The Wilmington morning star., 1947-02-23
BY CARLTON RHODES
Stat Writer

One of tn e more simple oper-
atoms at the beginning of a day
is making "a piece of toast for
breakfast.
The loaf Of bread from which the
slice is taken comes to you by the
simple procedure of purchasing it
at the corner store.
Yet, in the process of it coming
to your table the flour and other
ingredients used must go through
several more complicated pro-
cedures.
The golden brown toast before
you on the breakfast table has
Travelled many miles before it be-
comes a morning delicacy.
Bread, the staff of life, so called
the world over, first starts its
journey in the ingredients room"
situated in the rear of the modern
bakery of today; a sanitary, sore
ened room.
After they have been weighed
and checked, they are placed to-
gether in a large trough" which
averages 10 feet long, three feet
wide and about as deep, and
mixed.
Hundreds of pounds of dough can
be mixed in less than seven
minutes in the giant water-cooled
mixer. This machine can do the
job of a dozen or more housewives
using their hands to mix dough, in
half the time.
When the ingredients are
throughly mixed, the door is opened
and a button is pushed to fling out
the young" bread into a well
creased through, which is then roll
ed into the infimentation room.
The now fluffy mixture is allowed
to rise or ferment for four and a
half hours into what is known to
bakers as a sponge. Indeed, this
is a well chosen name, for when it
has risen some two feet it feels like
a large sea sponge, and, if struck
with your hand, will sink down into
it's original form.
1t is mixed again, and literally
'sbuckets of lard'' are added to the
mixture.
This mixture is now dough, and
is poured down a chute into a "dlvi-
DER. Here the dough is nodded and
divided into any desired size. The
divider a cut six pieces at a
time. The cut pieces are machlned-
placed on a conveyor and weighed
by one of the bakers.
From the time it leaves the
hands of the 'weigher' it is carried
along and processed still further by
machine. A belt conveys the cut
pieces to a ''bread rounder' which
does exactly as its name implies;
it rounds o t the dough with a
whirling motion until is about
the size of a regulation softball.
Again it is taken by conveyor and
dropped into cup-like containers
which carries the dough to the
overhead proof where the ingredl-
ents are given further time to
work. 1t is carried back and forth
in this proof by conveyor belts and
finally dropped into the molder.
Here it is nodded by rollers, like
those on a washing machine, into
uh size somewhat elongated and
about an inch or inch and z a
in diameter. Men I kept busy
greasing pans in which other men
are placing the rolled out dough.
The pan, which come four in a
set. are placed upon tall racks
which have from 10 to II shelves
and can hold 189 loafs of bread
and rolled into the proof room
This is also called the steam
room and can be controlled to
raise the dough to any desired
height. 1t takes 20 minutes COR 24o0
loafs to rise.
The ovens, which are as large as
a normal kitchen, can bake 54O
loafs of tawny brown bread IN 70
minutes. The racks, with the
dough on them. r rolled out o.
the proof room and the pans are
placed O mt 0 a revolving conVeyor
inside the over which is kept at
a temperature of 500 degrees
fahrenheit. =.
AS soon as e bread is well
done it is placed on another con-
~ which runs in front OF the
oven door. From here it goes to
another part of the bakery where
if is placed on the racks again and
allowed to cool. The aroma of