The method of baking by means of leaven was this: A quantity of flour is made up into dough with water; this dough being set in a warm place, is left for about thirty-six hours. During that period it swells considerably, and becomes of a thinner consistency. In short, it undergoes a species of fermentation. It has now acquired a peculiar smell, and a disagreeable sour taste, and is the substance known by the name of leaven. If this substance be mixed with a quantity of fresh dough, it occasions the whole to undergo a speedy fermentation, and to swell precisely in the same manner as dough mixed with yeast. Bread skilfully baked in this manner is not inferior to yeast bread; but when unskilfully managed, it has a sour taste, and contains a quantity of acetic acid. According to the experiments of Mr Edlin, a pound of flour, when converted into leaven, contains as much acetic acid as requires 40 grains of carbonate of potash to neutralize it. If by carbonate he means (as is probable) bicarbonate of potash, 40 grains of it contain 21 grains of potash, which requires for saturation 224 grains of acetic acid.

Pliny informs us that yeast in his time was employed in Spain and Gaul as a ferment of bread. Galliæ et Hispania frumento in potum resoluto, quibus diximus generibus, spuma ita concreta pro frumento utuntur. Qua de causa levior illis quam cæteris panis est. (Natur. Hist. lib. xviii. c. 7.) From this passage we see that the Romans employed leaven to raise their bread, but that they were sensible of the superiority of yeast. Leaven, however, made its way both into France and Spain, and was universally employed in the manufacture of bread till towards the end of the seventeenth century, when the bakers of Paris began to import yeast from Flanders, and to employ it pretty generally as a substitute for leaven. We have here a striking instance of the blindness and obstinacy of the learned and the powerful, and the readiness with which they are disposed to arm themselves against all alterations and improvements. The bread by this substitution was manifestly improved both in appearance and in flavour. This variation excited attention; the cause was discovered; the faculty of medicine in Paris declared it prejudicial to the health; the French government interfered, and the bakers were prohibited, under a severe penalty, from employing yeast in the manufacture of bread. But it is in vain for governments, colleges, and universities, to oppose themselves to those improvements which take place in the arts and manufactures essential to civilized society. The ingenuity and perseverance of self-interest is proof against prohibitions, and contrives to elude the vigilance of the most active government. The laws of Queen Elizabeth, however tyrannical and absurd, did not prevent the introduction of indigo as a dye-stuff into England. Neither did the authority of Louis the Fourteenth, nor the decision of the physicians, deter the Parisian bakers from persisting in their improved mode of making bread. The yeast in Flanders was put into sacks, the moisture was allowed to drop out, and in this comparatively dry state it was carried to the capital of France.

The superiority of yeast bread became gradually visible to all, the decisions of the medical faculty

were forgotten, and the prohibition laws were allowed Baking. tacitly to sink into oblivion. The new mode of baking by degrees extended itself to other countries, and is now, we believe, practised everywhere. In warm climates, where the yeast of beer cannot be had, other substitutes are employed, which answer the same purpose. In the East Indies, bread is raised by means of the liquor called toddy, which flows out of the cocoa-nut tree when its branches are cut, and which ferments so rapidly, that in two or three hours it becomes an intoxicating liquor. In the West Indies dunder is employed for the same purpose. This is the liquid which remains in the still after the rum is distilled off, and is therefore analogous to what our distillers call spent wash. It no doubt consists of a solution of unaltered sugar, prevented from fermenting by the alcohol which the liquid contained before distillation, and mixed doubtless with a quantity of yeast. In that warm climate it undergoes a very speedy fermentation, and on that account answers all the purposes of yeast in the baking of bread. In this country it is no uncommon thing to convert the spent wash into small beer, which the workmen drink with avidity. But it only undergoes this change when fermented in the usual way with yeast.

8. The appearance of wheat flour is too familiar Constituents to every person to require any description here. The of Wheat ancients knew that it consisted chiefly of a substance Flour. called starch; which, as Pliny informs us, was first separated from wheat by the inhabitants of the Island of Chio, and in his time the starch of Chio was considered the best and lightest, because it was made from wheat which was not ground. (Plinii Natur. Hist. 18. 7.) This is the mode still followed by the manufacturers of starch, and is no doubt the reason why the other constituents of wheat were so long in being discovered. About the year 1728 Beccaria, an Italian philosopher, discovered another constituent of wheat, to which the name of gluten has been given. His method of obtaining it was this: He took a quantity of flour, and formed it into dough with water; this dough he kneaded continually between his fingers, while a small stream of water dropt upon it.

He continued the kneading as long as the water ran off milky. By this process, the whole of the starch was washed away, and there remained in his hand a grey-coloured, elastic, and very adhesive substance, which was the gluten. (Collect. Academ. partie Etrang. 10. 1.) No other grain, besides wheat, contains gluten in any considerable quantity. Traces of it may be discovered in barley. But the gluten of barley cannot be separated by washing. It is obtained by solution in water. For gluten is soluble in a small proportion in cold water. But when that liquid is heated to 120° or 130° the gluten coagulates, and falls down in grey-coloured flocks. By this method gluten may likewise be discovered in the leaves of many trees.

The water employed to wash out the starch soon deposites that substance in the form of a white powder. If this water be now filtered, evaporated to a small quantity, filtered again to separate the coagulated gluten, clarified with white of egg, and then evaporated to the consistence of a syrup, it deposites,

Baking according to Mr Edlin, crystals of sugar in four-sided prisms, with dihedral summits. (Edlin on Bread Making, page 49.) If this experiment be correct, wheat contains a portion of common sugar. But we have great doubts respecting it. We scarcely believe it possible to obtain in regular crystals the very small quantity of sugar that must be contained in a pound of wheat by the process described by Mr Edlin, for he merely set the syrup aside to crystallize in a cool place. Common sugar thus treated would concrete into a hard mass, but would not crystallize. We believe that wheat flour contains a portion of saccharine matter, but it is a species different from common sugar. We have never, indeed, made any experiments on the sugar of wheat, but we have made a great many on the saccharine matter of barley, which we found similar in its properties to the sugar into which starch is converted by being long boiled in very dilute sulphuric acid. There is every reason to believe that the sugar in wheat is similar to that in barley. Now, the sugar in barley crystallizes in spheres similar to candied honey.

9. Starch, the first, the most important, and by far the most abundant constituent of wheat flour, is a white, crisp, crystalline-like substance, insoluble in cold water, but forming with hot water a thick paste, which has the property of gluing bodies together. If it be roasted on the fire till it assumes a brown colour, it becomes soluble in water, and acquires the properties of gum. If it be boiled for forty-eight hours in water, holding one-hundredth part of its weight of sulphuric acid in solution, it is dissolved and converted into a species of sugar. This sugar is heavier than the starch from which it was formed; the sulphuric acid remains unaltered; and no gaseous body is either absorbed or emitted. Hence it has been concluded, that this sugar is merely a combination of starch and water; and that the acid acts only by promoting the solution of the starch, without which it is incapable of uniting with water. Starch is one of the most nourishing articles of food, and is undoubtedly the portion of the wheat flour that renders bread so nutritive.

10. The gluten, the second constituent of wheat flour, is but small in quantity when compared with the starch. It is a grey substance, exceedingly elastic and adhesive. It is not sensibly soluble in water after it has been collected into an adhesive mass. Nor does it dissolve in alcohol or ether. When dried, it becomes brown and semitransparent, and when thrown on hot coals, emits a smell similar to that of burning horn. If it be put into a vessel, moist, and set in a damp place, it undergoes a species of fermentation. Bubbles of gas separate from it. After some days it becomes of a much thinner consistence, and then may be employed to agglutinate substances together. In about ten days or a fortnight, it acquires exactly the smell and taste of cheese, which it resembles in every thing but the colour, which is too dark. This caseous fermentation, if the expression may be permitted, distinguishes gluten from all other vegetable bodies with which we are acquainted. It is to the gluten that wheat flour owes the property of being converted into loaf-bread. All other grains are unfit for that purpose, but they become fit as soon

VOL. II. PART I.

as we add to them a sufficient quantity of gluten, or mix them with wheat flour. In this way barley, potatoes, and even turnips, may be made into very good bread.

11. The sugar is by far the smallest, in proportion, of all the constituents of wheat flour. If it be starch sugar, as we believe it to be, it possesses the following properties: It does not crystallize in prisms like common sugar, but assumes the form of spheres like honey. It is not so hard as common sugar, neither is it so soluble in water. Its sweetening power, according to Kirchhoff, is to that of common sugar as 1 to 24. But the most distinguishing property is that, when dissolved in water, it ferments of itself, without the addition of any yeast; whereas common sugar does not undergo that process unless yeast be mixed with its aqueous solution. Hence the reason why the dough of wheat flour ferments, and is converted into leaven. This fermentation does not take place if the saccharine matter be washed out of it by water, as Mr Edlin ascertained by direct experiment. The fermentation of wheat flour is at first confined to the saccharine matter. It first undergoes the vinous fermentation; here the process, if possible, ought to be stopped. But as this is usually not possible, the acetous fermentation commences, and vinegar is formed. Probably at last the starch itself is acted on, and occasions the bad taste of ill baked leavened bread, though this is doubtful.

12. As to the proportions of these three constituents, they differ so much in different kinds of wheat flour, that nothing precise on the subject can be determined. The greater the proportion of gluten, the better in all cases is the four. When the wheat has not fully ripened, or when it has been exposed to rain while lying on the field, the gluten cannot easily be separated from the starch by the process above described; nor does it form an elastic, adhesive mass; but a friable substance, distantly resembling the fibrous matter of potatoes. Hence the goodness of the flour may be determined by the state of the gluten. The writer of this article has repeatedly applied this test to London flour; but he has been always unlucky enough to find it decidedly bad. From the flour furnished by two or three different bakers in different parts of the town, he either was unable to obtain any gluten, or it wanted the adhesiveness which characterizes the gluten of good wheat. No doubt, there must be abundance of excellent flour in London; but we believe (and our opinion is founded on the bread, which, in general, is greatly inferior in goodness to the Edinburgh bread) that a very considerable proportion of the flour used is bad. The inhabitants of London pride themselves on the goodness of their bread; but never was any set of men more mistaken. The London bread is, indeed, whiter; but, in other respects, worse than any we have met with in Great Britain, except the bread baked in Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is very bad, owing entirely to the unskilfulness of the bakers.

To furnish an idea of the proportions of the constituents of flour in good wheat, we shall give the result of an analysis of Mr Edlin's. He separated a pound avoirdupois of wheat into the following ingredients:

F

Modes of

2

16 0

In this case, it appears that the gluten amounted to of the whole flour, the sugar was 4th part, the bran th, and the starch almost 3ds of the whole flour. 13. The yeast which is employed to ferment or preparing raise the dough is obtained in London from the brewYeast. ers of ale. In Edinburgh, the greatest part of the yeast used by the bakers is either prepared by these tradesmen themselves, or procured from those who manufacture yeast on purpose to supply the bakers. Various methods and various ingredients are used for this purpose; but the following method is, we believe, as good as any:

Add ten pounds of flour to two gallons of boiling water: stir it very well into a paste. Let this mixture stand for seven hours, and then add about a quart of yeast. In about six or eight hours, this mixture, if kept in a warm place, will have fermented, and produced as much yeast as will bake an hundred and twenty quartern loaves.

Yeast made in this way answers the purposes of the baker much better than brewers' yeast; because it is clearer, and free from the hop mixture, which sometimes injures the yeast of the brewer. Some years ago, the bakers of London, sensible of the superiority of this artificial yeast, invited a company of manufacturers from Glasgow to establish a manufactory of it in London, and promised to use no other. About L. 5000 accordingly were laid out on buildings and materials, and the manufactory was begun on a considerable scale. The ale brewers, finding their yeast, for which they had drawn a good price, lie heavy on their hands, invited all the journeymen bakers to their cellars, gave them their full of ale, and promised to regale them in that manner every day, provided they would force their masters to take all their yeast from the ale brewers. The journey. men accordingly declared in a body, that they would work no more for their masters unless they gave up taking any more yeast from the new manufactory. The masters were obliged to comply; the new manufactory was stopped, and the inhabitants of London were obliged to continue to eat worse bread; because it was the interest of the ale brewers to sell their yeast. Such is the influence of journeymen bakers in the metropolis of England!

What the substance in yeast is which induces fermentation has not yet been determined. Beer yeast may be dried, and kept in that state for a considerable length of time, and if moistened again with water, it becomes capable of acting as a ferment. If it be washed in alcohol, its fermenting power is destroyed. If it be kept in a moist place, it undergoes a change very similar to the caseous fermentation of gluten. But yeast and gluten are distinct substances; for gluten is incapable of producing the vinous fermentation. Sugar of starch ferments of itself when diluted with

water, and the juice of grapes also ferments of its Baking, own accord, because it contains a quantity of sugar similar to the sugar of starch.

But as far as baking is concerned, the knowledge of the peculiar substance which occasions fermentation is not material. The only useful purpose which fermentation in dough serves, is to generate a quantity of carbonic acid gas. If the dough be impregnated with this gas by any other method, fermentation is not necessary. Mr Henry of Manchester found, that if flour be kneaded into dough with water saturated with carbonic acid gas, the dough rises as well, and the bread is as light and well tasted as when it is baked with yeast. Hence, those bakers who live near Seltzer water, or any water impregnated with carbonic acid gas, may substitute that liquid for yeast, without injuring the quality of their bread. The quantity of salt contained in a quartern loaf, may be reckoned about an ounce avoirdupois, or 437 grains. If, instead of the ounce of salt, you dissolve in water 2 oz. 5 dr. 45 gr. of the common crystallized carbonate of soda, and mix the solution well with your dough; if you now add 7 oz. 2 dr. 22 gr. of muriatic acid, of the specific gravity of 1.121, and knead it as rapidly as possible with the dough, it will rise immediately, fully as much, if not more, than dough mixed with yeast, and when baked, will constitute a very light and excellent bread.

tion.

14. These examples are sufficient to explain what Panary is called the panary fermentation. There is, in fact, Fermenta no such thing as a fermentation peculiar to bread, But wheat flour contains a portion of saccharine matter, which readily undergoes the vinous fermentation. During this fermentation, carbonic acid gas is evolved in every part of the dough. This gas is prevented from escaping by the gluten, which forms every where through the dough an adhesive web, through which gaseous substances cannot make their way. Hence, the dough swells in every direction, the particles of starch are separated from each other, and by the heat of the oven, they are arrested in that position. So that the loaf, when cut, appears full of round and oblong cavities, each of which in the dough had been filled with a globule of carbonic acid gas. It is to the presence of these cavities that the bread owes its lightness, its agreeable taste, and its easy digestion. Even its colour is owing, in a great measure, to the same cause. For when loaves of wheat flour are baked without the addition of yeast, or the presence of carbonic acid, they constitute one solid, dark-coloured, disagreeable tasted mass, which has been found not only nauseous to the palate, but likewise of difficult digestion. These disagree able qualities are, in a great measure, obviated by converting the dough into thin cakes, and baking them rapidly on a hot iron plate over the fire. cordingly, this is the method followed, when wheat flour is converted into bread without fermentation.

Ac

Thus then the theory of bread making is completely Nutritive developed. Nothing can be simpler or more inge- Qualities of nious than the process followed by the baker. Nor Bread. ought the wonderful composition of wheat flour, which adapts it so well for the manufacture of bread, to be passed over in silence. Without the presence of the saccharine matter, the fermentation could not

Baking. be produced in it, carbonic acid gas would not be evolved, and the bread would be hard, heavy, black, and difficultly digestible. Without the presence of the gluten, the carbonic acid would make its escape as soon as formed, and the advantages of the fermentation would be lost. And, finally, without the presence of the starch in such a notable proportion, the bread would neither be a palatable nor a nourishing article of food. It has been supposed, indeed, that the gluten is the substance which renders bread so nourishing. But we conceive this to be a mistake. In the first place, its quantity, when compared with that of the starch, is trifling. And, in the second place, we know from other circumstances, that starch is peculiarly fitted for being the food of animals. Nearly one-half of the human race live almost wholly on rice, a grain which consists almost entirely of starch; and the small quantity of that grain which constitutes the daily food of an inhabitant of Indostan, and which supports his life, is truly astonishing.

Potatoe Bread.

15. As no other grain except wheat flour contains these three constituents, in the requisite proportions, it would be in vain to attempt to convert them into bread, by the same process as is followed by the baker in making wheaten bread. Potatoes, for example, contain no sensible quantity of saccharine matter. It would be in vain, therefore, to expect them to ferment, like wheat dough, when mixed with yeast. But we have little doubt, that mashed potatoes might be made into very good bread, if they were kneaded with water impregnated with carbonic acid gas, or still better, if, instead of common salt, the constituents of that substance were added in the proper proportions, as they have been already given in this article. Potatoes contain a very great proportion of water, and when boiled in water, they communicate a brown colour, and give the liquid a disagreeable taste and smell.

It is proper that this substance, which some have considered as of a poisonous nature, should be previously removed. Einhof has given us the following substances as the constituents which he found in potatoes:

Water

72.6

Dr Pearson's analysis is somewhat similar; only he obtained a greater proportion of water. Einhof found both tartaric and phosphoric acid in potatoes. The fibrous matter in potatoes seems to be a peculiar modification of starch It supplies the place of the gluten in wheat flour, and gives to the paste of potatoes considerable stiffness and adhesiveness. It is upon these properties that we found our opinion, that if the paste of potatoes were properly impregnated with carbonic acid gas, it would make a goodlooking and well tasted loaf. There is, however, the less occasion for this attempt, as potatoes, when properly boiled, constitute an agreeable substitute for bread, without any farther preparation. When

made into bread, they are always mixed with wheat flour. A mixture of two parts flour, and one potatoes, makes an agreeable bread, which cannot be distinguished from wheaten bread. The starch of potatoes is remarkably beautiful, and goes farther than wheat starch. We have been assured, that what is sold in the shops under the name of Indian arrow root, is nothing else than potatoe starch mixed with a little gum tragacanth. It is well known what an agreeable food this preparation is capable of furnishing.

Baking.

Rye is very much used as an article of food in Rye Bread. northern countries. In Sweden it constitutes almost the only bread of the common people not baked in loaves; but made up into cakes, which are usually as hard as wood. When baked into loaves, it has a brown colour and a sweetish taste, which gives it a considerable resemblance to gingerbread. Rye, according to the analysis of Einhof, is composed of the following constituents: Albumen Moist gluten

Mucilage

Starch

3.27

9.48

11.09

61.09

The saccharine matter present in this grain is probably sufficient to cause it to undergo fermentation. But the proportion of gluten is very small; probably not amounting to 3 per cent. Accordingly, when rye flour is washed in water, the whole of the gluten is dissolved in that liquid. Hence it is obvious, that, in order to make good rye bread, it ought to be mixed with a quantity of wheat flour. This kind of bread is very much used in the counties of Northumberland and Durham, and we have no doubt that it is both palatable and nourishing. Certainly it is very far superior to the rye cakes, used by the peasants in Sweden.

We have been told that rice flour may be made into loaf-bread. But we have never had an opportunity of seeing these loaves, and do not know how far they resemble those of wheat flour. Rice has never been subjected to chemical analysis. We do not know, therefore, what its constituents are; though there is every reason, from its properties, to consider it as almost entirely composed of starch.

State of the

16. Having now given a description of the method Assize of of baking bread, and explained the nature of the pro- Bread, and cess, we might here conclude this article. But it Bread trade may be of some utility, if we give a short statement in London. of the principal laws which have been enacted in Great Britain respecting bread, and if we endeavour to lay before the public the present state of the bread trade in London, and explain the abuses and frauds that are practised by those concerned in it in that capital. We despair of seeing these abuses rectified; but it is a great point at least to make them known.

In the period of English history, between the Norman conquest and the reign of Edward the First, the price of wheat fluctuated enormously. Thus, in the

Baking. 43d year of Henry the Third, it was sold for 20s., or

60s. of our money, a quarter. Multitudes of poor people were forced to live upon the bark of trees, and upon horse-flesh, and above twenty thousand died in London of famine. In the same reign, as ap⚫ pears from the statutes, the price of wheat was as low as 1s. a quarter. These prodigious fluctua

tions show the little communication at that time existing between the different countries of Europe. Farming must have been in a very low state in England. When wheat was very cheap, the farmer could not dispose of his crop, which lay rotting on his hands. When it was dear, there was such a scarcity, that he could hardly procure seed for sowing his fields, or was unable to afford money to purchase it.

It was conceived, that these evils would be, in a great measure, remedied by fixing the price of bread, which was accordingly done by a proclamation of King John. This absurd innovation being found ineffectual, it was repealed by the statute of assize, enacted in the 51st year of Henry the Third, anno Domini 1267. By this law, the price of bread was regulated by the price of wheat, and the baker was allowed 74d. for baking a quarter of wheat, and furnishing salt and the other ingredients which are added to bread; besides the profit which accrued from the additional loaves made from a quarter of wheat beyond what the statute allows. This money allow ance was gradually augmented to the baker in different reigns, according to the following statement:

This last regulation took place in the year 1798. By this act, the magistrates were enjoined to set the assize from a sack of flour, instead of a quarter of wheat, and to allow the baker 11s. and 8d. for his expences. The new duty on salt, during the French revolutionary war, raised this sum to 12s. at which it continued. By the act of Parliament, the baker was supposed to make 80 quartern loaves from the sack of flour; whatever greater number the sack produced was so much more profit to the baker.

Very particular laws were enacted, obliging the corn-factors to give in the quantities and prices of the flour sold, and the bakers the quantities and prices at which they bought it. Penalties were enacted to prevent false returns, to prevent adulterations and improper combinations between the bakers, or the corn-factors and bakers. The weight of the loaf was determined, and all loaves deficient in weight one ounce, or not marked with the letters W, S W, H, according to the quality of the bread, may be seized; and the baker, besides the loss of his bread, is subjected to a penalty. These laws are so numerous, and so minute, that it would be tedious to copy them. Nothing more would be learned from them but the

amount of the penalty for each offence, varying from Baking. L.50 to 1s., according to the supposed enormity of the transgression. It is the business of the magistrates in towns, and of justices of the peace in the country, to regulate the assize, and the price of bread is determined by the price of wheat, according to a table given in one of the acts. When that price varies 6s. the quarter, then the price of the loaf is varied one assize, or a halfpenny the quartern loaf. Magistrates likewise may alter the price of the loaf half an assize, or a farthing in the quartern loaf.

Whoever considers the indecent way in which oaths are administered in English courts (for it is upon the oaths of the bakers and corn-factors that the acts depend for the accuracy of the returns), and the little regard paid to them by merchants and manufacturers, partly in consequence of this indecency, partly in consequence of their multiplicity, and partly on account of the many absurd impediments that the Legislature has thrown in the way of merchants and manufacturers-whoever considers these things, will be at no loss to conclude, that all these checks, and penalties, and oaths, have entirely failed in producing the intended effects. In London, where the number of bakers is great, and the competition in consequence ought to ensure the best bread at the lowest possible price, the bread laws, by making the prices of all bakers the same, have destroyed this competition, have formed the bakers into a regular company, having occasional meetings to consult their peculiar interests, and have raised in them a spirit of honour, which makes them to consider it as unhandsome to undersell their neighbours. The price of flour is easily regulated between the bakers and the corn-factors, the consequence of which regulation is, that the quartern loaf is always 2d. dearer than in any other part of Great Britain. The reason assigned is, that the finest flour only is employed in London, and that the London bread is better than any other. The writer of this article is well aware of the contrary. The London bread is, in his opinion, nearly the worst bread in Great Britain; and the flour is greatly inferior to what is used by the bakers in Edinburgh. He has frequently examined flour purchased from bakers in both cities, and the Edinburgh flour, except in bad years, when the crop had been injured, was uniformly superior in quality to the London flour.

The magistrates of London have at last become sensible of the truth of these facts; and that the Government, by their officious interference, and their minute enactments, have injured instead of improved the quality of the bread. They have, in consequence, applied to Parliament, and by their influence, the assize on bread, as far as it affects London and its environs, has been taken off. But the good effects expected have not yet resulted from this judicious measure. The spirit of monopoly has been sunk so deep into the minds of the bakers by the assize laws, that some time must elapse before it be eradicated. dicated. It is said that they have a weekly meeting, and settle the assize privately in the same manner as it was before publicly done by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London. But this esprit de corps cannot continue very long. Where there are 1600 bas