ANCIENT COOKERY. 615 



the Hebrews learned to use among the Egyptians. This was simply sour 

 dough, usually kept by reserving a piece of the bread-dough until the next 

 baking. This addition excited fermentation in the mass more readily than 

 if loft to sour of its own accord. With the increasing fineness of their flour 

 had come the need of something to make it light, and as they had not our 

 ovens or gem-pans or our other intelligent devices for making bread at once 

 light and wholesome, they accepted this chance device of leaven and used it 

 for centuries ; indeed, it is still in use. There is little doubt that its impure 

 character was partially recognized among the Hebrews, for in some of their 

 ceremonial purifyings all leaven and all fermented articles were removed 

 from the house. 



The first traces we find of yeast are in the Writings of Pliny. He says 

 that for leaven the Eoman mixed millet wiih sweet wine and let it ferment 

 a year ! They also employed wheat bran soaked for three days in sweet 

 white wine and dried in the sun. Of this they diluted a certain c uantity 

 at the time of making bread, which was left to ferment in the best wheat 

 flour and afterward mixed with the entire mass. This is our present style 

 of " sponging," plainly enough, though the "yeast" is not so definite. Indeed, 

 these and the following items show that the Romans at that time did not 

 use yeast in its present form : 'A dish containing two pounds of barley paste 

 was heated until ebullition commenced. It was then put into vessels until 

 it became sour. Very often leaven was procured from dough just made. A 

 piece was taken from the mass and left to turn sour for subsequent use." In 

 addition to all this, Pliny goes on to say that t'le Gauls and the Spaniards, 

 after having made a drink from grain, saved the scum to raise dough, and 

 that their bread was the lightest of all. Perhaps some of our readers will 

 recognize this as having the same origin as our "brewer's yeast;" to others, 

 who never before looked so far, it will unfold the not over-clear origin of 

 the first cup of yeast — the filthy scum of the decaying liquid in the brewer's 

 vat. Verily, they did find something at last wherewith to make their bread 

 light, but it was at a rather severe cost to its cleanliness and nutrition. 



In the gratification of the palate and the fane}^ the Greeks and Eomans 

 at last launched upon a mad whirl of artificiality, which delighted in out- 

 raging all laws of nature, moderation, common sense, and even decenc}'. 

 One hardly knows where to begin the strange list, unless, indeed, we begin 

 with the degeneracy of aims, the grossness of greediness, and the reckless- 

 ness of expense which permitted such extravagances. 



Expensive eating came to be apparently the only ambition of the Roman 

 people and their rulers, j Their senators vied with each other in giving the 

 most extravagant dinnei^s, and their emperors took the lead to such a degree 

 that some of them are noted only for the extent of their appetites. The 

 Emperor Claudius sat down to table at all hours and in any place ; nor did 

 he leave the repast until distended with food and soaked with drink, and 

 then only to sleep. When he awoke, a tickling feather relieved him of his 

 surfeit, and he was ready to eat again. 



