354 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
February 9. 
physiologists have thoroughly demonstrated that a 
certain quantity of food is as essential for health as a 
certain amount of nutrition. 
A correspondent (A. B.) says :— 
“ I beg to enclose a receipt for cheap and wholesome 
bread for the poor. I have tried it with flour from which 
only the bran has been taken out, and it produced twenty- 
eight pounds of good bread ; at the same time, and in the 
same oven, I baked fourteen pounds of Hour in the usual 
way, which made eighteen pounds of bread. I then showed 
the different results, side by side, to our own labourers. 
Take a pound-and-a half of whole rice, boil it gently over a 
slow fire in three quarts of water, for about five hours, 
stirring it occasionally, and afterwards heat it into a smooth 
paste. Mix this while warm into fourteen pounds of Hour 
(without any more water), adding to it, at the same time, the 
usual quantity of yeast. Allow the dough to work the usual 
time, near the fire, after which divide it into loaves, and it 
will be found, when baked, to produce from twenty-eight to 
thirty pounds of excellent white bread.” 
A Prebendary of Durham, writing to his Diocesan 
some years ago, states as follows:— 
“ I caused four bushels of wheat (nine-gallon measure) to 
be ground, and nothing but the coarse bran taken out: the 
produce was four bushels and a half of Horn-, and 22fb. of 
bran. About ten days ago, I boiled some of the hran, and 
kneaded a due proportion of the flour with the strained 
liquor, and the result of the experiment was so highly 
satisfactory that I resolved to repeat it with the most strict 
attention and the most scrupulous exactness. The details 
of this second experiment I am now about to communicate 
to your Lordship; and I thought proper to sond you also 
some of the bread produced by it, that you might form a 
judgment of its excellence. Yesterday T took 5tb. of bran, 
boiled it, and with the liquor strained from it kneaded 5011). 
of flour, adding the usual quantity of salt and yeast. .When 
the dough was sufficiently risen, it was weighed, and 
divided into loaves; the weight, before being put into 
the oven, being 93 lb. 13 oz. ; it was then baked two 
hours, and, some time after being drawn, the bread was 
weighed, and gave 83 lb. 8 oz. — loss in baking 10 lb. 
5 oz. The same quantity of Hour kneaded with common 
water loses about lb lb. 11 oz. in the baking, and pro¬ 
duces only 09 lb. 8 oz. of bread ;—gain by my method 14 lb.; 
that is, a clear increase of one-fifth of the usual quantity 
of bread from a given quantity of floiux This increase, 
which at first appears astonishing, (since only S lb of bran 
were boiled) seems to depend on a combination of three 
causes: first, the water in which the bran is boiled weighs 
half a pound more per gallon than plain water; secondly, 
owing to its glutinous consistence, it is less subject to evapo¬ 
ration by heat; thirdly, and principally, a greater quantity 
of it is necessary to make the dough ; a bushel (or .06 lb.) 
of flour requires three gallons (i. e. 371b.) of plain water; 
but it imbibed three gallons and three quarts of bran water, 
weighing 351b. 10 oz. The bran, after being used in this 
way, is equally fit for many domestic purposes, and I suspect 
even more nutritious for pigs and poultry than if given to them 
raw. I had the curiosity to weigh it after the liquor was 
strained off, and found that it had gained 12 lb. and if water 
incorporates with it the same manner as it does with rice, 
why may not its nutritive power be increased in the same 
manner? The conjecture accords, at least, with Count 
Rum ford's principle. Rut to return to my experiment: I 
have amused myself witli the following calculation, which 
perhaps will make your Lordship smile. The increase of 
bread, by this method, being a fifth from a given quantity of 
flour, the consumption of flour would be saved by it every 
j sixth day, or sixty days in a year. Supposing then that the 
practice were universally adopted, and taking the consump¬ 
tion of flour in this kingdom at 200,000 bushels per day, the 
annual saving would amount to 12 millions of bushels, which, 
at the present price, would cost about 10 millions sterling, 
and in ordinary times above four millions. Of the whole¬ 
someness of the bread there can be no doubt; of its flavour 
you will judge by the specimen I have sent you; and I can 
add lrom experience, that it keeps very well. After my first 
I batch had been baked ten days, I put a loaf which remained ; 
of it into my oven for about 20 minutes, and, being suffered 
to grow cool again, it was cut, and had every appearance of 
new bread; nay, we even thought it better than it was at 
first.” 
It deserves to be better known, in support of the 
economy of using only stale bread, that during the groat 
scarcity in 1800 , an Act ot' Parliament was passed pro¬ 
hibiting bakers selling any bread “ until the same shall 
have been baked twenty-four hours at the least.” This ! 
act was founded upon evidence taken before a committee : 
of the House of Commons, which demonstrated that I 
one-half of the bread in London is consumed the day 
it. is baked, and that if the bread were kept for twenty- 
four hours the saving would be from one-third to one- 
eighth of the whole consumption. That this is so was 
further substantiated by the Baker’s Company stating 
that the consequence of the Act was to reduce the 
consumption of bread one-sixth. 
With regard to the nutritive, yet cheaper, articles that 
may be advantageously mixed with Wheat flour for 
bread-making, we stated, in a former number, our own 
experience in adding boiled Potatoes, rubbed through a 
colander; and wo have heard since that Turnips may 
be employed in the same mode. When the bread is 
twenty-four hours old, we are told that not the slightest 
taste of the Turnips is detectable. We have also re¬ 
ceived the following on this important enquiry 
“The Editor of The Cottage Lamp, begs to draw the 
attention of ‘ S. E. J.’ to the following receipts for cheap 
and wholesome, bread, inserted in the September number of 
that Periodical, and taken from a very excellent work, ‘ The 
Family Economist.’ They are as follows :— 
“‘1st. Maize, one gallon; barley, one gallon; wheat 
flour, half-a-gallon. 
“ ‘ 2nd. Maize, one gallon ; wheat, one gallon. (This is 
an excellent bread.) 
“‘3rd. One gallon each of oatmeal, barley, and wheat; 
or oatmeal and wheat, without barley. 
“‘4th. Barley flour, one peck; wheat flour, half-a- 
gallon. 
“ * 5th. One gallon each of barley, rye, aud wheat. 
“ ‘ 0th. One gallon each of barley and rye ; two gallons 
of wheat. 
“ ‘ 7th. Buck wheat, one gallon ; barley or rye, one gallon; 
wheat, two gallons. In using any of these mixtures, it is 
found best to ferment the wheat flour by itself, and then 
add it to the other materials, to make up, and rise in the 
usual way.’ ” 
As the following suggestions from the Irish College of 
Physicians are somewhat more specific, and less general, 
than any others hitherto issued, wo beg to recommend 
them to our readers. 
The deplorable state of things on the banks of the 
Liffey is just a faithful exposition of the condition of 
all our great seaports ;t- and until some change in the I 
present system shall have been brought about it would ! 
almost seem that the more extensive the system of 
liquid sewerage, the moro completely must our fine 
rivers be empoisoned. Seeing that one-half of the 
cholera in England occurred in eight great seaports, the 
lowest parts suffering the most, it is impossible to over¬ 
estimate the significance of the warning which has 
* See our remarks, Dec. 1st. 
