104 TliAXSACTIOXS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



of shavings saturated with varnish have often been consumed in tlie 

 same manner. 



Difference between Baking and Boiling. 

 A word or two of definition and I shall proceed to the subject of 

 making bread. Baking, roasting, broiling, toasting, frying, stewing 

 and boiling are all processes of cooking. In what do they differ ? 

 In hailing, the article of food is sul)jected to a tempei'ature not 

 exceeding 212 deg., the boiling point of water. In frying, it is sub- 

 jected to the temperature of boiling fat or oil, which may be 500 deg. 

 or 600 deg., the boiling point of the fat or oil employed. In baking, 

 roasting, broiling and toasting, the interior temperature rarely exceeds 

 212 deg., but the exterior temperature may be 400 deg., or 600 deg., 

 or 800 deg. In these, destructive distillation yields carbodiydrogens, 

 which are agreeable to the palate, and which are allied in composition 

 to oil of peppermint, cloves, pepper, rose oil, &c. Stewing is in the 

 main a prolonged boiling with a small quantity of water, in which 

 the juices are extracted and subjected to a modification by heat 

 which they could not experience when shut up in the body of the 

 meat. But I must hasten to the art of making bread. 



Bkead feom Wheat — Special Yalue of Wheat. 



Of all the cereals wheat is best suited to the wants of man. It 

 contains principles of nutrition admirably adapted to the human 

 organism. One pdrtion enters into the composition of the vital 

 tissues, and another subserves the purposes of fuel in providing 

 warmth and force. Health may be preserved upon a diet of bread 

 alone. The grain can be preserved indefinitely long in sound condi- 

 tion, with but little care. Alex;uider prepared the way for liis con- 

 quest of India by sending forwav;! discreet agents Vidiose duty it was 

 to accumulate wheat (the corn of the ancients) along tlie line of his 

 contemplated march. Joseph caused it to be stored through seven 

 years of plenty to meet the needs of Egypt through seven years of 

 famine. On lake Constance, in the region of one of the lacustrine 

 villages, there was found, a few years ago, an underground granary, 

 a cement lined cache, of great antiquity, containing a hundred 

 bushels of wheat and barley. It illustrated the confidence of tlie 

 Lacustrians that wheat would keep.. 



