BREAD. 



BREAD. 



mentioned by Harrison, in his Description of 

 England (p. 168), that in the reign of Henry 

 VIII. the gentry had wheat sufficient for their 

 own tables, but that their households and poor 

 neighbours were usually obliged to content 

 themselves with rye, barley, and oats. It ap- 

 pears from the household-book of Sir Edward 

 Coke, that in 1596 rye bread and oatmeal 

 formed a considerable part of the diet of ser- 

 vants, even in great families, in the southern 

 counties. In 1626 barley bread was the u ual 

 ordinary food of the great bulk of the people. 

 At the Revolution, the wheat produced in Eng- 

 land and Wales was estimated by Mr. King 

 and Dr. Davenant to amount to 1,750,000 quar- 

 ters. (DavenanCs Works, vol. ii. p. 217.) Mr. 

 Charles Smith, the very well informed author 

 of the Tracts on the Corn Trade, originally pub- 

 lished in 1758, states that in his time wheat 

 had become much more generally the food of 

 the common people than it had been in 1689 ; 

 but he adds (2d edit. p. 182. Lond. 1766), that, 

 notwithstanding this increase, some very intel- 

 ligent inquirers were of opinion that even then 

 not more than half the people of England fed 

 on wheat. Mr. Smith's own estimate, which 

 is very carefully drawn up, is a little higher ; 

 for, taking the population of England and 

 Wales, in 1760, at 6,000,000, he supposes that 

 3,750,000 were consumers of wheat, 739,000 

 of barley, 888,000 of rye, and 623,000 of oat 

 bread. He further supposed that they indivi- 

 dually consumed the first class, 1 qr. of wheat ; 

 the second, 1 qr. and 3 bushels of barley; the 

 third, 1 qr. and 1 bushel of rye ; and the fourth, 

 2 qrs. and 7 bushels of oats. About the mid- 

 dle of last century, hardly any wheat was used 

 in the northern counties of England. In Cum- 

 berland the principal families used only a 

 small quantity about Christmas. The crust of 

 the goose-pie, with which almost every table 

 in the county is then supplied, was, at the 

 period referred to, almost uniformly made of 

 barley meal. (Eden, On the Poor, vol. i. p. 564.) 

 Every one knows how inapplicable these 

 statements are to the condition of the people 

 of England at the present time. Wheaten 

 bread is now almost universally made use of 

 in towns and villages, and almost everywhere 

 in the country. Barley is no longer used ; oats 

 are employed for bread only in the northern 

 parts of the island ; and the consumption of 

 rye bread is comparatively inconsiderable. 

 The produce of the wheat crops has been, at 

 the very least, trebled since 1760. And if to 

 this immense increase in the supply of wheat 

 we add the still more extraordinary increase 

 in the supply of butcher's meat (see CATTLE), 

 the fact of a very signal improvement in the 

 condition of the population, in respect of food, 

 will be obvious. "When flour is converted 

 into bread, it is found, on weighing it when 

 taken from the oven, that it has increased from 

 28 to 34 per cent, in weight (3 Ibs. of flour 

 make 3 Ibs. 10 oz. of dough) ; but when it has 

 been kept thirty-six hours, that which had 

 gained 28 will lose about 4 per cent. There 

 are, however, several circumstances which 

 influence the quantity of bread obtained from 

 a given weight of flour, such as the season in 

 which the wheat was grown and the age of the 

 220 



flour: the better the flour is, and the older, 

 within certain limits, the larger is the quantity 

 of the bread produced. 



According to the assize acts, a sack of flour 

 weighing 280 Ibs. is supposed capable of being 

 baked into 80 quartern loaves ; one-fifth of the 

 loaf being supposed to consist of water and 

 salt, and four-fifths of flour. But the number 

 of loaves that may be made from a sack of 

 flour depends entirely on its goodness. Good 

 flour requires more water than bad flour. 

 Sometimes 82, 83, and even 86 loaves have 

 been made from a sack of flour, and sometimes 

 hardly 80 : 96 are generally made, at 4 Ibs* 

 6 oz. before going into the oven, by the London 

 bakers. 



It is well known that home-made bread and 

 baker's bread are very different ; the former is 

 usually sweeter, lighter, and more retentive of 

 moisture, and will keep well for three weeks, 

 especially if a little rye meal is mixed with it; 

 the latter, if eaten soon after it has cooled, is 

 pleasant and spongy; but if kept more than 

 two or three days, it becomes harsh and unpa- 

 latable, and mouldy. Small quantities of 

 alum are invariably used by the London, 

 bakers, with the view of whitening or bleach- 

 ing the bread; for it will be observed, that 

 whatever may be the quality of the flour which 

 is used, home-made bread is always of a com- 

 paratively dingy hue. By some respectable 

 bakers it was formerly in extensive use, and 

 might still be used, with perfect safety ; for in 

 so small a quantity as a quarter of a pound of 

 alum to 1 cwt. of flour, it could not be in the 

 least degree injurious. According to Mr. Ac- 

 cum (Onthe Jldulteration of Food), the requisite 

 quantity of alum for this purpose depends 

 upon the quality of the flour. The mealman, 

 he says, makes different sorts of flour from the 

 same kind of grain. The best flour is chiefly 

 used for biscuits and pastry, and the inferior 

 kinds for bread. In London, no fewer than 

 five kinds of wheaten flour are brought into 

 the market ; they are called fine flour, seconds^ 

 middlings, coarse middlings, and twenty* 

 penny. 



Beans and peas are also, according to the 

 same authority, frequently ground up with 

 London flour. The smallest quantity of alum 

 used is from three to four ounces to the sack 

 of flour of 240 Ibs. Alum may easily be de- 

 tected in bread, by pouring boiling water on it, 

 pressing out the water, boiling it away to one* 

 third, allowing it to cool, filtering it through 

 paper, and adding to the clear liquor some 

 solution of muriate of lime (chloride of calcium). 

 If considerable muddiness now appear, it is 

 proof of adulteration, and none other can well 

 be suspected than alum. Another article oc- 

 casionally employed in bread and ginger-bread 

 making is carbonate of ammonia. As it is 

 wholly dissipated by the heat of the oven, none 

 remains in the baked loaf. It renders the 

 bread light, and perhaps neutralizes any acid 

 that may have been formed (exclusive of car- 

 bonic acid) ; but it is too dear to be much 

 employed. To some kinds of biscuits it givet 

 a peculiar shortness, and a few of the most 

 celebrated manufacturers use it largely. Ao- 

 cording to Mr. E. Davy, bread, especially that 



