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BREAD , the name given to the See also:staple See also:food-product prepared by the See also:baking of See also:flour. The word itself, O. Eng. bread, is See also:common in various forms to many See also:Teutonic See also:languages; cf. Ger. Brot, Dutch, brood, and Swed. and See also:Dan. brot; it has been derived from the See also:root of " brew," but more probably is connected with the root of " break," for its See also:early uses are confined to " broken pieces, or bits " of bread, the See also:Lat. See also:frustum, and it was not till the 12th See also:century that it took the See also:place, as the generic name of bread, of hlaf, " See also:loaf," which appears to be the See also:oldest Teutonic name, cf. Old High Ger. hleib, and See also:modern Ger. Laib.
See also:History.—Bread-baking, or at any See also:rate the preparation of cakes from flour or parched See also:grain by means of See also:heat, is one of the most See also:ancient of human arts. At Wangen and Robenhausen have been found the calcined remains of cakes made from coarsely-ground grain in Swiss See also:lake-dwellings that date back to the See also: To this See also:day a sort of cake prepared from crushed acorns is eaten by the See also:Indians of the Pacific slopes. The flour extracted from acorns is See also:bitter and unfit to eat till it has been thoroughly soaked in boiling See also:water. The saturated flour is squeezed into a See also:kind of cake and dried in the See also:sun. See also:Pliny speaks of a similar crude See also:process in connexion with wheat; the grain was evidently pounded, and the crushed remnant, soaked into a sort of pulp, then made into a cake and dried in the sun. See also:Virgil (Georgics, i. 267) refers to the See also:husband-See also:man first torrefying and then crushing his grain between stones:—" Nunc torrete igni fruges, nuns frangite saxo." The question naturally arises, how did the lake-dwellers See also:bake their cakes of bruised grain ? Probably the dough was laid on a See also:flat or See also:convex-shaped stone, which was heated, while the cake was covered with hot ashes. Stones have been found among prehistoric remains which were apparently used for this purpose. In ancient See also:Egyptian tombs cakes of See also:durra have been found, of concave shape, suggesting the use of such baking-slabs; here the cake was evidently prepared from coarsely-cracked grain. In See also:primitive times milling and baking were twin arts. The See also:house-wife, and the daughters or handmaids, crushed or ground the grain and prepared the bread or cakes. When See also:Abraham entertained the angels unawares (See also:Genesis xviii.) he bade his wife Sarah " make ready quickly three See also:measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the See also:hearth." See also:Professor See also:Maspero says that an See also:oven for baking bread was to be found in the courtyard of every house in See also:Chaldaea; See also:close by were kept the grinding stones. That bread prepared by means of See also:leaven was known in the days of the patriarchs may be fairly inferred from the passage in Genesis iii., where it is said of See also:Lot that he " made a feast, and did bake unleavened bread." Whether the shewbread of the Jewish See also:tabernacle was leavened is an open question, but it is significant that the See also:Passover cakes eaten by See also:Jews to-day, known as Matzos, are See also:innocent of leaven. Made from flour and water only, they are about 12 in. in See also:diameter, and have somewhat the look of water biscuits.
The ancient Egyptians carried the See also:art of baking to high perfection. See also:Herodotus remarks of them, " dough they knead with their feet, but See also:clay with their hands." The practice of using the feet for dough kneading, however repulsive, See also:long persisted in See also:Scotland, if indeed it is yet defunct. The Egyptians
used for their bread, wheat, spelt, barley and durra (See also:sorghum). In the See also:opinion of Dr See also:Wallis Budge, barley was in See also:Egypt the grain of most primitive culture. However that may be, it is certain that even in ancient Egypt See also: According to Pliny (Nat. Hist. xviii. 11. § 28) See also:Rome had no public bakers till after the See also:war with See also:Perseus (171–168 B.C.). That long after public bakehouses came into use the See also:Romans and other See also:urban dwellers in Italy continued to make a See also:great See also:deal of bread at See also:home is certain. In See also:Pompeii several private houses had their own See also: 100 the See also:college of Pistores (millers and bakers), but its members were employers, not operatives. The work of a bakery is depicted in a set of bas-reliefs on the See also:tomb of a See also:master Pistor named Eurysaces, who flourished about a century before the See also:foundation of the college. Here the grain is being brought and paid for; See also:mills driven by See also:horse and See also:ass (or See also:mule) See also:power are busy; men are sieving out the See also:bran from the flour by See also:hand (bolters); bakers are moulding loaves on a See also:board; an oven of domelike shape is being charged by means of a See also:shovel (See also:peel); and baskets of bread are being weighed on the one hand and carried off on men's backs on the other.
Regulation of See also:Sale.—In the See also:middle ages bakers were subjected to See also:special regulations in all See also:European lands. These regulations were supposed to be conceived in the interests of bread consumers, and no doubt were intended to secure See also:fair dealing on the See also:part of bread vendors. The legislators appear, however, to have been unduly biased against the See also:baker, who was often besetby harassing restrictions. Bakers were formed into See also:gilds, which were under the control, not only of their own officials, but of the See also:municipality. In See also:London the bakers formed a brotherhood as early as 1155, and were incorporated in 1307. There were two distinct corporate bodies concerned with bread-making, the See also:Company of White Bakers and the Company of See also: He would have us believe that it was the See also:custom of master bakers to keep a second hand, who, in See also:consideration of a small increase of his weekly wage, was willing to appear before the See also:cadi in See also:case a victim were wanted. A barbarous punishment, inflicted in Turkey and in Egypt on bakers who sold See also:light or adulterated bread, consisted in nailing the See also:culprit by his See also:ear to the See also:door-See also:post of his See also:shop. In See also:France a See also:decree of 1863 relieved bakers from many of the restrictions under which they previously suffered, 'wt it did not See also:touch the See also:powers of the municipalities to regulate the quality and sale of bread. It See also:left them the right conferredin 1791, to enforce the taxe du See also:pain, the See also:object of which was to prevent bakers from increasing the See also:price of bread beyond a point justified by the price of the raw materials; but the right was exercised on their own responsibility, subject to See also:appeal to higher authorities, and by a circular issued in 1863 they were invited to abolish this taxe ofjIcielle. In places where it exists it is fixed every See also:week or fortnight, according to the See also:average price of grain in the See also:local markets. In See also:England an See also:act of See also:parliament was passed in 1266 for regulating the price of bread by a public See also:assize, and that See also:system continued in operation till 1822 in the case of the city of London, and till 1836 for the See also:rest of the See also:country. The price of bread was determined by adding a certain sum to the price of every See also:quarter of flour, to See also: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 See also:Britain are one of 1822 (Sale of Bread in the City of London and within 10 m. of the Royal See also: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 See also:penalty not exceeding See also:forty shillings. This does not, however, mean that a seller is See also:bound to sell at any particular weight; the words quartern and See also:half-quartern, though commonly used and taken to indicate a 4-lb and 2-lb loaf respectively, have no legal See also: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 See also:scale, weigh it, and declare the weight. When bread is sold over the See also:counter it is usual for the vendor to cut off and See also: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 See also:good deal of fraudulent dealing. For instance, when bread is sold over the counter, two loaves may be 5 or 6 oz. See also:short, while the piece of makeweight may not reach an See also:ounce. The customer See also:sees the bread put on the scale, but in ninety-nine cases out of a See also: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 See also:letter of the See also:law by placing the bread on the scales, could be convicted of See also:fraud. The See also:provision as to selling by weight does not apply to See also:fancy bread and rolls. No exact See also: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 See also:avoirdupois weight, and must provide, in a conspicuous place in the shop, beams, scales and weights, in See also: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 £5 nor less than forty shillings, and for failing to provide beams and scales a sum not exceeding 5. Also every baker and seller of bread, delivering by See also:cart or other See also: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 See also: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 £10 nor less than £5 for the See also:adulteration of bread. (See further under ADULTERATION.) Although the act of 1836 extends to the whole of the United See also:Kingdom (See also: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 See also: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 See also:County See also:Council desired to introduce a similar system into the See also:area under their See also:jurisdiction, and promoted a See also:bill to that effect in 1905, but it See also:fell through. The bill was opposed not only by the See also:National Association of Master Bakers, the London Master Bakers' See also:Protection Society, and by the See also:West End See also:metropolitan bakers in a body, but also by the Home See also: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 See also:section 2 that " it shall and may be lawful . . . to make and sell . . . bread made of flour or meal of wheat, barley, See also:rye, oats, See also:buckwheat, See also:Indian See also:corn, peas, beans, See also:rice or potatoes, or any of them, and with any (common) See also:salt, pure water, eggs, See also:milk, harm, leaven, See also:potato or other yeast, and mixed in such proportions as they shall think See also:fit, and with no other ingredients or See also: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 Igor. By the act of 16o1 a bakehouse is defined as a place in which are baked bread, biscuits or See also: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 See also:retail bakehouses was placed in the hands of local authorities. Under the act of Igor 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 See also:curtilage or precincts, See also:steam, water or other See also: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 See also:separate and distinct from any cistern supplying a water-closet; no drain or See also: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 See also:building may be used as a sleeping place, unless specially constructed to meet the requirements of the act. (4) No under-ground bakehouse (one of which the See also:floor is more than 3 ft. below the surface of the footway of the adjoining See also:street) shall be used unless certified by the See also:district council as suitable for the purpose (see See also:Redgrave, Factory Acts; See also:Evans See also:Austin, Factory Acts).
Bread Stuffs.—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 See also:northern parts of See also:Europe, and cakes of See also:maize meal are eaten in the United States. In See also:southern Europe the meal of various See also:species of See also:millet is used, and in See also:India and See also:China durra and other cereal grains are baked for food. Of non-cereal flour, the See also:principal used for bread-making is buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum), extensively employed in See also:Russia, See also: 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 wheatsusually only flourish in certain countries. See also:Soil and See also:climate are undoubtedly factors in modifying the See also: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 See also:north-western districts of America grow a hard See also:spring wheat which in a normal See also:season is of almost unequalled strength. In 1904 an excess of moisture and deficiency in sun in the Red See also:River Valley during the See also:critical months of See also:June and See also:July caused a serious attack of red and See also:black See also:rust in these wheat See also:fields, the disease being more virulent in the See also:American than the See also:Canadian See also: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 See also: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 See also:Russian spring wheats. But here again the degree of strength will vary from season to season in a remarkable manner. In the See also:main each See also:land has its own clearly marked type of wheat. While the United States, See also:Canada, See also:Hungary and Russia are each capable of growing strong wheat, Great Britain, France and See also:Germany produce wheat more or less weak. It follows that the bread baked from flour milled from wheat from See also:British, See also:French or See also:German wheat alone would not make a loaf of sufficient See also:volume, judged by See also:present British See also:standards. As a matter of fact, except in some country districts, British bakers either use strong See also:foreign flour to blend with See also: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 See also:element which supplies the See also:driving or lifting force, without which a high, bold loaf cannot be produced. If the demand is for See also:tin or (as it is called in many parts of the north of England) See also: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 See also: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. It is a See also: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 Flavour of f/oun 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 See also: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 See also: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 See also:continent raises white wheat of fine quality which has much See also:affinity with British wheat—it is the descendant in many cases of See also: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 See also:supply of high-class bread and flour make See also: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 See also:prime condition. They See also:term this ingredient of their mixture " See also:sugar." London bakers again, with customers who appreciate nicely flavoured bread, will " See also: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 4f starch, and as starch is admittedly destitute of flavour, there is no See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 favour-able to the retention of flavour, the theory being that under such conditions the yeast, having more See also:room to " breathe," See also:works more easily, and is therefore less likely to convert into food those soluble constituents of the flour which give flavour. The See also:colour of flour is a valuable, though not an infallible, See also:index to its baking qualities. Thus, a flour of good colour, by which bakers mean a flour of See also:bright See also:appearance, white, Colour of flour, ur. 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 See also:grey loaf. This has been particularly noted in the case of flours milled in See also: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 See also:classification of the See also: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 See also: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 See also:amber tint, known to.See also: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 See also: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. Colouris a fairly trustworthy, but not an See also:absolute See also:guide to the chemical See also:composition of flour.
Unfortunately not all flour of good colour is See also:sound for bread-making purposes. Wheat which has been harvested in a See also:damp condition, or has been thoroughly soaked, by drenching showers previous to cutting, or has got wet in the stook, nourp and is liable, unless carefully handled, to produce flour that will only bake flat, sodden loaves. Wheat which has received too much See also: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 See also:Plata wheat, and though wheat shippers in that country are usually careful to clean off the little See also:green spikes, this outward cleansing does not remedy the See also:mischief wrought to the See also:internal constitution of the See also: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 See also:state. The starch granules are liable to have weakened or fissured walls, and the proportion of moisture and of soluble See also:extract will be high. With regard to the beneficial See also:action of See also:kiln or other drying on damp flour, See also: Its action as a producer of white bread is indirect, not See also:direct, though it is none the less effective. It seems to act as a See also: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 See also:glass of water containing a strong See also:solution of alum, and the other in a glass of See also:plain water, the gluten in the latter case will become spent days and perhaps See also: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 See also:glucose (See also: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 See also:interdiction for alimentary purposes is See also:quire 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 See also:logwood and a saturated solution of ammonium carbonate. The presence of alum is shown by a See also:lavender or full See also:blue colour. The See also: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, See also: The dough is spread on a flat stone and covered with a tin See also:plate, while the hot ashes are heaped around and over it; the heat should not be much in excess of 212° Fahr. The See also:scone, the See also: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 pfates 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 See also:BISCUIT.) Vesiculated bread is now the only See also:article of See also: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 See also: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 See also: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. Such powders are mixtures which, under the See also:influence of either water or heat, evolve carbon dioxide. These powders have been divided by Jago into three See also:groups:—(r) 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 See also:tartar frequently contain See also: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 See also: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 See also:powder was pronounced legal in See also: This See also: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 12 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 31- lb per sack. Formerly also it was the custom to add ro-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 76-8o° Fahr. It should See also:lie for about ten See also:hours. A dough for crusty bread such as cottage loaves, would be made much tighter, 469 not more than 6o 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 See also: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 See also: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, See also: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 See also: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 21 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° 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 4o i~ 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 " See also: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 (14o 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 roo 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 ro 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 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 Baking powders. Methods of making dough. 470 hours, according to temperature and other conditions. Some-times all the water it is intended to use is put into the sponge, which is then known as a " See also: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 See also: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 See also:barm, sponge and dough. The harm is a combination of a malt and See also:hop yeast, with a slow, scalded flour ferment. To make the so-called " virgin " harm a Scottish baker would use a 3o-See also:gallon tub; a smaller See also:vessel for malt-mashing; to lb malt; 3 oz. hops and a See also: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 See also:fourth or fifth day after See also:brewing. The See also:sponges used in Scotland are " half " or " quarter." About 6 lb of malt go to the sack, one-See also: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 " See also:brick" type, high and narrow. Such bread has an attractive appearance and keeps well. It has a rather See also:sharp flavour, approaching acidity but avoiding sourness, while the large quantity of malt used adds a characteristic See also:taste. The yield rises in some See also:Glasgow bread factories to too loaves to the sack. 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, Leavened known to French bakers as levain, is called in Germany bread. Sauerteig (anglice " sour dough "). The lump of old dough, placed aside in a See also: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 See also:firm See also:paste See also:double its See also: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 tons 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 See also:Krupp works at See also:Essen, each batch of the so-called See also:Paderborn bread is prepared entirely with leaven from 270 kilos of rye flour (patent quality), too 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 roo kilos (220.46 lb) of flour about 17 litres or nearly 2 gallons of ferment are used. 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 theaction of sulphuric acid on chalk, and after See also: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 Aerated bread. 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 " See also:wine whey," was introduced. To carry this out, a vat placed on the upper See also: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 trans-formed into a vinous whey. This whey is then introduced into a strong See also: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 See also:period the flour and fluid are completely incorporated. By means of an ingenious appliance termed a dough See also:cock, the exact amount of dough for a single loaf of bread is forced out under the pressure of the gas, and by See also:reversing the See also: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 See also:iron, but it was overcome by Killingworth Hedges, who discovered a non-poisonous vitreous See also: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 See also:production of carbon dioxide by the ordinary process of fermentation, in that he is no longer liable to have his dough spoilt by See also:variations of temperature and other incalculable factors, the results being certain and uniform. A further claim is the saving of the See also:pro-portion of starch consumed by See also:conversion into glucose during the process of fermentation. The original objection, that, by the See also: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. 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 See also:metal disks dressed, that Apostolov is furrowed, very much like the surfaces of a pair of process. mill-stones. The disks are not set to grind very close, because it is desired, by minimizing See also:friction, to keep the meal cool. From the middlings obtained by this milling process about ro % of bran is separated, and the See also:remainder of the middlings is treated by a See also: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 See also:sieve which has a gentle reciprocating See also: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 24-- %. 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 872 % of the wheat berry, that the resultant bread is fairly white in colour and is agreeable in flavour, and that it is extremely See also:simple and provides a ready and cheap means of flour-making. See also:Machine Bakeries.—Bread-baking, though one of the most important of human See also: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 See also: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 See also:lay out See also:capital on the See also: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 See also:evolution of the machine bakery has been slow, and the mechanical operations of the bake-house 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 See also:rear. The flour may be hoisted to an See also:attic at the top of the building, or to the top door; in any case there must be sufficient floor space to accommodate the flour sacks and bags. Underneath the floor of the flour See also:store should be installed a flour sifter, a simple apparatus consisting essentially of a hopper through which the flour enters a cylinder with a See also:spiral See also:brush, by which it is thoroughly agitated previously to passing through one or more See also: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 See also: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 See also:design or by a See also:worm conveyor placed underneath the sieve or See also: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 See also:belt and bucket elevator. The water required for doughing purposes is contained in an iron ank, fixed to the See also:wall in convenient proximity to the dough kneader. This tank, known as a water attemperating and measuring tank, is provided with a See also:gauge and thermometer, and from it the exact quantity of water needed for doughing can be rapidly drawn off at the desired temperature. The See also: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 See also:chief types of dough kneader will be described subsequently, but here it should be noted that not only have See also: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 co also be neatly and economically effected by machinery. Further, it least two machines have been built which successfully See also: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, stillless moulding machines. The economical side of the See also:argument on behalf of machinery is presented in the See also:familiar shape that a properly equipped machine bakery can turn out better work at a See also: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 to 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 See also: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 See also:atmosphere, must be liable to cause contamination of the dough through emanations from the bodies of the operatives. In well-managed bakeries the utmost See also: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 See also: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. The most widely known machine used in connexion with bread-baking, next to the sifter, is the dough kneader. The dough kneader is no new invention. As far back as 176o, a kind of dough Dough kneader was constructed in France by one Salignac. It kneaders. 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 See also:committee of the See also: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, See also: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 See also: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 181o, when a See also:prize of 1500 francs (6o) was offered by the Societe d'Encouragement pour 1'Industrie Nationale. This See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 See also:attention first drawn to this machine by the fact that its inventor was his namesake, though no relative. The Deliry-Desboves dough kneader, also of French origin, and in general use in France, consists essentially of a See also:cast iron trough, shaped somewhat like a See also:basin, and turning on a See also:vertical See also:axis. The kneading arms inside the trough are shaped after the See also:pattern of a See also:lyre, and have the effect of first working up and then dividing the dough right through the kneading process. Two helical blades, which also form part of the mechanism, serve to draw out and aerate the dough, as effectively, it is claimed, as can be done by the most skilled operative. The force of the kneading operations can be regulated without stopping the machine. A thoroughly kneaded dough can, it is said, be made in this machine in twelve to fifteen minutes. In Great Britain the type of machine that used to be most in favour was the trough within which the kneading arms worked on See also:horizontal axis. The trough was either open or provided with a lid. The kneading blades were variously shaped, but generally were more or less straight, and were designed to both mix and aerate the dough. In some cases the kneading blades were worked on a single axis, in others two different sets of arms worked on two axes See also:running parallel to one another. Generally the kneader was geared to two speeds, the fast motion being most suitable for sponge setting, and the earlier stages cf dough-making, while the slower motion was intended to draw out and thoroughly aerate the dough. To See also:discharge the dough, the trough was tilted by means of a worm and worm See also:wheel, the latter being secured to the trough. Several variations of this type of kneader are still in use. The machine known as the " Universal " kneader consists of a trough set horizontally, within which rotate on horizontal axes a pair of blades lying in the same See also:plane. These blades are curved and are geared together by means of See also:differential See also:spur wheels, with the object of running the two spindles at unequal speeds. The bottom of the trough is divided into two semi-cylindrical cavities, separated by a See also:ridge. Each blade plunges into its own cavity, and the action of these arms tends, while pressing the dough against the sides and See also:base of the trough, to bring it quickly back towards the centre. The differential speed has the advantage of effecting a more thorough mixing of the dough, as it brings together pieces of dough which have not yet been mingled, the blades pushing the dough from one cavity to the other. To hasten the kneading process it is desirable occasionally to reverse the motion by a turn of a hand wheel on the same See also:shaft as the two pulleys. This wheel governs all the motions of the blades. The trough, which is set low, is tilted over, when the dough is ready, by an endless See also:chain operated by a hand winch. The effort required for this operation is very slight, as the trough is balanced by two weights. The action of tilting does not interfere with the blades, which continue rotating until stopped by the hand wheel. The Universal kneader was designed to imitate as closely as possible the action of a pair of skilled human arms and hands, but of course works at a much greater speed. . Another form of dough mixer which is extensively used consists simply of a See also:drum made of See also:sheet steel supported by two A-shaped standards at a sufficient height from the floor to allow a trough to be run underneath to receive the dough when ready for the moulding board. In this drum are two tight-fitting doors. The interior is fitted with no blades or knives, but presents a free cylindrical space, with the See also:sole exception that, set not very far from the circumference, there are several fixed rods passing from one side of the drum to the other. These act as mixers of the dough. The door is opened and the flour and water poured in, whereupon the door is again fastened and the drum is made to rotate. As the rotation proceeds, the dough begins to form, and being lifted up by the revolving drum falls by its own weight. In this process, which is repeated again and again, the dough is caught by and tumbled over by the rods, which act as mixers and take the place of the revolving arms of the trough kneader. The kneading action of the rotating arms is absent, but the steady tumbling over these rods appears to have a thorough mixing effect, and the dough is discharged from the drum in good condition for moulding. The time occupied for making a dough by this apparatus varies from four to six minutes. The advantages claimed for this machine are that it consumes comparatively little power, and that there is not so much danger of " See also:felling " or over-kneading dough as in some of the machines with revolving blades. The compactness of this rotating drum mixer, often known as the Rotary mixer, recommends it on shipboard and in other places where space is limited. In the earlier days of machine bakeries the accurate dividing of dough, and still more the moulding of loaves by mechanical means, Dough was considered an unattainable ideal. The first step in dividers this direction was made by the See also:Lewis-Pointon dough and divider and weigher, which was intended for dividing and moulders. weighing out dough ready for the moulding table. In an ordinary way a baker who wishes to bake a batch of halfquartern or 2-lb loaves scales off 2 lb 2 oz. of dough for each loaf. The 2 oz. are a sort of See also:insurance against light weight. The evaporation of moisture from dough in the oven is bound to reduce to some extent the weight of the baked loaf, but with normally baked bread, 2 lb 2 oz. in the case of half-quarterns, and 4 lb 4 oz. in the case of quartern loaves, is sufficient to ensure full weight. As the accurate scaling of dough requires some pains and trouble, it would be surprising if hand scaling were always accurate. The Lewis-Pointon machine can, it is claimed, be set to turn out lumps of dough of the exact weight required either for i-lb, 2-lb, or 4-lb loaves. The apparatus does not measure the dough by weight but by volume by an ingenious See also:piston arrangement. The machine when first put on the market was a little complicated, but its mechanism has since been simplified. It has been successfully worked on doughs of all descriptions, ranging from the tightest to those made with 20gallons of water to the sack. The same firm which brought out this dough divider has also produced a dough-moulding machine, which has a wide range of work. In this apparatus the dough is introduced between a trough and a revolving table at a point on the See also:outer periphery of the latter. The order of things observed in hand moulding is here reversed, as the trough, unlike the hand, is fixed, while the table revolves around a vertical axis. This table is sharply coned, and can be made to work the dough as much or as little as may be required. In working dough for tin or See also:Coburg loaves only one trough is used, but for cottage loaves two parallel troughs are fitted, one taking the lower and the other the upper half of the loaf. In the latter case, a single piece of dough is fed into the machine and passed through an automatic splitter, the two portions being automatically carried into the troughs and simultaneously delivered at the other side of the machine ready to be put together. With doughs which require " handing-up," two machines may be used for moulding, the dough being automatically fed from the divider to the handing-up machine, and after a short See also:proof passed through the finisher. But the moulding machine may also be used as a " hander-up." Another ingenious dough moulder, known as the Baker-Callow, works on a rather different principle. Here the pieces of dough coming from the divider are fed into the moulder by a See also:canvas See also:band, and are worked between a large cylindrical See also:roller and a vertically running canvas and See also:leather belt. To prevent pieces from dropping through, and to assist the moulding process, a smaller roller is placed under and between the cylindrical roller and canvas belt. A wooden puncher also assists in working the loaves, which are finished by being rolled between a band and a special shaped wooden moulding. This machine delivers the dough in spherical shaped pieces. If intended for cottage bread they are at once placed on the dough table at the side, and one piece is put on the top of the other ready for the oven. It is claimed the machine will deal equally well with large and small pieces at the same time, so that the tops and bottoms can be made together. Should the machine be intended for tinned bread, a special See also:attachment is used, ipto which the spherical pieces are delivered from the machine and rolled into cylindrical shapes, ready to be dropped into the pan. A capacity of sixty loaves per See also:minute is claimed for this moulder. Ovens.—The ordinary baker's oven is a vaulted chamber, about io ft. in length, by 8 ft. in width and 3o in. in height ; it is constructed of brick or stone, and has a small door in front through which the oven is charged (by means of a " peel " or long wooden shovel) and the batch withdrawn. The See also:furnace and fire-See also:grate are often placed at the side of the oven door, but with the oldest ovens, which were heated by wood, there generally was only one door for the See also:fuel and for the bread. Whether the furnace is heated by See also:coal, as is usual in England, or by See also:coke, as is often the case in Scotland, the oven mouth remains in the bakehouse itself; hence the stoking and scuffling must be carried out within the bakehouse. This is in many ways objectionable. For one thing, the fuel must almost of See also:necessity be kept in the bakehouse itself, and it is obvious that the products of See also:combustion are liable to get into the oven. In the old type of oven a flue was frequently placed on the other side of the furnace door, both furnace and flue being on the front of the oven. After firing the furnace, the oven is allowed to " lie down " for a certain time, and secure an even See also:distribution of heat. The furnace and flue are then shut, and the oven charged, the batch being baked by the heat stored within the oven chamber. With ovens of this type, each batch of bread requires a separate firing. This kind of oven has undergone several improvements of detail, but the principle of internal See also:heating, that is, of firing the furnace inside the bakehouse, has remained unchanged. A new era in bakers' ovens began about the middle of the l9th century with the introduction of the " See also:Perkins " oven, a system which, with slight modifications, has persisted till to-day. In this oven the baking chamber is heated by steam pipes. The latter consist of tubes of iron or mild steel which are partly filled with water and are hermetically sealed by welded ends. The pipes are arranged in two parallel rows, the one at the See also:crown and the other at the sole of the oven. The pipes project at one end into the furnace, which is set at the back of the oven and is usually outside the bake-house. This is termed an externally heated oven. As the ends of the pipes get red hot the water is converted into superheated steam, which being under high pressure soon raises the chamber to baking heat, say 450° to 500° F. In an oven of this description the heat can be continuously maintained, and batch after batch can be baked without refiring. The only See also:drawback is that a flash heat cannot be raised. In another type of externally fired oven the heat is conveyed by flues placed at the bottom and top of the oven, which discharge into a See also:chimney. Excellent results have been attained with ovens of this kind. The distribution of the heat can be well regulated; for instance, it is quite possible to build ovens to be cooler at the back than front, an arrangement which is useful when the bread is withdrawn by means of a hand peel. As the baker has to withdraw each loaf one at a time, it is clear that the withdrawal of the batch through the oven door must take time, probably not less than halfan-See also:hour. Hence the bread drawn from near the oven's mouth may be underbaked as compared with that at the back of the chamber. The latter, on the other hand, may be overbaked and deficient in weight. By means of a draw-plate, however, an oven can be expeditiously charged. This appliance consists of a sliding plate or See also:tray, mounted on wheels running on rails, which is drawn out of the oven loaded with bread, and then returned. The plate itself is often made of iron, but one well-known oven is fitted with a withdrawable iron See also:frame, in which are laid, edge to edge, tiles of a special make, which are cemented in place, and form a continuous baking surface. This seems an excellent arrangement, as the baker has all the advantages of a brick oven, that is to say, his bread is baked both on top and bottom by heat evolved from tiled surfaces, and the undoubted drawbacks incidental to baking bread on an iron surface are avoided. A draw-plate fitted to an oven capable of baking a batch made from a sack (28o lb) of flour can be run out, charged and run in again, in about two minutes. The draw-plate has the incidental advantage, by expediting the loading and discharge of the oven, of ensuring a more uniform baking of the batch, and therefore of minimizing the loss of weight. Some bakers have gone so far as to estimate the saving in this respect from the use of a draw-plate at half an ounce per 2-lb loaf. With See also:decker ovens a double draw-plate may be used, the feet of the See also:pedestal supporting the upper draw-plate running on a See also:rail outside, but parallel to the rail on which the lower draw-plate runs. This arrangement, however, is more applicable to small than large ovens. Or the lower oven may be fitted with a draw-plate while the upper oven is served with a peel. The draw-plate being at a lower level than the sole of an ordinary oven, the upper See also:deck may be worked with a peel without much difficulty. The decker oven is, as its name implies, an oven built over another oven: in fact, sometimes a tier of three ovens is employed, placed rone above the other. The object is to secure a double or See also:treble baking surface without a very much larger outlay on fuel than would be necessary for one oven. It is easy to understand that a double or three decker oven might be constructed under conditions where it would be impossible to place two or three ordinary ovens side by side. See also:Practical bakers are somewhat divided as to the actual See also:economy of the decker system; possibly it is a question of management. The upper oven is heated by the gases which have passed under the oven beneath. A double-decker oven on the flue principle could be heated by three flues, one beneath the lower oven, another passing between the crown of the lower and the sole of the top oven, and the third over the crown of the upper oven. If a third oven were built over the second, then a fourth flue would pass over the crown of the third and top oven. In such an arrangement of flues the distribution of heat to the ovens would be fairly equal, but no doubt the lower oven would be the hottest. In addition to the flues, which should be straight and accessible for cleaning, there ought also to be See also:auxiliary flues by which heat may be allowed to pass dampers to the upper portions of the series of ovens. In this way the heat of the upper oven or ovens can be regulated independently to a great extent of the bottom oven. The power of regulating the heat of the ovens is very necessary, because a baker doing what is called a mixed trade, that is to say, producing cakes and pastry in addition to bread, must work his ovens at varying temperatures. Cakes cannot be baked at the heat (about 450° F.) required by a batch of household bread. The richest fancy goods, such as See also:wedding and See also:Christmas cakes, require the coolest ovens. Flue ovens are best worked with coke, as coal is apt to choke the flues; See also:retort coke is recommended in place of oven coke. An oven should be fitted with some kind of thermal See also:register, and both high-temperature thermometers and pyrometers are used for this purpose. (G. F. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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