39s PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO J 778. 



it from the tub or cask where it is kept for use; but there is a superior kind of 

 quass, which the better sort of people make and bottle for their common use ; 

 indeed people of the highest rank love and use it constantly. 



To make the better sort of quass, or Keesla Stchee, they take one pood 

 (36 pountls English), of rye flour, or meal, and half that quantity of ground 

 malt, and put them into a tub made for the purpose with a close cover, pouring 

 a kettle full of scalding water, stirring with a stick as they pour, and then cover 

 it close up for an hour ; at the expiration of which time they add boiling water 

 in the same manner as before, till it becomes as thin as small-beer. The tub is 

 then placed in a cool situation for some hours, the cover being kept half open 

 with a slick ; the liquor is then passed through a sieve into a cask, and 2 basons 

 full of old quass, or the substitutes mentioned in the last receipt, are added, and 

 the vessel placed in a cellar or cool situation for 5 or 6 days, till it acquires the 

 subacid taste, when it is fit for bottling. 



Here seems to be an elegant improvement of Dr. Macbride's infusion of malt, 

 for the acidulous taste makes it highly palatable and refreshing ; and probably 

 there may be a virtue in this species of acidity, which is perhaps the only thing 

 that the sweet infusion wants, to give it all the antiscorbutic qualities of sour 

 krout, &c. as it also abounds in the antiseptic fluid fixed air, which recommends 

 the other for medical purposes, and particularly as an antiscorbutic ; at the same 

 time that the fermentation is permitted to run on till it acquires the acid taste 

 which every one of the eflicacious vegetable preparations used in the north is 

 possessed of, and what nearly seems to be the secret alone by which these people 

 preserve them for a length of time, and put them on an equality with fresh 

 vegetables, as one would be led to think by their salutary effects. The very 

 bread that the Russians make use of has also acquired this acidity before it is 

 ludged wholesome, and adapted to their constitutions. 



The manner of making the Russian rye bread. — In the morning they mix as 

 much rye flour with warm milk, water, and a bason full of grounds of quass, 

 or leaven, as will make a thin dough, and beat it up for half an hour with the 

 chocolate staff before described ; this they set in a warm place till night, when 

 they add more meal by degrees, working it up at the same time with the staff', 

 till the dough becomes stiff". They then return it to its warm situation till 

 morning, at which time they throw in a proper quantity of salt, and work it 

 with the hand into a proper consistence for bread, the longer this last operation 

 is continued the better ; they then place it before the fire till it rises, when it is 

 cut into loaves, and returned once more into the warm place where it before 

 stood, and kept there for an hour before the last part of the process, the baking, 

 which completes it.* 



For sea provision tliev cut the same sourdough into biscuits or rusk, and dry 



