FOOD. 



climate or latitude that of Southern Europe 

 yielding from two to six per cent, more gluten 

 than that grown in the north. It is for this 

 reason that Italian flour is so well fitted for the 

 manufacture of macaroni ; and that bakers often 

 prefer a mixture of wheats in the composition of 

 their loaves. The following are given as analyses 

 of different wheats and wheat-flours : 



Bread is the most important article of con- 

 sumption prepared from the flour of wheat, and 

 may be fermented or unfermented. 



1. Common fermented or loaf-bread consists of 

 wheat-flour, salt, water, and either yeast or leaven 

 (old dough already in a state of fermentation). 

 To these, bakers occasionally add potatoes and 

 alum the former to assist the process of fermen- 

 tation, and render the bread lighter ; the latter, 

 to augment its whiteness and firmness. As to 

 the addition of potatoes, there can be no objec- 

 tion beyond the substitution of an article contain- 

 ing an insufficiency of nitrogenous matter ; but 

 as to alum, it is highly objectionable, and its use 

 by bakers is accordingly prohibited by law. The 

 rationale of the fermenting process is this : ' The 

 yeast or leaven causes the flour to undergo the 

 vinous fermentation, by which carbonic acid and 

 alcohol are formed. The carbonic acid is pre- 

 vented from escaping by the tenacity of the dough, 

 which, becoming distended with gas, swells up, 

 and acquires a vesicular structure, forming a 

 kind of spongy mass. In this way, therefore, 

 are produced the vesicles or eyes, which give to 

 ordinary loaf-bread its well-known lightness and 

 elasticity. If the vinous fermentation be not 

 checked in due time by baking, the dough becomes 

 sour ; and for this purpose, the mass, after being 

 formed into loaves, is exposed in an oven to an 

 elevated temperature, which puts a stop to the 

 fermentation, expands the carbonic acid, expels 

 the alcohol formed, and drives off all the water 

 capable of being removed by the degree of heat 

 employed. On weighing bread taken from the 

 oven, it is found to be twenty-eight or thirty per 

 cent, heavier than the flour used in its prepara- 

 tion.' From pretty accurate experiments, it has 

 been found that the proportion of nitrogenous to 

 carbonaceous matters in loaf-bread is as I to 7 ; 

 in milk, the natural food of all young mammalia, 

 the proportion is as I to 3-8. 



2. Unfermented or unleavened bread is prepared 

 in two forms either heavy and compact, or light 

 and spongy. The former condition is that in 

 which all the varieties of biscuits appearthe 

 main ingredient in these being flour worked into 

 dough with hot or cold water. The other form 

 of unfermented bread is that in which, by the use 

 of effervescing compounds, it is rendered light and 

 spongy, and made to resemble ordinary loaf-bread. 

 Numerous receipts have been given, and several 

 patents taken out, for the manufacture of this 



species of bread, but all of them may be readily 

 comprehended from a description of the original 

 method. It is well understood, that if we take 

 hydrochloric acid and carbonate of soda, and 

 mingle them in due proportions, an effervescence 

 will take place, carbonic acid is disengaged, and 

 common salt (chloride of sodium) is formed. Now, 

 if we take the carbonate of soda and hydrochloric 

 acid, and knead them as rapidly as possible with 

 dough, an internal action will go on, the carbonic 

 acid gas will raise the mass, the salt formed will 

 season it, and, if properly baked, a light, sweet, 

 and nutritious bread will be the result. The same 

 result is attained by generating the carbonic acid 

 gas in a separate apparatus, and then passing it. 

 under pressure, into the dough, previously mixed 

 with the requisite amount of salt Such is the 

 rationale of all the unfermented breads now so 

 largely in vogue ; though, of course, various bakers 

 have adopted special modifications in the details 

 of the process. 



As to the merits of fermented and unfermented 

 bread, the latter has the advantage in point of 

 economy, there being no loss of nutritive principle 

 through the destructive process of fermentation. 

 The result of experiments upon the bread pro- 

 duced by the action of hydrochloric acid upon 

 carbonate of soda, has been that in a sack of flour 

 there was a difference in favour of the unfermented 

 bread of about seven loaves. 



Among unfermented preparations from wheat- 

 flour may be classed a large variety of cakes, 

 pastry, and pudding. The Italian preparations, 

 macaroni, "vermicelli, and Cagliari paste, consist 

 of the finest wheat-flour. The first two have their 

 well-known forms given to them by forcing the 

 tenacious paste through a number of holes in a 

 metallic plate; the last is pressed into the form 

 of stars, rings, Maltese crosses, and the like. 

 Semolina, manna-croup, &c. are granular prepara- 

 tions of the finest wheat deprived of bran. They 

 possess, of course, all the nutritious properties of 

 wheat, and are very agreeable, light, and well 

 fitted for children and invalids. The same 

 remark applies to the so-called farinaceous foods 

 of the druggist, which are either wheat, pea, or 

 lentil flour subjected to some heating process 

 which bursts the starch granules, or admixtures 

 of one or other of these with that of barley or oats. 



Barley (Hordeum), of which there are several 

 varieties cultivated in the British Islands, is one 

 of the cereals found all over the temperate regions 

 of the northern hemisphere some of the varieties 

 coming to profitable maturity even within the 

 limits of the polar circle. As a staple of human 

 food in northern countries, it is used in various 

 forms : thus, freed from their husks by milling, 

 the grains form pot-barley, used for making broth ; 

 still more thoroughly freed from husky matter, 

 and rounded and polished in the mill, they consti- 

 tute pearl-barley, used also in broth, and some- 

 times boiled in water and eaten as rice with milk ; 

 the common pot-barley, ground to flour, forms 

 the barley-meal of the Scotch ; and from pearl- 

 barley similarly treated is obtained the patent 

 barley of the shops. In any of these forms, barley 

 forms a wholesome and nutritious food. 



In ico parts of Norfolk barley, Sir Humphry 

 Davy found 79 starch, 6 gluten, 7 saccharine matter, 

 and 8 husk. Proust, Vauquelin, and others have 

 subjected this grain to analysis with very nearly 



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