Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1888-01-06
THE STAFF OF LIFE.
HOW BREAD Is MADE IN VARIOUS
PARTS OF THE WORLD.

PARTS Or NE WOHLD.
Thomas Stevens Tells of Bread He Has
Famous Bicycle Tour in Asiatic Coun-
tries.
The fact is there are no two countries in
the world where the people make and eat the
same kind of bread. This seems rather
broad assertion to make, but is nevertheless
true one. Even in such closely kindred coun-
tries as England and America there exists O
decided difference of opinion i'll regard to the
consumption of this staple article of food
The American custom of eating biscuits hot
MS they can be handled from the oven is re-
garded by John Bull, Esq, with even a
greater measure of disfavor than that of
swallowing big tumblers of ice water at our
meals. Mr.. BuH, he of the cellarful of fine
old crusted port, the daily round of roast
beef carrots, mince pie and Gorgonzola
cheese, thinks the thinness, the nervousness
and the dyspepsia of his Cousin Jonathan
comes largely from these twin evils of hot
bread and ice cold water.
In France the ordinary loaf assumes the
proportions of a roll the size of a mans fore
arm, and four feet long. In any French vii
lage, about meal times, grown people and
children may be seen walking sedately along
the streets with four foot stick of bread
thrust under each arm. A careless youngster
sometimes forgets himself to the extent of
letting the hindnost end of the stick trail
along the ground.
Not until one gets down to the principali-
ties OF the Balkan peninsula does any really
noteworthy innovation occur Here one
finds the medium between Asiatic and Euro
pean methods of making bread The me-
dunn, however, is far from being happy
one; no more execrabe bread is to be found
the whole world round than is served UP to a
traveller at the wayside mehanas of Bulgaria
Besides being villainously heavy and we'll
nigh black, it is coarse and repulsive, almost
wet dust to the palate; sand, more
over, enters very largely into its composition
from careessness in handling and milling the
wheat
This style of bread confronts the disguised
European traveller for the first 300 miles be-
yond the Bosphorus, until one gets pretty we'll
out of the Greek and Bulgarian settlements
in western Apatolia, where another decided
change is experienced. Here we come sud-
denly into the realm of the simon pure I'M
leavened variety of Asia Bread is now called
ekmek, and takes the form of fiat cakes or
sheets about two feet in diameter and the
thickness of ordinary blotting paper The
necessaries for the preparation of this ekmek
are coarse wheat -four water, mixing trough
rolling pin, large thin griddle and slow
burning substance called tezek for a fire.
Taking these simple ingredients outside the
house early in the morning. the Turkish or
Armenian female kndles the fire. mixes the
dough- rolls it out, bakes it and stacks enough
of it up to serve her household for the day.
When fresh and warm this bread is tough and
cloggy; a few days later it loses something of
its clogginess, but retains its toughness, and
as it advances i'll age it becomes brittle and
hard. 1t is as indestructible, healthful and
useful an article of food as the hard tack
issued to the ancient mariner and the old man
of the sea.
In Asia Minor, as in all other countries
however, the luxurious requirements of city
bred people demand some kind of improve
ment on the ways and methods of country
pumpkins, camel drivers and goat herds
Therefore, in qualification of their epicurean
tastes the ingenious oriental baker has con-
ceived and prepared little hoops or rings of
bread about the size of the rope quoits aboard
an Atlantic steamer. These novel prepare
tions are made of finer and whittier flour than
the ekmek, and are rendered light and aristo-
cratic by the addition of sour doug b or other
leavening substance
This sort of bread prevails throughout the
cities of Asia Minor and the use of ekmek
extends eastward among the peasantry of
western Persia as far as Tabreez. Here the
staff of life undergoes another transforma-
ton, and i'll many respects change for the
better. The nune Of the Persian city bazars
is really very excellent bread, most Euro
peans giving it preference over every other
kind they are acquainted with. Nune is
turned out for proper consumption and APP
proval in the forms of fiat cakes foot broad
and three to four feet long. The baker takes
lump of dough of the proper size and rolls
1t dexterously into the proper shape and thick
ness on his bare forearm He then flips q
light shower of water over its surface, and
with mastery toss spreads it over a bed
of heated pebbles
Contact with the almost redhot pebbles
quickly converts 1t into a cake of nicely
Drowned indentatlons and spongy risings,
that render it almost as light ns If leavened
with yeast The peasantry of eastern Persia
and Khorassan make a coarse imitation of
this same form of bread, which is also very
palatable and wholesome when eaten fresh
The cakes are smaller and thicker than those
of the city baker; and their baking appara-
tus is altogether different The oven is a
huge upright earthenware Jar This is
heated to the proper consistency by inserting
live Goals and covering up the top. The
dough being patted out into a cake by the
hands, the woman sprinkles it with water.
dabs it against the inside wall of the jar and
then quickly replaces the cover; in a few
minutes the cake is nicely baked. In AT
ghanistan the people adopt the Persian
methods of bread making, without possessing
the same skill or exercising the same care and
trouble in its preparation Thomas Stevens.
Life Saving Apparatus of Reindeer Hair.
A Norwegian engineer, Herr w. c. Moller,
of Drammen, Norway having had his atten-
ton drawn to the extreme buoyancy of rein
deer hair, has succeeded in constructing
various articles of this material for life saw