I860.] on Bread-Making and Baking. 25A 



flour made from sprouted grain. The habitual use of alum in bread 

 is undoubtedly injurious, especially to the young. 



Bread is vesiculated without being fermented by two processes : — 



1. By the addition of substances, which, during their decomposition 

 give out carbonic acid, as carbonate of soda and hydrochloric acid. 



2. By making the bread with water charged with carbonic acid. The 

 first is the process recommended by the late Dr. Whiting, and sold in 

 London under the name of Dodson's Unfermented Bread. The 

 second process consists in mixing intimately water containing carbonic 

 acid with flour, so that when the dough is baked the escape of the 

 carbonic acid gas vesiculates the bread. This process is worked in 

 London under Dr. Dauglish's patent,* and extensive machinery for 

 making this bread has been erected by Messrs. Peek, Frean, & Co., at 

 Dockhead. This is the " Aerated Bread." The process of making 

 fermented bread is tedious ; the time employed for making the bread 

 varying from three to twelve hours. By the aerating process, the 

 whole time taken from mixing the flour and carbonated water to 

 putting the loaves into the oven is only twenty-six minutes. The 

 necessity of handling the dough in kneading is also avoided by the use 

 of machinery. Other advantages of this process are the saving of the 

 starch destroyed in fermenting bread, and the absence of yeast and 

 other substances, as potatoes, employed for facilitating the process of 

 fermentation. 



The Baking of the bread is the same in all processes. At the same 

 time the healthy digestion of bread depends much on the way in which 

 this process is conducted. The regularity of the temperature and the , 

 condition of the atmosphere in the oven exert a considerable influence 

 on the wholesome character of the bread. An oven has been recently 

 constructed by Mr. Bonthron, of Regent-street, by which steam can be 

 turned into the atmosphere of the oven. The action of the steam pre- 

 vents the charring of the crust of the bread, allows of the interior 

 expansion of the bread by preventing the hardening of the crust, and 

 produces a natural varnish on the outside by reducing the sugar and 

 gum on the outside to a liquid state. 



With regard to the action of the two breads on the system, there 

 can be no doubt that either, when properly prepared and baked, is 

 adapted for general use. The question of flavour or appearance every 

 one will decide for himself. In certain morbid conditions of the 

 stomach fermented bread undergoes rapid changes, which are produc- 

 tive of inconvenience, and which is prevented by the use of unfermented 

 bread. 



[E. L.] 



* Since the delivery of the lecture, my attention has been called to the fact that 

 a patent was obtained by Mr. Luke Hebert in 1833, for making bread with car- 

 bonic acid gas.— E. L. 



