PRACTICAL PAPERS—BREAD-MAKING. 
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vinous fermentation. In the vinous fermentative action, the 
sugar of the flour—which is of that variety known as glucose 
or grape sugar—is converted into carbonic acid, and alcohol as 
shown in the following equation : 
Glucose. Alcohol. Carbonic Acid. 
C 12 H 24 0 12 =4(C 2 H 6 0)+4(C O 2 ). 
The alcohol thus formed is volatilized by the heat of the 
oven, and the carbonic acid, or at least a large portion of it re¬ 
mains within the dough, being imprisoned there by the gluten- 
ous paste formed by the gliadin and vegetable fibrin; and at 
the temperature of 212 deg. has been estimated as forming 
one half the bulk of the loaf. 
The alcohol, which is always a secondary product of bread¬ 
making as above described, although amounting to less than a 
pint to each one hundred pounds of bread, constitutes an im¬ 
mense loss, when all that is evolved in baking the bread of a 
large number of people, is taken into account. Thus it has 
been estimated that the amount of bread annually consumed 
in London, necessitates the evolution of 300,000 gallons of alco¬ 
hol, and the amount consumed in Germany each year, 7,500,- 
000 gallons. As this product is an entire waste, efforts have 
been made in England to collect the alcohol dissipated by the 
heat of the oven. Large sums of money were expended for 
machinery for this purpose, but it was found that the small 
amount generated in a single oven would by no means pay the 
expense necessary to collect it, and all attempts to save this 
waste product have been abandoned. 
In fermented bread there are two causes of loss or deteriora¬ 
tion in the nutritious principles contained in the flour. First 
in the direct loss experienced in the conversion of the sugar 
into carbonic acid and alcohol, as above given, both of which 
are waste products except so far as they affect the mechanical 
structure of the bread. Secondly, the nitrogenous substances 
contained in the flour, in undergoing fermentation not only 
convert the sugar into other products, and induce a molecular 
change in the starch, but are themselves changed by this ac- 
