The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1898-08-16
BREAD OF THE NATIONS.
How the STAFF of Life Is Made Among
Various PeOpleA

How the STAFF of Life Is Made Among
Various Peoples.
It is a curious and interesting study
to compare the various materials which
serve the different nations of the world
as the basis of their bread. In this
country, where good bread, made from
spring and fall wheat flour, is within
reach Of all, rarely thought is given
to the fact that after all, the inhabit-
ants Of only a small portion of the
earth's surface enjoy such food In the
remoter part of Sweden the poor make
and bake their rye bread twice year
and store the loaves away, so that even
tually they are as hard as bricks.
Farther north still bread is made
from barley and oats In Lapland oats,
with the inner bark of the pine, are used.
The two together, we'll ground and
mixed, are made into large, fiat cakes,
cooked in a pan over fire. In dreary
Kamchatka pine or birch bark by
itself, we'll macerated, pounded and
baked, frequently constitutes the whole
of the native bread food. The Ioelander
scrapes the Iceland moss off the rocks
and grinds it into -four, which serves
both for bread and for buildings.
In some parts of Siberia, China and
other eastern countries fairly palata-
BILE bread is made from buckwheat. In
parts of Italy chestnuts are cooked,
ground into meal and used for making
bread. Durra, variety of the millet, is
much used in the countries Of India,
Egypt, Arabia and Asia Minor for max
ing bread Rice bread is the staple food
of the Chinese, Japanese and large
portion of the inhabitants Of India.
In Persia the bread is made from rice,
-four and milk; it is called "lawash. "
The Persian oven is built in the ground,
about the size of barrel. The sides are
smooth mason work. The fire is built at
the bottom and kept burning until the
walls or sides of the oven are thorough
ly heated. Enough dough to form a
sheet about one foot wide and about
two feet long is thrown on the bench
and rolled until about as thin as sole
leather, then it is taken up and tossed
and rolled from one arm to the other
and flung on the board and slapped on
the side of the oven. 1t takes only few
moments to bake and when baked 1t is
spread out to cool This bread is cheap
Il cent sheet) it is sweet and nour-
ishing.
A specimen of the "hunger bread
from Armenia is made of clover seed,
fax or linseed meal, mixed with edible
grass In the Molucca islands, the
starchy pith of the sage palm furnishes
a white, foury meal. This is made up
into fiat, oblong loaves, which are baked
in curious little ovens each being di-
vided into oblong cells to receive the
loaves.
Bread is also made of roots in some
parts of Africa and South America. 1t
is made from manioo tubers. These
roots are deadly poison if eaten in the
raw state, but make a good food if
properly prepared. To prepare it for
bread the roots are soaked for several
days in water, thus washing out the
poison. The fibers are picked out, dried
and ground into flour. This is mixed
with milk, if obtainable; if not water
is used The dough is formed into lit
tie round loaves and baked in hot ashes
or dried in the sun. Sanitary Record.