“The baker may be a little the more reluctant to come into this salutary proposal, as knowing that if he is to decline the use of alum, flour that is in any degree musty, or made of wheat that has grown or vegetated before gathered in, as sometimes happens, he cannot work it up so advantageously in the bread now proposed to be made, as in the wheaten bread.—Be this as it may, as soon as the baker finds this standard flour is vendable in bread, he will buy it; and knowing what part of the wheat it ought to be, he will work it into bread with so much the more satisfaction; and being sensible that we mean to eat genuine bread, he will cease to whiten it by any hurtful art. We shall all understand what we eat, and the trade will be familiar to us; we shall be so much happier as we become so much the more honest, and more healthy than we were before. Such is the serious light in which I see the subject before me.”
“Every occupation hath its mystery; and the professors are gratified in thinking themselves wiser than the rest of the world in their own way. Every professed cook of the first rate can melt down a large ham into the contents of half a pint. The confectioner uses bitter almonds, which are poisonous; the oilman colours his pickles with copper, to render them green; and the baker uses alum to whiten his bread, and make his flour imbibe the more water, by which he makes the more bread out of the same quantity of flour. This, and other occasional mixtures of the flour of different grains, renders his bread husky, dry, and disagreeable the third day.—Are we the better for any such mysteries?”
“Whether the wheat be all of one kind, or married, which is the phrase for mixing of wheats of different kinds, it will be easy for people of condition, by experiment, or by the comparison with genuine bread made in their families, to know whether justice be done; though we may easily discover that the baker for the public, is generally a better master of his trade than most housewives are. The mystery may be thus developed; our health and pleasure promoted; and our bread be as much cheaper than it is now, as the gain on the flour will make it, by using all that the wheat produces.”
“Every one may try by grinding and bolting his own grain, and baking his own bread, and the manufacturers of bread may find nearly as good account in bread of all the flour, which can be so easily ascertained; as they do in the wheaten, which is involved in difficulties.”
“The public have administered to their own delusion, their eyes are shut to their own advantage. If the wealthy will adopt the use of the bread in question, the labouring part of our fellow-subjects will certainly follow the example; and as to paupers, they will gladly comply.”
“Common sense, in all ages, has achieved wonders.”
Laws prohibiting the Adulteration of Bread and Bread Flour.
The adulteration of bread and bread flour is forbidden by law, as is obvious from the following acts of parliament:
“No person shall put into any corn,[[9]] meal, or flour, which shall be ground, dressed, bolted, or manufactured for sale, any ingredient or mixture whatsoever, whereby the same may be adulterated, or shall sell any flour of one sort of grain as for the flour of another, but shall only sell the real genuine meal or flour of the grain the same shall import to be, under the penalty of five pounds for every such offence.”
[9]. 31 Geo. 2. c. 29. p. 883.