The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-04
BREAD OF THE ANoIENrs.
How They Prepared the STAFF Of Life
in Olden Times.
From the Confectionery Union

From the ConfectionerS' Union.
Among the ancient Greeks bread was
not, as with US, simply on adjunct to,
but an essential part of the principal meal
Of the day. The chiefs of the heroic
period lived almost exclusively on two
dishes; roast meat lover which a little
-four was sprinkled) and wheaton bread.
The -four was ground in hand mill by
the female servant; it was then made
into dough, portion of salt added, and
baked in a special part of the kitchen.
Wheaton bread enjoyed great reputa-
ton in those days. Homer calls it the
strength of man. Bread was the first
thing set before guest. II represented
civilization, whereas meat was repre-
sentative of the old style When Odys-
seus fed for refuge to the palace of
Aikinos, bread is especially mentioned
among the dishes set before him. In
the historical Helias, bread played a
similar part it was one of the principal
foods of the people, was regarded as in
dispensible by the better classes, and
certain kinds Of it was looked upon in
the light of Injuries. The place most
celebrated for bakeries-the Vienna of
the time-was Athens, but we really
know a very little about the method of
making bread there. 1t is characteristic
of the position which bread occupied as
an article of food that the Spartans at
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bread on special occasions as a particu-
lar luxury. Scion, also ordered that
all those citizens who were fed at the
expense of the state in the Pryiha-
melon should only have white
bread on rare occasions In republican
Rome IL was the custom for each house
hold to bake enough bread for its require
ments, and not TO purchase; and even UNI
der the Caesars, when there was good
number of bakers in the city, the better
class families adhered to the
old style of baking at
home. And such houses possessed a
separate room for baking, situated next
to the kitchen; the room was called
"pistrina" (milD, for it embraced the
Bakers were called ''pistores" (millers)
until the fall of Rome, although the two
branches had been divided long before
In Imperial Rome the bakers were di-
vided into three classes-white bakers,
milk bakers and sweet bakers. The white
bakers, or wheat bakers, were the chief
because they produced food, a means of
nourishment; the milk bakers made buns
and cakes the third class were noted for
their skill in the baking Of tarts and all
kinds of sweet confectionery eaten for
dessert. When we remember how closely
butter is connected with bread at the
present day, IL is strange TO read of the
antipathy which existed against IL in
those times. Butter was never used as a
food either in Greece or Rome; 1t was en-
ployed chiefly as a mindicant Externally
in plasters and bandages, internally much
as we take cod-liver Oil had pastry been
made with it the Greeks and Romans
would have rejected the confectionery
just as we should turn up our noses at a
tart made with train oil. 1t is true the
Thracians ate 1t, but they were only half
Greeks. In imperial Rome there were,
in addition to bakeries conducted by pri-
yate people, spacious state bakeries,
which played an important part in pro-
viding for the wants OF the people. The
Roman ovens were just like those in use
at the present time. A well preserved
specimen was discovered some years ago
during the excavations at Pompeii; it
contained several charred loaves, on.
which the bakers name could plainly be
seen, showing of what -four they had
been made. The loaves of Pompeii
weighed about two pound; they were
round and indented. TO admit Of breaking
them into eight equal parts. Similar
loaves are made even now in Calabria
nd Sicily.