CHAPTER XIV 

 YEAST AND BREAD MAKING 



WHILE baking powder is universally used for biscuits and 

 cake, it is seldom, if ever, used for bread, because it does not 

 furnish sufficient gas to lighten the tough heavy mass of bread 

 dough. Then, too, most people prefer the taste of yeast-raised 

 bread. There is a reason for this widespread preference, but 

 to understand it, we must go somewhat far afield, and must 

 study not only the bread of to-day, but the bread of antiquity, 

 and the wines as well. 



If grapes are crushed, they yield a liquid which tastes like 

 the grapes ; but if the liquid is allowed to stand in a warm 

 place, it loses its original character, and begins to ferment, 

 becoming, in the course of a few weeks, a strongly intoxicat- 

 ing drink. This is true not only of grape juice but also of 

 the juice of other sweet fruits; apple juice ferments to 

 cider, currant juice to currant wine, etc. This phenomenon 

 of fermentation is known to practically all races of men, and 

 there is scarcely a savage tribe without some kind of fermented 

 drink. In the tropics the fermented juice of the palm tree 

 serves for wine ; in the desert regions, the fermented juice of 

 the century plant ; and in still other regions, the root of the 

 ginger plant is pressed into service. 



The fermentation which occurs in bread making is similar 

 to that which is responsible for the transformation of plant 

 juices into intoxicating drinks. The former process is not so 

 old, however, since the use of alcoholic beverages dates back 

 to the very dawn of history, and the authentic record of raised 

 or leavened bread is but little more than 3000 years old. 



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