82 Dr Colquhoun on the Art of baking Bread. 



alkaline carbonate, so as to render the dough loose and short, 

 or, as a baker would say, to bring it into a state of strong fer- 

 mentation. The dough prepared in this manner, should never 

 be kept longer than two or three hours before being put into 

 the oven, from which it will in due time be obtained, in the state 

 of a light, spongy, pleasant bread. 



" By the method now proposed, not only is the delay avoided 

 which is so inconvenient in the system at present practised, but 

 there is no unpleasant flavour discernible even when the bread is 

 not at all confected with sugar or spices, and there is no ingre- 

 dient in it at all injurious to the most delicate constitution. 

 The expence of making gingerbread in the manner above stated 

 is a trifle greater than that in which carbonate of potash is em- 

 ployed. The difference, however, is so extremely small, as 

 scarcely to make any sensible addition to the price of even the 

 most ordinary kinds of gingerbread.* 



" As a matter of curiosity, the mode now mentioned as having 

 been successfully employed in rapidly gasifying the dough of 

 gingerbread, was tried upon the dough of plain bread, to see 

 whether it might there have the effect of proving a complete 

 substitute for the common yeast-fermentation. The result was 

 in the highest degree favourable, and the biscuit which had been 

 the subject of the experiment was as light and pleasant as if it 

 had been prepared upon the fermentation-system. This experi- 

 ment was more, however, a matter of curiosity, as already 

 mentioned, than of much practical utility ; for although the 

 present process of the baker is slow and somewhat tedious, yet 

 it is also cheap, and simple, and sure ; and it is only in those 

 comparatively rare cases, when, either from want of yeast, or 

 from deficiency of time, it would be impossible to have recourse 

 to fermentation, that the use of the process here suggested 

 might be a matter of some advantage to the manufacturer. It 

 should not be omitted to mention, that the presence of the 

 neutral salt, the tartrate of magnesia, necessarily formed by that 

 union of the acid and alkali which furnishes the supply of car- 



* <f Tartaric acid.piay now be purchased at 4s. 6d., and carbonate of mag- 

 nesia at' Is. 4d. per pound : it is obvious, therefore, that the cost of the 

 quantity of these materials necessary to convert seven pounds of flour into 

 gingerbread, will amount to only about 5d." 



