Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-09-17
TINE BREAD WE EAT.
S0ne Points of Its Manufacture by
Wholesale Interesting Secrets of
she WORLDS CooAing-Rooms.
Minno lie TIL.


tory. The bakers are all men. 1.-The
fact is" explained one of the firm,
that the trade is hard one, requir-
ing not only skill, Judgment, and
activity, but a far greater physical
strength than women usually possess.
[ 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 cakes2"
"Oh, they might do that. However.
there is not the same inducement for
them to learn a small part of trade.
! At any rate, | 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 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 SIS not, another sponge is sets
ting in another end, ana the space be-
tween is conveniently damned with
flour. Either the com pressed yeast
| (bought In five pound packages) or a
liquid yeast made by the firm, is used
as leaven. Sometimes the two are
combined. There is very little machine
work about breadmaking, After it
has proved" or risen, two able, bod
led men go to the bottom and haul up
the lower stratum to the surface. and
everlastingly agiIate the mass for Is
er 30 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 recreation exactly.
The reporter thought ne knew of
mand so much concentrated strength
coupled with activity. The bread is
left in the trough to rise after the
kneading. It lies there perhaps an
hour and half, and is then lifted out
upon Toured table and tackled by
four men. The first cuts off a lump
of dough about as large as his two
hands. The second lays it on a small
pair Of scales and pinches off bit or
adds a morse, so as to make the
''pound nominated IN the bond" A
single addition Or subtraction makes
it right five times ia six. and the oper-
alton does not take two seconds. A
man stands on each side of the table
beyond him, and, Selling a pound of
dough IN each hand, rolls them round
with quich, deft motions. Then the
balls are placed regularly upon the
further end of the table, where they
stand fifteen or twenty minutes before
they are worked out in the oblong,
pointed shape in whoa most loaves.
especially the Vienna and Eurekra
bread, appear. The loaves, having
now attained their final form, are
placed in tins and encouraged to rise
by a coating of egg and sugar, which
excludes the air and imprisons the
gas. Then they are placed on long
handled wooden shovel and slid into
an oven which has an area Of probably
four hundred feet, and a temperature
far above that to be attained by the
ordinary range stove.
The reporter had always heard and
implicitly trusted 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 a head for
weights and measures-that they will
guess, and take pinch of this and
lump of that, and hence that the re>
suits attained at different tines 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.
ooh, no." said the head bread
baker. in making we just keep add
ing -four and water until the dough is
of the right consistency, you know.
Then, as to the temperature of the
oven, I can tell that by running nv
hand Ia so, 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 thing as baking by
an exact rule any more than there Is
about bringing up family"
is there any secret about your Eu-
reka and Vienna bread that you can't
give out2"
"None at all. The Vienna bread is
mixed with sweet milk instead of
water, and that is all the difference.
The Eureka bread has pound of lard
and pound and quarter of sugar to
every $50 pounds of -four. and that,
and the facilities we have for high,
even temperature in baking, make ali
the difference there is We 1sa a