The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-02-27
ABOUT MAKING BREAD.
An Everyday Matter Dependent Upon Some
Very Important Chemical Changes.

An Everyday Matter Dependent Upon Some
Very Important Chemical Changes.
Good cooks are like good farmers-per-
sons who have profited by experience and
experiments. They may not understand
the chemistry involved in the processes of
cooking food or raising crops, but arrive
at correct conclusions from careful COM
parison of results. The following obser-
vations from the Popular Science Nelcs give
a scientific explanation OF the transforma-
ton of the -four obtained by grinding
wheat into the soft, spongy, nutritious
mass known as bread. 1t is shown that
this everyday matter is dependent upon
some very peculiar and important chemi-
cal changes.
If flour is mixed with water TO form a
dough and dried at the temperature OF the
air an unpleasant tasting mass is obtained,
which contains the starch of the flour in
an unaltered and insoluble state, and very
difficult of digestion; and to obtain nu-
tritious and palpable bread it is necessary
TO induce certain chemical and physical
changes in the flour. Wheat flour is prin-
cipally composed OF starch, and contains
on an average about 90 per cent. OF that
substance. with 10 per cent OF water; the
renal Ter is made up OF small amounts OF
sugar, fat, casein and a mixture of various
gummy bodies generally known as gluten.
This gluten is an important part OF
the -four, giving it consistency and flavor,
and also rendering it more nutritious. By
kneading flour under gentle stream of
water the starch can be washed away and
the gluten separated. The action of the
heat in the baking causes certain changes
TO take place in the starch, by which 1t is
rendered soluble, and to some extent con-
veTted into another substance resembling
gum, and known as deXtrine. The out
side of the loaf is altered to a greater eX-
tent, forming the crust. These changes
have the effect of rendering the bread both
nutritious and palatable; but to prevent
It's becoming a heavy, solid mass OF dried
dough, it must be raised" or inflated
with gas, so as to convert it into light,
spongy substance which can be easily
masticated and digested. The gas used
for this purpose is always carbonic
dioxide, and the best method to develop
it in the mass of dough is to set up
vinous or alcoholic fermentation by the
addition of yeast. The substance is a
most remarkable living organism, which,
when introduced into the dough, begins TO
feed upon the starch, which it changes into
alcohol and carbonic acid gas. Owing
10 the tenacious nature OF the dough the
renders it spongy and light. The
heat OF the baking oven still further eX-
pands the gas and completes the process,
at the same time killing the yeast and pre-
venting further fermentation. Ii the ier-
mentation continues too long it passes
over into the ascetic variety, the alcohol IS
changed to vinegar and the bread "sours."
The alcohol produced in the process is
nearly all dissipated In the baking; but it
is an appreciable quantity, and some years
ago company was formed in England to
introduce appliances for condensing
and saving it. The method was found
to be impracticable, but it created
considerable excitement, and one
baker advertised to sell his bread with
al the gin in it," When baking-powder is
used as a leavening agent carbonic acid
gas is formed in the dough as with yeast,
only it is set free by the reaction OF certain
chemicals upon each other, forming salts,
which remain in the bread, and none of
the constituents Of the -four are decom-
posed. A process has also been tried of
kneading the dough in closed vessels with
water containing carbonic acid gas in So
luton under pressure, like saltwater,
the supposition being that when the
pressure was removed the gas would
expand and cause the dough to
rise. This aerated bread, as it was
called, has been made both in this coun-
try and England, but the method has
not been successful, and it is not now in
use. Ii is interesting to note that the
style of oven and method of bread-baking
in use in Europe at present has under
gone little or no change since the earliest
times. The old-fashiOned brick oven is
still used, and the fire built inside until
the necessary heat is obtained, when it is
raked out and the lOaves put in its place.
Although the method is a clumsy and
wasteful one, it must be confessed that the
bread produced by the French and Ger
man, and especial the Viennese, bakers
is exceptional in quality. Proba-
bly, the care used in mix
ing and kneading has as much to
do with the result as the baking itself.
Bread is not often adulterated, but the
DEFICIENCIES of poor flour are sometimes
covered up by the addition of alum or
minute quantity of sulphate OF copper
(blue vitriol.) These substances render
the bread whittier and of better consist
ency, but are not only fraud upon the
purse of the consumer but detrimental to
his health as well. Most of the cheaper
varieties OF baking powder contain alum,
and their use cannot be recommended.
The art of bread-making has been known
from the earliest of times,
and as early as the period
OF the Jewish exodus the process of leaven-
ing was in general use. In the museum
at Naples there are exhibited loaves of
bread taken from a shop at Pompeii and
stamped with the name of the baker.
They are perfect in shape, but are quite
black, probably from the heat of the vol
canic ashes which were cast upon the city
from Vesuvius. When properly made,
bread is most wholesome and nutritious
food, and, with the other cereal products,
forms the principal means of sustenance
of large majority OF the human race.