Fermented Dough, or Bread. 175 



Another kind of fermentation is excited in the manufacture of 

 gingerbread, by the gradual evolution of carbonic acid gas within 

 the mass ; and a third, of a spurious nature, by the addition of 

 subcarbonate of ammonia, the expansion of this salt by the heat 

 of the oven rendering the dough cellular, and the bread nearly 

 similar to that which has been regularly fermented. 



FERMENTED DOUGH, OR BREAD. 



English bread. Is made by dissolving 4 lb. of salt and half 

 a gallon of yeast in about 36 lb. of warm water, making this into 

 dough with flour; and when this has risen, adding another 36 lb. 

 of warm water and more flour, and in about five hours the re- 

 mainder of a sack, or 280 lb. of flour, with the necessary quantity 

 of warm water, generally lOS lb., and after some time baking it. 

 This produces, when well baked, 80 quartern loaves, or 347{ lb. 

 of good serviceable bread; or if slack baked, 86 loaves, or ;i81 

 lb. 10 oz. of crumbling bread. The London bakers put in i a 

 pound of alum, and take out the same weight of salt, that the 

 loaves may part easier. The consumption of bread in London 

 is, on an average, about 13^ oz. per head daily. 



Paris white bread. Is made by diluting 80 lb. of dough 

 reserved from the last baking, before any yeast was added, with 

 a suflicient quantity of warm water to make a French sack, or 

 320 lb. of flour, into a dough much thinner than usual in England. 

 When this has risen, 80 lb. of it is taken out, and covered up for 

 leaven for the next baking, and then a lb. of dry yeast is diluted 

 in water, and the solution added to the dough, which is imme- 

 diately made into loaves and baked : the loaves being placed some 

 distance apart, that they may be crusty all round. In general, 

 a French sextier of wheat, or 284 lb., is computed to yield 176 

 lb. of flour, which, with 110 lb. of water, produces 286 of bread. 

 — French country ichitc bread. Has no yeast put into it. — French 

 soup bread. Has a lb. of salt to each sack, in the place of yeast, 

 to promote its solution in the soup, and is baked in thin loaves, 

 so as to be nearly all crust. — The usual consumption of bread in 

 a French family is estimated at 9 lb. of soft bread, and 7 lb. of 

 8oup bre-'t'l f'"- "i<h person in a week, or nearly 2| lb. for each 

 daily. 



Gixgerbrkad. Fine pollard 1 lb., treacle ] lb., potash, [ oz., 

 butter 1 oz., warm water suflicient to make up the dough, 1 oz. 

 of mixed Hpice, principally ginger, to which is added cinnamon, 

 nutmeg, allspice, Cayenne pepper, and, in the inferior kinds, 

 black ]u»pper. Ilcquircs to be kept for several days, sometimes 

 a fortnight, before it is fit for the oven ; the rising being produced 

 by the slow action of the acid in the treacle upon the subcarbonate 

 or potash. 



