438 



B 11 E A D. 



Bread. o f all, and is made of coarse groats mixed with a 

 ~ *** ' portion of white flour. The pain his blanc is a kind 

 of bread between white and brown, made of white 

 flour and fine groats. The pain blanc, or white 

 bread, is made of white flour, shaken through a 

 sieve after the finest flour has been separated. The 

 pain mollet, or soft bread, is made of the purest 

 flour without any admixture. The pain clialaiul, or 

 customers bread, is a very white kind of bread, made 

 of pounded paste. Pain chapelt; is a small kind of 

 bread, with a well beaten and very light paste, sea- 

 soned with butter or milk. This name is also given 

 to a small bread, from which the thickest crust has 

 been removed by a knife. Pain de ch'apitrc, is a su- 

 perior kind of pain chapelt. Pain cornu, is a name 

 given by the French bakers to a kind of bread made 

 with four corners, and sometimes more. Of all the 

 kinds of small bread, this has the strongest and firm- 

 est paste. Pain a la reine, queen's bread, pain a la 

 Sigovie, pain chapelt, and pain cornu, are all small 

 kinds of bread, differing only in the lightness or 

 thickness of the paste. The pain de Gonesse is said 

 to excelall others, on account of the quality of the wa- 

 ter of Gonesse, about three leagues from Paris. In 

 addition to these different kinds of bread, we may 

 mention the paind'epice, or spice bread, made of bar- 

 ley meal, seasoned with spices, and kneaded with the 

 scum of sugar, and generally with yellow honey. 

 This spice bread appears to have been known to the 

 ancients, particularly the Asiatics. The Rhodians, 

 we are told, had a kind of bread sweetened with ho- 

 ney, so exquisitely pleasant, that it was eaten with 

 other delicacies, after dinner, by way of desert. 



In this country we have fewer varieties of bread, 

 and these differ chiefly in their degrees of purity. 

 Our while or fine bread is made of the purest flour ; 

 our rvheaten bread, of flour with a mixture of the fi- 

 nest bran ; and our household bread, of the whole 

 substance of the grain without the separation either 

 of the fine flour or coarse bran. We have also symnel 

 bread, manchet or roll bread, ami French bread, which 

 are all made of the purest flour from the finest wheat ; 

 the roll bread being improved by the addition of milk, 

 and the French bread by the addition of eggs and 

 butter. To these may be added gingerbread, made 

 of white bread, with almonds, liquorice, aniseed, rose 

 water, and sugar or treacle ; and mastisi bread, made 

 of wheat and rye, or sometimes of wheat and barley. 

 We have various kinds of small bread, having various 

 names, according to their various forms. They are, in 

 general, extremely light, and are sweetened with su- 

 gar, currants, and other palatable ingredients. In 

 Scotland we have a bread called short bread, which is 

 a pretty thick paste, made with flour and butter, and 

 generally sweetened with sugar, and seasoned with 

 orange peal and various kinds of spices. 



The process of making bread is nearly the same in 

 all the countries of modern Europe ; though the ma- 

 terials of which it is composed vary with the farina- 

 ceous productions of different climates and soils. The 

 flower of wheat is most generally employed for this 

 purpose, wherever that vegetable can be reared. This 

 Bower is composed of a small portion of mucilaginous 

 saccharine matter, soluble in cold water, from which 

 it may be separated by evaporation ; of a great quan- 



tity of starch, which is scarcely soluble in cold water, Brea< 

 hut capable of combining with that fluid by means of 

 heat; and an adhesive grey substance called gluten, in- 

 soluble in water, ardent spirit, oil, or ether, and resem- 

 bling an animal substance in many of its properties. 

 Flour, kneaded with water, forms a tough indigesti- 

 ble paste, containing all the constituent parts which 

 we have enumerated. Heat produces a considerable 

 change on the glutinous part of this compound, and 

 renders it more easy of mastication and digestion. 

 Still, however, it continues heavy and tough, compa- 

 red with bread which is raised by leaven or yeast. 

 Leaven is nothing more than a piece of dough, kept 

 in a warm place till it undergoes a process of fermen- 

 tation ; swelling, becoming spongy, and full of air 

 bubbles, and at length disengaging an acidulous and 

 spirituous vapour, and contracting a sour taste. When 

 this leaven is mingled in proper proportions with 

 other dough, it makes it rise more readily and effec- 

 tually than it would do alone, and gives it at the same 

 time a greater degree of firmness. Upon the quality 

 of the leaven employed, the quality of the bread ma- 

 terially depends. To obtain it in its proper state, it 

 ought to be remembered, that good leaven is dough 

 which has fermented and become sour, but is yet in 

 its progress towards greater acidity. If it be permit- 

 ted to acquire all the sourness of which it is sus- 

 ceptible, it begins to putrify, and has a very differ- 

 ent effect upon the dough from that which is pro- 

 duced by leaven in the proper state of fermentation. 

 If dough or paste be left to undergo a spontaneous 

 decomposition in an open vessel, the component parts 

 are affected in different ways ; the saccharine part is 

 converted into an ardent spirit, the mucilage tends to 

 acidity and moulding, and the gluten verges towards 

 putridity. This incipient fermentation makes it 

 more light and digestible, and by disengaging the 

 confined air, renders it more porous, and considerably 

 enlarges its bulk. Baking puts a stop to this pro- 

 cess, by evaporating a great part of the moisture, 

 which favours the chemical attraction, and perhaps 

 by changing still farther the nature of the component 

 parts. In this state, however, bread will not possess 

 the requisite uniformity ; for some parts may be 

 mouldy, while others remain in the state of dough. 

 To promote uniform fermentation, is the great use of 

 leaven. A small portion of it is intimately blended 

 with a quantity of other dough; and this, by its 

 union with the mats, and the aid of a gentle heat, ac- 

 celerates the fermentation, which it promotes through 

 the whole mass at once ; and as soon as the dough 

 has acquired a due increase of bulk from the carbo- 

 nic acid gas, which endeavours to escape, it isjudged 

 to be sufficiently fermented, and fit for the oven ; the 

 heat of which, by driving off the water, checks the 

 fermentation. By the fermentation of the dough, 

 mixed with leaven, a quantity of carbonic acid gas is 

 extracted from the flour- but remains confined by the 

 tenacity of the n.ass, in which it is expanded by the 

 heat, and thus raises the dough. This is also the 

 cause of the porosity or sponginess of baked bread. 



From the scripture history, we learn that the prac- 

 tice of making leavened bread was common from a 

 very remote antiquity ; so common, indeed, that 

 among the Jews at least, unleavened bread seems ne- 



