192 UNFERMENTED BEEAD. 



formed from the starch (462), the real effect of the 

 fermentation may be said to be principally the loss of 

 about five per cent, of starch. The weight of the 

 baked bread is always much greater than that of the 

 flour from which it is made, owing to the large 

 quantity of water which is incorporated with it. 

 Two parts of flour make about three parts of bread. 



470. The best of the various chemical modes of 

 making bread, is that in which dry carbonate of soda 

 and muriatic acid are employed. A small, but 

 definite quantity of dry carbonate of soda is thor- 

 oughly mixed with the flour ; enough pure muriatic 

 acid to neutralize it perfectly is dissolved in the 

 proper quantity of water, and the flour then added ; 

 whilst the water and flour are being mixed, the acid 

 acts on the carbonate of soda, decomposes it, expels 

 its carbonic acid, and forms chloride of sodium, or 

 common salt, with its base. 



471. Hence, in this process the same eff'ect in the 

 end is produced as in the ordinary mode of bread- 

 making, but with this difference, that it has not un- 

 dergone any sort of fermentation, and that nothing 

 has been lost. A light and spongy dough is produced, 

 containing abundance of bubbles of carbonic acid ; 

 and the only residue of the process, the common salt 

 formed, so far from being objectionable, is, in fact, 

 necessary to the formation of good bread. 



472. Another point in favor of this process is, 

 that it takes much less time than the old methods do, 

 because there is no need to leave the dough to rise by 



