Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1885-09-11
TINE BREAD WE EAT.
Some Points of Its Manufacture by
Wholesale Interesting Secrets of
the Worlds Cooking.Rooms.
Tribsl0A

Minneapolis Tribune.
A reporter made a very thorough
tour of an extensive and well-knewn
Minneapolis bakery and cracker fac
tory. The bakers are aIl men. The
fact u.s." explained one of the firm,
that the trade is a hard one, requir-
ing not only skill, judgment, and
activity, but far greater physical
strength than women usually possess.
l think housewives, as rule, regard
breadmaking as about the hardest
kind of work they have to do. The
making of bread in large quantities
would prove far more taxing on the
strength"
How about pies and cakes9"
"Oh, they might do that. However,
there is not the same inducement for
them to learn small part of trade.
At any rate, I know of few women
bakers"
An inspection of the actual process
of breadmaking, from the setting of
the sponge to the time it goes into the
oven under the sidewalk, convinced
the visitor that the occupation is one
which demands a great amount of
muscle and the eminent ability to
hustle" as well. A trough full of
dough under the influence of "a little
leaven" shows no more inclination to
wait for a mans convenience than do
time, tide, or the tailor. The sponge
for bread or rolls is made in one end
Of stationary wooden trough, about
three feet wide by the same depth, and
from fifteen to twenty feet long.
Likely as not, another sponge is set.
ting in another end, anl the space be-
tween is conveniently damned with
-four. Either the com crossed yeast
(bought IN five pound packages or a
liquid yeast made by the firm, is used
as leaven. Sometimes the two arc
combined. There is very little machine
work about breadmaking, After it
has proved" or risen, two able bod
led men 60 to the bottom and haul up
the lower stratum to the surface, and
everlastingly agitate the mass for Is
or 20 minutes. Because of the depth
of the trough and the mass of dough,
usually sufficient for two or three
hundred loaves, and the dispatch with
which the work must be done to get
it out of the way before another batch
comes on, the process does not appear
in the light of a recreation exactly.
The reporter thought ne knew of
nothing but base ball that would de-
maad so much concentrated strength
coupled with activity. The bread is
left in the trough to rise after the
kneading. 1t lies there perhaps an
hour and half, and is then lifted out
upon a Toured table and tackled by
four men TIE first cuts off lump
of dough about as large as his two
hands. The second lays it on small
pair of scales and pinches eff DIT or
adds a morsel, so as to make the
pound nominated In the bond" A
single addition or subtraction makes
it right five times in six. and the oper
alton does not take two seconds. A
man stands ON each side of the table
beyond him, and, Selling pound of
dough in each hand, rolls them round
with quiah deft motions. Then the
balls are placed regularly upon the
further end OF the liable, where they
stand fifteen or twenty minutes before
they are worked out in the oblong,
pointed shape in which most loaves,
especially the Vieuna and Earekra
bread, appear. The loaves, having
now attained their final form, are
placed in tins and encouraged to rise
by coating of egg and sugar, which
excludes the air and imprisons the
gas. Then they are placed on a long
handled wooden shovel and slid into
an oven which has an arc of probably
four hundred feet, and 6 emperature
far above that to be attained by the
ordinary range stove.
The reporter had always heard and
implicitly trasted the tradition that
the reason that women are less sue
cessful Gas it is alleged they are) than
men in culinary operations lies in the
fact that they have not head for
weights and measures-that they will
guess, and taks pinch OF this and
lump of that, and hence that the re>
suits attained at different times are as
variable as the proportions of the in
gradients are liable to be. Hence the
expectation that these practiced scien :
tific bakers would stick close by their
weights, and measures and thermom
eters-which expectation was very far
from the facts.
"Oh, no." said the head bread
baker. sin mixing we just keep add
ing fl )ur and water until the dough is
of the right consistency, you know.
Then, as to the temperature of the
oven, | can tell that by running my
hand in 50, about the time of rising.
That varies with the temperature of
the room, and there can be no rule
about it. We use our Judgment, and
SO does any woman, if she has any.
There is no such thug as baking by
an exact rule any more than there is
about bringing up family"
rs there any secret about your Eu
reka and Vienna bread that you can't
give outG"
''None at all. The Vienna bread is
mixed with sweet milk instead of
water, and that is all the difference.
The Eureka bread has a pound of lard
and a pound and a quarter of sugar to
every $50 pounds of flour, and that
and the facilities we have for high,
even temperature in kaking, make all
the difference there is. We use
pound OF compressed yeast to $50 of
flour in setting the sponge. A great
deal, of course, depends on the yeast
If that is not first class you may as
well throw up the sponge at once.
I'm making rolls, they are placed
in a steam box and made to rise twice
as fast. The rolls are not weighed,
but guessed at. A man makes one in
each hand, and you may see him pick
a piece off one, and add it to the other,
to get them about the same sizs. Cur
brown bread we bake in pals for two
and one>half hours. 1t has corn,
graham, and rye -four in it. Rye
bread we raise with a little salt-no
yeast. The Vienna and rye loaves
are raised in cloths, without pans,
and are baked right on the bottom of
the oven"
A visit to the cake, pie, and turn
over department was not less interest,"
ing. These viands are ali made by
hand except that the eggs are beaten
by a machine. Cut off one dough
mixture as foundation half dozen
different sorts of cake may be made by
the addition of some slight ingredient.
But the science comes In knowing
what kind of an oven," as women
say, to use for each variety. The
decorative material is ordinary frost
ing. made out of pulverized white