B H E A D. 



439 



V.T to have ' except iu , ilemn 



festivals, or when cin ,. it impossi- 



ble to have brea : il way. It seems 



jinitictil.ir allusions, (Luke xiii. 



'21. 1 Cor. v. fiO. ) th;-.t the .l;-wi>h 1- in the 



practice cither of keeping their leaven too long, or of 

 substituting in its stead so: liicli was suppo- 



sed in'mrious to health, Without great care, indeed, 

 bread fermented by leaven will have a sour and disa- 

 greeable taste. The French, who pay particular at- 

 tention to the quality of their bread, ;ire extremely 

 careful, both with regard to the kind of leaven whivjli 

 they employ, and the quantity of it which they mix 

 with their dough. Levnin tie chef, or principal lea- 

 ven, is the portion of the dough which is left to fer- 

 ment till the next opportunity of baking. This dough 

 is generally kept in a kneading trough, that it may 

 not be too much exposed to the air, or to the s;;n,or 

 to the frost, so that its fermentation may neither be 

 too rapid nor too slow. When it has exceeded the 

 due degree of fermentation, it becomes necessary to 

 freshen it, which is done by mixing it with new paste 

 or dough, and this is called levain refraicki, freshen- 

 ed leaven. This operation, perhaps the most impor- 

 tant in the art of baking, consists in mixing with the 

 first leaven half its weight of warm water. Thus if 

 the first leaven weigh eight ounces, take four ounces 

 of water ; sonk the leaven very carefully in the wa- 

 ter, and mix flour with them by degrees, so as to form 

 a good paste. This second or freshened leaven may 

 be renewed once or twice ; but after being renewed 

 for the last time, it ought to be used within three 

 hours. One general rule must constantly be obser- 

 ved, namely, to manage the leaven in such a manner, 

 that, from the first to the last, there may always be 

 continued a fermentation, which becomes sweeter 

 in every stage of the process. After this, all that re- 

 mains to be done is to mix two thirds or one-half 

 of flower with this leaven, to soak it well, so that it 

 may be gradually incorporated with the flower, and 

 thus form the dough or paste of bread. It is suffi- 

 ciently kneaded when it is equally firm throughout, 

 and does not adhere to the hands. The degree of 

 kneading necessary depends much upon the season of 

 the year. In winter, it is better to employ more lea- 

 ven, and to knead it less ; in summer, on the contra- 

 ry, less leaven is necessary, with more labour. 



With regard to the proper temperature of the wa- 

 ter, the hand of the experienced baker can easily de- 

 cide. So far as it can be determined by any cer- 

 tain point, it ought to be about 30 of Reaumur's 

 thermometer in summer and spring ; and in winter a 

 little warmer. Care must be taken, however, not to 

 make it boil, for water which has boiled, even though 

 afterwards cooled, has lost part of the air which is ne- 

 cessary for the fabrication of good bread. 



Nothing in the art of baking is more essential than 

 to have a due proportion of flour and water. That 

 proportion, however, cannot bs regulated by any cer- 

 tain rules ; for it varies with the diversity of soil, cli- 

 mate, years, seasons, and grinding. There are some 

 kinds of flour which imbibe precisely three-fourths of 

 their weight of water ; and others which imbibe on- 

 ly half their weight. That flour is always best which 



imbib 'lest quant. er ; nf co-- 



method of discovering the quality of flour ii abun- 

 dantly simple. Merely take a certain quantity of flour, 

 and observe how much water it requires to irake a 

 good paste. Bread made of good flour, is about five- 

 sixteenths heavier than the quantity of flour which it 

 contains; of coarse it retains nearly one half of the 

 water employed in forming the dough. These resulu, 

 however, arc by no means uniform : th"y di-pend not 

 only on the quality of the flower, but on the manner of 

 employing it, on the skilful regulation of the he.it of 

 the oven, and a variety of other circumstances. Ano- 

 ther material observation is, that bread without salt 

 is heavier than that which is salted. Salt makes the 

 dough capable of receiving more water, and thus more 

 bread is made with the same quantity of dough. It 

 is of essential use in the fabrication of bread, as it 

 makes it keep longer, and corrects the bad qualities 

 of spoiled wheat. 



The principal; improvement which has been made 

 on bread in modern times, is the substitution of yeast 

 or barm in place of common leaven. This yeast is 

 the mucilaginous froth that rises to the surface of 

 beer, in the first stage of its fermentation. When 

 mixed with the dough, it makes it rise much more 

 speedily and effectually than ordinary leaven, and the 

 bread is of course much lighter, and free from that sour 

 and disagreeable taste, which may often be perceived 

 in bread raised with dough leaven, either because too 

 much is mingled with the paste, or because it has 

 been allowed to advance too far in the process of fer- 

 mentation. 



Bread, properly raised and baked, differs materially 

 from unleavened cakes, not only in being less com- 

 pact and heavy, and more agreeable to the taste, but 

 in losing its tenacious and glutinous qualities, and 

 thus becoming more salutary and digestible. 



The method of making household bread, practised 

 by our bakers, is thus : To a peck of flour they 

 add a handful of salt, a pint of yeast, and three quarts 

 of water ; the whole, being kneaded in a bowl or 

 trough, will rise in about an hour ; it is then mould- 

 ed into loaves, and put into the oven. For French 

 bread, they take half a bushel of fine flour, ten eggs, 

 and a pound and a half of fresh butter, into which 

 they put the same quantity of yeast with a manchet, 

 and tempering th > whole mass with new milk pretty 

 hot, leave it half an hour to rise, after which they 

 make it into loaves or rolls, and wash it over with an 

 egg beaten with milk : care is taken that the oven be 

 not too hot. 



So far back as the reign of Henry III., vre find 

 mention made of wastel bread, cocket bread, and 

 bread of treet, corresponding to the three sorts of 

 bread now in use, called white, wheaten, and house- 

 hold bread. In religious houses they had various 

 kinds of bread, distinguished by the names of jxziiix 

 armigerorum, or esquires' bread ; jianis cini'entitnHs, 

 or monk's bread ; patiix puc'ontrn, boy's bread ; and 

 panis famularum, orpanissrrcicntalis, servant's bread. 

 In the household establishment of the grandees, too, 

 they had bread of various qualities and denomina- 

 tions ; as the paiiis nitncius, or messenger's bread, 

 which was given to messengers as a reward for their 



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