BREAD 



910 



BREAD 



tures known as baking powders there has been 

 much prejudice, but under the pure food laws 

 the possible harmful effects have been largely 

 done away with. The housewife should be 

 careful, however, to use only a standard make, 

 of whose purity she feels sure. 



How Yeast Bread Is Made. Many house- 

 keepers, especially in country districts, still 

 make their own bread, but in recent years the 

 bakeries have done a large proportion of the 

 work. In most cities the day has passed when 

 dirty, unsanitary underground bakeries are per- 

 mitted to exist, and many of the large bakery 

 companies have put . up great factories which 

 are marvels of cleanliness. The public is in- 

 vited to inspect the process of manufacture in 

 all its stages, so it may realize that the adver- 

 tising slogan, "Yours are the first hands that 

 touch our bread" is no empty boast. In 

 such sanitary bakeries all the work is done by 

 machinery, even to the wrapping of the loaves 

 in oiled paper. 



The process is much the same whether bread 

 is made in the home or in a great bakery, but 

 it is rather more interesting to watch in the 

 latter place. Most bakers use compressed yeast 

 cakes, which are dissolved in warm water and 

 mixed with enough flour to make a thin paste, 

 or sponge. This is left to ferment for two or 

 three hours in a temperature of from 70 to 75, 

 and is then ready to be made into dough. Salt, 

 milk, lard, a little sugar, and enough flour to 

 make a good stiff dough are then added, and 

 the whole is dumped into a mixer, where it is 

 thoroughly stirred and kneaded by iron arms, 

 that the ferment may reach every part of the 

 mass. The whole is then left to rise for several 

 hours, and as it gets light it is occasionally 

 beaten down and kneaded, that the large gas 

 bubbles which have formed may be broken into 

 little ones. 



When the practiced baker sees that the 

 dough is light enough it is separated by a 

 dividing machine into small pieces, rolled into 

 loaves and placed in pans, which are again 

 allowed to stand for a short time before being 

 put into the oven. During all these "rising" 

 stages care must be taken that the dough does 

 not get too warm, or sour bread will result. 



An ordinary bakers' oven is circular, and 

 will hold from 300 to 500 loaves at one time. 

 The pans are slid in and lifted out with long 

 wooden paddles, and all the men who attend 

 to it in this as in its other stages are scrupu- 

 lously clean and dressed in white. The temper- 

 ature of the oven is 400 to 450 F., but the 



interior of the loaf rises only two or three 

 degrees above the boiling point of water. 

 Steam is sometimes admitted to the oven. 

 This dextrinizes the starch of the crust, produc- 

 ing a glazed surface, which prevents evapora- 

 tion of moisture from the interior and so pro- 

 duces a moister loaf. On the average, nine 

 pounds of flour yield nine pounds of bread. 

 Flour made largely from the hard spring wheats 

 of the Northwest are what the bakers call 

 strong flours. These take up more water than 

 weak flours and give a higher yield of bread. 

 On the average white bread contains thirty- 

 five per cent of water. 



Test of Purity. Bakers are sometimes 

 tempted to make their bread heavy by putting 

 into it a great deal of salt, which cannot be 

 detected by taste. The salt makes the bread 

 weigh heavy because of the moisture it retains. 



TEST FOR ALUM 



To determine the presence of alum In bread, 

 take a sample of the suspected article, place it 

 in a saucer and pour over it a solution of car- 

 bonate of ammonia. If alum is present the 

 bread will turn black, but no change will occur 

 if the bread is pure. 



To test the relative food value, dry pieces of 

 both a heavy and a light loaf in a slow oven. 

 The heavier of the two will throw off more 

 moisture and be lighter after heating, therefore 

 less nutritious than the other. 



Small quantities of alum, which are very 

 harmful to the system, are sometimes added 

 to bread to make it white and cover up the 

 use of a dark, cheap flour. Its presence may be 

 detected by pouring a solution of carbonate of 

 ammonia over the bread; if it contains alum 

 it will turn black, if it does not, there will be 

 no change of color. 



Food Value. Well-made bread is wholesome 

 and nourishing, but does not contain all of the 

 food elements in sufficient quantities to make 

 by itself a perfect food. Its deficiency in fats 

 is commonly made up by eating it with butter. 

 Bread that is soggy and heavy is liable to be 

 harmful, the digestibility increasing with its 

 lightness and with thorough baking. There has 

 been much controversy as to whether white- 

 wheat bread or one of the darker breads which 



