Front these considerations, it will appear, that a great deal too mach has been said of the noxious effects of unfermented farinacea. It will surprise modern phy sicians to find, that Celsus (who, like other ancients, can hardly be in the wrong) should say, that unferment ed bread is more wholesome than fermented bread. I am ready to allow that he was in the wrong; but I am disposed to suspect, that it happened from his observing that the lower people, who lived on the unfermented, were generally more healthy than those of the better sort, who lived upon fermented bread." (k) Since the preceding' observations were drawn up, we have met with the following new theory of the ferment ation which takes place in bread, by M. Duportal, pro fessor of physic and chemistry in the academy of Mont pellier, which we shall give in his own words: " The making of bread is a domestic chemical ope ration, since in it those substances which are the most essential to the sustenance of man undergo a change in their nature. These substances are found united in the meal of the farinaceous seeds, especially in those of wheat, which furnishes the best bread. M. Chaptal has found this latter farina to consist of starch, gluten, mucilage, and sugar. We may add to them the fer ment, the vegetable albumen, calcareous phosphate, Sze, which must be reckoned in the number of ma,teria.k which compose it. 'What share has each of these prin ciples in carrying on the pan nary fermentation ? It is generally believed, that the farina being reduced into a paste, the mucous saccharine principle undergoes the vinous fermentation ; that the starch has a tendency to become acid; and that the gluten and albumen enter into putrefaction.
(*) As the word “Corn" is made use of in the foregoing article, it may be proper to remark that it is the general British term for grain of all kinds of which bread is made. The same term is exclusively applied in the United States, to the native indian corn, which grain in Europe is called maize, or mays, and in France Ble de Turquie, or maIs• The botanical name is zea mail.
In the United States we had formerly superfine, com mon, middling flour, and ship stuff the three first cor responding to the English white, wheaten, and house hold flour. Ship stuff is the coarsest part of the flour.
But at present, and for some years past, such is the progress in the art of milling that little else is made except superfine flour, whereas formerly wheat of the first quality was required to make an article capable of bearing that stamp ; and we are of consequence deprived of that wholesome species of family bread called mid dlings, and obliged to eat a bread, which although made from superfine flour, is not so sweet or pleasant to the taste. Bread is also made from rye flour, and is a great favourite with all classes of people. In the southern states bread from Indian corn is in universal use, and when eaten fresh is justly praised for its agreeable taste; although it must be allowed that it is liable to the same objections that may be urged against fresh wheat bread. Corn meal is also made up in families with milk and yeast, by which the taste of the bread is improved ; it is also lighter than when made merely NN ith corn meal and water. In South Carolina and Georgia, rice is also
made into bread. See Repertory of Arts, vol 9, for the process, by John Drayton Esq. ; also Archives of Useful Knowledge, vol. 3d. p. 272. In the western parts of Pennsylvania, bread made of flour the produce of that species of wheat called speltz, is in general use, and preferred even to that from the common wheat flour. In the summer season household bread is often made of a mixture of indian corn meal and wheat flour, and is much esteemed in the United States.
In England, a sack of flour containing five bushels. and weighing 2801bs. avoirdupois, is made at an ave rage, into 80 quartern loaves. Hence 311b. of flour go to every loaf. For this quantity of flour, sibs. avoir dupois of common salt, and about three English pints of good yeast, are allowed. There is reason to believe also, that about an ounce of alum, previously dissolved in wa ter, is mixed with the yeast.* The dough being pro perly kneaded and fermented, is divided into masses, weighing each 41b. 15 ounces avoirdupois, the quanti ty of wet dough allowed for the well known quarter!' loaf, which when baked must by law weigh 41b. oun ces avoirdupois ; thus 11,-1- ounces are allowed for loss in baking. The quality of flour varying much, some will make more bread than others: this difference is found to amount to three loaves in a sack of flour.
In France Mr Tillet found, by experiments made in 1783, that a loaf of dough weighing 4.625 pounds, weighed only 3.813 pounds when baked ; or 0.812 pounds less than the paste. Consequently 100 parts of paste lose at an average 17.34 parts, or somewhat more than by baking. But this loss is by no means uniform, even in the same baking. This difference may proba bly depend upon the more or less perfect manipulation of the various loaves or masses of dough, upon their une qual fermentation; upon the forms of the loaves ; (for the greater the surface the more evaporation:) and lastly, upon the position of the loaves in the oven : to explain the influence of the last cause it may be necessary to men tion that the greatest quantity of steam from the bread condensed is towards the centre, and of course the loaves placed near it will be more moist, and weigh more than those loaves placed near the sides.
The proportion of bread obtained from a given quan tity of flour varies according to the quantity of gluten' contained in it. In proportion too, to the gluten will be the quantity of water which a certain measure of flour will take up. The bakers who know experimentally the profit derived from this circumstance, are in the constant practice of trying the • quality of flour by kneading a small quantity of it in their hand with water, and from the tenacity of it when drawn out judge of its quality. Experienced persons can often form an accu rate judgment of the excellence of flour, that is, whether it will rise well with yeast and make good bread, from its external appearance ; but these marks are not always infallible, as the writer has been informed by a re spectable baker.