152 MAKING BREAD. 



ferment and rise. This is called setting the sponge. 

 After letting it lie the proper time, an hour and 

 a half, more or less, knead it well together, and 

 let it lie some time longer covered up. The oven 

 must in the mean time be heated : when this is 

 done, and it is properly cleaned, make the bread 

 into loaves, and place them in the oven to bake. 



Household hread^ or brown bread, is baked in the 

 same manner, only of flour that is made from the 

 whole of the wheat, the bran as well as the flour 

 being ground together ; whereas in the white 

 bread, the coarser part of tlie bran is separated 

 from the flour. In what is called French bread, 

 the fermentation is carried on longer than in com- 

 mon bread, by which it becomes more porous, and 

 consequently lighter. Some bakers make a supe- 

 rior kind of French bread, by putting together a 

 peck and a half of the finest wheaten flour, called 

 Hertfordshire white, a pint of milk, a quarter of a 

 pound of salt, a pint and half of yeast, a quarter of 

 a pound of butter, two eggs, and three quarts of 

 water ; it is baked nearly in the same manner, 

 only frequently turning the bread in the oven. 



The process used by the bakers for making 

 bread varies from what has been described, only 

 in circumstances depending on the great quan- 

 tity that is baked at a time. It is said that they 

 are apt to adulterate the bread sometimes with 

 alum, and also with chalk, and for this they are 

 severely punishable ; and any one suspecting it 

 may easily detect it by cutting a loaf in slices, and 

 mixing it with water which will dissolve the alum : 

 and it may then be obtained by evaporation. 



Bread is made from the farinaceous grains ; but 

 of these, barley, oats, and rye, are most generally 

 used in Great Britain next to wheat. Wheat alone 



