BREAD 



909 



BREAD 



WHITE BREAD 



Ash.l.l 



Ash, 



ties. It is simply 

 flour mixed with 

 water and baked 

 slowly, and it is so 

 hard that excellent 

 teeth are required 

 for chewing it. 



Every child who 

 has read The Swiss 

 Family Robinson 

 remembers the fas- 

 cinating account of 

 the making of 



bread from manioc roots. The roots 

 were grated, and the pulp was then 

 placed under heavy weights and 

 squeezed dry, for the wise head of the 

 family knew that the juice was poison- 

 ous. This was not a mere fairy tale. 

 There are many people in the West In- 

 dies and in Africa who use the roots of 

 various plants for making bread, and in 

 some cases these roots are poisonous 

 unless properly prepared. The West 

 Indians use cassava, which is manioc 

 under another name, and make their 

 little cakes by hand just as the Swiss Family Robinson did. 



Kinds of Bread. All these breads, no matter how different 

 they may look or taste, fall into two classes. They are either 

 leavened that is, fermented or "raised" with some sort of 

 yeast or baking powder or unleavened, baked without "ris- 

 ing." Undoubtedly the latter form, which is the simpler, was 

 the earlier, but the process of making leavened or fermented 

 bread must have been understood for thousands of years, for 

 the book of Exodus distinguishes between the two kinds. 

 The yeast plant used to-day was of course not known, but 

 leaven, consisting of a portion of dough which had been 

 allowed to ferment, answered the purpose. The Egyptians, 



doubtless by accident, seem to have discovered the possibility 

 of making bread light in this way, and the Jews as well as the 

 Greeks probably learned it from them. Yeast as "rising" has 

 not everywhere taken the place of leaven to this day. 



Of breads not raised with yeast or baking powder, the most 

 common are salt-rising bread, in which the ferment necessary 

 to lightness is brought about by a sour batter of corn meal 

 and milk; aerated bread, made with water which has been 

 charged with carbon dioxide; gluten bread, made from flour 

 which has been freed of much of its starch; the oaten cakes, 

 bannocks and corn pone mentioned above; and the various 

 kinds of crackers, or biscuits, as they are called in England. 

 These latter may contain many in- 

 gredients besides cereal and water may 

 have shortening, flavoring, fruits or meat 

 juices introduced to improve their taste 

 or food value. Pancakes made from spe- 

 cially prepared self-raising flours contain 

 the elements which, when moistened, 

 produce the necessary fermentation. 



Of leavened breads by far the most 

 familiar and important to the people of 

 America is the white wheat bread, made 

 with yeast. Other flours may be com- 

 bined with or substituted for the wheat, 

 but the principle 



WHOLE 



WHEAT 



BREAD 



TOASTED 



BREAD 



Ash, 1.7 



remains un- 

 changed. In some 

 forms of bread, 

 however, as in bis- 

 cuits, muffins, corn 

 bread and many of 

 the popular brown 

 breads, baking 

 powder or soda is 

 used as the leaven- 

 ing agent. Against 

 the chemical mix- 



CORN BREAD 



Ash. 2:2-* 



