496 BREAD 



ono of thorn is the ' Hot- water Oven Biscuit-baking Company,' on whoso promises 

 fancy biscuits only are baked ; and another establishment is that of a baker of the 

 name of Neville, carrying on his business in London. With respect to M. Mouchot's 

 system, it is not even known in this country, otherwise than by having been alluded 

 to in one or two technological publications or dictionaries. 



The quantity of bread which can be made from a sack of flour depends to a great 

 extent upon the quantity of gluten that the flour of which it is made contains, but tho 

 wheat which contains a large proportion of nitrogenous matter does not yield so light 

 a flour as those which are poorer. From a great number of determinations it is found 

 that tho amount of gluten contained in tho flour to make best white bread ranges from 

 10 to 18 per cent., that of the starch being from 63 to 70 per cent., the ashes ranging 

 from 0-6 to 1-9 per cent. 



In tho ordinary plan of bread making, London bakers reckon that 1 sack of such a 

 flour, weighing 280 Ibs., will make 94 real 4-lb. loaves (not quartern) of pure genuine 

 bread, although a sack of such flour may yield him 94 or oven 96 quartern (not 4-lb.) 

 loaves. 1 



From this account it may be easily imagined that if the baker could succeed in dis- 

 posing at once of all the loaves of his day's baking either by sale at his shop, or, still 

 bettor, by delivery at his customers' residences, such a business would indeed bo a 

 profitable ono commercially speaking, for on that day he would sell from 28 to 34 Ibs. 

 of water at the price of bread, not to speak of the deficient weight. 



As to those bakers who, by undertaking, or by the use of alum, or by the use of both 

 alum and undertaking, manage to obtain 96, 98, 100, or a still larger number of 

 loaves from inferior flour, or material, their profit is so reduced by the much lower 

 price at which they are compelled to soil their sophisticated bread, that their tamper- 

 ings avail them but little ; their emphatically hard labour yields them but a mere 

 pittance, except their business be so extensive that the small profits swell up into a 

 large sum, in which case they only jeopardise their name as fare and honest tradesmen. 



Looking now at the improved ovens, of which we have been speaking merely in an 

 economical point of view, and abstractedly from all other considerations, the profits 

 realised by their use appears to be well worth the baker's attention. But as with the 

 improved ovens the economy bears upon tho wages and the fuel, the advantages are 

 much less considerable in a small concern than in a large one. Thus the economy which, 

 upon 12 sacks of flour per week, would scarcely exceed 20 shillings upon the whole, 

 would, on tho contrary, assume considerable proportions in establishments baking from 

 50 to 100 sacks per week. 



Tho richness or nutritive powers of sound flour, and also of bread, are proportional 

 to the quantity of gluten they contain. It is of great importance to determine this 

 point, for both of these objects are of enormous value and consumption ; and it may 

 be accomplished most easily and exactly by digesting in a water-bath, at the tempe- 

 rature of 167 F., 1,000 grains of bread (or flour) with 1,000 grains of bruised 

 barley malt, in 6,000 grains, or in a little more thon half a pint, of water. When this 

 mixture ceases to take a blue colour from iodine (that is, when all the starch is con- 

 verted into a soluble dextrine), the gluten left unchanged may be collected on a filter 

 cloth, washed, dried at a heat of 212 F., and weighed. The colour, texture, and taste 

 of tho gluten ought also to be examined, in forming a judgment of good flour or bread. 



Tho question of the relative value of white and brown bread, as nutritive agents, 

 is ono of very long standing, and the arguments on both sides may be thus resumed. 



The advocates of brown bread hold : 



That the separation of tho white from the brown parts of wheat grain, in making 

 bread, is likely to bo baneful to health ; 



That the general belief that bread made with the finest flour is the best, and that 

 whiteness is a proof of its quality, is a popular error ; 



That whiteness may be, and generally is, communicated to broad by alum, to the 

 injury of tho consumer ; 



That tho miller, in refining his flour, to please the public, removes some of the 

 ingredients necessary to tho composition and nourishment of tho various organs of our 

 bodies ; so that fine flour, instead of being bettor than tho meal, is, on the contrary, 

 less nourishing, and, to make tho case worse, is also more difficult of digestion, not to 

 speak of the enormous loss to tho population of at least 26 per cent, of branny flour, 



1 It Is absolutely necessary thus to establish a distinction between four pounds and quartern lo.aves, 

 because the latter very seldom indeed have that weight, and this deficiency is, in fact, one of the 

 profits calculated upon ; for although the Act of Parliament (Will. IV. c. xxxvii.) is very strict, and 

 directs (sect, vii.) that bakers delivering bread by cart or carriage shall be provided with scales, 

 weights, &c., for weighing bread, this requisition is seldom, if ever, complied with. 



There are of course a few bakers whose quartern loaves weigh exactly four pounds, but many 

 are from four to eix ounces short. 



