, ranunculus, fumuria, arum, dracunculus, mandragora, colchicum, filipendula, and helleborus, and the roots of the gramen caninuin artense. The process by which he extracted the farina or starch from these vegetables, is extremely simple. It is only necessary to cleanse the roots, to scrape and pound them, and then to soak the pulp in a considerable quantity of water : a white sediment is deposited, which, when washed and dried, is a real s arch. M. Parmen tier converted these different starches into bread, by mingling them with an equal portion of potatoes reduced into pulp, and the ordinary dose of wheaten leaven: the bread had no bad taste, and its quality was excellent. From his experiments it appeared, that it is chiefly the amvlaceous matter or starch of grain that is nutritious; and that the nutritive quality of other vegetable sub stances, depends entirely on the quantity of that matter they contain. This amylaccous matter, formed into a jelly, and diffused in water, will keep a long time with out undergoing any change. At length, however, it becomes arid and then putrifies.
A very good bread may be made of turnips by the following process : Let the turnips be washed clean, pared, and boiled. When they are soft enough for be ing mashed, the greater part of the water should be pressed out of them, and they should then be mixed with an equal quantity in weight of coarse wheat flour. The dough may then be made in the usual manner, with yeast or barm, salt, water, lac. It will rise well in the trough, and after being well kneaded, may be formed into loaves, and put into the oven. It requires to be baked rather longer than ordinary bread, and when taken from the oven is equally light and white, rather sweeter, with a slight but not disagreeable taste of the turnip. After it has been allowed to stand 12 hours, this taste is scarcely perceptible, and the smell has quite gone. After an interval of 24 hours, it cannot be known that it has turnips in its composition, although it has still a peculiar sweetish taste : it appears to be rather superior to bread made only of wheat flour, is fresher and moister, and even after a week continues very good.
Bread is sometimes made of millet, and, when warm, it is pretty good ; when cold, it becomes dry, and easily crumbles, and is therefore preferred by painters for effacing their pencil marks. Though millet be nutri tive when boiled, it is not so in bread, but becomes a very powerful astringent. From some passages in Pliny, it appears that this grain was in very common use among the Italian peasantry. There is no grain, he informs us, more heavy, or which swells more in ba king. It affords the best leaven known, and would doubtless, make excellent beer.
Rice, though one of the roughest and driest of fari naceous vegetables, is converted by the Americans into a very pleasant bread. The process is as follows : The grain is first washed by pouring water upon it, then stirring it, and changing the water until it be sufficiently cleansed. The water is then drawn off, and the rice. after being sufficiently drained, is put, while yet damp, into a mortar, and beaten to powder ; it is then com pletely dried, and passed through a common hair scive. The flour, thus obtained, is generally kneaded with a small proportion of Indian corn meal, and boiled into a thickish consistence ; or sometimes it is mixed with boiled potatoes, and a small quantity of leaven and salt is added to the mass. When it has fermented suffi eiently, the dough is put into pans, and placed in an oven. The bread made by this process is light and wholesome, pleasing to the eye, and agreeable to the taste. But rice flour will make excellent bread, without the addition of either potatoes, or any kind of meal. Let a sufficient quantity of the flour be put into a kneading trough ; and at the same time let a due proportion of water be boiled in a cauldron, into which throw a few handfuls of rice in grain, and boil it till it break. This forms a thick and viscous substance, which is poured upon the flour, and the whole is kneaded with a mixture of salt and leaven : the dough is then covered with warm cloths, and left to rise. In the process of fermentation, this dough, firm at first, becomes liquid as soup, and seems quite incapable of being wrought by the hand. To ob viate this inconvenience, the oven is heated while the dough is rising; and when it has attained a proper tem perature, a tinned box is taken, furnished with a handle long enough to reach to the end of the oven: a little water is poured into this box, which is then filled with dough, and covered with cabbage leaves and a leaf of paper. The box is then committed to the oven, and suddenly reversed. The heat of the oven prevents the dough from spreading, and keeps it in the form which the box has given it. This bread is both beautiful and good ; but when it becomes a little stale, loses much of its excellence.
Potatoes, mixed in various quantities with flour, make a wholesome, nutritive, and pleasant bread. Various methods are employed for preparing the potatoes. Kli yogg, who has been styled the rustic Socrates, recom mends, that potatoes well boiled and carefully peeled, should be put into a kneading trough, covered with boiling water, and bruised till they be converted into a kind of soup of equal consistence throughout. A half, a third, or a fourth, of this soup, mixed with the flour of wheat, makes a bread of an excellent taste, and extreme ly salutary and nutritive. This is the food of the pea santry in German Lorraine ; and that country is thickly peopled, with young, tall, and handsome men, of the most robust and vigorous constitution. In Vogstand and in Saxony, potatoes are prepared for bread in the following manner : The largest potatoes are chosen, and after being peeled, are grated very fine, and put into a milk pail. Cold water is poured upon them, in which they are allowed to remain twenty-four hours. The water is then poured off, and fresh water is poured on them again ; and this is repeated till the water which is drawn off be as pure as that taken from the spring. The potatoes are then put into a white linen cloth in order to be drained, after which they are spread upon a plate till dry. They are then reduced to a fine pow der, and mixed with equal portions of wheaten flour, and with as much leaven as is usually employed for the same quantity of flour.