Treatise on Bread, and Bread-Making

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <div> <h1 class='c000'>A<br/> <br/><span class='xxlarge'>TREATISE ON BREAD,</span><br/> <br/>AND<br/> <br/><span class='xlarge'>BREAD-MAKING</span>.</h1></div> <div class='nf-center-c1'> <div class='nf-center c001'> <div>BY SYLVESTER GRAHAM.</div> </div></div> <div class='nf-center-c1'> <div class='nf-center c001'> <div>“Bread strengtheneth man’s heart.”—<span class='sc'>Holy Writ.</span></div> </div></div> <div class='nf-center-c1'> <div class='nf-center c001'> <div>BOSTON:</div> <div>LIGHT &amp; STEARNS, 1 CORNHILL.</div> <div>1837.</div> </div></div> <div class='pbb'> <hr class='pb c002' /></div> <p class='c003'>Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1837, by <span class='sc'>Light &amp; Stearns</span>, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.</p> <div class='pbb'> <hr class='pb c002' /></div> <div class='chapter'> <h2 class='c004'>CONTENTS.</h2></div> <div class='nf-center-c1'> <div class='nf-center c005'> <div>HISTORY OF BREAD.</div> </div></div> <p class='c003'>Primitive food of man. Bruising and grinding grain. Baking. Invention of leavened bread. Bread among the Greeks and Romans—among the Hebrews. Simplicity of the bread now used in many countries.</p> <div class='c006'><SPAN href='#Page_9'>9–16</SPAN></div> <div class='nf-center-c1'> <div class='nf-center'> <div>LAWS OF DIET.</div> </div></div> <p class='c003'>Reasons why food in its natural state would be the best. Concentrated nutriment. Interesting experiments on animals. Mixtures of food. Leavened and unleavened bread. Qualifications of the best bread.</p> <div class='c006'><SPAN href='#Page_17'>17–30</SPAN></div> <div class='nf-center-c1'> <div class='nf-center'> <div>MATERIAL OF BREAD.</div> </div></div> <p class='c003'>Wheat. Extent of climate favorable to it. Injured by improper tillage. Removal of impurities. Washing of grain. Separation of the bran from the nutrient particles improper. Ancient Roman bread. Public bakers. Use of bad flour. Adulterations. Poisonous agents used to disguise them.</p> <div class='c006'><SPAN href='#Page_31'>31–50</SPAN></div> <div class='nf-center-c1'> <div class='nf-center'> <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_iv'>iv</span>PROPERTIES OF BREAD.</div> </div></div> <p class='c003'>Superfine flour injurious—a probable cause of some common disorders. Objections to coarse bread. Its medical properties. Extensive experiments of its use, by soldiers and others. Use among European peasantry. Selection, preservation and grinding of wheat.</p> <div class='c006'><SPAN href='#Page_51'>51–72</SPAN></div> <div class='nf-center-c1'> <div class='nf-center'> <div>FERMENTATION.</div> </div></div> <p class='c003'>Chemical composition of flour. Yeast—modes of preparing it. Substitutes for it. Fermentation, and its products. Vinous, acetous and putrefactive fermentation.</p> <div class='c006'><SPAN href='#Page_73'>73–86</SPAN></div> <div class='nf-center-c1'> <div class='nf-center'> <div>PREPARATION OF BREAD.</div> </div></div> <p class='c003'>Mixing. Much kneading necessary. Rising, or fermentation. Use of alkalies—saleratus and soda. Baking. Ovens. Alcohol in bread. Preservation of bread.</p> <div class='c006'><SPAN href='#Page_87'>87–102</SPAN></div> <div class='nf-center-c1'> <div class='nf-center'> <div>WHO SHOULD MAKE BREAD.</div> </div></div> <p class='c003'>Making bread by rule. Bakers. Domestics. Sour bread. An anecdote. Mrs. Van Winkle. Bad bread need not be made. How cake is made. Bread-making a drudgery. Excellent example of a mother. Eating bad bread. Importance of having good bread.</p> <div class='c006'><SPAN href='#Page_103'>103–126</SPAN></div> <div class='nf-center-c1'> <div class='nf-center'> <div>VARIETIES OF BREAD.</div> </div></div> <p class='c003'>Rye bread. Indian meal bread. Use of sour milk or butter-milk. Acids. Family grinding.</p> <div class='c006'><SPAN href='#Page_127'>127–131</SPAN></div> <div class='chapter'> <span class='pageno' id='Page_v'>v</span> <h2 class='c004'>PREFACE.</h2></div> <p class='c007'>There are probably few people in civilized life, who—were the question put to them directly—would not say, that they consider bread <i>one</i> of the most, if not the most important article of diet which enters into the food of man. And yet there is, in reality, almost a total and universal carelessness about the character of bread. Thousands in civic life will, for years, and perhaps as long as they live, eat the most miserable trash that can be imagined, in the form of bread, and never seem to think that they can possibly have anything better, nor even that it is an evil to eat such vile stuff as they do. <span class='pageno' id='Page_vi'>vi</span>And if there is occasionally an individual who is troubled with some convictions that his bread is not quite what it should be, he knows not how to remedy the difficulty; for it is a serious truth, that, although nearly every human being in civilized life eats bread of some kind or other, yet scarcely any one has sufficient knowledge of the true principles and processes concerned in bread-making, and of the actual causes of the bad qualities of bread, to know how, with any degree of certainty, to avoid bad and secure good bread.</p> <p class='c008'>I have thought, therefore, that I could hardly do society a better service, than to publish the following treatise on a subject which, whether people are aware of it or not, is, in reality, of very great importance to the health and comfort of every one.</p> <p class='c008'>It has been prepared for the press with more haste, under more embarrassments <span class='pageno' id='Page_vii'>vii</span>from other engagements, and with less severity of revision, than I could wish. Yet, whatever may be its defects of arrangement, method or style, I have taken care to have the principles correct, and the instructions such as, if attended to, will enable every one who is heartily devoted to the object, to make good bread.</p> <p class='c008'>I must, however, acknowledge, that I have very little expectation that proper attention will be paid to this subject, so long as the dietetic habits of society continue to be what they are. While the various preparations of animal food constitute so important a portion of human aliment, the quality of bread will be greatly disregarded and neglected, and people will continue almost universally to be cursed with poor bread.</p> <p class='c008'>Nevertheless, I trust some good will be done by the little work I now send out; and I am not without hope, that it will be <span class='pageno' id='Page_viii'>viii</span>the means of a considerable improvement in the quality of bread, and, as a natural and necessary consequence, an improvement in the health and happiness of those who consume it.</p> <p class='c008'>That it may prove thus beneficial to my fellow creatures in a high degree, is my hearty and fervent desire.</p> <div class='c006'>S. GRAHAM.</div> <p class='c009'><span class='sc'>Northampton, April 12, 1837.</span></p> <div class='chapter'> <span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />