The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-10-13
Flom Once Week.
BREAD-MAKING IN SPAIN.

oksAsA LIN AnANU Ac cI AIN.
Finding, myself about two leagues from Sc
vile, in the picturesque village Of AlcalA de
Guadaira, but commonly called Alcala dc los
Panaderos, Tor bakers, Is almost eli the bread
consumed in Seville = made thers, deter
mined TO 1ssxn how i was msdess No traveller
who visits the south Of Spain ever fails to re-
mark, !" How delicious the bread isIp It is
white as snow, close as cake, and yet very
light the favor is most delicious for the wheat
is good and pure, and the bread well knsaded.
AS practical demonstration is better than
hearsay or theory, / would not content myself
with the description Of the process of bread.
making, bnt went to the house of baker,
whose pretty wife and daughter I had often
stopped to look at as they were sorting the
wheat, seated on very low stools in the porch
OF their house. 1t was pretty picture: their
dark sparkling eyes, rosy cheeks, and snowy
teeth; their hair always beautifully dressed,
and ornamented with natural flowers from their
little garden in the background !; their bright
colored neckerchiefs rolled in at the top, show
ing the neck their cotton gowns with short
sleeves; their hands scrupulously clean, and
80 small that many an aristocratic dame might
have envied them; surrounded by large round
panniers filled with wheat, which they took
out handful at a time, sorting it most care
fully and expeditiously, and throwing every de-
fective grain In another basket.
When this is done, the wheat is ground be-
tween two. large circular stones, in the way it
was ground in Egypt two thousand years ago,
the rotary motion being given by . blindfolded
mule, which PAGES round and round with un-
firing patience, bell being attached to bis
neck, which as long as he is in movement tin.
kles on and when it stops, he is urged to his
duty by the shout of ARE, mula,r from some
one within hearing. When ground, the wheat
is siftsd through three sleeves, the last being so
fine that only the pure -four can pass through
1t; 1t Is OF pale apricot color.
The bread is made of an evening; and after
sunset returned to the bakers, and watched
his pretty wife first weigh the -four, and then
mix it with only just sufficient water, mixed
with a little salt, to make it into dough. A
0ery small quantity of leaven is added. The
Scripture says, A little leaven leaveneth the
whole lump" But in England, to avoid the
trouble OF kneading they put as much leaven,
or yeast, in one batch of household bread, as
In Spain would last them a week for the six or
eight donkey loads of bread they send every
night from their oven.
When the dough was made, it was put in
sacks, and carried on the donkeys backs to
the oven in the centre of the village, so as to
bake it immediately it is kneaded. On arri-
wing there, the dough was divided into portions
weighing three pounds each. Two long mar
tHRH# HoQasn tgs9hss On trqsssls were then nlaesa
twenty men came in and ranged themselves on
one side of the tables. A lump of dough was
handed to the nearest, which he commenced
kneading and knocking about with all his
might for about three or four minutes, and
then passed it to his neighbor, who did the
same, and so on successfully, until all had
kDp Had II yyh \ xyac ftv
and ready for the oven. Of course, as soon as
the first baker hands the loaf to his neighbor,
another is given to him, and so on till the
whole quantity of dough is successfully knead-
ed by them ALL
The baker wife and daughters shape them for
the oven. Some of the loaves are divided into
many smaller ones, and of various shapes, and
Immediately baked. The ovens are very large,
and not heated by fires under them; but a
quantity of twigs of the herbs of sweet mario
ram and thyme which cover the hills IN great
profusion, are put in the oven and ignited.
They heat the oven to any extent required
and as the bread gets baked, the oven gets
gradually colder, so the bread is never burned.
Oh, flour English bakers would but use less
yeast, and qknead their bread more, and not
adulterate the -four, how many heartburn and
fit of indigestion they might prevent Bread
would then be the staff Of life, as Providence
intended it to be
They knead the bread in Spain with such
force that the palm of the hand and the Sec
and joints of the bakers fingers are covered
with corns and it SO affects the chest, that
they cannot work for more than two hours at
time. They can be heard from some distance,
as they give kind of cultural sound, Cha, ha,
as they work, which they say eases the chest.
Our sailors have the same fancy when hosting
a sail.
| have kept a small loaf of Spanish bread
for several months in dry place, and then i'm
mersed it in boiling water and re-baked it, and
4 can assure my readers that it was neither
lnlusty nor sour.
ELoPEMENT FROM THE SULTAS'sI HAREM.-i
EGaEgnani's Messenger states that the master of