UNFERMENTED BREAD. 191 



ferment and emits a sour smell ; at the end of a week, 

 however, it loses this sour smell and acquires a 

 vinous one, and is then able to act powerfully on 

 sugar as a ferment. 



467. If a small quantity of dough in this state is 

 diffused in some warm water, and added to a strong 

 decoction of malt and hops, such as brewers make, 

 or even of malt alone, it soon brings the whole into 

 active fermentation, and in a few hours a quantity of 

 good fresh yeast will be deposited. When the alco- 

 holic fermentation is complete, the clear liquor may 

 be poured off, and the yeast is fit for bread-baking. 



468. The object to be attained by the use of fer- 

 ment or leaven in the manufacture of bread being a 

 purely mechanical one, and as the process of ferment- 

 ation is always uncertain and troublesome, a great 

 number of attempts at different times have been made, 

 to make bread without its undergoing any ferment- 

 ation whatever, though hitherto with but partial suc- 

 cess. With care and attention, however, excellent 

 unfermented bread may be made. 



469. It is sometimes stated by those who recom- 

 mend the use of unfermented bread, that, in the ordi- 

 nary mode of bread-making, a large portion of the 

 most valuable part of the flour is destroyed by fer- 

 mentation ; this is not really the case. Very little, 

 indeed, of the azotized matter of the flour is lost dur- 

 ing the fermentation of the dough; the chief effect 

 produced is the loss of a portion of sugar, but, as a 

 nearly equal quantity of sugar is at the same time 



