Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-07-09
BREAD THE WORLD OVER
Materials From Which the Staff of Life
is Sometimes Made.
Comparatively Little Has Good Wheat
Flour I'm It-Bark, Roots and
Iceland Moss.
From the Sanitary Record.

From the Sanitary Record
1t is 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
fail wheat -four, is within the reach of all.
rarely a thought is given to the fact that
after all, the Inhabitants of only a small
portion of the earth's surface enjoy such
food. In the remoter parts of Sweden the
poor people make and bake their rye bread
twice year, and store the loaves away
so that eventually they are as hard as
bricks. Further north still bread is made
from barley and oats. In Lapland. oats
with the inner bark of the pine, are used.
The two together. well ground and mixed,
are made into large fiat cakes, cooked in
pan over the fire. In dreary Kamchatka
pine or birch bark by itself, well macer-
ated, pounded and baked, frequently con-
stitutes the whole of the native bread
food.
The Icelander scrapes the Iceland moss
OH the rocks and grinds it into fine flour,
winch serves both for bread and buildings.
In some parts of Siberia. China and other
eastern countries. a fairly palatable bread
Is made from buckwheat. In parts of Italy
chestnuts are cooked, ground into meal and
used for making bread. Durra a variety
of the millet, is much used in the countries
of India, Egypt, Arabia, and Asia Minor
for making 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 Per-
sian oven is built in the ground about the
size of a barrel The sides are smooth ma
son work. The fire is built at the bottom
and kept burning until the wall or sides of
the oven are thoroughly heated Enough
dough to form 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 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 zone cent a
sheeO; it is sweet and nourishing.
A specimen of the hunger bread from
Armenia is made of clover seed, fax, or
lnseed meal, mixed with edible grass. In
the Molucca Islands the starchy pith of
the sage palm furnishes q white flouTy
meal This Is made up into fat obong
loaves, which are baked in curious little
ovens, each oven being divided into oblong
cells to receive the ioaves. Bread is also
made of roots in some parts of Africa, and
South America. 1t is made from manioc
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 fibres are picked out dried, and ground
il to flour. This Is mixed with milk. If OBJ
tainable, If not water is used. The dough
is formed into little round ioaves, and
baked in hot ashes or dried in the sun.