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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Treatise on Bread, and Bread-making,
-by Sylvester Graham
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: A Treatise on Bread, and Bread-making
-
-Author: Sylvester Graham
-
-Release Date: September 17, 2021 [eBook #66331]
-
-Language: English
-
-Produced by: Charlene Taylor, Benjamin Fluehr and the Online Distributed
- Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
- produced from images generously made available by The
- Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TREATISE ON BREAD, AND
-BREAD-MAKING ***
-
-
- A
-
- TREATISE ON BREAD,
-
- AND
-
- BREAD-MAKING.
-
-
-
- BY SYLVESTER GRAHAM.
-
-
-
- “Bread strengtheneth man’s heart.”—HOLY WRIT.
-
-
-
- BOSTON:
- LIGHT & STEARNS, 1 CORNHILL.
- 1837.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1837, by LIGHT &
- STEARNS, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
- CONTENTS.
-
-
- HISTORY OF BREAD.
-
-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.
-
- 9–16
-
- LAWS OF DIET.
-
-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.
-
- 17–30
-
- MATERIAL OF BREAD.
-
-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.
-
- 31–50
-
- PROPERTIES OF BREAD.
-
-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.
-
- 51–72
-
- FERMENTATION.
-
-Chemical composition of flour. Yeast—modes of preparing it. Substitutes
- for it. Fermentation, and its products. Vinous, acetous and
- putrefactive fermentation.
-
- 73–86
-
- PREPARATION OF BREAD.
-
-Mixing. Much kneading necessary. Rising, or fermentation. Use of
- alkalies—saleratus and soda. Baking. Ovens. Alcohol in bread.
- Preservation of bread.
-
- 87–102
-
- WHO SHOULD MAKE BREAD.
-
-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.
-
- 103–126
-
- VARIETIES OF BREAD.
-
-Rye bread. Indian meal bread. Use of sour milk or butter-milk. Acids.
- Family grinding.
-
- 127–131
-
-
-
-
- PREFACE.
-
-
-There are probably few people in civilized life, who—were the question
-put to them directly—would not say, that they consider bread _one_ 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. 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.
-
-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.
-
-It has been prepared for the press with more haste, under more
-embarrassments 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.
-
-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.
-
-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 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.
-
-That it may prove thus beneficial to my fellow creatures in a high
-degree, is my hearty and fervent desire.
-
- S. GRAHAM.
-
- NORTHAMPTON, APRIL 12, 1837.
-
-
-
-
- TREATISE ON BREAD.
-
- HISTORY OF BREAD.
-
-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.
-
-
-In the English version of the sacred scriptures, the term Bread is
-frequently used to signify vegetable food in general. Thus in Gen. iii,
-19, the Lord says to Adam—“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread
-(or food) till thou return to the ground.” See also Gen. xviii, 5, and
-xxviii, 20, and Ex. ii, 20.
-
-The most extended sense of the word, however, according to general
-usage, comprehends all farinaceous vegetable substances which enter into
-the diet of man; such as the farinaceous seeds or grain, nuts, fruit,
-roots, &c. And in this extended sense, Bread, in some form or other, has
-been the principal article in the diet of mankind, from the earliest
-generations of the human race, to the present time; except among the
-few, small and scattered tribes, which have, perhaps, ever since the
-days of Noah, in different parts of the earth, subsisted mainly on
-animal food.
-
-It is nearly certain that the primitive inhabitants of the earth, ate
-their food with very little, if any artificial preparation.
-
-The various fruits, nuts, seeds, roots, and other vegetable substances
-on which they fed, were eaten by them in their natural state, with no
-other grinding than that which was done by the teeth.
-
-As the human family increased, and population became more dense and
-extended, and providential measures more necessary, the condition and
-circumstances of society gradually led to the invention and adoption of
-the simple, and, at first, rude arts of domestic life. Among these, was
-that of bruising the harder articles of their food, such as nuts and
-seeds, or grain, on flat stones, selected and kept for the purpose. By
-constant use, these stones in time became hollowed out; and being
-thereby rendered more convenient, men at length began to form mortars
-and pestles from stones; and probably the next step was the construction
-of the rude kind of hand-mills, which continued in use for many
-centuries; and indeed, which, with the stone mortars, have, throughout
-all ages and in almost every portion of the earth, been used in the
-ruder states of society.
-
-When men became acquainted with the use of fire, they probably often
-parched their corn or grain before they pounded it; and afterwards, they
-learned to mix it with water into the consistency of dough, and to bake
-this, in an unleavened or unfermented state, on flat stones before the
-fire, or in the hot ashes or hot earth, or in the rude ovens which they
-formed, by digging holes in the earth, into which they put heated
-stones, and slightly covered them with leaves or grass, and then laid in
-the article they wished to bake, and over this strewed some leaves, and
-then covered the whole with earth.[A]
-
-This kind of unleavened bread, undoubtedly constituted a very important,
-if not the principal article of artificially prepared food in the diet
-of the primitive inhabitants of the earth, for many centuries; and the
-same, or very nearly the same kind of bread continued in general use
-down to the days of Abraham; and it is probable that the unleavened
-bread used by his descendants at the feast of the Passover, before and
-after they left Egypt, was of the same kind.
-
-It is hardly possible, however, that it could have been otherwise, than
-that, at a much earlier period, larger quantities of this dough were
-occasionally made, than were immediately baked, and consequently
-portions of it were suffered to stand and ferment; and by this means,
-men were in process of time learned to make leavened, or raised bread.
-
-At how early a date, loaf or raised bread came into common use, it is
-impossible now to ascertain with any considerable degree of precision.
-The scriptures do not afford us any evidence that Abraham was accustomed
-to such bread; but the fact that Moses, at the institution of the supper
-of the Passover, the night before the Jews left Egypt, commanded them
-strictly to abstain from leavened bread, and to eat only the unleavened,
-proves conclusively, that the Israelites at least, were then accustomed
-to fermented, or raised bread.
-
-Neither history nor tradition enables us to speak with any degree of
-confidence in regard to the period at which other nations became
-acquainted with the art of bread-making; but from all that has come down
-to us from ancient times, we learn that the primitive generations of
-every nation, subsisted on fruits and other products of the vegetable
-kingdom, in their uncooked or natural state.
-
-“The Greeks assert that they were taught the art of making bread by
-their god, Pan; and Pliny informs us that this art was not known at Rome
-till near six hundred years after the foundation of that city. The Roman
-armies, he says, on their return from Macedonia, brought Grecian bakers
-into Italy. Before this time, the Romans prepared their meal in a kind
-of pap or soft pudding; and on this account Pliny calls them pap
-eaters.”
-
-But though the Egyptians and Israelites were probably among the earliest
-portions of the human family, who became acquainted with the art of
-making loaf or raised bread, the quality of their bread continued to be
-exceedingly simple and coarse for many generations.
-
-Even after the establishment of the Hebrew nation in Palestine—in the
-most splendid days of Jerusalem—at the period of the highest refinement
-of the Jews, in the arts of civil and domestic life, their fine flour,
-from which their choicest bread and cakes were made, was, in comparison
-with modern superfine flour, extremely coarse,—ground mostly by females,
-in hand-mills constructed and kept for that purpose.
-
-From Rome the art of bread-making very slowly found its way over
-considerable portions of Europe. A thousand years after Julius Cæsar
-first entered Britain, the rude people of that country were little
-acquainted with raised bread. “Even at present,” says Prof. Thomson,
-“loaf bread is seldom used except by the higher classes of inhabitants,
-in the northern countries of Europe and Asia.”
-
-In Eastern and Southern Asia, rice constitutes the principal
-bread-stuff; and this is generally prepared with great simplicity. In
-Middle and Western Asia, and in Africa, bread, though made of different
-kinds of grain, is prepared with almost equal simplicity. In Scotland,
-Ireland, and indeed throughout Europe generally, barley, oats, rye,
-potatoes, peas, beans, chesnuts, and other farinaceous vegetables,
-constitute the bread-stuff of most of the laboring people, or peasantry.
-In the islands of the Pacific and Southern oceans, the bread of the
-inhabitants consists of the plantain, bananas, yams, bread-fruit, and
-other like vegetables, simply roasted, baked, or boiled.
-
-Bread, therefore, of some kind or other, made of some of the farinaceous
-products of the vegetable kingdom, has probably, in almost every portion
-of the world, and every period of time, been one of the first, and most
-important, and universal articles of food, artificially prepared by
-cooking, which has entered into the diet of mankind; and hence it has
-with great propriety been called “the staff of life.”
-
-
-
-
- LAWS OF DIET.
-
-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.
-
-
-If man were to subsist wholly on alimentary substances in their natural
-state, or without any artificial preparation by cooking, then he would
-be obliged to use his teeth freely in masticating his food; and by so
-doing, not only preserve his teeth from decay, and keep them in sound
-health, but at the same time, and by the same means, would he thoroughly
-mix his food with the fluid of his mouth, and thus prepare it both for
-swallowing and for the action of the stomach, and by the same means
-also, he would be made to swallow his food slowly, as the welfare of the
-stomach and of the whole system requires he should.
-
-Again, if man were to subsist wholly on uncooked food, he would never
-suffer from the improper temperature of his aliment. Hot substances
-taken into the mouth, serve more directly and powerfully to destroy the
-teeth, than any other cause which acts immediately upon them; and hot
-food and drink received into the stomach, always in some degree
-debilitate that organ, and through it, every other organ and portion of
-the whole system; diminishing, as an ultimate result, the vital power of
-every part—impairing every function, and increasing the susceptibility
-of the whole body to the action of disturbing causes, and predisposing
-it to disease. Again, if man were to subsist entirely on food in a
-natural state, he would never suffer from concentrated aliment. Every
-substance in nature which God has prepared for the food of man, consists
-of both nutritious and innutritious matter. The proportions vary in
-different kinds of food. Thus in a hundred pounds of potatoes, there are
-about twenty-five pounds of nourishing matter; while in a hundred pounds
-of good wheat there are about eighty pounds of nourishing matter. There
-are a few products of the vegetable kingdom which are still higher in
-the scale of nutriment, than wheat; and on the other hand there is a
-boundless variety ranging below wheat, extending down to three or four
-per cent. of nourishment. But nature, without the aid of human art,
-produces nothing for the alimentary use of man which is purely a
-concentrated nutrient substance. And God has constructed man in strict
-accordance with this general economy of nature. He has organized and
-endowed the human body with reference to the condition and qualities of
-those substances in nature, which He designed for the food of man. And
-consequently, while man obeys the laws of constitution and relation
-which should govern him in regard to his food, he preserves the health
-and integrity of his alimentary organs, and through them of his whole
-nature; and so far as his dietetic habits are concerned, secures the
-highest and best condition of his nature. But, if he disregards these
-laws, and by artificial means greatly departs from the natural
-adaptation of things, he inevitably brings evil on himself and on his
-posterity.
-
-It has been fully proved that “bulk, or a due proportion of innutritious
-matter in our food, is quite as important to health as nourishment.”
-Human beings may subsist from childhood to extreme old age on good
-potatoes and pure water alone, and enjoy the best and most uninterrupted
-health, and possess the greatest muscular power and ability to endure
-protracted fatigue and exposure. But if the purely nutrient matter of
-the potato be separated out by artificial means, and human beings, fed
-exclusively on this concentrated form of aliment and pure water, they
-will soon perish, because the alimentary organs of man are not
-constituted and endowed for such kinds of food. And this is true of all
-animals, in the higher orders, at least.
-
-We know that dogs fed on sugar and water, gum and water, fine flour
-bread and water, or any other kind of concentrated aliment, will soon
-languish, and droop, and emaciate, and die; but if a due proportion of
-proper innutritious substance be mixed with these concentrated forms of
-aliment, the dogs will subsist on them and remain healthy. So if horses,
-cows, deer, sheep, and other grass-eating animals be fed on grain alone,
-they will soon lose their appetite and begin to droop, and will shortly
-perish; but if a due proportion of straw or shavings of wood be given
-them with their grain, they will continue to do well. Man is affected in
-the same manner. He cannot long subsist on purely nutritious substances.
-And the reason is not because these substances have no azote or nitrogen
-in them; nor is it because man _necessarily_ requires a variety of
-alimentary substances, but simply and exclusively because the anatomical
-construction and vital powers of the alimentary organs, are
-constitutionally adapted to alimentary substances which consist of both
-nutritious and innutritious matter; and therefore a due proportion of
-innutritious matter in the food of man is as essential to the welfare of
-his alimentary organs, as a due proportion of nourishment is to the
-support of his body.
-
-Again, if man subsisted wholly on uncooked food, he would not only be
-preserved from improper concentrations, but also from pernicious
-combinations of alimentary substances. The alimentary organs of man,
-like those of the horse, ox, sheep, dog, cat, and most or all other
-animals of the higher orders, if not in fact, of all other animals
-without limitation, possess the vital capability of so accommodating
-themselves to emergencies, that they can be made to digest almost every
-vegetable and animal substance in nature; and they can, by long
-training, be educated to digest a mixture of these substances at the
-same time. Nevertheless it is incontestibly true, that the alimentary
-organs of man and of all other animals, can manage one kind of food at a
-time better than a mixed ingestion; for it is impossible that the
-solvent fluids secreted by the stomach and other organs belonging to the
-alimentary apparatus, should be at the same time equally well adapted to
-entirely different kinds of food.
-
-I do not say that the alimentary organs of man cannot, by long habit, be
-brought into such a condition as that, while that condition remains,
-they will not manage a mixed ingestion of animal and vegetable food,
-with more immediate comfort and satisfaction to themselves and the
-individual, than they will an ingestion of pure vegetable food. But this
-does not militate against the general principle in the least; for it is
-nevertheless true, that the same organs are capable of being brought
-into a condition in which they will manage an ingestion of unmixed food
-of either kind, with less embarrassment and injury to themselves and the
-whole system, than they can the mixed food in any condition. Hence it is
-a general law of nature, concerning the dietetic habits of man, that
-simplicity of food at each meal is essential to the highest well-being
-of the individual and of the race.
-
-God has unquestionably provided a great and rich variety of substances
-for man’s nourishment and enjoyment; but it is equally certain that he
-did not design that man should partake of all this variety at a single
-meal, nor in a single day, nor season—but from meal to meal, from day to
-day, and from season to season, varying his enjoyment in strictest
-consistency with the great laws of his nature. And hence all artificial
-combinations of alimentary substances, and particularly those of a
-heterogeneous kind, and yet more especially the concentrated forms, must
-be more or less pernicious to the alimentary organs, and through them to
-the whole system.
-
-Finally, if man subsisted wholly on uncooked food, the undepraved
-integrity of his appetite, his thorough mastication and slow swallowing,
-and his simple meal, would greatly serve to prevent his overeating, and
-thus save him from the ruinous effects of one of the most destructive
-causes operating in civic life.
-
-Whatever may be the material, therefore, from which bread is made, when
-the artificial preparation is of that simple character which leaves the
-proportions of nutritious and innutritious properties, as nature
-combined them, and effects little change in the nutritious principles,
-and retains the natural requisition for the function of the teeth, and
-thus secures the proper chewing of the food and the mixing of it with
-the fluids of the mouth, and swallowing of it slowly, the artificial
-process militates very little, if at all, against any of the
-physiological or vital interests of the body. But if our artificial
-process of bread-making, concentrates the nutrient properties, and
-destroys the due proportion between the bulk and nourishment, and forms
-improper changes and combinations in the nutrient elements, and does
-away the necessity for mastication or chewing, and presents the food in
-too elevated a temperature, or too hot, and enables us to swallow it too
-rapidly, with little or no exercise of the teeth, and without properly
-mixing it with the fluids of the mouth, the artificial process or
-cooking is decidedly and often exceedingly inimical, not only to the
-vital interests of the alimentary organs, but of the whole human system.
-
-In all civilized nations, and particularly in civic life, bread, as I
-have already stated, is far the most important article of food which is
-artificially prepared; and in our country and climate, it is the most
-important article that enters into the diet of man; and therefore it is
-of the first consideration, that its character should, in every respect,
-be as nearly as possible, consistent with the laws of constitution and
-relation established in our nature; or with the anatomical construction
-and vital properties and powers and interest of our systems.
-
-If we contemplate the human constitution in its highest and best
-condition,—in the possession of its most vigorous and unimpaired
-powers—and ask, what must be the character of our bread in order to
-preserve that constitution in that condition? the answer most
-indubitably is, that the coarse unleavened bread of early times, when of
-proper age, was one of the least removes from the natural state of
-food,—one of the simplest and most wholesome forms of artificial
-preparations, and best adapted to fulfil the laws of constitution and
-relation; and therefore best adapted to sustain the most vigorous and
-healthy state of the alimentary organs, and the highest and best
-condition of the whole nature of man, as a general and permanent fact;
-and hence it is very questionable whether loaf or raised bread can be
-made equally conducive to all the interests of our nature, with the
-simple unleavened bread.
-
-I am aware that many professional men entertain a very different opinion
-on this subject, and speak of unleavened bread as being less nourishing
-and less easily digested. This may be true to a limited extent, in
-special cases of impaired and debilitated alimentary organs; but I am
-confident that as a general fact the notion is entirely erroneous.
-
-“The whole people of Asia,” says Dr. Cullen, “live upon unfermented
-rice. The Americans, before they became acquainted with the Europeans,
-employed, and for the most part, still employ their maize in the same
-condition. Even in Europe, the employment of unfermented bread, and
-unfermented farinaceæ in other forms, is still very considerable, and we
-are ready to maintain that the morbid consequences of such a diet are
-very seldom to be observed. In Scotland, nine tenths of the lower
-classes of people—and that is the greater part of the whole—live upon
-unfermented bread and unfermented farinaceæ in other forms, and at the
-same time, I am of opinion that there are not a more healthy people
-anywhere to be found. We give it to all classes and both sexes with
-advantage.”
-
-It is incontestibly true, that if two portions of the same kind of wheat
-meal be taken and made, the one into unleavened and the other into
-leavened bread, and both be eaten warm from the oven, the leavened bread
-will prove much more oppressive and difficult to manage in the stomach
-than the unleavened. But aside from the changes that are produced by the
-process of fermentation, there are many other considerations why
-unleavened bread of a proper quality and age, is better adapted to
-sustain the alimentary organs and general constitution of man, in their
-highest and best condition.
-
-Nevertheless, it is very certain, that loaf or raised bread can be made
-so nearly in accordance with the vital laws and interests of our bodies,
-as scarcely to militate against them in any perceptible or appreciable
-degree. And when I say this, I mean not merely its effects on the health
-and longevity of a single individual, but its effects upon the human
-constitution, through successive generations, for a thousand years or
-more.
-
-As a general criterion or rule, then, in regard to the character of
-bread, we perceive that the most perfect loaf or raised bread, is that
-which, being made of the best material, is light, and sweet, and well
-baked, and still most nearly retains all the natural proportions and
-properties of the original material.
-
-
-
-
- MATERIAL OF BREAD.
-
-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.
-
-
-Among the materials used for making bread in our country—and, in fact,
-of all the known productions of the vegetable kingdom in any country,
-wheat is decidedly the best; and it is a remarkable fact, that wheat
-comes nearer to man than perhaps any other plant, in its power of
-becoming adapted to different climates, over a wide extent of the
-earth’s surface, so that it may almost be said that wherever the human
-species can flourish, there wheat can be cultivated.
-
-“It is not certainly known,” says Prof. Thomson, “in what country wheat
-was first produced. Mr. Bruce informs us that he found it growing wild
-in Abyssinia; and in his opinion, that kingdom is the native country of
-the plant. It would seem,” continues the Professor, “to be originally an
-African plant, since it thrives best in Barbary and Egypt; and perhaps
-the mountains of Abyssinia, though within the torrid zone, may not
-differ much in point of climate, from the more northern plains of Egypt.
-Wheat is perhaps cultivated over a greater extent of the globe than any
-other plant. Excellent crops are raised as far north as Sweden, in
-latitude 60°; it is cultivated in the East Indies, considerably within
-the limits of the torrid zone; and in the North of Hindostan, it
-constitutes a chief article in the food of the inhabitants. In India,
-however, the plant seems to have deteriorated. It is always dwarfish,
-and the crop is said to be less abundant than in more northern
-climates.” Yet a cold climate is not most genial to the nature of this
-plant. “The wheat of France is superior to that of England; the wheat of
-Italy is still better than that of France; and perhaps the best of all
-is raised in Barbary and Egypt.”
-
-Excellent wheat is raised in the southern, and western, and middle
-portions of the United States; and even in the northern and eastern
-parts of New England, very fine crops have been produced.
-
-But the wheat and other cultivated products of the vegetable kingdom
-appropriated to the nourishment of man, like those on which our domestic
-animals subsist, are too generally, in civilized life, very considerably
-deteriorated, as to their wholesomeness, by the improper tillage of the
-soil. I have no doubt that it is true, as stated by those who have made
-the experiment, that the flour of wheat, raised on a cultivated soil
-recently dressed with crude, stable manure, may readily be distinguished
-by its odor, from the flour of wheat raised on a new and undepraved
-soil, or from that raised on a cultivated soil which has been dressed
-with properly digested manure. And if such and similar results of
-improper tillage can become the sources of serious evil to the human
-family, through their effects on the flesh of animals which man devours,
-and on the milk and butter which he consumes, surely the immediate
-effects of such a deteriorated vegetable aliment on the human system,
-must be very considerable.
-
-They who have never eaten bread made of wheat, recently produced by a
-pure virgin soil, have but a very imperfect notion of the deliciousness
-of good bread; such as is often to be met with in the comfortable log
-houses in our western country. It is probably true that the new soil, in
-its virgin purity, before it becomes exhausted by tillage, and debauched
-by the means which man uses to enrich and stimulate it, produces most,
-if not all kinds of vegetables appropriate for human aliment, in a more
-perfect and healthy state, than any soil which has been long under
-cultivation, can be made to do. Nevertheless, by a proper application of
-physiological principles to agriculture, many of the evils which now
-result from improper tillage may easily be avoided, and the quality of
-all those vegetable substances which enter into the diet of man may be
-very greatly improved, both in regard to wholesomeness and
-deliciousness.
-
-But while the people of our country are so entirely given up as they are
-at present, to gross and promiscuous feeding on the dead carcasses of
-animals, and to the untiring pursuits of wealth, it is perhaps wholly in
-vain for a single individual to raise his voice on a subject of this
-kind. The farmer will continue to be most eager to increase the number
-of his acres, and to extort from those acres the greatest amount of
-produce, with the least expense of tillage, and with little or no regard
-to the quality of that produce in relation to the physiological
-interests of man; while the people generally, are contented to gratify
-their depraved appetites on whatever comes before them, without pausing
-to inquire whether their indulgences are adapted to preserve or to
-destroy their health and life. Yet if some one does not raise a voice
-upon this subject which shall be heard and heeded, there will soon reach
-us, as a nation, a voice of calamity which we shall not be able to shut
-our ears against, albeit we may in the perverseness of our sensualism,
-incorrigibly persist in disregarding its admonitions, till the deep
-chastisements of outraged nature shall reach the very “bone and marrow”
-of the human constitution, and fill our land with such a living
-rottenness, as now in some other portions of the earth, renders human
-society odious and abominable.
-
-Whether, therefore, my voice shall be heard and heeded or not, I will
-obey the dictates of my sense of duty, and solemnly declare that this
-subject demands the prompt and earnest attention of every agriculturist
-and of every friend to the common cause of humanity; for it is most
-certain, that until the agriculture of our country is conducted in
-strict accordance with physiological truth, it is not possible for us to
-realize those physical, and intellectual, and moral, and social, and
-civil blessings for which the human constitution and our soil and
-climate are naturally capacitated.
-
-When proper attention has been paid to the character of the wheat
-itself, the next thing is to see that it is thoroughly cleansed.
-
-Sometimes, in consequence of the peculiarities of the season, or
-climate, or soil, or some other cause, there will be a species of
-disease affecting the wheat and other grains; and this may be of such a
-character as not easily to be removed nor counteracted by any means; but
-more generally the rust, and smut, and dust, which attach themselves to
-the skin of the grain, may, by proper care, be so far removed, as at
-least to render the meal or flour far more pure and wholesome than it
-otherwise would be. And here let me remark, that they are greatly
-deceived, who suppose that the bolting cloth which separates the fine
-flour from the outer skin or bran, also separates the impurities
-attached to the outer skin from the flour. By the process of grinding,
-these impurities are rubbed from the outer skin, and made quite as fine
-as any portion of the flour, and for the most part pass with the fine
-flour through the bolting cloth.
-
-To remedy this, it is perhaps generally true, that in large flouring
-establishments, a kind of smut or scouring mill is in operation, through
-which the wheat passes, and is pretty thoroughly rubbed or scoured
-without being broken; and after this, it passes through a screen or
-winnowing mill, and thus is tolerably well cleansed and prepared for
-grinding. Yet this process by no means renders the wheat so perfectly
-clean and wholesome as washing.
-
-Those who have given little attention to this subject, will probably
-think that the trouble of washing all their bread-stuff before it is
-ground, would be much greater than any benefit which would result from
-it. But a short experience in the matter, would convince every one who
-has a proper regard for the character of his bread, that the trouble of
-washing his grain bears no comparison to the improvement effected by it.
-Indeed, they who become accustomed to washing their grain, will soon
-cease to regard it as a trouble; and the improvement in the whiteness
-and sweetness of their bread will be so great, that they would be
-extremely unwilling to relinquish the practice.
-
-When people are so situated that they can have things as they wish, they
-will also find that their bread is much richer, if the grain is ground
-but a short time before it is cooked.
-
-The best way, therefore, is, for every family to raise or purchase a
-sufficient quantity of the best new wheat that can be produced by proper
-tillage in a good soil, and put that away in clean casks or bins, where
-it will be kept perfectly dry and sweet; and, according to the size of
-the family, take, from time to time, as they need it, one or two
-bushels, and wash it thoroughly but briskly in two or three waters, and
-then spread it out on a drying sheet or table, made for the purpose, and
-which is considerably inclined, so that the water remaining with the
-wheat will easily run off.
-
-The skin or bran of the wheat is so well protected by its own oily
-property, that little or no water will penetrate it, unless it be
-suffered to remain in the water much longer than is necessary. Being
-thinly spread out upon the sheet or table in a good drying day, it will
-be sufficiently dry in a few hours for grinding. And I say again, let
-any one who loves good bread, wash his grain a few times in this manner,
-and he will be very reluctant to return to the use of bread made of
-unwashed grain.
-
-It would be difficult to ascertain at how early a period in the progress
-of society, mankind, in the preparation of wheat for bread-making, began
-to put asunder what God has joined together, and to concentrate the more
-purely nutrient properties, by separating the flour from the part
-commonly called the bran. The Bible speaks of fine flour or meal, as a
-portion of the meat offerings of the temple, but it is not probable this
-approached very near to the superfine flour of the present time.
-
-We are informed also that the Romans, more than two thousand years ago,
-had four or five different kinds of bread—one of which was made of the
-purest flour, from which all the bran was separated. This was eaten only
-by the rich and luxurious. A second kind, in more common use, was that
-from which a portion of the bran was taken; and a third kind, which was
-more generally used than any other, was that which was made of the whole
-substance of the wheat. A fourth kind was made mostly of the bran, for
-dogs.
-
-But at whatever period in the history of the race, this artificial
-process was commenced, certain it is that in direct violation of the
-laws of constitution and relation which the Creator has established in
-the nature of man, this process of mechanical analysis is, at the
-present day, carried to the full extent of possibility; and the farina,
-and gluten, and saccharine matter of the wheat, are almost perfectly
-concentrated in the form of superfine flour. Nor is this all—these
-concentrated nutrient properties of the wheat are mixed and complicated
-in ways innumerable, with other concentrated substances, to pamper the
-depraved appetites of man, with kinds of food which always and
-inevitably tend to impair his health and to abbreviate his life.
-
-Even the bread, which is the simplest form into which human ingenuity
-tortures the flour of wheat, is, by other causes besides the
-concentration I have named, too frequently rendered the instrument of
-disease and death, rather than the means of life and health, to those
-that eat it.
-
-In cities and large towns, most people depend on public bakers for their
-bread. And I have no doubt that public bakers, as a body, are as honest
-and worthy a class of men as any in society. I have no wish to speak
-evil of any one; and it is always painful to me to find myself
-compelled, in fidelity to the common cause of humanity, to expose the
-faults of any particular class of men, when probably every other class
-in society is as deeply involved in errors which, in the sight of God,
-evince, at least, an equal degree of moral turpitude.
-
-But public bakers, like other men, who serve the public more for the
-sake of securing their own emolument than for the public good, have
-always had recourse to various expedients in order to increase the
-lucrativeness of their business.
-
-To secure custom and profit at the same time, they have considered it
-necessary, that a given quantity of flour should be made into a loaf as
-large and as white as possible, and free from any disagreeable taste,
-while at the same time it retains the greatest possible weight.
-
-From a variety of causes, the quality and price of flour have always
-been very unstable. Sometimes the crops are small, or the foreign demand
-for flour or the home consumption is unusually great, or the season is
-unfavorable to the health of grain, and the wheat becomes diseased, or
-the harvest time is unfavorable, and the wheat sprouts before it is
-secured, or large quantities of flour become soured or musty, or in some
-other manner damaged.
-
-To counteract these things, and to make the most profitable use of such
-flour as the market affords them, the public bakers have been led to try
-various experiments with chemical agents, and there is reason to believe
-that in numerous instances, they have been too successful in their
-practices, for the well-being of those who have been the consumers of
-their bread.
-
-According to treatises on bread-making, which have within a few years
-past appeared in European scientific journals, “alum, sulphate of zinc,
-sub-carbonate of magnesia, sub-carbonate of ammonia, sulphate of copper,
-and several other substances, have been used by public bakers in making
-bread; and some of these substances have been employed by them to a very
-great extent, and with very great success in the cause of their
-cupidity. They have not only succeeded by such means, in making light
-and white bread out of extremely poor flour, but they have also been
-able so to disguise their adulterations, as to work in with their flour,
-without being detected by the consumers, a portion of the flour of
-beans, peas and potatoes—and even chalk, pipe clay and plaster of Paris,
-have been employed to increase the weight and whiteness of their bread.”
-
-“The use of alum in bread-making,” says a distinguished chemist,
-“appears to be very ancient. It is one of those articles which have been
-the most extensively and successfully used in disguising bad flour, and
-the various adulterations of bread. Its injurious action upon the health
-is not to be compared with that of sulphate of copper, and yet, daily
-taken into the stomach, it may seriously affect the system.”
-
-“Thirteen bakers were condemned on the 27th of January, 1829, by the
-correctional tribunal of Brussels, for mixing sulphate of copper or blue
-vitriol with their bread. It makes the bread very white, light, large
-and porous, but rather tasteless; and it also enables the bread to
-retain a greater quantity of water, and thereby very considerably
-increases its weight. A much larger quantity of alum is necessary to
-produce these effects; but when of sufficient quantity, it strengthens
-the paste, and, as the bakers say, ‘makes the bread swell large.’”
-
-If the statements of our large druggists can be relied on, the public
-bakers of our own country probably employ ammonia more freely, at
-present, than any other substance I have named. Pearlash or saleratus is
-also used by them in considerable quantities.
-
-But even where these adulterations are not practised, the bakers’ bread
-is very rarely a wholesome article of diet.
-
-If any dependence is to be placed on the testimony of several of the
-principal bakers and flour merchants in New York, Boston and other
-cities, the flour which most of our public bakers work into bread, is of
-a very inferior quality to what is called good “family flour,” and for
-which they pay from one to three dollars less per barrel; and they
-sometimes purchase large quantities of old spoiled flour from New
-Orleans and elsewhere, which has heated and soured in the barrel, and
-perhaps become almost as solid as a mass of chalk; so that they are
-obliged to break it up, and grind it over, and spread it out, and expose
-it to the air, in order to purify it in a measure from its acid and
-other bad properties; and then they mix it with a portion of much better
-flour; and from this mixture they can make, as they say, the very
-largest and finest looking loaf.[B]
-
-But should the public bakers always use the best of flour, their bread,
-as a general statement, would still be very inferior to well made
-domestic bread, in point of sweetness and wholesomeness. Their mode of
-manufacturing bread—to say the least of it—destroys much of the virtue
-of the flour or meal; and hence their bread is only palatable—even to
-those who are accustomed to it—within twelve, or at the longest,
-twenty-four hours after it is baked.
-
-But I must repeat, that in making these statements, I am not prompted by
-any unkind feelings towards public bakers; I have no doubt that they are
-as honest in their calling as any other class of men; but perhaps there
-is no other class pursuing an interest founded on the necessities of
-their fellow creatures, whose expedients to increase the lucrativeness
-of their business, are so immediately and universally injurious to the
-health of those on whom they depend for support.
-
-If any of my statements are thought to be exaggerated or incorrect, I
-can only say, that with honest and benevolent intentions, I have
-diligently sought for the truth; and if I have been in any respect
-betrayed into error, I have been misinformed by public bakers
-themselves, who certainly ought to know the truth in this matter; and
-who could have no conceivable reason for making the general character of
-their calling appear worse than it really is. Nevertheless, I have no
-question that there are individuals in every city employed as public
-bakers, who are too honest—too conscientious—too upright in heart, to be
-guilty of any practice which they consider fraudulent or improper.
-
-Still, truth compels me to declare, that if we would have good and
-wholesome bread, it must be made within the precincts of our own
-domestic threshold; and by those whose skill and care are exercised more
-with a view to secure our health and happiness, than their own pecuniary
-interest.
-
-
-
-
- PROPERTIES OF BREAD.
-
-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.
-
-
-Whether our bread is of domestic manufacture or made by the public
-baker, that which is made of superfine flour is always far less
-wholesome, in any and every situation of life, than that which is made
-of wheaten meal which contains all the natural properties of the grain.
-
-It is true, that when much flesh is eaten with our bread, or when bread
-constitutes but a very small and unimportant portion of our food, the
-injurious effects of superfine flour bread are not always so immediately
-and distinctly perceived as in other cases. Nevertheless, it is a
-general and invariable law of our nature, that all concentrated forms of
-food are unfriendly to the physiological or vital interests of our
-bodies.
-
-A very large proportion of all the diseases and ailments in civic life,
-are originated by causes which are introduced into the alimentary canal
-as articles of diet; and disturbance and derangement of
-function—obstructions, debility and irritations, are among the most
-important elements of those diseases.
-
-It is, probably, speaking within bounds, to say that nine tenths of the
-adults, and nearly as large a proportion of youth in civic life, are
-more or less afflicted with obstructions and disturbances in the stomach
-and bowels, and other organs of the abdomen, the symptoms of which are
-either habitual costiveness or diarrhœa, or an alternation of both; or
-frequent and severe attacks of what are called bilious colics, &c., &c.;
-and in children and youth, worms, fits, convulsions, &c. And I cannot
-but feel confident, that the use of superfine flour bread is among the
-important causes of these and numerous other difficulties.
-
-I have indeed been surprised to observe, that in the hundreds of cases
-of chronic diseases of every form and name, which have come to my
-knowledge within the last five or six years, costiveness of the bowels
-has in almost every instance been among the first and most important
-symptoms. And I have never known this difficulty, even after an
-obstinate continuance of five, ten, twenty or thirty years, fail to
-disappear in a short time, after the coarse wheaten bread of a proper
-character has been substituted for that made of superfine flour.
-
-Some physicians and other individuals, without properly examining the
-subject, have raised several objections against the coarse wheaten
-bread.
-
-It is said, in the first place, that bran is wholly indigestible, and
-therefore should never be taken into the human stomach.
-
-This objection betrays so much ignorance of the final causes and
-constitutional laws, clearly indicated by the anatomical structure and
-physiological economy of the alimentary organs, that it scarcely
-deserves the slightest notice. If the digestive organs of man were
-designed to receive nothing but digestible and nutrient substances, they
-would have been constructed and arranged very differently from what they
-are. As we have already seen, everything which nature provides for our
-sustenance, consists of certain proportions of nutritious and
-innutritious matter; and a due proportion of innutritious matter in our
-food is as essential to the health and functional integrity of our
-alimentary organs, as a due proportion of nutritious matter is to the
-sustenance of the body.
-
-Another objection is, that although bran may serve, like other
-mechanical irritants and excitants, for a while, to relieve
-constipation, yet it soon wears out the excitability of the organs, and
-leaves them more inactive than before.
-
-Here again, a false statement is urged by inexcusable ignorance; for it
-is not true that the bran acts in the manner supposed in this objection;
-nor are the effects here asserted ever produced by it.
-
-It is true, however, that the very pernicious habits of some people, who
-use the coarse wheaten bread, entirely counteract the aperient effects
-of the bread; and it is true that others, depending wholly on the
-virtues of this bread for peristaltic action, and neglecting all
-exercise, by their extreme inertness, and indolence, and overeating,
-bring on a sluggishness, and debility, and constipation of the bowels,
-and perhaps become severely afflicted with piles, in spite of the
-natural fitness of the bread to promote regular peristaltic action, and
-to prevent all these results.
-
-A third objection is, that though the coarse wheaten bread may do very
-well for those who are troubled with constipation, by mechanically
-irritating and exciting the stomach and bowels, yet for that very reason
-it is wholly unfit and improper for those who are afflicted with chronic
-diarrhœa.
-
-Here is still another objection founded in ignorance of the true
-physiological and pathological principles which it involves. The truth
-is, that the coarse wheaten bread, under a proper general regimen, is as
-excellent and sure a remedy for chronic diarrhœa as for chronic
-constipation.
-
-I have seen cases of chronic diarrhœa of the most obstinate character,
-and which had baffled the highest medical skill and every mode of
-treatment for more than twenty years, yielding entirely under a proper
-general regimen, in which this bread was the almost exclusive article of
-food, and not a particle of medicine was used. And I have never known
-such a mode of treatment to fail of wholly relieving diarrhœa, whether
-recent or chronic; although a very great number of cases have come under
-my notice.
-
-It is fully evident, therefore, that the bran does not act on the
-digestive organs as a mere mechanical irritant; for if it did, it would
-always necessarily aggravate, rather than alleviate diarrhœa. Nor does
-it relieve diarrhœa on the principle of a narcotic nor of a stimulant;
-for the effect of these is always to give an immediate check to that
-complaint; and in such a manner as to expose the system to a return of
-it. But the coarse wheaten bread _seems_ to increase the disease for a
-short time, at first, and then gradually restores the healthy condition
-and action of the bowels.
-
-The mucilage of wheat bran is probably one of the most soothing
-substances in the vegetable kingdom, that can be applied to the mucous
-membrane of the stomach and bowels.
-
-Chronic constipation and chronic diarrhœa, both spring from the same
-root. Where the constitutional vigor of the alimentary canal is very
-considerable, continued irritations, resulting in debility, will produce
-constipation; and these continued causes operating for some time, will
-often induce such a state of debility and irritability as is attended
-with diarrhœa:—and in other cases, when this constitutional vigor of the
-alimentary canal is much less, diarrhœa is far more readily induced, and
-rendered chronic.
-
-Coarse wheaten bread, then, by its adaptation to the anatomical
-structure and to the physiological properties and functional powers of
-our organs, serves to prevent and to remove the disorders and diseases
-of our bodies, only by preventing and removing irritation and morbid
-action and condition, and thereby affording the system an opportunity of
-recovering its healthy and vigorous action and condition. And the
-thousands of individuals in our own country of every age—of both
-sexes—of all situations, conditions and circumstances, who within the
-last six years have been benefited by using the coarse wheaten bread,
-instead of that made of superfine flour, are living witnesses of the
-virtues of that bread.
-
-But the testimony in favor of coarse wheaten bread as an important
-article in the food of man, is by no means limited to our own country
-nor to modern times.
-
-In all probability, as we have already seen, the first generations of
-our species, who became acquainted with the art of making bread,
-continued for many centuries to employ all the substance of the grain,
-which they coarsely mashed in their rude mortars or mills. And even
-since mankind began, by artificial means, to separate the bran from the
-flour, and to make bread from the latter, the more close and discerning
-observers among physicians and philanthropists, have perceived and
-asserted, that bread made of fine flour is decidedly less wholesome than
-that made of the unbolted wheat meal.
-
-Hippocrates, styled the father of medicine, who flourished more than two
-thousand years ago, and who depended far more on a correct diet and
-general regimen, both for the prevention and removal of disease, than he
-did on medicine, particularly commended the unbolted wheat meal bread,
-“for its salutary effects upon the bowels.” It was a fact well
-understood by the ancients, that this bread was much more conducive to
-the general health and vigor of their bodies, and every way better
-adapted to nourish and sustain them than that made of the fine flour.
-And accordingly, their wrestlers and others who were trained for great
-bodily power, “ate only the coarse wheaten bread, to preserve them in
-their strength of limbs.” The Spartans were famous for this kind of
-bread; and we learn from Pliny that the Romans, as a nation, at that
-period of their history when they were the most remarkable for bodily
-vigor and personal prowess and achievement, knew no other bread for
-three hundred years. The warlike and powerful nations which overran the
-Roman Empire, and finally spread over the greater part of Europe, used
-no other kind of bread than that which was made of the whole substance
-of the grain; and from the fall of the Roman Empire to the present day,
-a large proportion of the inhabitants of all Europe and the greater part
-of Asia, have rarely used any other kind of bread.
-
-“If you set any value on health, and have a mind to preserve
-nature,”—said Thomas Tryon, student in physic, in his “Way to Health,
-Long Life and Happiness,” published in London, in the latter part of the
-fifteenth century,—“you must not separate the finest from the coarsest
-flour; because that which is fine is naturally of an obstructive and
-stopping quality; but, on the contrary, the other, which is coarse, is
-of a cleansing and opening nature, therefore the bread is best which is
-made of both together. It is more wholesome, easier of digestion, and
-more strengthening than bread made of the finest flour. It must be
-confessed, that the nutrimentive quality is contained in the fine flour;
-yet, in the branny part is contained the opening and digestive quality;
-and there is as great a necessity for the one as the other, for the
-support of health: that which is accounted the worst is as good and
-beneficial to nature as the best; for when the finest flour is separated
-from the coarsest and branny parts, neither the one nor the other has
-the true operations of the wheat meal. The eating of fine bread,
-therefore, is inimical to health, and contrary both to nature and
-reason; and was at first invented to gratify _wanton_ and _luxurious_
-persons, who are ignorant both of themselves, and the true virtue and
-efficacy of natural things.”
-
-“Baron Steuben has often told me,” says Judge Peters, “that the peculiar
-healthfulness of the Prussian soldiers, was in a great measure to be
-attributed to their ammunition bread, made of grain, triturated or
-ground, but not bolted; which was accounted the most wholesome and
-nutritious part of their rations.”[C]
-
-“The Dutch sailors, in the days of their naval glory, were supplied with
-the same kind of bread.”
-
-“During the war between England and France, near the close of the last
-century,” says Mr. Samuel Prior, a respectable merchant of Salem, New
-Jersey—“the crops of grain, and particularly wheat, were very small in
-England, and the supplies from Dantzic, the Netherlands and Sweden being
-cut off by the French army, and also the usual supplies from America
-failing, there was a very great scarcity of wheat in England. The
-British army was then very extensive, and it was exceedingly difficult
-to procure provisions for it, both at home and abroad—on land and sea.
-Such was the demand for the foreign army, and such the deficiency of
-crops at home and supplies from abroad, that serious fears were
-entertained that the army would suffer, and that the continental
-enterprise of the British government would be defeated in consequence of
-the scarcity of provisions; and every prudential measure by which such a
-disastrous event could be prevented, was carefully considered and
-proposed. William Pitt was then prime minister of state, and at his
-instance, government recommended to the people generally throughout
-Great Britain, to substitute potatoes and rice as far as possible, for
-bread, in order to save the wheat for the foreign army. This
-recommendation was promptly complied with by many of the people. But
-still the scarcity was alarmingly great. In this emergency, parliament
-passed a law (to take effect for two years) that the army at home should
-be supplied with bread made of unbolted wheat meal, solely for the
-purpose of making the wheat go as far as possible, and thus saving as
-much as they could from the home consumption, for the better supply of
-the army on the continent.
-
-“Eighty thousand men were quartered in barracks in the counties of Essex
-and Suffolk. A great many were also quartered throughout the towns, at
-taverns, in squads of thirty or forty in a place. Throughout the whole
-of Great Britain, the soldiers were supplied with this coarse bread. It
-was deposited in the store-rooms with the other provisions of the army;
-and on the day that it was baked, and at nine o’clock the next morning,
-was distributed to the soldiers—who were at first exceedingly displeased
-with the bread, and refused to eat it, often casting it from them with
-great rage, and violent execrations. But after two or three weeks they
-began to be much pleased with it, and preferred it to the fine flour
-bread.
-
-“My father,” continues Mr. P., “whom I have often heard talk these
-things over, was a miller and a baker, and resided in the county of
-Essex, on the border joining Suffolk, and near the barracks containing
-the eighty thousand soldiers. He contracted with government, to supply
-the eastern district of the county of Essex, with the kind of bread I
-have mentioned: and he used always to send me with it to the
-depositories on the day it was baked: and though I was then a youth, I
-can still very distinctly remember the angry looks and remarks of the
-soldiers, when they were first supplied with it. Indeed they often threw
-their loaves at me as I passed along, and accompanied them with a volley
-of curses. The result of this experiment was, that not only the wheat
-was made to go much farther, but the health of the soldiers improved so
-much and so manifestly, in the course of a few months, that it became a
-matter of common remark among themselves, and of observation and
-surprise among the officers and physicians of the army. These gentlemen
-at length came out with confidence and zeal on the subject, and publicly
-declared that the soldiers were never before so healthy and robust; and
-that disease of every kind had almost entirely disappeared from the
-army. The public papers, were for months filled with recommendations of
-this bread, and the civic physicians almost universally throughout Great
-Britain, pronounced it far the most healthy bread that could be eaten,
-and as such, recommended it to all the people, who very extensively
-followed the advice:—and the coarse wheaten bread was very generally
-introduced into families—female boarding schools, and indeed all public
-institutions. The nobility also generally used it; and in fact, in many
-towns, it was a rare thing to meet with a piece of fine flour bread. The
-physicians generally asserted that this wheaten bread was the very best
-thing that could be taken into the human stomach, to promote digestion
-and peristaltic action; and that it, more than anything else, would
-assist the stomach in digesting other things which were less easily
-digested, and therefore they recommend that a portion of it should be
-eaten at every meal with other food.
-
-“Still, after this extensive experiment had been made with such happy
-results, and after so general and full a testimony had been given in
-favor of the coarse wheaten bread, when large supplies of superfine
-flour came in from America, and the crops at home were abundant, and the
-act of parliament in relation to the army became extinct, most of the
-people who had before been accustomed to the use of fine flour bread,
-now by degrees returned again to their old habits of eating fine bread.
-Many of the nobility, however, continued to use the coarse bread for a
-number of years afterwards. General Hanoward, Squire Western, Squire
-Hanbury and others living near my father’s, continued to use the bread
-for a long time, and some of them still used it when I left home and
-came to America, in 1816.”
-
-The testimony of sea captains and old whalemen is equally in favor of
-wheaten bread. “I have always found,” said a very intelligent sea
-captain of more than thirty years’ experience, “that the coarser my ship
-bread, the healthier my crew is.”
-
-A writer in Rees’ Cyclopædia, (article Bread) says—“The inhabitants of
-Westphalia, who are a hardy and robust people, and capable of enduring
-the greatest fatigues, are a living testimony to the salutary effects of
-this sort of bread; and it is remarkable that they are very seldom
-attacked by acute fevers, and those other diseases which are from bad
-humors.”
-
-In short, as I have already stated, the bread of a large portion of the
-laboring class, or peasantry, throughout Europe, Asia and Africa, and
-the islands of the ocean, whether leavened or unleavened—whether more or
-less artificially prepared, is made of the whole substance of the grain
-from which it is manufactured: and no one who is sufficiently
-enlightened in physiological science to qualify him to judge correctly
-in this matter, can doubt that bread made in the best manner from
-unbolted wheat meal, is far better adapted to the anatomical structure
-and physiological powers of the alimentary organs of man, than bread
-made of superfine wheat flour; and consequently, the former is far more
-conducive to the health and vigor and general well-being of man than the
-latter.
-
-If, therefore, mankind will have raised bread which in every respect
-most perfectly conforms to the laws of constitution and relation
-established in their nature, and is most highly conducive to the welfare
-of their bodies and souls, then must it be well made, well baked, light
-and sweet bread, which contains all the natural properties of the wheat.
-And if they will have this bread of the very best, and most wholesome
-kind, they must, as I have already stated, see that the soil from which
-their wheat is raised, is of a proper character, and is properly
-tilled,—that the wheat is plump—full-grown—ripe, and free from rust and
-other diseases; and then, before it is ground, they must see that it is
-thoroughly cleansed, not only from chaff, cockles, tares, and such like
-substances, but also from all smut, and every kind of impurity that may
-be attached to the skin of the kernel. And let every one be assured that
-this is a matter which really deserves all the attention and care that I
-suggest.
-
-If human existence is worth possessing, it is worth preserving; and they
-who have enjoyed it as some have done, and as all the human family are
-naturally endowed with the capabilities to enjoy it, certainly will not
-doubt whether it is worth possessing; nor, if they will properly
-consider the matter, can they doubt that its preservation is worthy of
-their most serious and diligent care.
-
-And when they perceive how intimately and closely the character of their
-bread is connected with the dearest interests of man, they will not be
-inclined to feel that any reasonable amount of care and labor is too
-much to be given to secure precisely the right kind of bread.
-
-I repeat, then, that they who would have the very best bread should
-certainly wash their wheat, and cleanse it thoroughly from all
-impurities, before they take it to the mill; and when it is properly
-dried, it should be ground by sharp stones which will cut rather than
-mash it: and particular care should be taken that it is not ground too
-fine. Coarsely ground wheat meal, even when the bran is retained, makes
-decidedly sweeter and more wholesome bread than very finely ground meal.
-When the meal is ground, it should immediately be spread out to cool
-before it is put into sacks or casks:—for if it is packed or enclosed in
-a heated state, it will be far more likely to become sour and musty. And
-I say again, where families are in circumstances to do wholly as they
-choose in the matter, it is best to have but little ground at a time; as
-the freshly ground meal is always the liveliest and sweetest, and makes
-the most delicious bread.
-
-When the meal is thus prepared and brought home, whether in a barrel or
-sack, the next thing to be attended to, is, that it be placed and kept
-in a perfectly clean, and sweet, and well ventilated meal room. It
-should on no consideration be put into a closet, or pantry, or
-store-room, which is seldom aired, and more rarely cleansed; and into
-which all manner of rubbish is thrown; or even where other kinds of
-provisions are kept. If the meal be put into a pantry or store-room
-which is confined and dirty, and into which old boots and shoes, and old
-clothes and pieces of carpet, and other things of this kind, are
-thrown—or where portions of vegetable or animal substance, whether
-cooked or uncooked, are habitually or even occasionally put and
-permitted to remain, it must be expected, as a matter of course, of
-necessity, that the quality of the meal will be considerably
-deteriorated by the impurities with which the air of the place will be
-loaded, and which will be continually generated there.
-
-People generally have but a sorry idea of what constitutes true
-cleanliness; but they may be assured that they cannot be too deeply
-impressed with the importance of keeping their meal room as clean and
-sweet and well aired as possible.
-
-
-
-
- FERMENTATION.
-
-Chemical composition of flour. Yeast—modes of preparing it. Substitutes
- for it. Fermentation, and its products. Vinous, acetous and
- putrefactive fermentation.
-
-
-Having procured good wheat, cleansed it thoroughly, and got it properly
-ground, and placed in the meal room, the next step is to take a portion
-of the meal and manufacture it into good bread. But in order that this
-may be done in the most certain and perfect manner, it is important that
-the properties of the meal and the principles concerned in bread-making
-should be well understood.
-
-According to the statement of Prof. Thomson, of Edinburgh, one pound of
-good wheat meal contains ten ounces of farina or starch, three ounces of
-bran, six drams of gluten and two drams of sugar;—and it is because
-wheat contains such proportions of these substances that it makes the
-very best loaf bread. The farina or starch is the principal nourishing
-property;—the saccharine matter or sugar is also highly nutrient; but in
-the process of making loaf bread, it serves mainly, by its vinous
-fermentation, to produce the gas or air by which the dough is raised and
-the bread made light. The gluten is likewise a very nutrient property,
-but in loaf bread, it principally serves, by its cohesiveness, like gum
-elastic, or India rubber, to prevent the gas or air formed by the
-fermentation of the sugar, from escaping or passing off;—and the gas
-being thus retained, inflates or puffs up the dough, and makes it porous
-and light. The bran, with its mucilaginous and other properties, not
-only adds to the nutritiousness of the bread, but eminently serves to
-increase its digestibility, and to invigorate the digestive organs, and
-preserve the general integrity of their functions.
-
-The wheat which is raised in Virginia and the southern states generally,
-contains a larger proportion of gluten than that which is raised in the
-western part of the state of New York. Hence bakers are able to make a
-larger loaf of bread out of a pound of southern flour than they can out
-of a pound of western flour; and consequently some of them have
-endeavored to make their customers believe that the southern flour is
-the most profitable. It certainly _is_ the most profitable for the
-baker; but it is not the most profitable for the consumer.
-
-The next thing indispensably necessary to the making of good bread, is
-good lively sweet yeast, or leaven, to produce what is called the
-panary, or more properly, the vinous fermentation of the saccharine
-matter, or sugar.
-
-Some bread-makers will do best with one kind of yeast or leaven, and
-some with another. I have generally found that people do best with those
-materials to which they have been most accustomed; but I am sorry to
-find so general a dependence on breweries for yeast. To say nothing of
-the impure and poisonous substances which brewers employ in the
-manufacture of beer, and which always affect the quality of their yeast,
-I am confident that domestic yeast can be made of a far superior
-quality. However light and good in other respects that bread may be
-which is made with brewers yeast, I have rarely if ever seen any in
-which I could not at once detect the disagreeable properties of the
-yeast.
-
-There are various ways of making domestic yeast. One of the simplest,
-and perhaps the best, is the following, which was communicated to me by
-one of the best bread-makers I ever saw:
-
-“Put into one gallon of water a double handful of hops;—boil them
-fifteen or twenty minutes, then strain off the water while it is
-scalding hot;—stir in wheat flour or meal till it becomes a thick
-batter, so that it will hardly pour;—let it stand till it becomes about
-blood warm, then add a pint of good lively yeast, and stir it well; and
-then let it stand in a place where it will be kept at a temperature of
-about 70° F. till it becomes perfectly light, whether more or less time
-is required; and then it is fit for use;—or if it is desired to keep a
-portion of it, let it stand several hours and become cool; and then put
-it into a clean jug and cork it tight, and place it in the cellar where
-it will keep cool; and it may be preserved good, ten or twelve days, and
-even longer.”
-
-Another way by which yeast when thus made may be preserved much longer,
-and perhaps more conveniently, is, to take it when it has become
-perfectly light, and stir in good Indian meal until it becomes a hard
-dough: then take this dough and make it into small thin cakes, and dry
-them perfectly, without baking or cooking them at all. These cakes, if
-kept perfectly dry, will be good for several weeks and even months.
-
-When yeast is needed, take some of these cakes (more or less according
-to the quantity of bread desired) and break them fine and dissolve them
-in warm water, and then stir in some wheat flour till a batter is
-formed, which should be kept at a temperature of about 60° F. till the
-yeast becomes light and lively, and fitted for making bread.
-
-Others, in making this yeast, originally put into the water with the
-hops, a double handful of good clean wheat bran, and boil them up
-together and strain off the water as above described: others again, boil
-up a quantity of wheat bran without the hops, and make their yeast in
-all other respects as above described.
-
-The milk yeast is greatly preferred by many; and when it is well
-managed, it certainly makes very handsome bread. The way of making it is
-simple. Take a quart of milk fresh from the cow, (more or less according
-to the quantity of bread desired,)—a little salt is generally added, and
-some add about half a pint of water blood warm, but this is not
-essential;—then stir wheat flour or meal into the milk till it forms a
-moderately thick batter; and then cover it over, and place it where it
-will remain at a temperature of from 60° to 70° F. till it becomes
-perfectly light. It should then be used immediately: and let it be
-remembered that dough made with this yeast will sour sooner than that
-made with other yeast; and also that the bread after it is baked will
-become extremely dry and _crumbly_ much sooner than bread made with
-other yeast. Yet this bread, when a day old, is exceedingly light and
-beautiful: albeit some dislike the animal smell and taste which it
-derives from the milk.
-
-In all these preparations of yeast and dough, it should ever be
-recollected that “the process of fermentation cannot go on when the
-temperature is below 30° F., that it proceeds quite slowly at 50°,
-moderately at 60°, rapidly at 70°, and very rapidly at 80°.”
-
-If, therefore, it is desired to have the yeast or dough stand several
-hours before it is used or baked, it should be kept at a temperature of
-about 50°. But in the ordinary way of making bread, a temperature
-varying from 60° to 70°, or about summer heat, is perhaps as near right
-as it can well be made.
-
-Prof. Thomson gives the following directions for making yeast in large
-quantities:—“Add ten pounds of flour to two gallons of boiling
-water;—stir it well into a paste, let this mixture stand for seven
-hours, and then add about a quart of good yeast. In about six or eight
-hours, this mixture, if kept in a warm place, will have fermented and
-produced as much yeast as will make 120 quartern loaves” (of 4 lbs.
-each.)
-
-A much smaller quantity can be made by observing due proportions of the
-ingredients.
-
-To raise bread in a very short time without yeast, Prof. Thomson gives
-the following recipe:
-
-“Dissolve in water 2 ounces, 5 drams and 45 grains of common
-crystallized carbonate of soda, and mix the solution well with your
-dough, and then add 7 ounces, 2 drams and 22 grains of muriatic acid of
-the specific gravity of 1,121, and knead it as rapidly as possible with
-your dough;—it will rise immediately—fully as much, if not more than
-dough mixed with yeast—and when baked, will be a very light and
-excellent bread.” Smaller quantities would be required for small batches
-of bread.
-
-A tea-spoonful or more (according to the quantity of dough or batter) of
-super-carbonate of soda dissolved in water, and flour stirred in till it
-becomes a batter, and then an equal quantity of tartaric acid dissolved
-and stirred in thoroughly, will in a few minutes make very light batter
-for griddle or pancakes; or if it be mixed into a thick dough, it will
-make light bread.
-
-Good lively yeast, however, makes better bread than these alkalies and
-acids: howbeit these are very convenient in emergencies, when bread or
-cakes must be prepared in a very short time; or when the yeast has
-proved inefficient.
-
-We see then that wheat meal consists of certain proportions of starch,
-gluten, sugar, bran, &c.; and that in making loaf bread, we add yeast or
-leaven, in order to produce that kind of fermentation peculiar to
-saccharine matter or sugar, which is called vinous, and by which the gas
-or air is formed that raises the dough. But the sugar is an incorporate
-part of every particle of the meal, and is therefore equally diffused
-throughout the whole mass; and hence if we would make the very best loaf
-bread, the fermentive principle or yeast must also be equally diffused
-throughout the whole mass, so that a suitable portion of yeast will be
-brought to act at the same time on every particle of saccharine matter
-in the mass.
-
-But let us endeavor to understand this process of fermentation. To speak
-in the language of chemistry, sugar is composed of certain proportions
-of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. The yeast, acting on the sugar,
-overcomes those affinities by which these substances are held in the
-constitutional arrangement of sugar, and the process of decay or
-decomposition of the sugar takes place, which is called vinous
-fermentation. By this process of decay, two other forms of matter are
-produced, of an essentially different nature from each other and from
-the sugar. One of them is called carbonic acid gas or air, being formed
-by a chemical combination of certain proportions of carbon and oxygen.
-The other is known by the name of alcohol, and consists of a chemical
-combination of certain proportions of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen.
-Carbonic acid gas is also produced by animal respiration or breathing,
-by the combustion of wood, coal, &c. &c. and in other ways of nature and
-of art: but neither in nature nor in art is there any known way by which
-alcohol can be produced, except by that process of the decay or
-destruction of sugar called vinous fermentation.
-
-The carbonic acid gas, produced in the manner I have stated, is the air
-which inflates or puffs up and swells out the bread, when there is
-sufficient gluten or other cohesive matter in the dough to prevent its
-escape.
-
-If the dough be permitted to stand too long in a warm place, the
-fermentation, having destroyed most or all of the sugar, will begin to
-act on the starch and mucilage, and destroy their nature, and produce
-vinegar; and therefore this stage of it is called the acetous
-fermentation: and if it still be permitted to go on, it will next
-commence its work of destruction on the gluten; and this is called the
-putrefactive fermentation, because it in many respects resembles the
-putrefaction of animal matter.
-
-The vinous fermentation, therefore, by which the dough is raised and
-made light, may be carried to all necessary extent, and still be limited
-in its action to the saccharine matter or sugar—leaving the starch and
-gluten, and other properties of the meal, uninjured; and this is the
-point at which the fermentation should be arrested by the heat that
-bakes the dough. If it be permitted to go beyond the sugar, and act on
-the mucilage and starch, and produce acidity, the excellence of the
-bread is in some degree irreparably destroyed. The acid may be
-neutralized by pearlash or soda, so that the bread shall not be sour;
-but still, something of the natural flavor of the bread is gone, and it
-is not possible by any earthly means to restore it; and this injury will
-always be in proportion to the extent to which the process of the
-acetous fermentation is permitted to go in destroying the nature of the
-starch, and the bread will be proportionably destitute of that natural
-sweetness and delicious richness essential to good bread. Yet it is
-almost universally true, both in public and domestic bread-making, that
-the acetous fermentation is allowed to take place; and saleratus, or
-soda, or some other chemical agent is employed to neutralize the acid.
-By this means we may have bread free from acidity, it is true, but it is
-also destitute of the best and most delicious properties of good bread;
-and generally, by the time it is twenty-four hours old—and this is
-particularly true of bakers’ bread—it is as dry and tasteless and
-unsavory as if it were made of plaster of Paris.
-
-Many bread-makers mix their saleratus or soda with their yeast, or
-introduce it when they mix their dough, so that if the acetous
-fermentation does take place, the acid is neutralized by the alkali, and
-therefore, not being perceived, it is supposed never to have existed,
-and the bread is called sweet and good; especially if a small quantity
-of molasses be employed in making the dough. Others far more wisely
-withhold their alkali till the dough is raised enough to mould into the
-loaf, and then if it is found to be in any degree acid, a solution of
-saleratus or soda is worked into it, so as just to neutralize the acid,
-and no more. This is infinitely better that no have sour bread, which,
-after all, is almost everywhere met with; yet the very best bread that
-can be made in this way is only second best. Happy are they who can make
-good light and sweet bread, without the use of molasses—without
-suffering the least degree of acetous fermentation to take place, and
-without employing saleratus, soda, or any other kind of alkali.
-
-The third or putrefactive stage of fermentation rarely takes place in
-domestic bread-making; but it is by no means uncommon in public
-bakeries. Indeed it is thought necessary in the manufacture of certain
-kinds of crackers, in order to make them split open, and render them
-brittle, and cause them readily to become soft when dipped into water.
-But dyspepsia crackers, and all other kinds of bread made in this way
-are, to say the least of them, miserable stuff. For besides the fact
-that all the best qualities of the flour or meal have been destroyed by
-fermentation, the great quantity of alkali employed in neutralizing the
-acid, is necessarily injurious to the digestive organs.
-
-
-
-
- PREPARATION OF BREAD.
-
-Mixing. Much kneading necessary. Rising, or fermentation. Use of
- alkalies, saleratus and soda. Baking. Ovens. Alcohol in bread.
- Preservation of bread.
-
-
-Now, then, the business of the bread-maker is, to take the wheat meal,
-prepared in the manner I have stated, and with all the properties I have
-described, and convert it into good, light, sweet, well-baked bread,
-with the least possible change in those properties; so that the bread,
-when done, will present to the senses of smell and taste, all the
-delicious flavor and delicate sweetness which pure organs perceive in
-the meal of good new wheat, just taken from the ear and ground, or
-chewed without grinding; and it should be so baked that it will, as a
-general statement, require and secure a full exercise of the teeth in
-mastication.
-
-In order to do this, as we have seen, it is necessary, in the first
-place, that the wheat should be of the best kind, and well cleansed, and
-the meal properly prepared. In the next place, it is necessary that the
-yeast should be fresh, lively and sweet; and in the third place, it is
-necessary that the dough should be properly mixed, raised and baked.
-
-Take then such a quantity of meal, in a perfectly clean and sweet bread
-trough, as is necessary for the quantity of bread desired, and having
-made a hollow in the centre, turn in as much yeast as a judgment matured
-by sound experience shall deem requisite; then add such a quantity of
-water, milk and water, or clear milk, as is necessary to form the meal
-into a dough of proper consistency. Some prefer bread mixed with water
-alone; others prefer that which is mixed with milk and water; and others
-think that bread mixed with good milk is much richer and better; while
-others dislike the animal odor and taste of bread mixed with milk.
-Perhaps the very best and most wholesome bread is that which is mixed
-with pure soft water, when such bread is made perfect. But whether
-water, milk and water, or milk alone is employed, it should be used at a
-temperature of about blood heat.
-
-Here let it be understood, that the starch of the meal is of such a
-nature that, by a delicate process peculiar to itself, it becomes
-changed into sugar or saccharine matter; and when the fluid used in
-mixing the dough is of a proper temperature, and the dough is properly
-mixed and kneaded, this process, to some small extent, takes place, and
-a small portion of the starch is actually converted into sugar, and
-thereby increases the sweetness of the bread. Let it also be recollected
-here, that the saccharine matter on which the yeast is to act, is
-equally diffused throughout the whole mass of the meal; and therefore if
-the yeast be not properly diffused throughout the whole mass, but is
-unequally distributed, so that an undue quantity of it remains in one
-part, while other parts receive little or none, then the fermentation
-will go on very rapidly in some parts of the mass, and soon run into the
-acetous state, while in other parts it will proceed very slowly or not
-at all; and consequently large cavities will be formed in some parts of
-the dough, while other parts of it will remain as compact and heavy as
-when first mixed, and sometimes even more so. I need not say that such
-dough cannot be made into good bread; yet it is probably true, that more
-than nine tenths of the bread consumed in this country is more or less
-of this character. Nor, after what I have said, should it seem necessary
-for me to remark, that good bread cannot be made by merely stirring the
-meal, and yeast, and water or milk together into a thin dough or sponge,
-and suffering it to ferment with little or no working or kneading. Bread
-made in this manner, if it is not full of cavities large enough for a
-mouse to burrow in, surrounded by parts as solid as lead, is almost
-invariably full of cells of the size of large peas and grapes; and the
-substance of the bread has a shining, glutinous appearance; and if the
-bread is not sour, it is because pearlash or some other kind of alkali
-has been used to destroy the acid.
-
-The very appearance of such bread is forbidding, and shows, at a glance,
-that it has not been properly mixed—that the yeast has acted unequally
-on different portions of the meal, and that the fermentation has not
-been of the right kind.
-
-But if the yeast be so diffused throughout the whole mass, as that a
-suitable portion of it will act on each and every particle of the
-saccharine matter at the same time, and if the dough be of such a
-consistency and temperature as not to admit of too rapid a fermentation,
-then each minute portion of saccharine matter throughout the whole mass
-will, in the process of fermentation, produce its little volume of air,
-which will form its little cell, about the size of a pin’s head, and
-smaller; and this will take place so nearly at the same time, in every
-part of the dough, that the whole will be raised and made as light as a
-sponge, before the acetous fermentation takes place in any part. And
-then if it be properly moulded and baked, it will make the most
-beautiful and delicious bread—perfectly light and sweet, without the use
-of any alkali, and with all the gluten and nearly all the starch of the
-meal remaining unchanged by fermentation.
-
-Proper materials, proper care, a due amount of labor, a suitable length
-of time, and proper temperature, are all, therefore, necessary to the
-making of good bread.
-
-With your meal, and yeast, and water or milk brought together before
-you, then, proceed in the light of the instruction you have now
-received, to mix your dough; and remember that the more thoroughly you
-knead it, the more equally you diffuse the yeast throughout the whole
-mass, and bring it to act on every particle of the saccharine matter at
-the same time, and the whiter, lighter, and more delicious you make your
-bread.
-
-Who that can look back thirty or forty years to those blessed days of
-New England’s prosperity and happiness, when our good mothers used to
-make the family bread, but can well remember how long and how patiently
-those excellent matrons stood over their bread troughs, kneading and
-moulding their dough? and who with such recollections cannot also well
-remember the delicious bread that these mothers used invariably to set
-before them? There was a natural sweetness and richness in it which made
-it always desirable; and which we cannot now vividly recollect, without
-feeling a strong desire to partake again of such bread as our mothers
-made for us in the days of our childhood.
-
-Let it be borne in mind, then, that without a very thorough kneading of
-the dough, there can be no just ground of confidence that the bread will
-be good. “It should be kneaded,” says one of much experience in this
-matter, “till it becomes flaky.” Indeed I am confident that our loaf
-bread would be greatly improved in all its qualities, if the dough were
-for a considerable time subjected to the operations of the machine which
-the bakers call the break, used in making crackers and sea-bread.
-
-The wheat meal, and especially if it is ground coarsely, swells
-considerably in the dough, and therefore the dough should not, at first,
-be made quite so stiff, as that made of superfine flour; and when it is
-raised, if it is found too soft to mould well, let a little more meal be
-added.
-
-When the dough has been properly mixed and thoroughly kneaded, cover it
-over with a clean napkin or towel, and a light woollen blanket kept for
-the purpose, and place the bread trough where the temperature will be
-kept at about 60° F., or about summer heat, and there let it remain till
-the dough becomes light. But as it is impossible to regulate the
-quantity and quality of your yeast, the moisture and temperature of your
-dough, and several other conditions and circumstances, so as to secure
-at all times precisely the same results in the same time, it is
-therefore necessary that careful attention should be given that the
-proper moment should be seized to work over and mould the dough into the
-loaf, and get it into the oven, just at the time when it is as light as
-it can be made by the vinous fermentation, and before the acetous
-fermentation commences.
-
-If, however, by any means there should unfortunately be a little acidity
-in the dough, take a small quantity of saleratus, or, what is better,
-carbonate of soda, and dissolve it in some warm water, and carefully
-work in just enough to neutralize the acid. The best bread-makers are so
-exceedingly careful on this point, that they dip their fingers into the
-solution of saleratus or soda, and thrust them into the dough in every
-part, as they work it over, so as to be sure that they get in just
-enough to neutralize the acid, and not a particle more.
-
-I must here repeat, that they who would have the very best of bread,
-must always consider it a cause of regret, that there should be any
-necessity to use alkali; because the acetous fermentation cannot in any
-degree take place, without commensurately and irremediably impairing the
-quality of the bread. And here it should be remarked, that dough made of
-wheat meal will take on the acetous fermentation, or become sour, sooner
-than that made of fine flour. This is probably owing principally to the
-mucilage contained in the bran, which runs into the acetous fermentation
-sooner than starch.
-
-While the dough is rising, preparations should be made for baking it.
-Some bake their bread in a brick oven, some in a stove, some in a
-reflector, and some in a baking kettle. In all these ways very good
-bread may be baked; but the baking kettle is decidedly the most
-objectionable. Probably there is no better and more certain way of
-baking bread well than in the use of the brick oven. Good bread-makers,
-accustomed to brick ovens, can always manage them with a very great
-degree of certainty; and as a general fact, bread is sweeter, baked in
-this way, than in any other. Yet, when it is well baked in tin
-reflectors, it is certainly very fine; and so it is also when well baked
-in iron stoves. But the baking of bread requires almost as much care and
-judgment as any part of the process of bread-making. If the oven is too
-hot, the bread will burn on the outside before it is done in the centre;
-if it is too cold, the bread will be heavy, raw and sour. If the heat is
-much greater from below than from above, the bottom of the loaf will
-burn before the top is done: or if the heat is much greater from above
-than from below, the top of the loaf will burn before the bottom is
-done.
-
-All these points therefore must be carefully attended to; and no small
-excuse ought to be considered a satisfactory apology for sour, heavy,
-raw or burnt bread; for it is hardly possible to conceive of an absolute
-necessity for such results; and the cases are extremely rare in which
-they are not the offspring of downright and culpable carelessness.
-
-The best bread-makers I have ever known, watch over their bread troughs
-while their dough is rising, and over their ovens while it is baking,
-with about as much care and attention as a mother watches over the
-cradle of her sick child.
-
-Dough made of wheat meal requires a hotter oven than that made of fine
-flour; and it needs to remain in the oven longer. Indeed, it is a
-general fault of bread of every description, made in this country, that
-it is not sufficiently baked. Multitudes eat their bread hot and smoking
-from the oven in a half-cooked state; and very few seem to think there
-is any impropriety in doing so. But they who would have their bread
-good, not only a few hours after it comes from the oven, but as long as
-it can be kept, must see that it is thoroughly baked.
-
-I have said that the process of vinous fermentation converts a portion
-of the saccharine matter of the meal into carbonic acid gas or air, by
-which means the dough is raised and made light; and that the same
-process converts a portion of the saccharine matter into alcohol. The
-alcohol thus generated is mostly if not entirely driven off by the heat
-of the oven when the dough is baking;—and in modern times, ovens have
-been so constructed in England, as to serve the double purpose of ovens
-and stills; so that while the bread is baking, the alcohol is distilled
-off and condensed, and saved for the various uses of arts and
-manufacture.
-
-The question has, however, been frequently started, whether a portion of
-the alcohol thus generated, is not contained in the bread when it comes
-from the oven.
-
-This question cannot be answered with entire certainty; but there are
-some facts in relation to it of considerable importance.
-
-It is perfectly certain that if two portions of wheat meal or flour be
-taken from the same barrel or sack, and one portion be made into
-unleavened bread, and the other portion be made into the very best
-fermented or raised bread, and both be eaten as soon as they are baked,
-the fermented bread will digest with more difficulty, and oppress and
-disturb the stomach more than the unleavened bread will. Indeed it is
-well known and very generally understood, that few of the articles which
-compose the food of man in civic life, are so trying to the human
-stomach, and so powerful causes of dyspepsia, as fresh-baked raised
-bread.
-
-It is now well known also that alcohol wholly resists the action of the
-solvent fluid of the stomach, and is entirely indigestible; and always
-retards the digestion of those substances which contain it. How far all
-this may be true of carbonic acid gas, is not yet ascertained; but it is
-difficult to account for the difference between leavened and unleavened
-bread, as above stated, without supposing that the alcohol or carbonic
-acid gas, or both of them, are in some degree concerned in rendering the
-leavened bread, when newly baked, peculiarly oppressive and injurious to
-the stomach.
-
-This, be it remembered, is purely a conjecture of my own; and I am not
-entirely certain that it is correct; but I see no other way of meeting
-the difficulty.
-
-Be it as it may, however, it is very certain that when the bread has
-been drawn from the oven, and permitted to stand in a proper place
-twenty-four hours, either by evaporation or some other means, it becomes
-perfectly matured, and so changed in character, that it is, if properly
-made, one of the most wholesome articles entering into the diet of man;
-and at that age, there is not the slightest reason to believe that a
-particle of alcohol remains in the bread.
-
-When therefore the bread is thoroughly baked, let it be taken from the
-oven and placed on a perfectly clean and sweet shelf, in a perfectly
-clean and well ventilated pantry. Do not, as you value the character of
-your bread, put it into a pantry where you set away dishes of cold meat,
-cold potatoes, and other vegetables, and keep your butter, cheese and
-various other table provisions—in a pantry which perhaps is seldom
-thoroughly cleansed with hot water and soap, and where the pure air of
-heaven seldom if ever has a free circulation. The quality of your bread
-should be of too much importance to allow of such reprehensible
-carelessness, not to say sluttishness. And if you will have your bread
-such as every one ought to desire to have it, you must pay the strictest
-attention to the cleanliness and sweetness of the place where you keep
-it.
-
-If in baking, the outer crust should become a little too dry and crispy,
-you can easily remedy this by throwing a clean bread or table cloth over
-it for a short time when it first comes from the oven; but if this is
-not necessary, let the bread stand on an airy shelf, till it becomes
-perfectly cool, and when it is twenty-four hours old, it is fit for use;
-and if it is in all respects properly made, and properly kept, it will
-continue to be sweet and delicious bread for two or even three weeks,
-except perhaps in very hot and sultry weather.
-
-When we have acquired the art of making such bread as I have described,
-in the very best manner, then have we carried the art of cooking to the
-very height of perfection; for it is not only true, that there is no
-other artificially prepared article in human diet of so much importance
-as bread, but it is also true that there is no other preparation in the
-whole round of cooking, which requires so much care, and attention, and
-experience, and skill, and wisdom.
-
-
-
-
- WHO SHOULD MAKE BREAD.
-
-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.
-
-
-Who then shall make our bread? For after all that science in its utmost
-accuracy can do, in ascertaining principles and in laying down rules,
-there is little certainty that any one, who undertakes to make bread
-merely by rule, will be anything like uniformly successful. We may make
-a batch of bread according to certain rules, and it may prove excellent;
-and then we may make another batch according to the same rules, which
-may be very poor. For if we follow our rules ever so closely, there may
-be some slight differences in the quality or condition of the meal or
-the yeast, or something else, which will materially alter the character
-of the bread, if we do not exercise a proper care and judgment, and vary
-our operations according as the particular circumstances of the case may
-require.
-
-Correct rules are certainly very valuable; but they can only serve as
-general way-marks, in the art of bread-making. Uniform success can only
-be secured by the exercise of that mature judgment which is always able
-to dictate those extemporaneous measures which every exigency and
-circumstance may require; and such a judgment can only result from a
-care and attention and experience which are the offspring of that moral
-sensibility which duly appreciates the importance of the quality of
-bread, in relation to the happiness and welfare of those that consume
-it.
-
-But are we to look for such a sensibility in public bakers? Can we
-expect that they will feel so lively and so strong an interest for our
-enjoyment and for our physical and intellectual and moral well-being,
-that they will exercise all that care and attention and patience, and
-watch with that untiring vigilance and solicitude in all the progress of
-their operations, which are indispensably necessary in order to secure
-us the best of bread?
-
-Or can we reasonably expect to find these qualifications in domestics—in
-those who serve us for hire? Many a female domestic, it is true, can
-make much better bread than her mistress can. Many a female domestic has
-an honest and sincere desire to do her duty faithfully; but can she be
-actuated by those sensibilities and affections which alone can secure
-that careful attention, that soundness of judgment, that accuracy of
-operation, without which the best of bread cannot uniformly, if ever, be
-produced?
-
-No;—it is the wife, the mother only—she who loves her husband and her
-children as woman ought to love, and who rightly perceives the relations
-between the dietetic habits and physical and moral condition of her
-loved ones, and justly appreciates the importance of good bread to their
-physical and moral welfare—she alone it is, who will be ever inspired by
-that cordial and unremitting affection and solicitude which will excite
-the vigilance, secure the attention, and prompt the action requisite to
-success, and essential to the attainment of that maturity of judgment
-and skilfulness of operation, which are the indispensable attributes of
-a perfect bread-maker. And could wives and mothers fully comprehend the
-importance of good bread in relation to all the bodily and intellectual
-and moral interests of their husbands and children, and in relation to
-the domestic and social and civil welfare of mankind, and to their
-religious prosperity, both for time and eternity, they would estimate
-the art and duty of bread-making far, very far more highly than they now
-do. They would then realize that, as no one can feel so deep and
-delicate an interest for their husbands’ and children’s happiness as
-they do, so no one can be so proper a person to prepare for them that
-portion of their aliment, which requires a degree of care and attention
-that can only spring from the lively affections and solicitude of a wife
-and mother.
-
-But it is a common thing to hear women say—“We cannot always have good
-bread, if we take ever so much pains;—it will sometimes be heavy, and
-sometimes be sour, and sometimes badly baked, in spite of all our care.”
-
-It may be true that such things will sometimes happen, even with the
-best of care;—but I believe that there is almost infinitely more poor
-bread than there is any good excuse for. The truth is, the quality of
-bread is a matter of too little consideration; and therefore too little
-care is given to the making of it. Moreover, the sense of taste is so
-easily vitiated, that we can very easily become reconciled to the most
-offensive gustatory qualities, and even learn to love them; and it is a
-very common thing to find families so accustomed to sour bread, that
-they have no perception of its acid quality.
-
-“It is very strange,” said a lady to me one day at her dinner table,
-“that some folks always have sour bread, and never know it.” She then
-went on to name a number of families in the circle of her acquaintance,
-who, she said, invariably had sour bread upon their tables when she
-visited them—“and they never,” continued she, “seem to have the least
-consciousness that their bread is not perfectly sweet and good.”
-
-Yet this very lady, at the very moment she was thus addressing me, had
-sour bread upon her own table; and although I had for many months been
-very frequently at her table, I had never found any but sour bread upon
-it. Still she was wholly unconscious of the fact.
-
-Difficult however as most women think it is, to have good bread always,
-yet there are some women who invariably have excellent bread. I have
-known such women. The wife of Thomans Van Winkle, Esq. of the beautiful
-valley of Booneton, New Jersey—peace to her ashes!—was deservedly
-celebrated throughout the whole circle of her acquaintance for her
-excellent bread. Few ever ate at her hospitable board once that did not
-desire to enjoy the privilege again. I know not how often it has been my
-good fortune to sit at her table; but the times have not been few; and
-though long past, and she who presided there has slept for years in her
-grave, yet the remembrance of those times and of those hospitalities,
-awakens in my bosom a deep and fervent sentiment of gratitude while I
-write.
-
-Never at the table of Mrs. Van Winkle did I eat poor bread;—and of my
-numerous acquaintances who had sat at her table, I never heard one say
-he had eaten poor bread there. Her bread was invariably good. Nay, it
-was of such a quality that it was impossible for any one to eat of it,
-and not be conscious that he was partaking of bread of extraordinary
-excellence.
-
-Mrs. Van Winkle, said I to her one day, while I was feasting on her
-delicious bread, tell me truly, is there either a miracle or mystery in
-this matter of bread-making, by which you are enabled to have such
-excellent bread upon your table at all times, while I rarely ever find
-bread equally good at any other table, and at ninety-nine tables in a
-hundred, I almost invariably find poor bread? Is it necessarily so? Is
-it not possible for people by any means to have good bread uniformly?
-
-“There is no necessity for having poor bread at any time, if those who
-make it will give proper care and attention to their business,” replied
-Mrs. Van Winkle, confidently. “The truth is,” continued she, “most
-people attach very little importance to the quality of their bread; and
-therefore they give little care to the preparation of it. If every woman
-would see that her flour is sweet and good, that her yeast is fresh and
-lively, that her bread trough is kept perfectly clean and sweet, that
-her dough is properly mixed and thoroughly kneaded, and kept at a proper
-temperature, and at the proper time moulded into the loaf, and put into
-the oven, which has been properly heated, and there properly baked, then
-good bread would be as common as poor bread now is. But while there is
-such perfect carelessness and negligence about the matter, it is not
-surprising that bread should be generally poor.”
-
-Mrs. Van Winkle was undoubtedly correct. If anything like the care were
-given to bread-making that its real importance demands, a loaf of poor
-bread would rarely be met with. Indeed, if the same degree of care were
-given to bread-making, that is devoted to the making of cakes and
-pastry, we should far more generally be blessed with good bread.
-
-Who does not know, that as soon as girls are old enough to go into
-company and to give parties, they begin to notice with great interest
-the qualities of the different kinds of cake and pastry which they meet
-with; and whenever they find anything very nice, they are exceedingly
-curious to learn precisely how it was made. And lest memory should be
-treacherous, they will carefully write down the exact rules for mixing
-and cooking it;—“so many pounds of flour, so many pounds of butter, so
-many pounds of sugar, so many eggs, and spice to your taste—the eggs to
-be beaten so and so, the whole mixed so and so, and baked so many
-minutes,” &c. &c. And thus with great care and industry they collect and
-write down, in a book which they keep for the purpose, all the recipes
-they can get hold of, for making every kind of cake and pastry used in
-society. And when they are preparing for company, they rarely if ever
-order Dinah or any other domestic to make their nice cake. They do not
-regard it as a menial office, but as a highly genteel employment; and
-their great desire to have their cake and pastry as good as it can be
-made, prompts them to undertake the manufacture of it themselves. And
-during this operation, the scales, the measures, the clock or watch, all
-are brought into requisition; the Recipe Book is placed upon the table
-before them, and carefully consulted; and everything is done with the
-utmost precision, and exactitude, and vigilance. And if the young lady
-feels any misgiving as to her own judgment, or taste, or experience, she
-earnestly inquires of Ma, or some one else who she thinks is capable of
-giving her advice in so important a matter.
-
-If in the midst of this employment some one knocks or rings at the door,
-and a young gentleman is announced, she is not at all embarrassed, but
-perhaps hastens to the parlor with her delicate hands covered with
-dough, and with an air of complacency and self-satisfaction, says—“Good
-morning, Frank—how do you do? I am just engaged in making some cake—I
-hope you will excuse me for a few moments.”
-
-All this shows that she regards the quality of her cake as of very great
-importance, and considers it not only perfectly respectable but highly
-_genteel_, for a young lady to be employed in making cake. But in regard
-to bread and bread-making, everything is very different; there is none
-of this early curiosity to learn how to make good bread. Young ladies do
-not on every occasion when they find excellent bread, carefully and
-minutely inquire how it was made, baked, &c., and write down the
-recipe;—but when a batch of bread is to be made for the family, they
-either leave it for Mother or some domestic to make, or go about it
-themselves as some irksome and disreputable piece of drudgery; and
-consequently they turn the task off their hands with as much despatch
-and as little trouble as possible. If all things happen to be as they
-should be, it is well; if not, they must answer for the present. If the
-yeast happens to be lively and sweet, very lucky. If otherwise, still it
-must be used. If the dough rises well and is got into the oven before it
-becomes sour, very fortunate; if not, why, “nobody can avoid
-mistakes—and bread will sometimes be poor in spite of the greatest
-care;”—and if a batch of miserable bread is the result of such an
-operation, then all that remains to be done is to eat it up as soon as
-possible, and hope for better the next time.
-
-If Frank or Charles or Edward should call while the young lady is
-engaged in making bread, she is perhaps quite disconcerted, and would
-not for the world have him know what she is doing;—she sends word to
-him, either that she is out, or that she is particularly engaged, and
-begs he will excuse her;—or if by any means she happens unexpectedly to
-be caught at her employment, she is greatly embarrassed, and makes the
-best apology she can for being engaged in such menial services.
-
-As a matter of course, while such are the views and feelings entertained
-on this subject, and while such is the manner in which this duty is
-performed, it will ever be a mere accident if good bread is made; and a
-mere accident if such girls ever become good bread-makers when they are
-wives and mothers.
-
-But if parents, and especially mothers, could view this matter in its
-true light, how differently would they educate their children. They
-would then feel that, grateful as it is to a mother’s heart to see her
-daughters highly refined and elegantly accomplished, and able to “make
-the instrument discourse most eloquent music,” and to transfer living
-nature, with all its truth and beauty and sublimity, to the canvass,
-still the art of bread-making, when considered in all its relations and
-intimate connections with human health, and prosperity, and virtue, and
-happiness, and with reference to the natural responsibilities and duties
-of woman, is actually one of the highest and noblest accomplishments
-that can adorn the female character. And then, too, would they consider
-it of exceedingly great importance, that their daughters should possess
-this accomplishment, even though they may never be in circumstances
-which will require the exercise of it.
-
-Some eight or nine years since, I spent several months in the delightful
-village of Belvidere, on the banks of the Delaware, in Pennsylvania.
-While there, I enjoyed for a number of weeks the kind hospitality of S―
-S―, Esq., a lawyer, and a gentleman of great moral excellence. Mrs. S.
-was born and brought up, I believe, in Philadelphia. Her father was a
-man of wealth, and she was the only daughter, and—almost as a matter of
-course—was indulged in all that she desired. But there were so many of
-the elements of a good wife and mother in her natural composition, that
-as soon as she entered into those interesting and important relations,
-she began to devote herself to the duties of them with a sincerity and
-conscientiousness which could not fail of success. Surrounded as she
-was, with wealth, and every comfort and convenience of life, and all of
-its luxuries that she desired, still she was industrious in her habits,
-and vigilantly attentive to all the concerns of her household. She
-usually kept three female domestics, who, by her kind maternal
-deportment towards them, were warmly attached to her. She had no
-difficulty in procuring nor in keeping help, because she always treated
-them in such a manner that they loved to stay with her; and she took
-much pains to qualify them for the proper discharge of their duties.
-They evidently loved her, and were sincerely desirous of performing all
-their services in such a manner as would be pleasing to her. Yet with
-all these advantages to justify her leaving such a duty to her
-domestics, Mrs. S. invariably made the family bread with her own hands.
-Regularly as the baking day came, she went into her kitchen and took her
-stand beside the bread trough, and mixed and kneaded the dough, and put
-it in its proper place for rising, and, in due time, moulded it into the
-loaf and baked it.
-
-Do you always make your bread, madam? I inquired one day, as she
-returned from the performance of that task. “Invariably,” she replied:
-“that is a duty I trust no other person to do for me.”
-
-But cannot your domestics make good bread? I asked. “I have excellent
-domestics,” answered Mrs. S., “and they can, perhaps, make as good bread
-as I can; for they have been with me several years, and I have taken
-pains to learn them how to do my work; and they are exceedingly faithful
-and affectionate, and are always willing to do all they can to please
-me; but they cannot feel for my husband and my children as I do, and
-therefore they cannot feel that interest which I do, in always having
-such bread as my husband and my children will love and enjoy. Besides,
-if it were certain their care and vigilance and success in bread-making
-would be always equal to mine, yet it is wholly uncertain how long they
-will remain with me. Various circumstances may take place, which may
-cause them to leave me, and bring me into dependence upon those who know
-not how to make good bread; and therefore I choose to keep my own hand
-in. But, apart from all other considerations, there is a pleasure
-resulting from the performance of this duty, which richly rewards me for
-all the labor of it. When my bread is made and brought upon the table,
-and I see my husband and children eat it and enjoy it, and hear them
-speak of its excellence, it affords me much satisfaction, and I am glad
-to know that I have contributed so much to their health and happiness;
-for, while my bread is so good that they prefer it to anything else upon
-the table, there is little danger of their indulging, to any injurious
-extent, in those articles of food which are less favorable to their
-health.”
-
-I need not say that this lady invariably had excellent bread upon her
-table. But instances of this kind are, I regret to say, extremely rare,
-even in christian communities; and therefore when such cases are known,
-they ought to be held up as most noble examples of female virtue, and
-receive such high commendations as their intrinsic merit deserves, and
-such as will be calculated to beget in the minds of others an exalted
-sense of the dignity and importance of such duties, and prompt every
-wife and mother to the intelligent and affectionate performance of them.
-
-For it should ever be remembered that, though our children, while they
-depend on us for protection, are also properly the subjects of our
-government, yet as soon as they are capable of appreciating our
-authority and our influence, they are, like ourselves, moral agents, and
-ought, in all respects, to be governed and nurtured as such; and
-therefore it is not enough that we can give them such bread as we think
-best for them, and _compel_ them to eat it; but the grand point at which
-the mother should always aim, in this matter, is, to place before her
-children such bread as is the very best for them, and at the same time,
-to make it the most agreeable to them, and thereby make their duty and
-their enjoyment perfectly coincide.
-
-Let no one therefore say she cannot always have good bread, until she
-can truly affirm that she has fairly made the experiment; that she has,
-in view of all its relations and bearings, accurately estimated the
-importance of the quality of her bread in regard to the welfare of her
-household, and, with a proper sense of her responsibilities as a wife
-and mother, has _at all times_ felt that interest and exercised that
-care and attention which so important a duty demands, and without which
-it must ever be a mere accident whether her bread is good or bad.
-
-They that will have good bread, not only for a single time, but
-uniformly, must make the quality of their bread of sufficient
-importance, in their estimation and feelings, to secure the requisite
-attention to the means by which alone such an end can be made certain.
-They must not suffer themselves, through carelessness, to get entirely
-out of bread unexpectedly, and thus be obliged, without due preparation,
-to make up a batch of such materials as they may happen to have at hand,
-and bake it in haste, and hurry it to the table. But they must exercise
-providence and foresight: they must know, beforehand, when their supply
-of bread will probably be out, and when they will need to make another
-batch; and they must see beforehand that measures are taken to secure a
-proper supply of all the requisite materials—see that they are furnished
-with good meal or flour; and they must be sure to have the best of yeast
-or leaven, when they need it—and when the time comes for them to make
-their bread, if by any means the yeast should not be good, let them
-throw it away and make good, before they proceed to make their bread;
-for it is infinitely better that the family should even do without bread
-one day, and eat roasted potatoes, than that they should eat poor bread
-three or four days; and if, from any cause, the bread should be poor, it
-is incomparably better to throw it away, than to set it upon the table,
-to disgust the whole family with bread, and drive them to make most of
-their meal on something else.
-
-If a lady can ever find a good excuse for having poor bread, she
-certainly can find none, except perhaps extreme poverty, for setting her
-poor bread on the table the second time. Yet, too generally, women seem
-to think that, as a matter of course, if they, by carelessness or any
-other means, have been so unlucky as to make a batch of poor bread,
-their family and friends must share their misfortune, and help them eat
-it up; and, by this means, many a child has had its health seriously
-impaired, and its constitution injured, and perhaps its moral character
-ruined—by being driven, in early life, into pernicious dietetic habits.
-
-It was observed many years ago, by one of the most eminent and extensive
-practitioners in New England, that, during a practice of medicine for
-thirty years, he had always remarked that, in those families where the
-children were most afflicted with worms, he invariably found poor bread;
-and that, as a general fact, the converse of this was true; that is, in
-those families where they uniformly had heavy, sour, ill-baked bread, he
-generally found that the children were afflicted with worms.
-
-A careful and extensive observation for a few years, would convince
-every intelligent mind that there is a far more intimate relation
-between the quality of the bread and the moral character of a family,
-than is generally supposed.
-
-“Keep that man at least ten paces from you, who eats no bread with his
-dinner,” said Lavater, in his “Aphorisms on Man.” This notion appears to
-be purely whimsical at first glance; but Lavater was a shrewd observer,
-and seldom erred in the moral inferences which he drew from the
-voluntary habits of mankind; and depend upon it, a serious contemplation
-of this apparent whim, discloses a deeper philosophy than is at first
-perceived upon the surface.
-
-Whatever may be the cause which turns our children and ourselves away
-from the dish of bread, and establishes an habitual disregard for it,
-the effect, though not perhaps in every individual instance, yet, as a
-general fact, is certainly, in some degree, unfavorable to the physical,
-and intellectual, and moral, and religious, and social, and civil and
-political interests of man.
-
-Of all the artificially prepared articles of food which come upon our
-table, therefore, bread should be that one which, as a general fact, is
-uniformly preferred by our children and our household,—that one, the
-absence of which they would notice soonest, and feel the most,—that one
-which—however they may enjoy for a time the little varieties set before
-them—they would be most unwilling to dispense with—and which, if they
-were driven to the necessity, they would prefer to any other dish, as a
-single article of subsistence.
-
-To effect this state of things, it is obvious that the quality of the
-bread must be uniformly excellent; and to secure this, I say again,
-there must be a judgment, an experience, a skill, a care, a vigilance,
-which can only spring from the sincere affections of a devoted wife and
-mother, who accurately perceives and duly appreciates the importance of
-these things, and, in the lively exercise of a pure and delicate moral
-sense, feels deeply her responsibilities, and is prompted to the
-performance of her duties.
-
-Would to God that this were all true of every wife and mother in our
-country—in the world!—that the true relations, and interests, and
-responsibilities of life were understood and felt by every human being,
-and all the duties of life properly and faithfully performed!
-
-
-
-
- VARIETIES OF BREAD.
-
-Rye bread. Indian meal bread. Use of sour milk, or butter-milk. Acids.
- Family grinding.
-
-
-I have thus far spoken almost entirely of wheaten bread, because I
-consider that the most wholesome kind of bread for ordinary use—for
-“daily bread.” When bread is made of superfine flour, the same general
-rules should be observed.
-
-Rice, barley, oats, rye, Indian corn, and many other farinaceous
-products of the vegetable kingdom, may also be manufactured into bread,
-but none of them will make so good bread as wheat. Good rye, raised on a
-sandy soil, when cleansed and ground in the manner I have already
-described, and prepared in all respects according to the rules I have
-laid down, will make very excellent bread. Rye, coarsely ground, without
-bolting, and mixed with Indian meal, makes very wholesome bread, when it
-is well made. Good rye and Indian bread is far more wholesome for common
-or every-day use, than that made of superfine flour.
-
-There are various ways of preparing Indian meal bread; and when such
-bread is well made, it is very wholesome—much more so, for every-day
-use, than superfine flour bread. “In a memoir lately read before the
-French Academy,” says the Journal of Health, “the author undertook to
-show that maize (Indian corn) is more conducive to health than any other
-grain; and, as a proof of this, the fact was adduced that, in one of the
-departments in which this grain was most abundantly and universally
-used, the inhabitants were remarkable for their health and vigor.”
-
-One great drawback to the wholesomeness of Indian meal bread, however,
-is, that it is almost universally eaten hot, and too generally, pretty
-well oiled with butter, or some other kind of animal fat or oil. But
-Indian meal bread can be prepared in such a manner as to obviate these
-difficulties, and render it very wholesome.
-
-Barley and oats may be manufactured into very wholesome bread; but they
-are little used for such purposes in this country.
-
-Rice, peas, beans, potatoes, &c., may also, by mixing them with a
-portion of wheat or rye flour, be manufactured into bread; but, as I
-have already stated, there is no other kind of grain or farinaceous
-vegetable substance from which so good loaf bread can be made, as good
-wheat.
-
-In making bread from Indian meal, and other kinds of farinaceous
-substances containing little or no gluten, yeast or leaven is rarely if
-ever used to make it light. More generally sour milk or butter-milk and
-saleratus or soda are used for this purpose; and they who do not well
-understand the principle upon which these substances make their bread
-light, often greatly impair their own success by their mismanagement.
-
-It is, perhaps, most common for them to mix their sour milk or
-butter-milk and saleratus together, and wait till the effervescence is
-over, before they stir in their meal. But by this means they lose the
-greater part of the gas or air by which their dough should be made
-light.
-
-The true way is, to take their sour milk or butter-milk, and stir meal
-into it till a thin batter is formed, and then dissolve their saleratus
-or soda, and stir that quickly and thoroughly into the batter, and then
-hastily add meal till the batter or dough is brought into the
-consistency desired.
-
-If, instead of sour milk or butter-milk, a solution of muriatic or
-tartaric acid is used, the bread will be equally light. In this case,
-the batter should be first made with a solution of saleratus or soda,
-and then the solution of acid should be stirred in as above described.
-Batter cakes are made in this manner very light and very promptly. When
-from any cause batter or dough mixed with yeast fails to rise according
-to expectations, the thorough mixing in, first the solution of muriatic
-or tartaric acid, and then the solution of saleratus or soda, will, in a
-few minutes, make the whole mass very light; but such cakes and bread
-are not so sweet and savory as those raised with good sweet yeast.
-
-I have said that recently ground meal makes far sweeter and richer
-bread, than that which has been ground a considerable time; but as it is
-not convenient for many families to send to a mill as often as they
-would like to have fresh meal, they are obliged generally to use staler
-meal or flour than they would choose. Yet every family might easily be
-furnished with a modern patent hand-mill, constructed after the plan of
-a coffee mill, with which they could at all times, with great ease,
-grind their wheat, and rice, and corn, as they want it, for bread and
-other purposes. With these mills they can grind their stuff as finely or
-coarsely as they wish, for bread or hominy, and always have it very
-fresh and sweet.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
- LIGHT & STEARNS,
-
- PUBLISHERS AND BOOKSELLERS,
-
- 1 Cornhill, Facing Washington Street,
-
- BOSTON,
-
-Keep constantly on hand a general assortment of SCHOOL, THEOLOGICAL and
-MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS, for sale on the most reasonable terms, at wholesale
-and retail—together with a good assortment of STATIONARY. Among the
-works published by them, they would ask particular attention to the
-following:
-
- -------
-
- DR. ALCOTT’S WORKS.
-
-We have made arrangements to publish a regular series of works by DR.
-ALCOTT, of which these are a part:
-
- THE YOUNG MOTHER,
-
- OR
-
- THE PHYSICAL EDUCATION OF CHILDREN.
-
- _Second Edition—Embellished by a Vignette._
-
- BY DR. WM. A. ALCOTT.
-
-The “Young Mother” is designed as an every-day manual for those who are
-desirous of conducting the physical education of the young—from the very
-first—on such principles as Physiology and Chemistry indicate. It
-inculcates the great importance of preventing evil—especially physical
-evil—by implanting good habits. We believe it to be the only work of a
-popular character, written by a medical man, on this subject, and that
-it is, on this account, doubly valuable. It is recommended by the Boston
-Medical and Surgical Journal, and by the Press generally, as a work
-which should be possessed by every family. The following remarks by the
-editor of the Portland Christian Mirror, will give some idea of the
-manner in which it has been noticed in various parts of the country,
-though many of the best periodicals have spoken of it in still stronger
-terms of approbation:
-
-“The subject of this book is of vital interest to the whole human
-family, and is treated by Dr. Alcott with the most intelligible
-simplicity. We hope it will find its way into the hands of all who are
-entrusted with the training and rearing of children; and that its sound
-views will supplant many of those hurtful maxims and practices which are
-lamentably prevalent, and that the existing generation of mankind will
-be succeeded by a more healthy and a more moral race.”
-
-Price 75 cts.—By the dozen, 62 1-2 cts.
-
- -------
-
- THE HOUSE I LIVE IN,
-
- OR
-
- THE HUMAN BODY.
-
- _Second Edition—entirely re-written, enlarged and improved._
-
- FOR THE USE OF FAMILIES AND SCHOOLS.
-
- BY DR. ALCOTT.
-
-The great difficulty of making a subject which has hitherto been deemed
-dry and unintelligible, at once agreeable and interesting to the young
-mind, has led the author of this volume to describe the human body as a
-HOUSE.
-
-The work treats, first, on the FRAME—consisting of the bones, muscles,
-tendons, &c.; secondly, of the COVERING—consisting of the skin, hair,
-nails, eyes, ears, &c.; and thirdly, of the APARTMENTS and FURNITURE—by
-which are meant the interior cavities and organs. Nearly every
-anatomical and physiological term which appears in the work is so used
-or so explained, as to be at once clearly understood and apprehended.
-The subject is illustrated by numerous engravings.
-
-The best recommendation of this work is, that it has been universally
-approved of by the families and schools where it has been introduced,
-and by all medical men who have examined it. It has also received the
-entire approbation of the Press, and is selling rapidly.
-
-Prices:—50 cts. single—$5.40 a dozen.
-
- -------
-
- WAYS
-
- OF
-
- LIVING ON SMALL MEANS.
-
- A CHEAP MANUAL ON HEALTH AND ECONOMY.
-
- _Fifth Edition—Enlarged and Improved._
-
- BY DR. ALCOTT.
-
-This work was prepared to meet the demand of the present exigency.
-Thousands of families, in the poorer and middling classes of society,
-are suffering from their unwise attempts to live in the style of those
-persons whose means are far greater than their own. The author has
-endeavored to convince them—in a brief manner—that a very few things
-only, are really indispensable to physical and even intellectual comfort
-and happiness—and that both these are within the reach of all, even in
-times like the present, would they be content to live in a manner at
-once rational, simple and healthful. It discusses the following
-subjects:
-
-Estates and Business; Houses and Furniture; Equipage and Servants;
-Dress; Food and Drink; Medicine and Physicians; Books and Schools;
-Customs and Habits; Society; and gives several interesting Examples of
-living on small means.
-
-With the emendations and improvements made in this edition, it is
-believed the work cannot fail to be regarded by every unprejudiced mind,
-as one of the most useful manuals of the day. Four editions, of 1000
-copies each, were sold in a few weeks.
-
-Prices:—25 cts. single—$2.50 a dozen—$20 a hundred.
-
- -------
-
- Will soon be ready,
-
- THE YOUNG WIFE.
-
- _Stereotyped—and Embellished by a beautiful Plate and Vignette._
-
- BY DR. ALCOTT.
-
-This work is based on the principle, that the great business of the wife
-is Education—the education of herself and her family. It therefore
-exhibits the duties of a wife, especially to her husband, in a manner at
-once original and striking. The author presupposes her to have set out
-in matrimony with christian principles and purposes; and hence proceeds
-to inculcate what he deems the best methods of applying them in the
-routine of daily life and conversation. We believe that no one can rise
-from the perusal of this volume without a higher respect for female
-character, as well as a higher confidence in the divine wisdom of
-matrimony.
-
-The price will probably be the same as that of the Young Mother.
-
- -------
-
- LIBRARY OF HEALTH,
-
- AND
-
- TEACHER ON THE HUMAN CONSTITUTION.
-
- _Monthly—Price $1 a Year, in advance._
-
- DR. ALCOTT, EDITOR.
-
-This is a Periodical work, originally called the “Moral Reformer and
-Teacher on the Human Constitution.” It is published in numbers of 32
-pages each, in neat book style for binding into a volume, illustrated by
-engravings, and is now on the third year of its publication. The numbers
-of the two past years are for sale, bound in two neat volumes.
-
-This work discusses, in a familiar manner, all subjects connected with
-physical education and self-management. It treats on the connection of
-LIGHT, AIR, TEMPERATURE, CLEANLINESS, EXERCISE, SLEEP, FOOD, DRINK,
-CLIMATE, the PASSIONS, AFFECTIONS, &c., with HEALTH, HAPPINESS and
-LONGEVITY. The editor takes the ground that a proper understanding of
-the constitutional laws of the human body, and of all its organs and
-functions, and a strict obedience thereto, are indispensable to the
-highest perfection and happiness—present and future—of every living
-human being. He deems this knowledge more and more indispensable in
-proportion to the progress of civilization and refinement. The work is
-pledged to support no system nor set of principles, any farther than
-that system and those principles can be proved to be based on the laws
-of Physiology, and revealed truth, and on human experience; and
-consequently its pages are always open to fair and temperate discussion.
-
-The work has recently been warmly approved of by GEORGE COMBE, (author
-of the “Constitution of Man,”) as well as a large number of
-distinguished men of this country, among whom are the following:
-
-Dr. John C. Warren, Dr. S. B. Woodward, Rev. Dr. Humphrey, Rev. S. R.
-Hall, Rev. Hubbard Winslow, Rev. R. Anderson, Rev. Baron Stow, Rev. B.
-B. Wisner, R. H. Gillet, Esq., Rev. Wm. Hague, Roberts Vaux, Esq., Dr.
-John M. Keagy, Dr. R. D. Mussey, Prof. E. A. Andrews, Rev. L. F. Clark,
-Rev. M. M. Carll, Rev. Dr. Fay, Dr. Sylvester Graham.
-
-These recommendations are similar to the following, received from Dr.
-WARREN:
-
-“The Library of Health, is, in my opinion, an excellent publication. It
-seems to be well adapted to aid in the great reform in habits and
-customs which is now going on in this country and Great Britain; and
-which, it may be hoped, will extend to other parts of the world. I beg
-leave to recommend this little work to all who are desirous of promoting
-their health of body and tranquillity of mind.”
-
-Many of the most respectable Journals in the country, have also given
-their testimony in its favor. The following are a very few of them:
-
-Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Annals of Education, Abbott’s
-Religious Magazine, Boston Recorder, Christian Register, Christian
-Watchman, Zion’s Herald, New York Farmer.
-
-We feel entire confidence in offering this publication to all who are
-interested in the improvement which Dr. Alcott is endeavoring to
-promote.
-
- -------
-
- THE YOUNG MAN’S GUIDE.
-
- BY DR. ALCOTT.
-
-We keep a good supply of this work on hand at all times, for sale at
-wholesale and retail, at the publishers’ lowest prices. It is too
-extensively known to need comment.
-
- --------------------------------------------------
-
- DR. GRAHAM’S WORKS.
-
- -------
-
- A LECTURE TO YOUNG MEN,
-
- ON
-
- CHASTITY.
-
- INTENDED ALSO FOR THE SERIOUS CONSIDERATION OF
-
- PARENTS AND GUARDIANS.
-
- _Second Edition—Enlarged and Improved, with Notes._
-
- BY DR. SYLVESTER GRAHAM.
-
-The second edition of this important work is nearly double the size of
-the first, although the price is increased but a trifle. It is selling
-rapidly. Notwithstanding its value is extensively known, we cannot
-forbear to insert two or three
-
- TESTIMONIALS.
-
-The following remarks, from the Annals of Education for 1834, are from
-the pen of WILLIAM C. WOODBRIDGE; whose long and zealous devotion to the
-cause of education, and whose extensive travels and researches both in
-Europe and America, and special attention to the subject of which he
-here speaks, pre-eminently qualify him to judge accurately in the
-matter:
-
-“We are rejoiced to see a work published in our country, on a topic in
-physiology which the ‘artificial modesty’ to which we have formerly
-alluded, has covered up, until a solitary, but fatal vice is spreading
-desolation through our _schools_ and _families_, unnoticed or unknown.
-The experience of teachers, the case-books of physicians, and the
-painful exposures which accident, or the dreadful diseases which follow
-in its train, have occasionally produced, have at length forced it upon
-public attention; and we hope it will not again be forgotten. The work
-before us is the result of extensive observation and study; its
-usefulness has been tested by its influence as a lecture; and its views
-of this evil are in accordance with the experience of the few teachers
-whom we have known possessed of the moral courage to encounter it. We
-would offer it to those who have earnestly desired a work on this
-subject, as one adapted to their purposes. We would recommend its
-perusal to every _parent_ and _teacher_. We would warn them that those
-who have been most confident of the safety of their charge, have often
-been most deceived; and that the youthful bashfulness which seems to
-shrink from the bare mention of the subject, is _sometimes_ the blush of
-shame for concealed crime. We feel bound to add, what abundant and
-decisive evidence has shown, that ignorance on this subject is no
-protection from the vice—nay, that it is often the original cause or
-encouragement of it; that it gives tenfold power to the evil example and
-influence which are so rarely escaped; and that a cure can be effected
-only by the most careful instruction and long continued discipline, both
-physical and moral, directed by sad experience, as is presented in this
-work.”
-
-The following brief but highly valuable testimony is from the
-distinguished superintendent of the Massachusetts Lunatic Hospital at
-Worcester:
-
- “DEAR SIR:—The subject of your Lecture to Young Men, has been much
-neglected, although of great importance.
-
-This lecture, while it sounds the alarm to the young, will not fail to
-awaken the attention of parents, if once perused. It is couched in
-language as delicate as the nature of the subject will admit, and may be
-read with propriety and benefit by all.
-
-The evil of which it treats, if I mistake not, is more extensively
-sapping the foundation of _physical vigor_ and _moral purity_, in the
-rising generation, than is generally apprehended, even by those who are
-awake to the danger, and who have witnessed the deplorable influence of
-it upon its victims.
-
- Yours, with respect,
-
- S. B. WOODWARD.”
-
-The following is from Dr. ALCOTT; author of the works advertised on the
-preceding pages—addressed to Dr. GRAHAM.
-
- “DEAR SIR:—The subject of your Lecture to Young Men is one of immense
-importance, and demands the profound attention of every friend of man.
-It is vain longer to shuffle it off, when those whose opportunities best
-qualify them to give an opinion, do not hesitate to say that solitary
-vice is rapidly gaining ground among us. It is a subject which must be
-met.
-
-In this view, I rejoice to find that an increasing demand for your
-little work has justified the publication of a second edition. I
-rejoice, especially, to see such sound principles in physiology
-inculcated and warmly enforced. I have no hesitation in saying that it
-ought to be circulated throughout our country. It would thus not only
-save many a young person from the murderous fangs of quackery, but—what
-is much better—it would prevent the necessity of his applying either to
-quacks or physicians for relief from a situation in which he ought never
-to be placed.”
-
-The following is an extract from a letter written by the chaplain of one
-of our New England State Prisons to a brother clergyman in a neighboring
-state:
-
-“I have read the book _three_ times, and derived more benefit from the
-last, than from either of the other readings. I like this book. Why is
-it not in the hands of every young man, especially in cities, to
-counteract the influence of indecent pictures and corrupting books?
-
-One excellence in Graham’s Lecture, as it strikes me, is, that it is so
-purely philosophical. Even an atheist might see force in his statements.
-A man must deny many of the best established principles of science,
-before he can deny most of the conclusions to which the lecturer comes.”
-
-The Boston Recorder, and several other valuable periodicals, coincide
-with these testimonials.
-
-Prices:—62 1-2 cts. single—$6 a dozen—$45 a hundred.
-
- -------
-
- A TREATISE
-
- ON
-
- BREAD AND BREAD-MAKING.
-
- BY DR. GRAHAM.
-
-There has been for some time a considerable demand for this work, and it
-will doubtless have a wide circulation among all classes of society.
-
-Prices:—37 1-2 cts. single—$4 a dozen—$30 a hundred.
-
- --------------------------------------------------
-
- MISCELLANEOUS WORKS.
-
-We would call attention to the following valuable and interesting works,
-by popular writers:
-
-THE BOSTON BOOK, for 1836 and 1837, being Specimens of Metropolitan
-Literature. Edited by H. T. TUCKERMAN, and B. B. THATCHER. Elegantly
-executed, and embellished by Vignettes of the Great Tree and
-Tri-Mountain.
-
-THE ITALIAN SKETCH BOOK. By H. T. TUCKERMAN. Second edition—revised and
-enlarged, with a plate.
-
-THE PARENT’S PRESENT. Edited by the author of Peter Parley’s Tales. A
-handsome present for youth; with cuts.
-
-MOGG MEGONE—a Poem, descriptive of New England and its early
-inhabitants. By JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. Pocket Edition.
-
-BOSTON MECHANIC, and Journal of the Useful Arts and Sciences. The matter
-furnished by Practical Men. Valuable for mechanics and manufacturers;
-numerous Cuts.
-
-SCIENTIFIC TRACTS, for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Complete in
-one volume. By B. B. Thatcher, Dr. Alcott, Dr. C. T. Jackson, Dr.
-Sylvester Graham, William Ladd, Lieut. R. Park, and others.
-
-THE MORAL REFORMER, and Teacher on the Human Constitution. Edited by Dr.
-ALCOTT. This work contains a large quantity of matter on Health and
-Morals, as connected with the education of the Body. With cuts.
-
-REMAINS OF MELVILLE B. COX, (Missionary to Africa,) with a MEMOIR.
-Published under the superintendence of his brother, GERSHOM F. COX. With
-a Portrait, and death-bed autograph.
-
-SLAVERY AND THE DOMESTIC SLAVE-TRADE IN THE UNITED STATES. Letters
-addressed to the American Union for the Relief and Improvement of the
-Colored Race. By Prof. E. A. ANDREWS.
-
-THE CARPENTER AND HIS FAMILY: ALSO, PRIDE SUBDUED. By the author of the
-“Black Velvet Bracelet,” &c. An excellent book for youth.
-
-SKETCHES FROM SACRED HISTORY; containing the Story of the Moabitess—the
-Story of the Queen—and the Story of the Priest. A good book for youth.
-
-MEMOIR OF WILLIAM WILBERFORCE. By THOMAS PRICE. Second American, from
-the London Edition. With an elegant Portrait, and an Appendix (not in
-the first edition.)
-
-MEMOIR OF REV. S. OSGOOD WRIGHT, late Missionary to Liberia. By B. B.
-THATCHER. With a Portrait.
-
-MEMOIR AND POEMS OF PHILLIS WHEATLEY. The Memoir written by a Relative
-of the Mistress of Phillis. The Poems from the best English Edition.
-With a Portrait.
-
- -------
-
- SCIENTIFIC & LITERARY JOURNAL
-
- FOR THE
-
- DIFFUSION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.
-
- _Semi-Monthly—$2 a Year, in advance._
-
-This work is so well known (it being a continuation of the SCIENTIFIC
-TRACTS,) that recommendation is unnecessary. The first volume commenced
-January 1, this year. We believe all who want a scientific work which
-can be depended upon for its accuracy as well as general value, would be
-highly gratified with this periodical.
-
- -------
-
-N. B.—The most favorable terms will be offered to those who may wish to
-purchase any of the preceding works by the quantity, for gratuitous
-circulation or for any other purpose—and a liberal discount will be made
-for cash.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
- FOOTNOTES.
-
-
-Footnote A:
-
- In this same manner the Sandwich Islanders cooked all their food, when
- they were first discovered.
-
-Footnote B:
-
- An aged and very respectable member of the Society of Friends, in New
- York, who had long been extensively engaged in the flour business in
- that city, and who had always had his family bread made in his own
- house, was one day asked by his daughter, why he never used the
- baker’s bread:—“Because, my child,” replied he, “I know what it is
- made of.”
-
-Footnote C:
-
- See Memoirs of Philadelphia Agricultural Society. Vol. I. p. 226.
-
-
-
-
- TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE.
-
-
-This eBook makes the following corrections to the printed text:
-
- ● Pg iv
- ○ sour milk or buttermilk
- ○ sour milk or butter-milk
-
- ● Pg 38
- ○ their bread stuff before it is ground
- ○ their bread-stuff before it is ground
-
- ● Pg 44
- ○ the well being of those who have been the consumers
- ○ the well-being of those who have been the consumers
-
- ● Pg 49
- ○ there are indviduals in every city
- ○ there are individuals in every city
-
- ● Pg 77
- ○ stir in good indian meal
- ○ stir in good Indian meal
-
- ● Pg 88
- ○ In order to this
- ○ In order to do this
-
- ● Pg 124
- ○ “Keep ... no bread with his dinner,
- ○ “Keep ... no bread with his dinner,”
-
- ● Pg 130
- ○ first the solution of muriatic or tartartic acid
- ○ first the solution of muriatic or tartaric acid
-
- ● Advertisements
- ○ MANUAL ON HEALTH AND ECOMOMY
- ○ MANUAL ON HEALTH AND ECONOMY
-
- ● Advertisements
- ○ SCIENFITIC TRACTS
- ○ SCIENTIFIC TRACTS
-
-*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TREATISE ON BREAD, AND
-BREAD-MAKING ***
-
-Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will
-be renamed.
-
-Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
-law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
-so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the
-United States without permission and without paying copyright
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