The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-26 00:00:00

AERATED BREAD.

(From the Spectator.)
The English are a great people ; the 19th century is
a great century. No question of that. The bitterest
enemies of both m. either are yearly compelled more
frankly to do homage to the achievements which mark
them out as different frogs all other races and alt previ-
ous centuries. In innumerable respects, too, there is a
sort of partnershipin this greatness. A peculiar people
and a peculiar time play, so to say, into each other's
bands, and contribute to make each other what they
are. But all strength has its weakness, all greatness
has its drawbacks. There are things in which this no-
table and progressive age has not shown itself progres-
sive ; and some of these in regard to which England
lags behind molt civilised nations—possibly even behind
some that do not boast to be civilised—as much as she
outruns them is other respects.
Exempli gratis, let us take what in this country is
called " the staff of life"—in France, still more expres-
sively, "la benediction de Dien." The process of bread -
making does tut appear to have altered much since the
time of the Pharaohs ; and such improvements as have
been made England has been the dowe.t to adopt.
English bread is the astonishment and despair of foreign
era, -continental bread the constant theme of travellers'
praise ; while as regards those collateral preparations of
wheaten and other grain which largely supplement the
use of fermented bread in other parts of Europa, and
surpass it in powers of nutriment, England has nothing
either in respect of new inventions or irninelorial Ira-
ns that can be placed on a par with them.
It may be doubted, indeed, whether any part of Eu-
rope is on the sight track in respect of the manipulation
and use of cereal products. There is no more painful
misgiving on the subject of our much-vaanted eivilisation
than that which arises from the gradual substitution all
over Europe of white bread for brown, or black—a less
wholesome and nutritious kind for one more so.
Justly looked upon as one of the surest teats of an ad.
vancing civilisation, does or does not the use of whit*
wheaten bread, as ordinarily made, imp'y a deteriora.
tion in the staple nourishment of the nations ? Or
granting that it does so—owing to defects in manufac-
ture or tricks of trade—need it continue to do so ?
These are questions hitherto discussed pretty much en
amateur, which one day or other society will be called
on seriously to determine.
At present the question is vastly more pressing fcr
England than for any other country ; and for reasons by
no means difficult to define. First, the use of whie
bread is the rule in England, and is rapidly becoming co
in Ireland and Scotland ; while in most other countries
it is little more than the exception. Secondly, the pro-
cesses of English breadmaking are inferior and adultera-
tions of the material more glaring. Thirdly, English
wheat is unquestionably deficient in gluten, its chief
nutritive element, compared with continental wheats
grown in warmer climates ; nor can the importation cf
foreign wheats more than partially supply this defect.
Fourthly, the English make much leas use than most
other races of the preparations of grain, and sometimes
of roots, which supply what is defective in the bread
of other countries as the " staff of life." Oatmeal,
$ hominy, haricot beans,
lbarley,lentils,
we might
mcc
aaal
also
nsia,
yp olenta
potatoes,
are mere luxuries or
accessories of the table in England ; while in other
countries they are staples of food, and make the mass of
the population comparatively independent of variations
in the price or defects in the quality of wheaten bread.
Fifthly, there is much less home grinding and home
breadmaking in England than in any other country, and
consequently the mischief done by such adulterations as
are prevalent has a much wider scope. This last pecu-
liarity, like the first, is the natural and inevitable result
of improved facilities of intercourse, greater division of
employments, and the preddininsace of a town popula•
tion. The others are of older standing, and more bound
up with the peculiarities of our climate and character.
We are not r,_quire to enter into the somewhat trite,
but still very far from exhattitikithscussion, Low the alum
and other ingredients with a hich bread is adulterated
injure the health of the population, and they tend
in the long run to detriorate the race. There is the leas
occasion to do so just *Ow, because if some sanguine
people are to be credited we are on the eve of a revolu-
tion in breadmaking which will effect all that is required,
and rid cs forever, by one and the same process, at once
of the adulterations of the material and defects in the
baking, which have hitherto had such a baneful effect
on the health of the people. Since, some 25 years ago,
an enterprising company erected a large fact sry in Pim-
lico with the view of utilising the alcohol that is gene-
rated in the process of baking, we do not remember that
any proposed improvement in ti e manufacture has ex-
cited so much attention as that recently invented by
Dr. Dauglish, and carried out on an extensive scale by
Mesas. Carr and Co., Carlisle.
No doubt, if the invention succeed, the revolution will
be a thorough and decisive one. Hitherto-all the im-
provements proposed in breadmaking have either taken
for granted the necessity of fermentation, or sought to
replace it by some chemical preemies of which the harm-
lessness was, to say the least, exceed:ngly queetic s
Dr. Dauglish gees more effectively to wore, and, by a
simple enough adaptation of processes familiar for other
uses, dispenses with alt recourse either to the brewer or
the chemist, and undertakes to produce bread of a qua
lity superior to any
that is made, without any other
ingredient than flour, water, and salt. There are few
articles of consumption that have seemingly less analogy
than bread and soda-water, or other effervescing liquors ;
but Dr. Dauglish's patent is pretty much the same step
in the process of breadmaking that was gained by using
a machine to charge liquids with carbonic acid gas.
The flour is placed in a strong iron vessel somewhat
similar to a Papin's digester, and moistened with
aerated water from an adjacent condenser. Then, for
the brief period of eight minutes the dough is
kneaded by machinery inside the vessel. The vessel is
then opened and the gas contained in water with which
the flour has been mixed, lit,eroting itself when the
pressure is withdrawn, instantaneously expands the flour
to five cr six Uinta its previous bulk ; and behold,
the raising of the dough, so tedious and laborious
by the old methods, is completed ! The process is un-
deniably a rapid one. Its other anvaniagesi are set forth
by the patentees as follows :
" 1. There is a saving of the whole of the waste caused
by fermentation, which averages fully 10 per cent. Thus
10 per cent. more bread is made out of a sack of flour than
by the old process. 2. The process, instead of occupying
eight or ten hours, is completed in half an hour. 3. The
cost of machinery and gas is less than that of yeast usedin
the old process. 4, The dough requires scarcely any hand-
ling to form it into loaves. 5. The bread :s absolutely
puro • it is simply flour, water, and salt,. Finally, should
the whole of the bread in the kingdom be thus made, a
saving world be effected of an amount equal to our entire
importations of foreign wheat."
Uould all these advantages bo realised, there would

doubtless be a great deal to say in favour of the inven-
tion. But we frankly confess we cannot thus far share
the sanguine views of the promoters. More particularly
they seem to us to beg the question in taking for
granted that the fermenting process is unwholesome in
iteelf—was originally adopted with no other intention,
or serves no other purpose, than imparting lightness to
the bread. A certain sacrifice there may be, though
hardly to the extent of 10 per cent. ; but in lieu thereof
a saccharine element is developed, which adds to the
flavour of the bread ; and it seems probable that,
apart from this, or its imparting lightness, the fermen-
tation makes the bread more digestible.