The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1885-10-24
THE BREAD WE EAT.
Some Points Relating to It's
Wholesale Manufacture.


Evolved, Etc.
A reporter made very thorough
tour of an extensive and well-known
Minneapolis bakery and cracker factory.
The bakers are all men. 1.-The fact is"
explained one of the firm, "that the
trade is hard one, requiring not only
skill, judgment, and activity, but 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 4.
quantities would prove far more taxing
on the strength" 1888 tti
"How about pies and cakes?"
"Oh, they might do that. However.
there is not the same iuducement for
them to learn small part of trade
like that. AT any rate, know of very
few women bakers
An inspection of the actual process of
bread-making. from the setting of the
sponge to the time it goes into the oven
under the sidewalk convinced the WIS.,
itor that the occupation is one which
demands great amount of muscle and
the eminent abil ty to 'hustle' as well.
A trough full of dough under the influ-
ence of "a little leayenn shows no more
inclination to wait for q mans conven-
fence than do time. tide or the tailor.
The sponge for bread or rolls is made
in one end of u stationary wooden
trough, about threes feet wide by the
same depth, and from fifteen to twenty
feet long Likely as not, another sponge
is setting in the other end, and the
space between is conveniently damned
with flour. Either the compressed yeast
(bought in five pound packages) or
liquid yeast made by the firm is used as
leaven. Sometimes the two are COM
bined There is very little machine
work about breadmaking. After it has
''proved.o or risen, two able-bodied
men go to the bottom and haul up the
lower stratum to the surface, and ever
lastingly agitate the mass for fifteen or
twenty minutes. Because of the depth
of the trough and the mass of dough,
usually sufficient for two or three hun
bred 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 he knew of nothing
but base ball that would demand so
much concentrated strength combined
with activity. The bread is left in the
trough to rise after this kneading. 1t
lies there perhaps an hour and half,
and is then lifted out upon Toured table
andxsckled by four men. The first cuts
off a lump OF dough about as large as his
two hands. The second lays it on a
pair of scales and pinches off bit or
adds a morsel, so as to make the
pound nominated on the bond" A
single addition or subtraction makes it
right five times in six, and the opera
ton 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 quick, 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 which most loaves,
especially Vienna and Eureka 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
ong-handled wooden shovel and slid
into an oven which has an area of prob
ably four hundred feet, and tempera-
ture far above that to be attained in the
ordinary range oven.
The reporter had always heard and
implicitly trusted the tradition that the
reason that women are less successful
Gas it is alleged they are) thar men in
culinary operations lies in the fact that
they have not head for weights and
measures that they will guess and take
pinch of this and lump of that, and,
hence that the results attained at differ
ent times are as variable as the proper
tons of the ingredients are liable to be.
Hence the expectation that these prac-
ticed scientific bakers would stick close
by their weights and measures and
thermometers which expectation was
very far from the facts.
.sOh, no. said the head bread baker,
sin mixing we just keep adding flour
and water until the dough is of the
right consistency, you know Then. as
to the temperature of the oven, l can
tell that by running my hand in. 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 a
family
els there any secret about your
Eureka and Vienna bread that you
can't give out?''
None at all. The Vienna bread is
mixed with sweet milk instead of water,
and that is all the difference. The
Eureka bread has apound of lard and a
pound and quarter of sugar to every
$50 pounds of flour. and that, and the
facilities we have for high, even tenn
perature in baking. make all the diff
ference there is. We use pound OF
compressed yeast to $50 of -four 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.
IN making rolls. they are placed in
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 size. Our
brown bread we bake in pals for two
and one half hours. Ii has corn.
graham, and rye flour in it. Rye bread
we raise with 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 turnover
department was not less interesting
These yiands are ali made by hand
except that the eggs are beaten BY 9