120 TRA^^SACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



fresli bread, is tliis : TJie gluten is dehydrated hy heat in freshening, 

 and the water driven out, softens the dried starch which coats the 

 gluten. Thus softened the crumb is more jpalatcdjle. On cooling, the 

 water is withdrawn from the starch, which is rendered dry and stiff 

 in conseguence, and restored to the gluten, and the bread becomes stale. 



What is Piled Bread? 



There is another point which is regarded as qnite mysterious. It 

 h yd\?ii {'s, qqWqcI the 2)ile of bread, and is an evidence of excellence. 

 It is a term familiar to bakers, thongli possibly not to all my audience. 

 A loaf in which the pile is good may be separated into strips some- 

 wdiat like the husks that encase an ear of Indian corn, or the coats 

 that invest an onion. How this should appear in a loaf produced 

 from a body apparently so homogeneous as dough is thought very 

 extraordinary. The explanation is simply this : Where the gluten of 

 the flour is unimpared by heat or souring, it retains its tenacity, even 

 when greatly attenuated. When the dough is kneaded, it is spread 

 out and folded over upon itself again and again, from the border 

 toward the center. The surface is repeatedly dusted with flour, until 

 these layers of flour at last, after long, continued kneading, are eveiy- 

 wliere present in the loaf, separating thin sheets and strips of the 

 fermented dough, each strip containing fibers of tenacious gluten. 

 Now, this fine flour, by the last act of the ferinent, is carried into the 

 mucous stage of fermentation. So that wdien the loaf is baked there 

 are planes or surfaces of soft mucilage — planes of separation, thread- 

 in "i* the loaf ill the direction from the bottom around the outside 

 toward the center at the top. Those permit the loaf to be stripped 

 off somewhat as short pie-crust may be separated into flakes. 



How MAY. Good Tlouk be Knowx. 



You will ask how such good flour as such " piled" bread is made 

 from, may be obtained. The question is not easily answered. . Ihit 

 some general guiding princi})les may be recognized. Wheat shoidd 

 not be cut until it is absolutel}' ripe. A little may be lost in harvest- 

 ing, but nothing like what may be lost by cutting it while any por- 

 tion of the berry is liquid. The moist straw, by its evaporation, draws 

 the fluid out of the berry, and lessens enormously its nutritive value. 

 ■Cut ten days too early is equivalent to a loss in weight of scarcely 

 less than one-fifth of the whole weiglit. AVith thoroughly ripe, well- 

 filled grain tliers is little difficulty in preparing gyod flour. But wo 



