Chap. 27.] THE METHOD OF MAKING BBEAD. 39 



and then boiled with the finest spelt flour, after which the whole 

 is mixed up with the meal ; and it is generally thought that 

 this is the best method of making bread. The Greeks have 

 established a rule that for a modius of meal eight ounces of 

 leaven is enough. 



These kinds of leaven, however, can only be made at the 

 time of vintage, but there is another leaven which may be pre- 

 pared with barley and water, at any time it may happen to be 

 required. It is first made up into cakes of two pounds in 

 weight, and these are then baked upon a hot hearth, or else in 

 an earthen dish upon hot ashes and charcoal, being left till 

 they turn of a reddish brown. When this is done, the cakes 

 are shut close in vessels, until they turn quite sour : when 

 wanted for leaven, they are steeped in water first. When 

 barley bread used to be made, it was leavened with the meal 

 of the fitch, 20 or else the chicheling vetch, 21 the proportion 

 being, two pounds of leaven to two modii and a half of barley 

 meal. At the present day, however, the leaven is prepared 

 from the meal that is used for making the bread. For this 

 purpose, some of the meal is kneaded before adding the salt, 

 and is then boiled to the consistency of porridge, and left till 

 it begins to turn sour. In most cases, however, they do not 

 warm it at all, but only make use of a little of the dough that 

 has been kept from the day before. It is very evident that the 

 principle which causes the dough to rise is of an acid nature, 

 and it is equally evident that those persons who are dieted 

 upon fermented bread are stronger 22 in body. Among the 

 ancients, too, it was generally thought that the heavier wheat 

 is, the more wholesome it is. 



CHAP. 27. THE METHOD OF MAKING BREAD : ORIGIN OF THE ART. 



/ It seems to me quite unnecessary to enter into an account 

 of the various kinds of bread that are made. Some kinds, we 

 find, receive their names from the dishes with which they are 

 eaten, the oyster-bread, 23 for instance: others, again, from 

 their peculiar delicacy, the artolaganus, 24 or cake-bread, for 

 xample ; and others from the expedition with which they are 



20 Ervum. 21 " Cicercula." See B. xxii. c. 72. 

 This remark is founded upon just notions. 



23 Ostrearius. 



21 From aprof, and Xayavoi/, bread and cake. 



