Dr Colquhouii on the Art of baking Bread. 81 



appeared, therefore, to be a very desirable matter to procure 

 some substitute, which, while it formed an equally well-raised 

 bread, might save the delay of the baker, be less disagreeable to 

 the palate, and quite harmless to the constitution ; and, accord- 

 ingly, it was not without experiencing very considerable plea- 

 sure, that after having made various trials, a mode of com- 

 pounding and preparing the dough was actually found out, 

 which appears to unite all these advantages. The substitute 

 which proved the most perfectly successful was a mixture of 

 common carbonate of magnesia and tartaric acid ; and in mixing 

 up the dough, there will be found a practical expediency in 

 employing a considerably larger quantity of the alkaline carbo- 

 nate than is strictly necessary to neutralize the acid. But the 

 shortest and simplest mode of explaining how this process is 

 found to work, will be to quote an example of its use : the fol- 

 lowing statement is therefore submitted, of the mode of preparing 

 what will be found in practice to be a very good dough, parti- 

 cularly for that kind of thin gingerbread, well known under the 

 name of Parliament cakes. 



" Take a pound of flour, a quarter of an ounce of carbonate of 

 magnesia, and one-eighth of an ounce of tartaric acid ; let the 

 butter, treacle, and aromatic ingredients, be added in the same 

 manner as at present. The use of alum; will not be found of 

 any advantage, and will be better dispensed with ; as it is in 

 itself an unwholesome substance, and any good effects which it 

 can produce are in all probability completely supplied by the 

 tartaric acid. It is necessary that the alkali employed, the 

 magnesia, should be uniformly diffused throughout the whole 

 mass of the dough, an object which will be always best effected 

 by intermixing it, bruised to an impalpable powder, with the 

 flour, previously to the addition of any other ingredient. After 

 these have been well mingled, dissolve the tartaric acid in a 

 small quantity of water, and, having melted the butter, pour 

 it, the treacle, and the acid solution, into the mixture of flour 

 and magnesia. Let the whole be incorporated into a mass of 

 dough by kneading, and then set aside the dough, for a period 

 varying from half an hour to an hour. It is then fit for being 

 baked into bread. The delay of at least half an hour has the 

 practical benefit of giving full time for the acid to act upon the 



VOL. VI. NO. I. JAN. 1827. F 



