366 
forms of edible preparation, though, in conse- 
quence of a deficiency in gluten, it is not suffi- 
ciently cohesive for making fermented bread. 
It contains less starch than wheat-flour, and is 
scarcely so white in colour; yet it makes as good 
and as nourishing bread, it is not so liable to 
acidification on a weak or dyspeptic stomach, 
and it possesses a delicacy and a fragrance of fla- 
vour which are grateful to both children and 
adults, and which render it peculiarly suitable 
for cakes and tarts and the various articles of 
pastry. It is used for making crumpets in Italy, 
in Holland, and in other parts of Europe; and 
the crumpets of it, when eaten with butter, are 
a favourite dainty of children. It is employed 
with either water or milk for making hasty pud- 
dings, which are eaten with butter or sugar. 
It is very commonly mixed with the flour of rye 
or of wheat, in most parts of the continent, by 
both public and private bakers. In Saxony, in 
Brandenburgh, and in Silesia, buckwheat forms 
part or whole of all the three daily meals of the 
lower class, and of at least two of the daily meals 
of even the wealthiest classes. The dish of boiled 
buckwheat is of the same consequence to the 
German peasantry of these regions, as the meal 
of boiled potatees to the peasantry of Ireland; 
and various preparations of buckwheat figure 
| more prominently on the tables of the opulent 
and the highborn, and constitute a more impor- 
tant article of their diet, than potatoes among the 
middle classes of Great Britain. Millions of the 
German peasants not only thrive upon it, so as 
to be as healthy, handsome, and vigorous a race 
as any in Kurope, but are not at all fastidious as 
to the niceties of either its grinding or its cook- 
ery. “The grain in its unsophisticated state, 
after it has been thrashed and winnowed, is 
coarsely broken in a common handmill, which is 
generally a flat buhr-stone running on a pivot 
within another, with a hele to admit the grain, 
| and having, near the edge, an upright iron han- 
dle which serves to turn it. The grain being 
broken, is boiled with the husks on, in water 
containing a little salt, until the porridge is ofa 
very substantial thickness. The mess is then 
served up with a lump of butter in it. Some, as 
a luxury, mix milk with it after it is boiled. The 
more wealthy have the grain prepared by the 
miller, so as to free it from the husks, much in 
the same manner as pearl barley in Scotland ; 
but many true Silesians of the upper classes, 
from youthful associations and tastes, like Kean’s 
love of a baked shoulder of mutton with potatoes 
under it, or from that amor patrie which makes 
even a blemish look beautiful, or from some other 
cause which we leave to the sagacious to discover, 
prefer the look and taste of the unseemly brown 
husk, from the same cause perhaps that makes 
the genuine Scotchman delight in the flavour of 
burnt wool with which his barley broth is so de- 
liciously impregnated when made of a singed 
sheep’s head. Whether husked or not, however, 
BUCKWHEAT. 
a dish of buckwheat, in its boiled form, makes 
its appearance at every Silesian gentleman’s 
table, and is always welcome to each member of 
the family.” For infants, as well as for more 
advanced children, dressed buckwheat flour is a 
wholesome, nourishing, and very digestible food, 
promoting regularity and healthiness of the se- 
cretions, keeping the intestinal system in an un- 
obstructed condition, and imparting strength and 
activity to the frame. It is far preferable to oat- 
meal for the making of gruel, quite as cheap, if 
not cheaper, and constituting superior nourish- 
ment and a more substantial meal; and it might, 
with advantage, supersede oatmeal wholly in the 
workhouses of the poor-law unions of England, 
and partially in the cottages, farm-houses, and 
towns of Scotland. Its great disadvantages are 
its want of sufficient gluten for making good 
fermented bread, and its considerable inferiority 
to wheat flour in the properties of farina; but 
the former of these is compensated by its emi- 
nent adaptation to every kind of pastry, pudding, 
and dry bread, and the latter is compensated by 
its comparatively great cheapness,—for a bushel 
and a half of buckwheat will go as far in pro- 
ducing human food as a bushel of wheat, and, 
being more than two-thirds lower in market 
value, it would cost its consumer in bread only 
about half the price. 
The grain of buckwheat ought never to be 
given to horses, for it heats them, and fills them 
with bad humours; and, in general, it has so 
decidedly different a shade of properties in a raw 
state from those which it possesses in a cooked 
state, that it seems to be deprived of some dele- 
teriousness by the process of cooking. Yet it is 
an excellent means of quickly and very economi- 
cally fattening pigs, turkeys, and all kinds of 
poultry. When given to pigs, it ought to be 
broken in a mill to prevent its passing undi- 
gested [see the article Brursina-Corn]; and it 
ought also to be given at first in very small 
quantities, mixed with oats or some other kind | 
of corn, and afterwards slowly increased in quan- | 
tity till it becomes the chief food. Some persons 
recommend, indeed, that it never be given in 
larger proportion than one-third of the whole 
mixture of grains; and all agree that if imcau- 
tiously given in large or even moderate doses at 
the first, it will violently stimulate the pigs, 
making them tumble, squeak, rise against walls, 
roll in the mud, and otherwise behave as if ex- 
cessively intoxicated. When these symptoms 
are produced through incautious commencement 
of the buckwheat, they will disappear in the 
course of three or four days; yet they incur some 
risk of being followed by the animals’ loss of con- 
dition. But when buckwheat is properly used, 
it fattens hogs in less time than any other known 
food, and occasions their flesh to be peculiarly 
succulent and delicate; yet, during the last eight 
or ten days, it requires to be accompanied with 
ground pease in the proportion of two to one, in 
| 
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