518 
dent, if we view these principles as the source of 
nutrition in flour. 
“ A good method of making unfermented bread 
is to take of flour 4 pounds; sesquicarbonate of 
soda, (super-carbonate of the shops,) 320 grains ; 
hydrochloric acid, (spirit of salt or muriatic acid 
of the shops,) 635 fluid drachms; common salt, 
300 grains; water, 35 ounces by measure. The 
soda is first mixed with the flour very intimately. 
The salt is dissolved in the water, and added to 
the acid; the whole being then rapidly mixed 
as in common baking. The bread may either be 
baked in tins or formed like cottage loaves, and 
should be kept from one to two hours in the 
oven. Should the bread prove yellow, it is a 
proof that the soda has been in excess, and in- 
dicates the propriety of adding a small additional 
portion of acid; the acid varying somewhat in 
strength. The same process may be employed 
in raising the other mixture previously recom- 
| mended.” 
We have hitherto considered bread as made of 
the flour of wheat; but there are many other 
farinaceous vegetables, from the seeds or roots of 
which salutary and pleasant bread can be pre- 
pared. Oaten bread is common not only through- 
out Scotland, but in Lancashire, and several of 
the northern counties of England. “ When it is 
proposed,” says Dr. Thomson in the work above 
referred to, “to make a loaf of oatmeal and flour, 
the common oatmeal should be sifted so as to 
obtain the finest portion of the meal, or it may 
be ground to the proper consistence. This should 
be mixed then with an equal weight of best flour, 
Canadian, for example, and fermented. I have 
not succeeded in making a good loaf with a 
smaller amount of flour than one half, although 
_I have tried it in various proportions. If we 
were to attempt to raise oatmeal without an 
admixture with flour, in consequence of the 
absence of glutin, that principle which retains 
the carbonic acid of fermentation, we should 
obtain only a sad, heavy, doughy piece of moist 
flour. This form of bread, it appears to me, and 
to many who have examined it, would be a great 
improvement on the hard, dry cat-cakes, so much 
used in the more unfrequented parts of our 
country.” 
In baker’s bread, which is always whiter 
than homemade bread, small quantities of alum 
are sometimes mixed into it, with the view 
of whitening or bleaching it. The smallest 
quantity for this purpose is from 3 to 4 ounces 
to a sack of flour, or 240 lbs. of flour, but it is 
increased in proportion to the inferiority of the 
flour. If so, it must be considered as an in- 
jurious addition, occasioning constipation, &c. 
Another article occasionally employed in bread- 
making, in order to make it lighter, and to 
neutralize any acid that may have been formed, 
is carbonate of ammonia. It being entirely dis- 
sipated by heat, its use may be considered per- 
fectly harmless. Of injurious adulterations, small 
BREAD. 
quantities of sulphate of copper are said some- 
times to have been added to bread in order to 
improve its colour. The most nefarious adulte- 
ration of bread consists in the addition of certain 
insipid and colourless earthy substances, with a 
view of increasing its weight, such as pipe-clay, 
porcelain-clay, chalk, plaster of paris, &c. All 
these adulterations are easily detected by incine- 
ration in a crucible, by which they are left behind, 
and may be examined. For ordinary purposes, 
the experiment may be performed by dissipating 
a portion of the bread over a coal-fire, on a fire- 
shovel, when the adulterations are left behind. 
In times of scarcity, many attempts have been 
made to compensate for the want of corn, by the 
substitution of other vegetable substances, in the 
fabrication of bread. For this purpose, recourse 
has been had to the herb ragwort, the thick root 
of which, when taken out of the ground, is soft 
and viscous, but becomes hard in a short time, 
and may be preserved in that state for years, 
without changing, or requiring the slightest care. 
This root is easily ground, and yields a fine flour, 
which has an agreeable taste resembling that of 
a nut. From the acorn, too, a kind of meal is 
produced which makes excellent bread, provided 
that a little barleymeal be mingled with it, to 
counteract its astringent qualities. M. Par- 
mentier extracted the farina or starch of the 
bryony, the iris, gladiolus, ranunculus, fumaria, 
arum, dracunculus, mandragora, colchicum, fili- 
pendula, and helleborus, and the roots of the 
gramen caninum arvense. It is only necessary 
to cleanse these roots, to scrape and pound them, 
and then to sock the pulp in a considerable 
quantity of water: a white sediment is deposited, 
which, when washed and dried, is a real starch. 
M. Parmentier converted these different starches 
into bread, by mingling them with an equal por- 
tion of potatoes reduced into pulp, and the ordi- 
nary dose of wheaten leaven: the bread had no 
bad taste, and its quality was excellent. 
Rice bread.—Rice, though one of the roughest 
and driest of farinaceous vegetables, is converted by 
the Americans into a very pleasant bread. The pro- 
cess is as follows:—The grain is first washed by 
pouring water upon it, then stirring it, and changing 
the water until it be sufficiently cleansed. The 
water is then drawn off, and the rice, after being 
sufficiently drained, is put, while yet damp, into a 
mortar, and beaten to powder; it is then completely 
dried, and passed through a common hair-sieve. The 
flour, thus obtained, is generally kneaded with a 
small proportion of Indian corn-meal, and boiled into 
a thickish consistence; or sometimes it is mixed with 
boiled potatoes, and a small quantity of leaven and 
salt is added to the mass. When it has fermented 
sufficiently, the dough is put into pans, and placed 
in an oven. The bread made by this process is light 
and wholesome, pleasing to the eye and agreeable to 
the taste.—But rice flour will make excellent bread, 
without the addition of either potatoes, or any kind 
of meal. Let a sufficient quantity of the flour be 
put into a kneading trough; and at the same time 
let a due proportion of water be boiled in a caldron, 
into which throw a few handfuls of rice in grain, and 
boil it till it break. This forms a thick and viscous 
substance, which is poured upon the flour, and the 
