BRAN. 



BREAD. 



that the stem for several inches is completely 

 deprived of its pith, and consequently withers 

 and dies before the end of the summer. In 

 Europe, one of these slender saperdas attack 

 the hazle-nut bush, and another the pear tree 

 in a similar manner. 



The dewberry and blackberry are very plea- 

 sant fruits and make fine jelly. All the species 

 are readily propagated both by seed and layers, 

 and are wonderfully improved by culture. 



There is a double white flowering bramble 

 (Rubus albo-pleno') which is a beautiful and or- 

 namental variety. 



BRAN (Old Fr. bren; Ital. brenna). The 

 thin skin or husks of corn, particularly wheat, 

 ground and separated from the meal by a sieve 

 or boulter. It is generally laxative ; owing to 

 the mechanical irritation it excites. An infu- 

 sion of it, under the name of bran tea, is fre- 

 quently used as a domestic remedy for coughs 

 and hoarseness. Infusions of bran also re- 

 move scurf and dandriff. Calico-printers em- 

 ploy bran and warm water with great success, 

 to remove colouring matter from those parts 

 of their goods that are not mordanted. Bran 

 is a useful ingredient, when well scalded, and 

 employed occasionally in moderate quantities, 

 in mashes for horses ; but the constant use of 

 it, whether raw or scalded, is prejudicial, as it 

 is apt to weaken the horse's bowels, and there- 

 by expose him to many disorders. It is also 

 highly useful in stall-feeding cattle, and for 

 sheep, when given as a dry food. According 

 to the analysis of M. Saussure, 100 parts of 

 the ashes of the bran of wheat contain (Chem. 

 Rec. Veg.}, 



Parts. 

 - 44 15 

 - - - 46-5 



Soluble salts 

 Earthy phosphates 

 Silica - 



Metallic oxides - 

 Loss - - - 



0-5 

 0-25 



BRAND-GOOSE, or BRENT-GOOSE. A 

 kind of wildfowl, less than a common goose, 

 having its breast and wings of a dark colour. 

 See GOOSE. 



BRANK. A provincial name sometimes 

 applied to buckwheat, which see. 



BRAWN. The flesh of the boar, after being 

 boned, rolled up, or collared, boiled, and pick- 

 led. Brawn is made of the flitches, and some 

 other parts, the oldest boars being chosen for 

 the purpose, it being a rule that the older the 

 boar the more horny the brawn. 



The method of making it is generally as 

 follows: The bones being taken out of the 

 flitches, or other parts, the flesh is sprinkled 

 with salt, and laid in a tray, that the blood may 

 drain off; after which it is salted a little, and 

 rolled up as hard as possible. The length of 

 the collar of brawn should be as much as one 

 side of the boar will bear ; so that, when rolled 

 up, it may be nine or ten inches in diameter. 

 After being thus rolled up, it is boiled in a 

 copper or large kettle, till it is so tender that 

 you may almost run a stiff straw through it; 

 when it is set by till thoroughly cold, and then 

 put into a pickle composed of water, salt, and 

 wheat-bran, in the proportion of two handfuls 

 of each of the latter to every gallon of water ; 

 which, after being well boiled together, is 

 strained off as clear as possible from the bran, 

 213 



and when quite cold, the brawn put into it. 

 ( Willich's Dom. Enryd.) 



BREACHY, or BREECHY WOOL, is the 

 short coarse wool of a sheep, such as that 

 which comes from the breech of the animal. 



BREAD (Sax. bjieo*; Ger. brod). This 

 forms an important and principal article in the 

 food of most civilized nations, and consists of 

 a paste or dough formed of the flour or meal 

 of different sorts of grain, mixed with water, 

 with or without yeast or ferment, and baked. 



Bread may be divided, in the first instance, 

 into leavened and unleavened bread. When stale 

 dough or yeast is added to the fresh dough of 

 flour and water to make it swell, it is said to 

 be leavened; when nothing of this sort is 

 added, the bread is said to be unleavened. 

 These may again be subdivided into various 

 kinds and qualities. The principal sorts in use 

 are white, wheaten, household, and brown bread, 

 which differ from each other in their degrees of 

 purity. In the first, all the bran is separated 

 from tjje flour; in the second, only the coarser 

 parts of it ; and in the third scarcely any at all ; 

 so that fine bread is made only of flour ; wheaten 

 bread of flour, with a mixture of fine bran ; and 

 household bread of the whole substance of the 

 grain, without taking out scarcely any either of 

 the coarse bran or the fine flour. We have also 

 manchet or roll-bread, and French bread, 

 which are fine white breads made of the purest 

 flour ; in roll-bread there is sometimes an ad- 

 dition of milk, and in French bread butter is 

 used. There is likewise ginger-bread, maslii!- 

 bread, made of wheat and rye, or sometimes 

 of wheat and barley; and other breads made 

 with various substitutes for flour, as oat-bread, 

 rye-bread, pea and bean-bread, &c. 



The President de Goguet has endeavoured 

 (Origin of Laws, fyc., vol. i. pp. 95 105, Eng. 

 trans.) to trace the successive steps by which 

 it is probable men were led to discover the 

 art of making bread; but nothing positive is 

 known on the subject. It is certain, however, 

 from the statements in the sacred writings, 

 that the use of unleavened bread was common 

 in the days of Abraham (Gen. xviii. 8); and 

 that leavened bread was used in the time of 

 Moses (Exod. xii. 15). The method of grind- 

 ing corn by hand-mills was practised in Egypt 

 and Greece from a very remote epoch ; but 

 for a lengthened period, the Romans had no 

 other method of making flour than by beating 

 roasted corn in mortars. The conquests of 

 the Romans diffused, amongst many other use- 

 ful discoveries, a knowledge of the art of pre- 

 paring bread, as followed in Rome, through the 

 whole south of Europe. 



The use of yeast in the raising of bread 

 seems, however, from a passage of Pliny (lib. 

 xviii. c. 7), to have been taken advantage o 

 by the Germans and Gauls before it was prac- 

 tised by the Romans ; the latter, like the Greeks, 

 having leavened their bread by intermixing 

 the fresh dough with that which had become 

 stale. The Roman custom seems to have su- 

 perseded that which was previously in use in. 

 France and Spain; for the art of raising bread 

 by an admixture of yeast was not practised in 

 France in modern times till towards the endi 

 of the seventeenth century. 



