A treatise on the art of making good wholesome bread of wheat, oats, rye, barley and other farinaceous grains / Exhibiting the alimentary properties and chemical constitution of different kinds of bread corn, and of the various substitutes used for bread, in different parts of the world

by Friedrich Christian Accum

METHOD OF MAKING WHEATEN BREAD, AS PRACTISED BY THE LONDON BAKERS.

To make a sack of flour into bread, the baker pours the flour into the kneading trough, and sifts it through a fine wire sieve, which makes it lie very light, and serves to separate any impurities with which the flour may be mixed. Two ounces of alum are then dissolved in about a quart of boiling water, and the solution (technically called liquor,) is poured into the seasoning-tub. Four or five pounds of salt are likewise put into the tub, and a pailful of hot water. When this mixture has cooled to the temperature of about 84°, from three to four pints of yeast are added; the whole is mixed, strained through the seasoning sieve, emptied into a hole made in the mass of the flour, and mixed up with the requisite portion of it to the consistence of a thick batter. Some dry flour is then sprinkled over the top, and it is covered up with sacks or cloths. This operation is called setting quarter sponge.

In this situation it is left three or four hours. It gradually swells and breaks through the dry flour scattered on its surface. An additional quantity, (about one pailful,) of warm (liquor) water, in which one ounce of alum is dissolved, is now added, and the dough is made up into a paste as before; the whole is then covered up. In this situation it is left for four or five hours. This is called setting half sponge.

The whole is then intimately kneaded with more water, (about two pails full,) for upwards of an hour. The dough is cut into pieces with a knife, and penned to one side of the trough; some dry flour is sprinkled over it, and it is left to prove in this state for about four hours. It is then kneaded again for half an hour. The dough is now taken out of the trough, put on the lid, cut into pieces, and weighed, in order to furnish the requisite quantity for each loaf.

The operation of moulding is peculiar, and can only be learnt by practice; it consists in cutting the mass of dough destined for a loaf, into two equal portions: they are kneaded either round or long, and one placed in a hollow made in the other, and the union is completed by a turn of the knuckles on the centre of the upper piece.

The loaves are left in the oven about two hours and a half, or three hours, when taken out of the oven, they are turned with their bottom side upwards to prevent them from splitting. They are then covered up with a blanket to cool slowly.