3S2 DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [Chap. IV. 



separated from the flour, and tlius adapts it as an aliment for tlie inaintcn- 

 ance of a liealthy state of tlie organization." 



Other chemists and pliysicians of acknowledged high character and stand- 

 ing liave given similar opinions. 



If raising bread by yeast is properly conducted, it is quite unobjection- 

 able ; but if, as is often the case, fermentation is allowed to proceed too long, 

 acetic and lactic acids are formed, and some of the complex nitrogenous 

 substances arise from the decomposition of the plastic bodies of the flour, 

 and arc incorporated in the lircad. 



Yeast bread is never good unless the fermentation is arrested by baking 

 at just tlie right time. Ordinaril}-, this right time is a period of sliort dura- 

 tion, and probably not one loaf in one liundred is raised and baked when it 

 should be. The circumstances wliich modify the time in which the fermenta- 

 tion may take place are so various, that it may occur in thirty minutes or 

 twelve hours. The sponge requires constant watching, and this, in the mul- 

 titudinous duties of tlie kitchen, it is not always possible to secure. Then 

 salcratus or soda, to sweeten tlie sour sponge, is the resort of the cook ; and 

 the result is an unpalatable and unwholesome loaf, unworthy the name of 

 bread, and is really unwholesome food. 



A correspondent of the Country Gentleman recommends the following 

 formula for unfermented bread: 



"Take of flour 3 lbs., bicarbonate of soda 9 drachms, hydrochloric acid, 

 specific gravity 1.16, 11 drachms. About 25 oz. of water will be required 

 to form the dough. First mi.x the soda and flour as thoroughly as possible ; 

 Avhich is best done by shaking the soda in fine powder from a sieve over the 

 flour with one liand, while the flour is stirred with the other, and then 

 passing the mixture once or more through the sieve. Kext pour the acid 

 into the water and diffuse it by stirring them ■well together, avoiding the use 

 of any metallic utensil that the soda might come in contact with. Then 

 mix the dough and water so prepared as speedily as possible. The dough 

 should be speedily put into a quick oven. This manner of making bread is 

 a great improvement, and will prove advantageous, compared with the fer- 

 menting method, and the quality also will be found vastly superior to the 

 antique ' leavened bread,' particularly for dyspeptics, as it has this advant- 

 age, that it never sours on the stomach. By this method bread can be made 

 in two hours, and it saves both time and labor. The ingredients are simple, 

 and cost little. Fermentation always destroys more or less of the flour, be- 

 sides otherwise injuring it for the purposes of assimilation. 



" A large proportion of the bread used in some families is scarcely more 

 than an active form of yeast, which produces in the stomach a new fer- 

 mentation and a host of disorders. And then we witness, of course, the 

 blue vapors, which under different aspects are as ruinous to the welfare and 

 peace of a family as are those of a distillery. If the proportions of acid and 

 baking soda directed to be used are thought to be too great, they may be 

 varied at discretion. 



