Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-11-16
Bread.

The average quality of the bread
on any one table Is a pretty fair test OF
the quality of the entire cooking in that
household. For good bread day after
day and year after year can not by any
possibility be the result of accident. 1t
means not only good flour and good
yeast but skill in making the two into
bread. There is not q stage or proc
ess of bread-making from the time the
-four is put into the pan until the fra
grant, golden brown loaf, perfectly
done, is taken from the oven that does
not require the exercise Of judgment,
forethought, patience and painstaking.
These qualities exercised habitually in
bread-making will show themselves as
well in kindred industries and occupa-
tons.
The use of leaven is of the remotest
antiquity. The Egyptians claimed that
the use of ferments was taught by Osiris;
the Greeks, by Bacchus; the Hebrews,
by Noah. The latter, in their flight
from Egypt, stock their dough before
it was leavened, their kneading troughs
being bound up in their clothes upon
their shoulders" From Asia the art
of making bread was brought to BHotia
by two travellers, and their countrymen
in grateful remembrance raised statues
in their honor. From Beotia the art
spread rapidly through Greece. In
Athens in the time of Apuleius the pro-
fession of baker was highly honorable
and the bread of Athens was far-famed.
Rome learned the art from Greece; her
troops returning from Macedon in 1853
B.gC. brought Greek baken to Italy. A
college of bakers was founded at Rome
and richly endowed. In that city bak-
ers could become Senators. From the
time of the Caesars to our own no pro-
fession has been more carefully legis-
lated for than that of bakers. Adulter-
alton of material has always been re-
garded as crime against the common
wealth, and short weight has been an
abomination to all rulers.
Though ferments have been used
since the time of Noah, it is only about
forty-fve years ago that the yeast plant
was discovered by Cagniard de Ia Tour,
and almost simultaneously by Schwann.
AS early as 1880 it was known that
yeast consisted of little globules collect
ed into groups of three or four together,
and scientists of later dates saw in them
certain characteristics of living matter,
but not till 1887 was it conclusively
proved that s'albuminous bodies are
never the ferments, but the aliment of
the ferments, and that the s'true fer
ments are living organisms. These
microscopic plants are in great variety.
One variety produces the fermept in
beer, another in wine, another in milk,
each special fermentation having its
own special plant producer. The name
given to the yeast plant of beer, to
which we are so largely indebted for
light bread, is Saccharomyces cereUisig,
a very long name for so short plant,
for these yeast cells are only about
-25OOth of an inch in diameter. They
multiply during fermentation by pro-
cess of budding, and increase six or
sevenfold, evolving during the process
carbonic acid gas and hydrogen. These
gases in their attempt to escape through
the dough separate the particles of glu-
ten, and are at the same time retained
by them, thus giving lightness to the
bread. When the bread is baked these
gases are expelled from the loaf in the
form of alcohol. Liebig estimated that
10000 gallons are thus lost annually in
London alone, and IL, 100000 gallons in
Germany. Efforts have been made to
save it by condensation, but without
success.
Every bread-maker has observed that
the temperature at which her dough is
kept while rising has a decided inf1u-
ence upon its quality. If it is kept warm,
so that the process of fermentation goes
on rapidly, the bread will be whittier and
tenderer than if it is allowed to rise in
low temperature. The little plant with
the long name fourishes best at tenn
perature of about ~ degrees, and when
it has abundance of sugar to feed upon.
If no sugar is put into the dough
the plant converts the starch of the
grain into sugar and feeds upon it.
The word bread, according to Horne
Tooke, comes from the verb "bray"-
TO pound in a mortar. Bread is brayed
grain, and dough is brayed grain wetted
or mixed with water. Leaven is cog
nate word with lever, and is derived
from the French lerer-to raise. When
dough is raised by leaven it becomes a
loaf; this word is cognate with lift, and
is derived from the Anglo-Saxon "hli-
FAM TO raise or lift up. Our word lady
comes from the Gothic "hloif," loaf,
and diau, to serve or distribute, because
the mistress of the family used to dis
tribute the bread to the domestics and
guests.-N. Y. Tribune.