The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-11-13

There il probably no substance used for food
materials or by greater variety of ways than
bread, and very few which possess greater ele-
ments OF interest to the inquiring or contempla-
tive mind OF either the general reader or the stu
| dent Of practical science.
1t IL believed that the earliest Ioaves were made
at period anterior to the invention of even the
Oldest grinding or pulverixing devices. by simply
soaking grain IN water until it became soft and
puipy and then pressing IL into cakes. which were
baked in the campfire embers where the rude and
wandering tribes pitched their tents each night.
1t was but slight advance on this to bray or
pound the wheat. milet, or other grain in mortar
sp.n sSs t4 4 p0Sdfs RED. Essd
wrapped in leaves In the hot ashes for the same
purpose; yet this, almost the first and most prim.
tive method OF bread baking. has obtained. with
day; for IN ell ages and in ell lands.
and with myriad kinds of grain, the
meal sometimes obtained by crushing,
sometimes by grinding and simply moistening be.
fore making, az just mentioned has formed an
important item in the food of man. When the
Hebrews dwelt in the land Of Goshen they baked
the huggoth, or little cakes of unleavened bread
under the ashes or upon the hearth, and when
Elijah fed from the unholy wrath Of Jezebel he
found ct bis head, a. he awoke In the wilderness,
cake baked on the Goals, and the loaf made by
the widow of earepta was baked under the ashes
In recent times the far-famed oat cakes Of Scot
land have been made by wetting the coarsely
bruised or powdered oats with water, having 9
little salt dissolved therein and after rolling the
mass into thin sheet placing IL before the Gre.
Bannocks are said to be made in the same wsy IN
the Punjsub, in India, and in the frontier settle.
ments OF our own country In times that have been
gone away but little while the bruised corn
meal spread wet upon single, placed sslant in \
front Of the hearthstone fire. constituted the
johnny cake that made the greater part of the
pioneers daily fare.
The unsfhoS ~ - k;rx rc,,.- a.. -. a. An,
followed BY the women in Bulgaria when
bread must be made in haste as to meet the wants
of travellers, for there no bakers in that semi
barbsrous land. and the hoe-cake of the South
owes its charcoal crust to the same process The
making of bread. however, is not only chara cter.
lied by the crudeness of the means often EMPLOYED
but sometimes by the unique nature of the mate.
terlals used IN the fabrication; for instance the
Lapl:nders, having no grain, make kind of bread
Of dried and pulverzed fishes and the ber or inner
bark Of the pine tree, and in Sweden and Norway
the wood of beech and similar trees which contain
no turpeDtine, is sometimes converted into bread
ihs IL done BY macerating the wood in water and |
polling 1t to remove the soluble matter therefrom.
The wood thus macerated, after being heated |
several times IN q suitable oven il reduced to q |
fine powder by grinding. Ii is asserted that this
wood Hour much resembles that made from corn, /
having yellowish color and being capable OF /
fermentation on the addition of yeast and further
more producing loaves of uniform and spongy /
texture. This flour also yields by boiling in water
q thick jelly something like that made from wheat
starch P1lverized pine bark is very often mingled
with rye -four for bread In northern Europe, the |
people doubtless employing such out of the.way
materials because of the frequent and terrible
fsmipes which occur in those cold and barren
countries -. sals1 $500 -
Those kinds of bread made according to the
simple methods above described may all be
classed as unieavened bread, but this use OF BARN
Tor making raised bread was known as far back
In the past ages as the time of Moses and its
EMPLOYMENT n and |
and Italy, and Afterwards to all the northern ma
lions conquered BY Roman arms. No other
means Of making light or raised bread were ever
known until within q comparatively recent Pc
nod, when the same spirit Of progress that
revolutionized other departments of industry
led to Improvements In the art and mystery of
making the STAFF Of life. A mention Of some of
heee last may be Of interest," not only from their
intrinsic value a. items of useful information, but
rom the contrast between the two, strong a. that
between the comfort OF civilized peoples and the
Of savage tribes.
Aside from convenience in the process of max
.ecent methods is to o6viate the loss resulting
rom the fermentation produced by yeast, and
which has been variously estimated at from two
o ten per cent. OF the entire weight of -four. To
meet this object the bi-carbonate Of soda and
lydro-chloric acid have been sometimes brought
nto use, there being intimately incorporated with
very four pounds of -four employed three hun
red and twenty grains of the powdered bi-cars
'onate. 10 the nour thus prepared is added O |
olution composed Of three hundred grains of
ommon salt, six and half fluid ounces Of hydro
hloric acid, and thirty live ounces Of water. The
ough being kneaded is placed in the oven for
aking in the ordinary manner. The acid COM
ines with the soda of the bi-carbouate, converting
into common salt which ia left In the bread. and
isengages carbonic acid which puts or swells il
p in the same way that the csrbonic acid lib.
rated by the action of leaven brings about the
Another plan, most frequently adopted in max.
lg rusk, gingerbread, etc., involves the use of the
'squicarbonate Of ammonia, which, when the |
ough is heated, is converted wholly into q gas
ID passes OF, leaving the bread In the form of
Rht spcnpy mass. .-r a1e.r - .-isr
There is also different plan of making what is
,own as aeratsd bread, In which the dough is
aced in box and mixed by machinery with |
alter charged with csrbonic acid. When the |
ugh is taken from the box where 1t is thus
ixed under pressure the carbonc acide escapes
ON the water and "raises" the bread; 90 that by
is means not only Is ell loss of -four prevented,
1t the process instead of requiring eight or ten
urs, as by the common mode. may be completed
thirty minutes.-[America Artisan.