Chapter XVII: Part 17

In England an act of parliament was passed in 1266 for regulating the price of bread by a public assize, and that system continued in operation till 1822 in the case of the city of London, and till 1836 for the rest of the country. The price of bread was determined by adding a certain sum to the price of every quarter of flour, to cover the baker's expenses and profit; and for the sum so arrived at tradesmen were required to bake and sell eighty quartern loaves or a like proportion of other sizes, which it was reckoned each quarter of flour ought to yield. The acts now regulating the manufacture and sale of bread in Great Britain are one of 1822 (Sale of Bread in the City of London and within 10 m. of the Royal Exchange), and the Bread Act of 1836, as to sale of bread beyond 10 m. of the Royal Exchange. The acts require that bread shall be sold by weight, and in no other manner, under a penalty not exceeding forty shillings. This does not, however, mean that a seller is bound to sell at any particular weight; the words quartern and half-quartern, though commonly used and taken to indicate a 4-lb. and 2-lb. loaf respectively, have no legal sanction. That is to say, a baker is not bound to sell a loaf weighing either 4 lb. or 2; all he has to do, when a customer asks for a loaf, is to put one on the scale, weigh it, and declare the weight. When bread is sold over the counter it is usual for the vendor to cut off and tender a piece of bread to make up any deficiency in the loaf. This is known as the "overweight." There is little doubt the somewhat misty wording of the bread acts lends itself to a good deal of fraudulent dealing. For instance, when bread is sold over the counter, two loaves may be 5 or 6 oz. short, while the piece of makeweight may not reach an ounce. The customer sees the bread put on the scale, but in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred does not trouble to verify the weight, and unless he expressly asks for 2 lb. or some specific weight of bread, it is very doubtful whether the seller, having satisfied the letter of the law by placing the bread on the scales, could be convicted of fraud. The provision as to selling by weight does not apply to fancy bread and rolls. No exact definition of "fancy bread" has ever been laid down, and it must be largely a question of fact in each particular case. All bakers or sellers of bread must use avoirdupois weight, and must provide, in a conspicuous place in the shop, beams, scales and weights, in order that all bread there sold may from time to time be weighed in the presence of the purchaser. The penalty for using any other weight than avoirdupois is a sum not exceeding L5 nor less than forty shillings, and for failing to provide beams and scales a sum not exceeding L5. Also every baker and seller of bread, delivering by cart or other conveyance, must be provided with scales and weights for weighing bread; but since the Weights and Measures Act 1889, no penalty is incurred by omission to weigh, unless there has been a request on the part of the purchaser. The acts also define precisely what ingredients may be employed in the manufacture of bread, and impose a penalty not exceeding L10 nor less than L5 for the adulteration of bread. (See further under ADULTERATION.)

Although the act of 1836 extends to the whole of the United Kingdom (Ireland excepted) out of the city of London and beyond 10 m. of the Royal Exchange, yet in many Scottish burghs this act is replaced by local acts on the sale of bread. These are in all cases of a much more stringent nature, requiring all batch or household bread to be stamped with the reputed weight. Any deficiency within a certain time from the withdrawal of the bread from the oven is an offence. The London County Council desired to introduce a similar system into the area under their jurisdiction, and promoted a bill to that effect in 1905, but it fell through. The bill was opposed not only by the National Association of Master Bakers, the London Master Bakers' Protection Society, and by the West End metropolitan bakers in a body, but also by the Home Office, which objected to what it termed exceptional legislation.

It may be noted that the acts of 1822 and 1836 define precisely what may and may not be sold as bread. It is laid down in section 2 that "it shall and may be lawful ... to make and sell ... bread made of flour or meal of wheat, barley, rye, oats, buckwheat, Indian corn, peas, beans, rice or potatoes, or any of them, and with any (common) salt, pure water, eggs, milk, barm, leaven, potato or other yeast, and mixed in such proportions as they shall think fit, and with no other ingredients or matter whatsoever."

_Sanitation of Bakehouses._--The sanitary arrangements of bakehouses in England were first regulated by the Bakehouse Regulation Act 1863, which was repealed and replaced by the Factory and Workshop Act 1878; this act, with various amending acts, was in turn repealed and replaced by the Factory and Workshop Act 1901. By the act of 1901 a bakehouse is defined as a place in which are baked bread, biscuits or confectionery, from the baking or selling of which a profit is derived. The act of 1863 placed the sanitary supervision of bakehouses in the hands of local authorities; from 1878 to 1883 supervision was in the hands of inspectors of factories, but in 1883 the supervision of retail bakehouses was placed in the hands of local authorities. Under the act of 1901 the supervision of bakehouses which are "workshops" is carried out by local authorities, and for the purposes of the act every bakehouse is a workshop unless within it, or its close or curtilage or precincts, steam, water or other mechanical power is used in aid of the manufacturing process carried on there, in which case it is treated as a non-textile factory, and is under the supervision of factory inspectors.

The more important regulations laid down by the act are: (1) No
water-closet, &c., must be within or communicate directly with the
bakehouse; every cistern for supplying water to the bakehouse must be
separate and distinct from any cistern supplying a water-closet; no
drain or pipe for carrying off sewage matter shall have an opening
within the bakehouse. (2) The interior of all bakehouses must be
limewashed, painted or varnished at stated periods. (3) No place on
the same level with a bakehouse or forming part of the same building
may be used as a sleeping place, unless specially constructed to meet
the requirements of the act. (4) No underground bakehouse (one of
which the floor is more than 3 ft. below the surface of the footway of
the adjoining street) shall be used unless certified by the district
council as suitable for the purpose (see Redgrave, _Factory Acts_;
Evans Austin, _Factory Acts_).

_Bread Sluffs._--As compared with wheat-flour, all other materials used for making bread are of secondary importance. Rye bread is largely consumed in some of the northern parts of Europe, and cakes of maize meal are eaten in the United States. In southern Europe the meal of various species of millet is used, and in India and China durra and other cereal grains are baked for food. Of non-cereal flour, the principal used for bread-making is buckwheat (_Fagopyrum esculentum_), extensively employed in Russia, Holland and the United States. The flour of pease, beans and other leguminous seeds is also baked into cakes, and in South America the meal of the tapioca plant, _Jatropha Manihot_, is employed. But, excepting rye, none of these substances is used for making vesiculated or fermented bread.

Quality of flour.

A normal sample of wheat-flour consists roughly of 10 parts of moisture, 72 of starch, 14 of nitrogenous matter, 2.25 of fatty matters, and 1.75% of mineral matter. Starch is thus the predominating component; it is not, however, the dough-forming ingredient. By itself, starch, when saturated with water, forms a putty-like mass devoid of coherence, and it is the gluten of the nitrogenous matter which is the binding constituent in dough-making, because when wetted it forms a more or less elastic body. The proportion of gluten in wheat-flour varies from 7 to 15%, but the mere quantity of gluten is by no means the only standard of the commercial value of the flour, the quality also counting for much. One of the functions of gluten is to produce a high or well-piled loaf, and its value for this purpose depends largely on its quality. This is turn depends largely on the variety of wheat; certain races of wheat are much richer in nitrogenous elements than others, but such wheats usually only flourish in certain countries. Soil and climate are undoubtedly factors in modifying the character of wheat, and necessarily therefore of the flour. The same wheat grown in the same soil will show very varying degrees of strength (i.e. of gluten) in different seasons. For instance, the north-western districts of America grow a hard spring wheat which in a normal season is of almost unequalled strength. In 1904 an excess of moisture and deficiency in sun in the Red River Valley during the critical months of June and July caused a serious attack of red and black rust in these wheat fields, the disease being more virulent in the American than the Canadian side of the valley. The result was that the quality of the gluten of that season's American spring wheat was most seriously affected, its famed strength being almost gone. Wheat from the Canadian side was also affected, but not nearly to so great an extent. Flour milled from hard winter wheat in the American winter districts is sometimes nearly as strong as the spring wheat of the North-west. Hungarian flour milled from Theis wheat is also very strong, and so is the flour milled from some south Russian spring wheats. But here again the degree of strength will vary from season to season in a remarkable manner. In the main each land has its own clearly marked type of wheat. While the United States, Canada, Hungary and Russia are each capable of growing strong wheat, Great Britain, France and Germany produce wheat more or less weak. It follows that the bread baked from flour milled from wheat from British, French or German wheat alone would not make a loaf of sufficient volume, judged by present British standards. As a matter of fact, except in some country districts, British bakers either use strong foreign flour to blend with English country flour, or, more frequently, they are supplied with flour by British millers milled from a blend in which very often English wheat has a small, or no place at all. If the baker's trade calls for the making of household bread, especially of the London type, he must use a strong flour, with plenty of staple gluten in it, because it is this element which supplies the driving or lifting force, without which a high, bold loaf cannot be produced. If the demand is for tin or (as it is called in many parts of the north of England) pan bread, a weaker flour will suffice, as the tin will keep it up. A Vienna loaf should be made with at least a certain proportion of Hungarian patent flour, which is normally the highest-priced flour in the market, though probably the bulk of the Vienna rolls made in London contain no Hungarian flour. A cake of flat shape can be very well made with a rather weak flour, but any cake that is required to present a domed top cannot be prepared without a flour of some strength.

Flavour of flour.

It is a general opinion, though contested by some authorities, that soft, weak flours contain more flavour than strong, harsh flours. The strong wheats of the American and Canadian North-West make less flavoury flour than soft red winter from the American South-West. It would not, however, be correct to say that all strong wheats are necessarily less full of flavour than weak wheats. Hungarian wheat, for instance, is one of the strongest wheats of the world, but has a characteristic and pleasant flavour of its own. Indian wheats, on the other hand, are not particularly strong, but are liable to give a rather harsh flavour to the bread. English, French and German wheats, when harvested in good condition, produce flour of more or less agreeable flavour. None of these wheats could be classified as strong, though from each of those lands wheat of fair strength may be obtained under favourable meteorological conditions. The Australasian continent raises white wheat of fine quality which has much affinity with British wheat--it is the descendant in many cases of seed wheats imported from England--but it is occasionally stronger. The resultant flour is noted for its sweetness. Both millers and bakers who are concerned with the supply of high-class bread and flour make free use of what may be termed flavoury wheats. The proportion of English wheat used in London mills is very small, but millers who supply West-End bakeries with what is known as top-price flour are careful to use a certain amount of English wheat, if it is to be had in prime condition. They term this ingredient of their mixture "sugar." London bakers again, with customers who appreciate nicely flavoured bread, will "pitch" into their trough a certain proportion of English country flour, that is, flour milled entirely or chiefly from English wheat, which under such conditions is strengthened by a blend of strong flour, a patent flour for choice. It has been objected that as English wheat contains a large proportion of starch, and as starch is admittedly destitute of flavour, there is no reason why flour milled from English wheat should possess a sweeter flavour than any other starchy wheat flour. Experience, however, has amply proved that well-ripened English wheat produces bread with an agreeable flavour, though it does not follow that all English wheat is under all conditions capable of baking bread of the highest quality. But it would be as fallacious to hold that weak flour is necessarily flavoury, as that all strong flour is insipid and harsh. Different wheats are undoubtedly possessed of different flavours, but not all these flavours are of a pleasing character. In some cases the very reverse is true. Californian and Australian wheats have occasionally aromatic odours, due to the presence of certain seeds, that will impart an objectionable flavour to the resultant bread.

While the essential character of particular wheats will account for a good deal of the flavour that may be detected in the bread made from them, the baking process must also be responsible to some extent for flavour. The temperature of the oven and the degree of fermentation must be factors in the question. It has been asserted that the same flour will bake into bread of very different flavour according as the fermentation is carried out slowly or quickly, or as the oven is hot or the reverse. A high temperature seems to have the effect of quickly drawing out the subtle essences which go to give flavour to the bread, but it is a question whether they are not subsequently rapidly volatilized and partially or wholly lost. The rapid formation of a solid crust is no doubt likely to retain some of these flavouring essences. A moist, or "slack," sponge, or dough, appears distinctly favourable to the retention of flavour, the theory being that under such conditions the yeast, having more room to "breathe," works more easily, and is therefore less likely to convert into food those soluble constituents of the flour which give flavour.

Colour of flour.

The colour of flour is a valuable, though not an infallible, index to its baking qualities. Thus, a flour of good colour, by which bakers mean a flour of bright appearance, white, but not a dull dead white, will usually bake into a loaf of good appearance. At the same time, a flour of pronounced white tint may bake into a dirty grey loaf. This has been particularly noted in the case of flours milled in Argentina. The colour of flour will vary from a rich, creamy white to a dull grey, according to its quality. The different shades are many and various, but the prevailing tints are comparatively few. Perhaps Blandy's classification of the colours as white, yellow, red, brown and grey is as serviceable as any. Each of these tints is directly caused by the presence of certain substances. White denotes the presence of a considerable proportion of starch, while a pronounced yellow tint proclaims gluten of more or less good quality. Red and brown are tints only found in flours of low grade, because they are sure proofs of an undue proportion of branny or fibrous particles. A greyish flour invariably contains impurities, such as crease dirt, from the wheat, the intensity of the tint varying in proportion to their amount. With regard to a yellow tint, though this always denotes the presence of gluten, it is difficult to estimate the baking quality of the flour by the shade of yellow. In the best Hungarian patent flour the whole sample will be suffused by an amber tint, known to Budapest and Vienna bakers as _gelblicher Stich_. Rolls baked from the best Hungarian flour will not infrequently cut yellow as if eggs had been used in making them up, though nothing more than flour, yeast and water has been employed. Strong flour milled from American or Canadian spring wheat is also yellowish in colour, but the tint is not so deep as with Hungarian flour. On the other hand, there are flours of no great strength, such as those from some Australian wheats, which are apt to look yellow. When the colour of flour is not maintained in the bread, the reason is generally to be found in the baking process employed. Colour is a fairly trustworthy, but not an absolute guide to the chemical composition of flour.

Damp and flour.

Unfortunately not all flour of good colour is sound for bread-making purposes. Wheat which has been harvested in a damp condition, or has been thoroughly soaked, by drenching showers previous to cutting, or has got wet in the stook, is liable, unless carefully handled, to produce flour that will only bake flat, sodden loaves. Wheat which has received too much rain as it is approaching maturity, and has then been exposed to strong sunlight, is peculiarly liable to sprout. This seems to happen not infrequently to La Plata wheat, and though wheat shippers in that country are usually careful to clean off the little green spikes, this outward cleansing does not remedy the mischief wrought to the internal constitution of the berry. Such wheat makes flour lacking in strength and stability. Its gluten is immature and low in percentage, while the soluble albuminoids are in high percentage and in a more or less active diastasic state. The starch granules are liable to have weakened or fissured walls, and the proportion of moisture and of soluble extract will be high. With regard to the beneficial action of kiln or other drying on damp flour, William Jago was convinced by a series of experiments that the gentle artificial drying of flour increases its water-absorbing capacity to about three times the amount of water lost by evaporation. On the other hand, a damp flour dried too quickly and at too great a heat is liable to be made more instead of less susceptible to diastasic changes.

_Alum._--Strictly speaking, when employed with weak and unstable
flours alum is a remedial agent. The popular idea that it acts as a
kind of bleacher of flour, having the faculty of converting flour that
is dark-coloured through containing a sensible proportion of branny
particles and woody fibre, into white-coloured loaves, is erroneous.
Its action as a producer of white bread is indirect, not direct,
though it is none the less effective. It seems to act as a brace to or
steadier of unstable gluten. If from the same wheat a certain
proportion of gluten be extracted and divided into two parts, of which
one is placed in a glass of water containing a strong solution of
alum, and the other in a glass of plain water, the gluten in the
latter case will become spent days and perhaps weeks before the sample
in the alumed water is disintegrated. The place of alum in the process
of fermentation is well marked. By holding together unstable gluten,
it checks the diastasic action, and the proportion of starch converted
into glucose (grape sugar) is reduced, with the result that a whiter
and more porous loaf is produced. It is generally admitted that by the
use of alum more or less eatable bread may be baked from flour which
otherwise could hardly be made into bread at all. Strictly, therefore,
this substance is not an adulterant, inasmuch as it is not a
substitute in any sense for flour. But it is admittedly unwholesome,
and therefore its legal interdiction for alimentary purposes is quite
justifiable. Another aspect of the use of alum is that it is employed
for the purpose of enabling bakers to use poor flour.

A fairly satisfactory test for alum in bread (or flour) is afforded by
an alkaline solution of logwood and a saturated solution of ammonium
carbonate. The presence of alum is shown by a lavender or full blue
colour. The depth of the tint is said to be a rough guide to the
quantity of alum present. According to Jago this test is so sensitive
that it has resulted in the detection of 7 grains of alum in a 4-lb
loaf.

Besides alum, small quantities of copper sulphate have been used for
checking diastasis and retarding fermentation. This substance has the
same effect as alum, but as all copper salts are active poisons, the
employment of copper sulphate is most strongly to be condemned.

_Lime-water._--The object of using either alum or copper sulphate is
to check over-rapid diastasis during fermentation. Baron Liebig
pointed out a much less objectionable means of attaining the same end
by means of lime-water, about 1-1/2 oz. of fresh quicklime being
dissolved in the water used for doughing one sack of flour. Bread made
in this way is said to be spongy in texture, of agreeable flavour, and
perfectly free from acidity. In the baked loaf the lime is transformed
into calcium carbonate (chalk) by the carbon dioxide resulting from
the panary fermentation. It is said that an increased yield of bread
may be obtained by the use of lime-water; the explanation may be that
lime-water, by retarding the degradation of the gluten and the
diastasis of the starch, increases the water-retaining power of the
flour, so that the same weight of flour yields a greater volume of
bread.

_Unvesiculated and Vesiculated Bread._--Wheaten bread may be divided into two main divisions, unvesiculated and vesiculated. The term vesiculated simply means provided with vesicles, or small membranous cavities, such as are found in all bread that has been treated by yeast, leaven or any other agent for rendering it spongiform in structure by the action of carbonic acid gas. Nearly all bread eaten by civilized folk is vesiculated, though there are different methods and processes for attaining this result. Into the category of unvesiculated bread enter such products as the Australian damper, a flat cake prepared from flour, water and salt, and baked in the hot ashes of a wood fire. The dough is spread on a flat stone and covered with a tin plate, while the hot ashes are heaped around and over it; the heat should not be much in excess of 212 deg. Fahr. The scone, the bannock and other similar cakes, still much appreciated in Scotland and the north of England, are also examples of unvesiculated bread. They are baked on hot plates or "griddles," on hearths, and sometimes in ovens. Biscuits differ from these cakes in the fact that they are baked by a high instead of a moderate heat. But they enter so far into the class of unvesiculated bread that they are generally prepared without the aid of any such aerating agent as carbon dioxide. (See BISCUIT.)

Vesiculated bread is now the only article of diet made from flour to which the term bread is applied, and there are various ways of producing the spongiform texture by which it is characterized. The ordinary and doubtless the most satisfactory way is by developing the carbon dioxide within the dough itself by the use of yeast (q.v.) or leaven, which sets up alcoholic fermentation, splitting up the saccharine matters in the flour into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The latter is retained by the dough and distends it, causing the bread to "rise." Or the carbon dioxide may be artificially introduced, as in the so-called "aerated" bread (see below), or it may be produced by the agency of certain chemicals, as for instance of baking powders.

Baking powders.

Such powders are mixtures which, under the influence of either water or heat, evolve carbon dioxide. These powders have been divided by Jago into three groups:--(1) _Tartrate_ powders, in which the acid constituent is either free or partly combined tartaric acid; (2) _Phosphate_ powders, in which the acid is some form of phosphoric acid; (3) _Alum_ powders. All these powders have a more or less aperient action on the human system. Tartrate powders have the disadvantage that both commercial tartaric acid and cream of tartar frequently contain lead, a poisonous substance. Phosphate powders are less open to objection, as they are more easy to obtain free from lead and other metallic impurities. Alum powders contain potassium bisulphate and alum. It is somewhat remarkable that while the presence of alum in bread is regarded by the law of England as adulteration, its use in baking powder was pronounced legal in _James_ v. _Jones_, 1894, 1, Q.B. 304, on the ground that baking powder is not food within the meaning of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act 1875. In making wholemeal bread, hydrochloric acid and sodium bicarbonate are often used in such proportions that they neutralize each other. Carbon dioxide is evolved and raises the dough. In preparing wholemeal bread the use of this combination has the advantage that the acid acting rapidly on the sodium bicarbonate soon produces enough carbon dioxide to aerate the dough, and thus hasten its entry into the oven. Wholemeal flour contains so large a proportion of cerealin that diastasis is apt to proceed rapidly, the result being a clammy, sodden loaf. For this reason, perhaps the so-called aerated process is even more suitable for making wholemeal than white bread.

Methods of making dough.

Methods of dough-making differ in different countries, and even in different parts of the same land. In the _off hand_ method the dough is made right off, without any preliminary stages of ferment or sponge. This plan is sometimes adopted for making tin bread, and occasionally for crusty loaves. For tin bread a strong flour would be used and made into a slack dough, and about 1-1/2 lb. to 2 lb. of distillers' yeast would be used for the sack (280 lb.) of flour, occasionally with the addition of a little brewers' yeast. Salt is used in the proportion of 3 lb. to 3-1/2 lb. per sack. Formerly also it was the custom to add 10-14 lb. of boiled potatoes, but the use of potatoes has greatly decreased. A tin-bread dough would be made slack, with about 70 quarts of water to the sack, and after being mixed, would be fermented at a temperature of 76-80 deg. Fahr. It should lie for about ten hours. A dough for crusty bread such as cottage loaves, would be made much tighter, not more than 60 quarts of water being allowed to the sack. It would be fermented at a higher temperature, and would not lie more than about six hours. A slack dough is much less laborious to work (when the dough is hand-made) than a tight dough, for which a mechanical kneader is very suitable, but as a matter of fact the use of machinery (see below) is still the exception, not the rule. When a stiff dough is made by hand, it is usually made somewhat slack to begin with, and then "cut back" and "dusted" at regular intervals, that is to say, more and more flour is added till a dough of the required consistency has been obtained. (In the British baker's vocabulary "dust" means flour, and good dust stands for good flour.) This system, on the one hand, saves the labour involved for "sponging" and other operations, and the bread is produced in less time; but on the other hand more yeast is used, and bakers generally hold that the system sacrifices the colour and texture of the loaf to convenience of working and yield. The high porportion of yeast enables the dough to carry a large quantity of water, and about 104 4-lb. loaves to the sack is said by Jago to be a not unusual yield in the case of slack doughs. But such a result would only be possible with very strong flour. In an ordinary way 96 loaves to the sack is a very high yield, unattainable except with strong flour, and probably the average yield is not more than 90 loaves to the sack. In London the manager of a "tied" shop is usually held to account for 92 loaves to the sack.

In the _ferment and dough_ system, the ferment usually consists of 10 to 14 lb. of potatoes to the sack of flour, boiled or steamed, and mashed with water, so as to yield about 3 gallons of liquor. There are several substitutes for potatoes, including raw and scalded flour, malt, malt extracts, &c.; brewers' or distillers' yeast may also be used. A ferment should contain saccharine matters and yeast stimulants in such a form as to favour the growth and reproduction of yeast in a vigorous condition. Hence it should not be too concentrated. About six hours are required for its preparation. It is added, together with 2 to 3 lb. of salt, to the dough, which is prepared with about 56 quarts of water to the sack, and worked at a temperature of 80-84 deg. Fahr. The dough is allowed to lie from two to five hours according to the flour used, the character of the ferment, and the working temperature. In this system the proportion of strong flour is usually reduced to 40% of the dough, and no doubt in some cases only soft or weak flours are used. Naturally the yield of bread is not so high as in the case of an off hand dough made entirely from strong flour, and it will probably not exceed 90 loaves to the sack. This method has many advantages. After the ferment is made the labour required is not much greater than with the off hand doughs, and less yeast is required, while potatoes, which are somewhat troublesome, from the necessary cleaning, can be replaced by the substitutes already mentioned. The method produces good-looking and palatable bread, though the loaves should be eaten within some twelve hours of leaving the oven.

The _sponge and dough_ system, which is probably in widest use in England, is adapted to almost every kind of bread, and has the advantage that any kind of flour can be employed. The stronger flours which need long fermentation can be and usually are used in the "sponge" stage, while soft flours are utilized in the dough. (The sponge is a certain proportion, varying from a quarter to one-half, of the flour necessary for making the batch.) In London the baker often uses for the sponge a bag (140 lb) of American spring wheat flour, and for the dough a sack (280 lb) of British milled flour, which, whether it be country flour milled largely from English wheat or London milled, is always softer and weaker than that used for the sponge. The sponge is made very slack, 26 to 32 quarts of water being used to say 100 lb. of flour. Yeast, either distillers' or brewers', must be added, in proportions varying according to its character and strength. Of distillers' yeast 6 to 10 oz. may be used for 280 lb. of flour (including sponge and dough). Salt is added to the sponge sparingly, at the rate of about 1/2 lb. to the sack of 280 lb. The object of making the sponge so slack is to quicken the fermentation. When set the sponge is allowed to ferment from six to ten hours, according to temperature and other conditions. Sometimes all the water it is intended to use is put into the sponge, which is then known as a "batter" sponge. The sponge, when ready, is incorporated with the rest of the flour to which the necessary amount of water and salt is added. The whole mass is then doughed up into the requisite consistency, the dough being allowed to lie for about two hours. Bread made by this method, always assuming that over-fermentation has been avoided, is of good appearance, presenting a bold loaf, with even texture and a nice sheen. Owing to the use of soft flours, the flavour should be agreeable, and the loaves ought to keep much longer than bread made by ferment and dough. The yield may rise as high as 96 loaves per sack, if strong flour has been used in the sponge.

A combination of the above two methods, known as the _ferment, sponge and dough_ system, is often used with brewers' yeast. In this case the yeast is not added to the sponge direct, but goes into the ferment. This method is rather in favour with bakers who make their own yeast.

The system of bread-making generally used in Scotland is known as the _flour barm, sponge and dough_. The barm is a combination of a malt and hop yeast, with a slow, scalded flour ferment. To make the so-called "virgin" barm a Scottish baker would use a 30-gallon tub; a smaller vessel for malt-mashing; 10 lb. malt; 3 oz. hops and a jar for infusing them; 40 lb flour; 2 to 3 oz. malt; 8 to 12 oz. sugar, and 18 gallons of boiling water. With these materials a powerful ferment is produced, which it is considered best to use in the sponge the fourth or fifth day after brewing. The sponges used in Scotland are "half" or "quarter." About 6 lb. of malt go to the sack, one-sixth going into the sponge. As in England, strong flours are used for the sponge, but rather stronger flours are used for the dough than is usual in England. Scottish loaves are largely of the "brick" type, high and narrow. Such bread has an attractive appearance and keeps well. It has a rather sharp flavour, approaching acidity but avoiding sourness, while the large quantity of malt used adds a characteristic taste. The yield rises in some Glasgow bread factories to 100 loaves to the sack.

Leavened bread.

In many parts of Europe bread is still made from leaven, which, properly speaking, consists of a portion of dough held over from the previous baking. This substance, known to French bakers as _levain_, is called in Germany _Sauerteig_ (_anglice_ "sour dough"). The lump of old dough, placed aside in a uniform temperature for some eight hours, swells and acquires an alcoholic odour, becoming the _levain de chef_ of the French bakers. It is then worked up with flour and water to a firm paste double its original volume, when it becomes the _levain de premiere_. Six hours later, by the addition of more flour and water its amount is again doubled, though its consistency is made rather softer, and it becomes the _levain de seconde_. Finally, by another addition of flour and water, the amount is again doubled, and the _levain de tous points_ is obtained. This mass is divided into two parts; one is baked yielding rather dark sour bread, while the other is mixed with more flour and water. This second portion is in turn halved, part is baked, and part again mixed with more flour, this last batch yielding the best and whitest bread. In North Germany leaven is generally used for making rye bread, and loaves baked from a mixture of wheat and rye flour. In the bakery of the Krupp works at Essen, each batch of the so-called Paderborn bread is prepared entirely with leaven from 270 kilos of rye flour (patent quality), 100 of wheat flour (seconds), 2 of buckwheat meal, 6 of salt, 5 of leaven, and one litre of oil. In Vienna leaven is never used for making the rolls and small goods for which that city is famous. Viennese bakers use either brewers' yeast or a ferment, prepared by themselves, of which the basis is an infusion of hops. Brewers' yeast is added to the ferment, which takes the form of a very slack dough. With 100 kilos (220.46 lb.) of flour about 17 litres or nearly 2 gallons of ferment are used.

Aerated bread.

In the original Dauglish process for the manufacture of aerated bread, which was brought into operation in Great Britain in 1859, carbonic acid gas was evolved in a generating vessel by the action of sulphuric acid on chalk, and after purification was forced at high pressure into water, which was then used for doughing the flour. In this process the flour that had to be made into bread was submitted to the action of the super-aerated water by direct transference. It was found, however, in practice that much difficulty occurred in making the gas admix readily with the flour and water, great pressure being required, and to lessen the difficulties a new process, called the "wine whey," was introduced. To carry this out, a vat placed on the upper storey of the factory is charged with a portion of malt and flour, which is mashed and allowed to ferment until a weak and slightly acid thin wine is produced; this after passing through the coolers is stored until it is transformed into a vinous whey. This whey is then introduced into a strong cylinder partly filled with water, and is aerated by letting in the gas (now stored in a highly compressed form in bottles), the pressure required being only a quarter of that necessary with the original method. The flour having been placed in the mixers, which are of globular form containing revolving arms, the aerated fluid is admitted, and in a short period the flour and fluid are completely incorporated. By means of an ingenious appliance termed a dough cock, the exact amount of dough for a single loaf of bread is forced out under the pressure of the gas, and by reversing the lever the dough, which expands as it falls into a baking tin, is cut off. Two sacks of flour can be converted with ease into 400 2-lb. loaves in forty minutes, whereas the ordinary baker's process would require about ten hours. At first a difficulty was encountered in the fact that the dough became discoloured by the action of the "wine whey" on the iron, but it was overcome by Killingworth Hedges, who discovered a non-poisonous vitreous enamel for coating the interior of the mixers, &c. It has been claimed for the Dauglish process that it saves the baker risks attendant on the production of carbon dioxide by the ordinary process of fermentation, in that he is no longer liable to have his dough spoilt by variations of temperature and other incalculable factors, the results being certain and uniform. A further claim is the saving of the proportion of starch consumed by conversion into glucose during the process of fermentation. The original objection, that, by the absence of fermentation, those subtle changes which help to produce flavour are lost, is annulled by the use of the wine whey process. The Dauglish process is well suited for producing small goods, such as cakes and scones, where flavour can be artificially imparted by means of currants, flavouring essences, &c. An undoubted advantage of the aerating process of bread-making is adaptability for utilizing flour with unstable gluten, which can thus be made into an excellent quality of bread. For wholemeal bread, too, there is probably no more suitable process than the Dauglish. The strong diastasic action of the cerealin, inevitable in fermentation, is entirely avoided. The Aerated Bread Company have about a hundred depots in London, which are supplied from a central factory.

Apostolov process.

The essence of the bread-making process recently invented by Serge Apostolov is the combination of a flour mill and bakery. The wheat, after a preliminary cleaning, is ground into flour by a mill composed of metal disks dressed, that is furrowed, very much like the surfaces of a pair of mill-stones. The disks are not set to grind very close, because it is desired, by minimizing friction, to keep the meal cool. From the middlings obtained by this milling process about 10% of bran is separated, and the remainder of the middlings is treated by a peculiar process, akin to mashing, termed "lixiviation." The middlings are saturated with tepid water containing a small proportion of yeast, which causes a certain amount of fermentation. It is claimed that by this process a solution is obtained of the floury constituents of the middlings. From the vats the solution is poured on an inclined sieve which has a gentle reciprocating motion. The floury particles pass through the meshes, while the bran tails over the sieve; the proportion of the wheat berry thus rejected is given as about 2-1/2%. On the other hand, the milky-looking solution, called "lactus," is caught in a special vessel, and delivered by a shoot into a trough, which may be either a mechanical kneader of an ordinary trough. This lactus takes the place of the ordinary sponge. The flour is added in the proportion necessary to make the required batch and the whole mass is doughed, either by hand or power. The resultant dough is moulded in the ordinary way into loaves, which are baked in due course. The advantages claimed for the process are that it permits of the utilization in bread-making of about 87-1/2% of the wheat berry, that the resultant bread is fairly white in colour and is agreeable in flavour, and that it is extremely simple and provides a ready and cheap means of flour-making.

_Machine Bakeries._--Bread-baking, though one of the most important of
human industries, was long carried out in a most primitive manner, and
machinery is still practically unknown in the bulk of British
bakehouses. The reasons for this apparently anomalous condition of
things are not very far to seek. Bread, unlike biscuits, is a food
quite unfitted for long storage, and must be consumed within a
comparatively short time of being drawn from the oven. Hence the
bread-baker's output is necessarily limited to a greater or lesser
degree. This will be the more apparent when it is considered that the
cost of distributing bread is high relatively to the profits to be
realized. A baker's bread trade is therefore usually limited to local
requirements, and trading on a small scale he has less inducement to
lay out capital on the installation of machinery than other classes of
manufacturers. But there are now many machine bakeries (known in
Scotland as bread factories), both in London and in other parts of
Great Britain, where the manufacture of bread is carried out more or
less on a large scale. The evolution of the machine bakery has been
slow, and the mechanical operations of the bakehouse were long limited
to the mixing of the sponge and the kneading of the dough, but now the
work of the bakery engineer extends over almost every operation of
bread-making.

A bread-baking plant should be installed in a building of at least two
storeys. The ground floor may be used for the shop, with possibly a
bread-cooling and delivery room at the rear. The flour may be hoisted
to an attic at the top of the building, or to the top floor; in any
case there must be sufficient floor space to accommodate the flour
sacks and bags. Underneath the floor of the flour store should be
installed a flour sifter, a simple apparatus consisting essentially of
a hopper through which the flour enters a cylinder with a spiral
brush, by which it is thoroughly agitated previously to passing
through one or more sieves placed under the brush. A sack of flour may
be passed through this sifter in a couple of minutes, the operation
freeing the flour from lumps and pieces of string or other foreign
substances which may have found their way into the sack. The sifter
may also be combined with a blender or mixer, so that the baker may by
its means thoroughly blend different flours in any desired proportion.
The operation of blending is usually effected by a revolving blade of
suitable design or by a worm conveyor placed underneath the sieve or
sleeve. From the sifter and blender the flour descends by a sleeve
into the dough kneading machine on the floor below. But in cases where
it is desired merely to sift and blend flour ready for future use, it
may be received in a worm and elevated again to the storage floor by
an ordinary belt and bucket elevator. The water required for doughing
purposes is contained in an iron tank, fixed to the wall in convenient
proximity to the dough kneader. This tank, known as a water
attemperating and measuring tank, is provided with a gauge and
thermometer, and from it the exact quantity of water needed for
doughing can be rapidly drawn off at the desired temperature. The cold
water supply may be let into the tank at the top, and the hot water
supply at the bottom, the idea being that each supply shall permeate
the whole mass by gravity, the hot water ascending and the cold
descending. The chief types of dough kneader will be described
subsequently, but here it should be noted that not only have machines
been devised for cutting out the exact sizes of dough required for
small goods, such as buns and tartlets, but that the operations of
weighing and dividing dough for quartern and half-quartern loaves can
also be neatly and economically effected by machinery. Further, at
least two machines have been built which successfully mould loaves (of
simple shape), and the problem of moulding household bread by
machinery has certainly been solved, but whether delicate twists and
other fancy shapes could be equally well moulded mechanically is less
certain.

The machine bakery, however complete, is not likely ever to be quite
automatic and continuous like a modern flour mill, where the plant is
connected throughout and virtually forms one machine (see FLOUR AND
FLOUR MANUFACTURE), and though the engineer has at least managed to
effect every operation of the bakehouse by mechanical means, it is not
yet possible to shoot a sack of flour into the hopper of the sifter on
the top floor, and to turn it into bread, without any human
intervention whatever, though as things are, the moulded dough can be
put into the oven without undergoing actual contact with human hands.
In practice, some of the machines mentioned above are often dispensed
with, even in so-called machine bakeries. The flour sifter and blender
is indeed found in many bakeries where mechanical kneaders are
unknown, while not in all machine bakeries would be found dough
weighers and dividers, still less moulding machines. The economical
side of the argument on behalf of machinery is presented in the
familiar shape that a properly equipped machine bakery can turn out
better work at a lower cost (by dispensing with labour), or at any
rate can carry on a bigger trade with the same staff. There is
plausibility in this argument, but it must be admitted that
innumerable bakeries of capacities varying from 10 to 20 sacks per
week are carried on more or less successfully without machinery of any
kind, beyond perhaps a sifter or blender. Moreover, some of these
bakehouses produce bread which can hardly be improved on.

One advantage claimed for flour sifters, besides removing the
impurities, is that by thoroughly aerating flour they cause it to
become more "lively," in which condition it kneads more readily. It is
also quite possible that the air which is thus incorporated with the
dough has a stimulating effect on the yeast, causing a more energetic
fermentation. A strong argument in favour of dough kneaders is their
hygienic aspect. It is agreed that the operation of dough stirring by
hand, since it involves severe labour conducted in a heated
atmosphere, must be liable to cause contamination of the dough through
emanations from the bodies of the operatives. In well-managed bakeries
the utmost personal cleanliness on the part of the staff is exacted,
but the unpleasant contingency alluded to is certainly possible. It is
also contended that the use of machinery for dough kneading and batter
whisking will ensure better work, in the sense that the mass under
treatment will be more thoroughly worked by mechanically driven arms
of iron or steel than by human limbs, liable to weariness and fatigue.
The better worked the dough, the greater its power of expansion, and
consequently the greater its bread-making value.

Dough kneaders.

The most widely known machine used in connexion with bread-baking,
next to the sifter, is the dough kneadcr. The dough kneader is no new
invention. As far back as 1760, a kind of dough kneader was
constructed in France by one Salignac. It is described as consisting
of a trough, inside which the dough was agitated by arms shaped
somewhat like harrows. This machine is said to have been tested before
a committee of the Academy of Sciences, who reported that in their
presence dough had been prepared in fourteen to fifteen minutes. The
bread baked from this dough is said to have been most satisfactory,
but for some reason the machine never came into general use. For one
thing, the power problem would have been almost insuperable to a baker
in the France of those days. In general design this kneader
approximated to the machines which have since done good work in
bakeries all the world over. Salignac was quickly followed by another
inventor, Cousin, also a Frenchman, who brought out in 1761, or
thereabouts, a dough-kneading machine, which, however, had no better
success than its predecessor. The first kneading machine which appears
to have been in actual use in a bakery was constructed by a Paris
baker of the name of Lembert, after whom it was called the Lembertine.
Lembert is said to have been experimenting with this apparatus as
early as 1796. Be that as it may, it was not brought out till 1810,
when a prize of 1500 francs (L60) was offered by the Societe
d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale. This reward was won by
Lembert, and his machine thereupon came into a certain amount of use
in France. It is remarkable that France long remained the only country
in which dough kneaders were employed, but even there their use was
limited.

The Fontaine, another French kneader, called after its inventor, was
first made in 1835. It had a certain success, but has long passed out
of use. It appears to have been a copy to a great extent of the
Lembertine. The objection against both these machines was that their
blades, while exercising a mixing action, were deficient in kneading
effect. Probably the first machine which achieved the task of
efficiently replacing the work of human arms in sponge breaking and
dough kneading was the Boland kneader. This was also a French machine,
and dates back to about the middle of the 19th century. It is believed
to have been first used in the Scipion bakery in Paris. It consists
essentially of a trough, inside which revolve a pair of blades so
arranged as to work somewhat like alternate screws: it is claimed for
these blades that their action has the effect of tossing the dough
backwards and forwards when it is slack, and of drawing it out when it
happens to be stiff. It is further claimed that the blades are so
shaped that their revolution has the effect of moving the dough from
right to left and left to right in the trough. The machine is geared
to give two speeds, the faster being suitable for sponge setting,
while the slow and most powerful speed is intended for the doughing.
The Boland machine has been widely adopted in other countries than
France, and was certainly one of the first dough kneaders to be used
in the United Kingdom. It was installed in the great Boland bakery in
Dublin, where it proved a great success. The proprietor of this
bakery, with which was also connected a flour mill, is said to have
had his attention first drawn to this machine by the fact that its
inventor was his namesake, though no relative.