BRA′′ZING. The operation of uniting pieces of copper, brass, iron, &c., by means of hard solder.
Proc. The edges, after being filed or scraped quite clean, are covered with a mixture of hard solder and powdered borax, made into a paste with water. The whole is then allowed to dry, and is afterwards exposed, in a clear fire, to a heat sufficient to melt the solder. See Autogenous, Soldering, Solders, &c.
BREAD (brĕd). Syn. Pa′nis, L.; Pain, Fr.; Brod, Ger.; Brood, Dut.; Bröd, Dan., Swed.; Breod, Sax. Loaves or cakes made from ground corn, and constituting the staple article of food of all civilised nations.
This important article of food is made of the flour of different cereal grains, but only those that contain gluten admit of conversion into light or spongy bread. In this respect wheat-flour is superior to all others. When this flour is made into a paste or dough with water, and the dough, previous to baking, is left for some time in a moderately warm place, a state of fermentation comes on, owing to the sugar of the flour gradually undergoing the process of conversion into alcohol, in every respect similar to that which takes place during the fermentation of wine and beer. In this process a large quantity of carbonic acid gas is liberated, and the toughness of the dough preventing its escape, the whole mass becomes puffed up and spongy, and a light porous paste is formed, the porosity of which is still further increased by the heat of the oven. The natural process of fermenting the dough just described is, however, tedious and uncertain, whilst the dough has a tendency to run into the acetous fermentation, and to acquire a sour and disagreeable taste, by which it is rendered less nutritious and less easy of digestion. This has led to the use of a ferment which produces a similar condition more speedily, and with greater certainty. Leaven or dough was originally employed for this purpose, and the bread so made was hence called LEAVENED BREAD. At the present time barm or yeast is almost universally used for this purpose. All that is essential to make a loaf of bread is to add a proper quantity of yeast to the dough, and to allow it to remain for a short time in a warm place, and as soon as it rises or becomes spongy, to subject it to the process of baking.
In preparing his dough, the modern baker takes a part of the water needed for the batch, and having rendered it tepid or lukewarm (80° to 90° Fahr.) by the addition of boiling water, dissolves his salt in it, and adds the yeast, together with a portion of the flour. With these he forms a thin dough, which he sets aside in a moderately warm place provided for the purpose, and technically called the ‘kneading trough,’ ‘prover,’ or ‘tryer,’ where it soon begins to ferment and swell up. This process is called ‘setting the sponge,’ and according to the proportion the water in it bears to the whole quantity that is to be used, it receives the name of ‘whole,’ ‘half,’ or ‘quarter sponge.’ Here the sponge heaves and swells, and ultimately the surface bursts and subsides, and if not checked swells again and again in a similar manner and would continue to do so until the whole of the ‘saccharine matter’ was destroyed, and the dough had become sour. The baker is careful, however, to stop it before it has communicated a sourness to the mass. After the first, or, at the furthest, after the second or third ‘dropping of the sponge,’ he adds the remaining quantity of flour, water, and salt, necessary to form the ‘batch,’ and then kneads the whole until it becomes sufficiently tough and elastic to bear the pressure of the hand without adhering to it. The ‘dough’ is now left to itself for a few hours, during which the fermentation still goes on. The inflated mass is then again kneaded, cut into pieces, weighed, and shaped into loaves. In an hour or two these unbaked loaves swell up to nearly double their former size, and are then placed in the oven and baked. During this operation they continue for a time to increase in size, in consequence of the dilation of the pent-up gas by the heat. At length the fermentation is checked, and the dough becomes too solid to admit of further alteration.
Such are the principles and practice of the art of baking. The operations are precisely the same on both the small and the large scale, and therefore need not be separately described.
The kneading of the dough by hand is not only a very laborious process, but it is unhealthy and additionally objectionable on account of its being uncleanly. Added to this, the uniform quality of the dough is not to be depended upon. Although it is impossible to perform by machinery any labour which absolutely requires the touch of the human hand, bread-kneading machines have been introduced wherever the making of only one and the same kind of bread is required. Amongst the numerous kinds of machines devised for bread-making, is Clayton’s. (See cut.)
The constituents of the dough are placed in the cylinder, A, mounted in the framework, b b, and provided with hollow axles, c and d,
turning in their bearings at e. The interior of the cylinder is fitted with the framework, f, which may be made to revolve by the aid of the axles, g and h. The two halves of this framework are connected together by the diagonal knives i, i, which, when the machinery revolves, work up the dough; the trough or outer cylinder revolves in the opposite direction to the revolution of the framework. The crank, o, is connected with the axle of the trough or outer cylinder, the crank, p, with that of the inner framework; as the two cranks are turned in opposite directions, they impart opposite movements to trough and framework. The revolving of the machinery may be performed by one man by the aid of one crank, since the axle, h, of the crank, o, which is fitted to the inner frame by means of the hollow axle-tree, and revolves along with it, carries a conically shaped wheel, m, fitted to the wheel k, which, being connected with l, causes the trough also to revolve; when therefore the wheel m turns towards the right, the wheel t will revolve towards the left. Another kneading machine is that of Mr Stevens. It is employed at the Holborn Union, where more than 5000 lbs. of bread are made every week by one man and two boys.
