Sec. 23.] 



THE BREAD QUESTION. 



379 



even ia coiiBiderablo quantities, and by no means unpleasant to take in 

 warm days in the form of an eflervescing drauglit. If cream of tartar is 

 used, tlio product is tartrate of soda and potassa, or Roclielle salts, which, 

 in ounce doses, is known to be one ul' our mildest saline purj^atives. 



"A hearty eater will take only a few grains of any of these salts at a 

 meal, and these readily ])ass oft' through the excretions of the bodv, or enter 

 upon their physiological offices in the gastric Huids — the bile or blcK>d. 



'•These bicarbonatcs, used without an acid, render bread unpalatable; and 

 this of itself would prevent persons from using them to a liurtful extent. 



" Instead of being a cui-se to the world, the introduction of tiie bicarbon- 

 ate of soda has been a great blessing in banishing lard, in a great measure, 

 from our biscuit. That the large cpiantity of grease necessary to make good 

 short biscuit of superfine flour renders bread in a high degree indigestible, 

 will be universally admitted. Make biscuit according to the following 

 formula, and you have an article altogether superior in point of digestibility 

 and flavor to those in which lard is used as the only short^Miing. 



" liule 1. Flour, two pounds ; fine Indian meal, a teacupful ; bicarbonate 

 of soda, a heaping teaspoont'ul. Thoroughly mix these (/ry, and make up 

 with new buttermilk, or if the milk is very sour, add water sufliciently to 

 make it aljout like new buttermilk. The soda must be neutralized, and, in 

 using milk, judgment on this point must be exercised. 



" Jiule 2. Flour and meal as above ; rub together dry a teaspoonfnl of 

 soda and two thirds as much tartaric acid. Mix this dry with the meal and 

 flour, and make up with water. 



" liulc 3. Same as Ko. 2, except use a tcasooonful of cream of tartar in- 

 stead of the tartaric acid. 



"A very small quantity of lard or butter may be used with advantage to 

 the taste, but it is not essential. These ingredients added to corn bread 

 make a wonderful improvement on the old-fashioned lioe-cake. That this 

 biread is healthier than yeast bread tiiero is no doubt. 



'■'A healthy stomach, especially in winter, when the system is in a vigor- 

 ous condition, may take yeast in considerable (piantity and digest the meal 

 before the process of fernn^ntation has time to take place. But not 6o with 

 weak stomachs, or healthy ones in the heat of summer, because yeast is the 

 deposit formed in fermenting liquids, and has the jiroperty, when addeil to 

 solutions of starch or sugar, even in exceedingly small quantities, of excit- 

 ing the vinous fermentation in the whole mass, and may, and often does, do 

 it, in the stomach as well as in bread." 



But the sweetest, most nutritious, most wholesome bakers' bread, wo 

 bolievc, that over was made, is that lirst brought into general use in Xew 

 York in 1S( 1, by the establishment of a large manufactory lor its prothic- 

 tion, wl'.icb. used over forty barrels o day, when working in full force. This 

 bread is called '• unfermented," yet it is aa light as any good home-mado 

 bread, which it veiy much reseml>les. 



Iho following is the process by which it is made light without yeast : 



