TABLE TOPICS.
Behind the nutty loaf is the mill wheel; behind the mill is the wheat field; on the wheat field rests the sunlight; above the sun is God.—James Russell Lowell.
Bread forms one of the most important parts of the ration of the German soldier. In time of peace, the private soldier is supplied day by day with one pound and nine ounces of bread; when fighting for the Fatherland, every man is entitled to a free ration of over two pounds of bread, and field bakery trains and steam ovens for providing the large amount of bread required, form a recognized part of the equipment of the German army.
The wandering Arab lives almost entirely upon bread, with a few dates as a relish.
According to Count Rumford, the Bavarian wood-chopper, one of the most hardy and hard-working men in the world, receives for his weekly rations one large loaf of rye bread and a small quantity of roasted meal. Of the meal he makes an infusion, to which he adds a little salt, and with the mixture, which he calls burned soup, he eats his rye bread. No beer, no beef, no other food than that mentioned, and no drink but water; and yet he can do more work and enjoys a better digestion and possesses stronger muscles than the average American or Englishman, with their varied dietary.
The following truthful bit of Scandinavian history well illustrates the influence of habits of frugality upon national character: "The Danes were approaching, and one of the Swedish bishops asked how many men the province of Dalarna could furnish.
"'At least twenty thousand,' was the reply; 'for the old men are just as strong and brave as the young ones.'
"'But what do they live upon?'
"'Upon bread and water. They take little account of hunger and thirst, and when corn is lacking, they make their bread out of tree bark.'
"'Nay,' said the bishop, 'a people who eat tree bark and drink water, the devil himself could not vanquish!' and neither were they vanquished. Their progress was one series of triumphs, till they placed Gustavus Vasa on the throne of Sweden."
The word biscuit embodies the process by which this form of bread was made from time immemorial down to within the last century. Bis (twice), and coctus (cooked), show that they were twice baked.
Fragments of unfermented bread were discovered in the Swiss lake-dwellings, which belong to the Neolithic age.
Fermented bread is seldom seen in Northern Europe and Asia except among the rich or the nobility. At one time, the captain of an English vessel requested a baker of Gottenburg to bake a large quantity of loaves of raised bread. The baker refused to undertake an order of such magnitude, saying it would be quite impossible to dispose of so much, until the captain agreed to take and pay for it all.
I made a study of the ancient and indispensable art of bread-making, consulting such authorities as offered, going back to the primitive days and first invention of the unleavened kind, and traveling gradually down in my studies through that accidental souring of the dough which it is supposed taught the leavening process, and through the various fermentations thereafter till I came to "good, sweet, wholesome bread,"—the staff of life. Leaven, which some deemed the soul of bread, the spiritus which fills its cellular tissues, which is religiously preserved like the vestal fire,—some precious bottleful, I suppose, brought over in the Mayflower, did the business for America, and its influence is still rising, swelling, spreading in cerulean billows over the land,—this seed I regularly and faithfully procured from the village, until one morning I forgot the rules and scalded my yeast; by which accident I discovered that even this was not indispensable, and I have gladly omitted it ever since. Neither did I put any soda or other acid or alkali into my bread. It would seem that I made it according to the recipe which Marcus Porcius Cato gave about two centuries before Christ: "Make kneaded bread thus: Wash your hands and trough well. Put the meal into the trough, add water gradually, and knead it thoroughly. When you have needed it well, mold it, and bake it under a cover," that is in a baking kettle.—Thoreau in Walden.
