The Chemistry of Cookery

by W. Mattieu Williams

In spite of the great amount of ingenuity expended upon the manufacture of such unfermented bread, and the efforts to bring it into use, but little progress has been made. The general verdict appears to be that the unfermented bread is not so ‘sweet,’ that it lacks some element of flavour, is ‘chippy’ or tasteless as compared with good old-fashioned wheaten bread, free from alum or other adulteration. My theory of this difference is that it is due to the absence of those changes which take place while the sponge or dough is rising, when, if I am right, the diastase of the grain is operating, as in germination, to produce a certain quantity of dextrin and sugar, and possibly acting also on the gluten. Deficiency of dextrin is, I think, the chief cause of the chippy character of aerated bread. It must be remembered that, in ordinary bread-making, the fermentation is protracted over several hours, during which the temperature most favourable to germination is steadily maintained.

The practical importance of the fermentation is strikingly shown by the fact that, in the course of sponge rising, dough rising, and baking, a loaf becomes about four times as large as the original mixture of flour, water, &c., of which it was made; or, otherwise stated, an ordinary loaf is made up of one part of solid bread to more than three parts of air bubbles or pores. French rolls and some other kinds of fancy bread are still more gaseous.

So far I have only named the flour, water, salt, and yeast. These, with a little sugar or milk, added according to taste and custom, are the ingredients of home-made bread, but ‘bakers’ bread’ is commonly, though not necessarily, somewhat more complex. There is the material technically known as ‘fruit,’ and another which bears the equivocal name of ‘stuff,’ or ‘rocky.’ The fruit are potatoes. The quantity of these prescribed in Knight’s ‘Guide to Trade’ is one peck to the sack of flour. This proportion is so small (about 3 per cent. by weight) that, if not exceeded, it cannot be regarded as a fraudulent adulteration, for the additional cost involved in the boiling, skinning, and general preparing of the small addition exceeds the saving in the price of raw material. The fruit, therefore, is not added merely because it is cheaper than flour, as many people suppose.

The instructions concerning its use given in the work above named clearly indicate that the potato flour is used to assist fermentation. These instructions prescribe that the peck of potatoes shall be boiled in their skins, mashed in the ‘seasoning tub,’ then mixed with two or three quarts of water, the same quantity of patent yeast, and three or four pounds of flour. The mixture is left to stand for six or twelve hours, when it will have become what is called a ferment. After straining through a sieve, to separate the skins of the fruit, it is mixed with the sack of flour, water, &c.

It is evident from this that it would not pay to add such a quantity in such a manner as a mere adulterant. The baker uses it for improving the bread, from his point of view.

The stuff or rocky consists, according to Tomlinson, of one part of alum to three parts of common salt. The same authority tells us that the bakers buy this at 2d. per packet, containing 1 lb. in each, and that they believe it to be ground alum. They buy it thus for immediate use, being subject to a heavy fine if they keep alum on the premises. The quantity of the mixture ordinarily used is 8 oz. to each sack of flour weighing 280 lbs., so that the proportion of alum is but 2 oz. to 280 lbs. As one sack of flour is (with water) made into eighty loaves weighing 4 lbs. each, the quantity of alum in 1 lb. of bread amounts to ¹/₁₆₀th of an oz.

The rationale of the action of this small quantity of alum is still a chemical puzzle. That it has an appreciable effect in improving the appearance of the bread is unquestionable, and it may actually improve the quality of bread made from inferior flour.

One of the baker’s technical tests of quality is the manner in which the loaves of a batch separate from each other. That they should break evenly and present a somewhat silky rather than a lumpy fracture, is a matter of trade estimation. When the fracture is rough and lumpy, one loaf pulling away some of the just belongings of its neighbour, the feelings of the orthodox baker are much wounded. The alum is said to prevent this impropriety, while an excess of salt aggravates it.

It appears to be a fact that this small quantity of alum whitens the bread. In this, as in so many other cases of adulteration, there are two guilty parties—the buyer who demands impossible or unnatural appearances, and the manufacturer or vendor who supplies the foolish demand. The judging of bread by its whiteness is a mistake which has led to much mischief, against which the recent agitation for ‘whole meal’ is, I think, an extreme reaction.