El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-08-14
Bread Used as a Fuel
In Siberia the Natives Eat and Cook
With Hard Tack Biscuits;
Sheets Of Bread in Egypt.
-RV Ercderjc j. Haakfn -

food IN almost every land-
Even the savage knows tina he can
not subsist on meat alone and some
form of bread must be provided to
satisfy his hunger. The farther he is
! removed from civilization, the more
crude will be the methods by which
this daily bread is provided to him.
His bread is perhaps his only manu-
featured article of food and in this
manufacture some crude process Of
milling as well as of mixing and .bak-
In Lapland the fur clad natives grind
their scanty oats with the inner bark
of the pine tree. The meal thus OBJ
ta1ned is mixed with water n mold
ed into flat cakes and baked over a
fire. In Kamchatka sometimes oats
are not O~btainable so the women pound
up pine or birch bark either separately
or together and make this bark pow
der into their native bread food. The
Icelander is a little better off. The
Iceland moss which he is able to
I scrape off the rocks makes a fine
flour and the bread and buildings made
from it are palatable to most northern
! travellers.
SIberfa's Bread aHard Tack
A ~raveler in Siberia p-ronounces the
native bread Of that country "the
hardest tack in the world" It is made
without yeast or salt and is nodded
into small white rings. 1t is first
steamed and then baked lightly. It is
I not only hard and tough as well but it
7 seems to possess a high degree of nu-
/ tritive value.
This Siberian bread is used for sew
eral other purposes besides food. The
| engineers who constructed the Siberian
railroad were first to note its adapta-
b1lity- The natives drop the rings into
hot tallOw and this tallOW bread was
used for soup or eaten with tea for
months.
Use Bread Instead of Candles.
The engineers discovered that these
taIlow soaked bread rings could be
used for boiling coffee or for impromp-
tn candles, Six or eight holes would
/ be bored into a bread ring by using
a nail Wax tapers were placed in
/ these nail holes. The combination
would burn about an hour emitting heat
! and light enough 90 make a small tent
comfortable and at the same time boil
/ water for tea or coffee. There would
be a strong odor of toasting bread
! which was vastly preferable to the
smoke of a small fire inside of a tent.
The Siberian merchants also use the
hinged bread as a counting apparatus
for calculating small sums. The strings
are suspended above the n ten
! bread rings strung on each. The top
line represents rubles and the two low
er ones kOpeks-
In the MolUcca islands the starchy
plth of the sago palm furnishes a
White fIoury meal from which the ma
tVes make a sort Of bread. They
make 1t into flat OblOng lOaves. which
are baked in curious little ovens di-
vided into small cells, each large
enough to hold a single loaf of bread.
In some parts of South America and
of Africa bread is made by the natives
from manfcO tubers which are a dead
" poison II not properly prepared. To
make manico bread the roots are cut
and soaked in water for several days
70 wash out the poison The flberS are
then picked out and dried and ground
into flour: This flour is mixed with
milk If ob~tainable. If not, water is
used to form a stiff dough. which is
nodded into little round loaves and
baked either in hot ashes or dried in
the sun.
Bread From Bananss.
In most tropical countries Ike Ia
mana and plantain supply a large por-
ton OF the native bread The ba-
nanas are taken before they are fully
ripe and dried IN the sun When dry
they are ground into meal from which
a bread is made which is both nOurish-
ing and appetizing.
New Central American Industry.
An American baker travelling in Cen
trail America experimental cOnsfdera-
bly, with plantain. He sliced and dried
the green plantains and ground them
into a fine. mealy flour. He found it
excellent for pastry as It produced a
flaky crust, so he delighted the mem
bers of his party by a plantain pie,
the crust OF which was made from the
green p~lantain flour and the filling
from ripe plantain, which. when
cooked, greatly resembled pumpkin.
The making of plantain flour for ex-
port is one of the possible industries
of tropical America in the near future.
It has been tested by a numbe of
in the United States. who GER
tify to its d~igestibility. 1t is believed
that %plantain bread would be a valua-
bic food for certain classes Of invalids.
as il contains some properties not
found in wheat
The Caribs of Central America make
a cavassa bread which has been much
exploited by visitors to that country.
The cavassa IS a tuber of good size
and the flour is obtained BY a peculiar
maThnn The TnmEh skin &c EaUnTan
and the tuber is grated on a long gra-
ter made by pounding small pieces Of
sharp flinty stone into a slab Of ma
gan Inc crater Is long enough
to reach from a wooden tub on the
floor to a woman waist The women
rub the roots the whole length of the
crater keeping time in their motions
to some of the weird songs and chants.
The grated root is put in a trainer
six or eight feet long tapering from /
six inches at the top to two and a
woven of palm fiber so hat when it is
fastened at the top and a heavy weight 4
hung at the bottom the juice is
squeezed out Of the mass which then 4
resembles grated in appear
ance. This paste is baked by spread
ms 1t about a quarter of an inch thick I
upon a long griddle.
The action of the heat makes the
particles Of cavassa adhere, so that
just as soon as it begins to turn 1t is
done. These thin cakes. which are
= 4AlAACS III 4Eu6Als are L4cn I
packed up in bundles of u or Is, !
wrapped in the leaves Of a species of
Gamma plant, and sent to the native
markets. There is little flavor to ca
yassa bread. Most people think it
like chips. but it Will keep in
definitely if dry and is nutritious and
wholesome and therefore a valuable
food to the natives of that country.
Sheets of Bread In Egypt.
In Egypt. whenever coffee is or
dered. sheets of bread are served with
These sheets of thin bread are pc
culiar to Egypt and after the traveller
has grown accustomed to them he is
to be fond of them. In color n
appearance they resemble chamois
skin and they are made of ~f1ourNand
the pulp OF sultana raisins pressed to-
gether and dried in the sun. They are
sweet and full of nutriment. Like the
Siberian bread rings, the bread sheets
Of Egypt have uses other than for !
mere food. They are used as awnings
and screens and to hold papers. These
uses are only possible in dry weather.
however, as when wet these bread
sheets crumble up and are as sodden