KIDD'S LONDON JOURNAL. 



183 



as packing between the double cylinders of steam 

 engines. It is of no consequence whether the 

 said charcoal be formed of wood, of flour, or of 

 any other substance, for its qualities are in every 

 case the same. 



Now, when the surfaces of the slice of bread 

 are over-eharred in this manner, there is an end 

 of all toasting, as no action of heat can be 

 communicated to the interior, and not one 

 drop of water can be evaporated. In this state, 

 the slice of bread may be wholly burned to char- 

 coal; but until it is altogether so burned, the 

 unburned part will become always more and more 

 wet and unwholesome. There is an illustration 

 of this in putting an onion, and more especially 

 a potatoe, in the middle of a strong fire in order to 

 be roasted. If the fire is but hot enough, a 

 potatoe the size of one's fist may be burned down 

 to a cone not bigger than a marble ; and yet that 

 cone will remain hard and scarcely even 

 warmed. 



As a rule, — if you would have a slice of bread 

 so toasted as to be pleasant to the palate, and 

 wholesome and easily digested, never let one 

 particle of the surface be charred. Chestnut- 

 brown is even far too deep for a good toast ; and 

 the color of a fox is rather too deep. The nearer 

 it can be kept to a straw-color, the more deli- 

 cious to the taste, and the more wholesome it 

 will be. The method of obtaining this is very 

 obvious. It consists in keeping the bread at the 

 proper distance from the fire, and exposing it to 

 proper heat for a due length of time. Those who 

 " make the toast," or, more strictly speaking, 

 mangle it, are generally too lazy for taking- 

 proper time for this operation ; and it is worthy 

 of remark in many other cases, as well as in this 

 one, that the hurry of laziness is the very worst 

 form under which that bane of good housewifery 

 can appear. This by the way. 



If not cut too thin ; if held at the proper dis- 

 tance from the fire, and continued long enough, 

 care being taken that not a single black or even 

 dark brown spot makes its appearance on the 

 surface, the slice of bread may be -toasted 

 through and through; and it is this operation 

 which makes properly toasted bread so much 

 more wholesome than bread which is not toasted ; 

 and still more preferable to bread burned on the 

 surface, and sodden in the interior. By this 

 means the whole of the water may be evaporated 

 from it, and it may be changed from dough, 

 which has always a tendency to undergo the 

 acetous fermentation, whether in the stomach or 

 outof it, to the pure farina of wheat, which is 

 in itself one of the most wholesome species of 

 food — not only for the strong and healthy, but for 

 the delicate and diseased. As it is turned to 

 farina, it is disintegrated ; the tough and gluey 

 nature is gone ; every part can be penetrated ; all 

 parts are equally warm, and no part is so warm 

 as to turn the butter into oil, which, even in the 

 case of the best butter, is invariably turning a 

 wholesome substance into a poison. 



There is another circumstance — regarding the 

 buttering of a rightly toasted slice. The dough 

 being a compound of water, repels the butter, 

 which is an oil ; but the dried farina acquires no 

 attraction for butter, which, with very little 

 exertion, penetrates the whole slice through and 



through, in all parts equally. There is more 

 advantage in this than some may suppose. 

 Butter in masses (whatever may be its quality), 

 is too heavy for the stomach, though butter 

 divided with sufficient minuteness, and not 

 suffered to pass into an oil, makes a most valua- 

 ble addition to many kinds of food. The properly- 

 toasted slice of bread absorbs the butter, but does 

 not convert it to oil; and both butter and farina 

 are in a state of very minute division, the one 

 serving to expose the other to the tree action of 

 the gastric fluid in the stomach; and that this 

 fluid shall be enabled to penetrate the whole 

 mass of the food, and act upon it in very small 

 portions, is the grand secret of pleasant, easy, 

 and beautiful digestion; so that when a slice of 

 toast is rightly prepared, there is perhaps not a 

 lighter article in the whole vocabulary of 

 cookery. 



When the toast is ready; the little ones 

 quietly seated ; mamma in a good humor; papa 

 cosey; and the window curtains closely drawn, — 

 what can exceed the domestic delights of Tea 

 and Buttered Toast! 



NATUjRE and art. 



A Comparison between Good Sense and 

 "Fashion." 



" Here comes she forth, 

 Teck'd in the lovely modesty of Nature."— Clare. 



Feeling that we do hold some little sway 

 over the minds and better feelings of our 

 fair countrywomen — whom we dearly love, 

 as an Englishman should do, — we shall ven- 

 ture now and then to tread on the delicate 

 ground of offering them our " Advice," gra- 

 tis ; it shall be none the worse on that 

 account. 



We have started this, our Own Journal, 

 be it remembered, under the distinct 

 avowal of being " Lovers of Nature;" and we 

 mean to aid her ladyship on evwy occasion. 

 We all allow her, by word of mouth at least, 

 to be worthy of " imitation," and every 

 painter who loses sight of this, is by us 

 reckoned a bad artist. The closer we keep 

 to the original then, the better will it be 

 for us all. 



We shall, by and by, go into the un» 

 natural conventionalities of every-day life, 

 and show how we all live for others, — not for 

 ourselves. 



" Sic vos non vobis," &c, 



said Virgil ; and he was right. He applied 

 his remarks to the brute creation ; we apply 

 ours to the genus Homo. We repeat, deny 

 it who may, that society as at present con- 

 stituted is entirely wmaturaL Let us, 

 however, say more than this. As concerns 

 ".Number One," wc are resolved to live 

 and Bis happy. We are not, thank God, 

 altogether dependant upon the silly fashions 

 which rule society at large ; we think, and 

 act, for ourselves. But to return. 



"",'■" "+". V—. ' -"TTv ] 



