Brown bread

“ To make a Brown-bread Pudding:—Take half a pound of brown bread, and double the weight of it in beef-suet; a quarter of a pint of cream, the blood of a fowl, a whole nutmeg, some cinnamon, a spoonful of sugar, six yolks of eggs, three whites: mix it all well together, and boil it in a wooden dish two hours. Serve it with sack and sugar, and butter melted. ”

“ Abundant experiment has been made by those to whom 'Boston brown bread' was formerly little less than a poison, to prove the assertion that, sufficiently mixed with saliva, it is perfectly digestible and that the delicious taste of the bread after forty or fifty bites—about one-half minute—gets sweeter and sweeter, and attains its greatest sweetness and most delicate taste at the very last, when it has dissolved into liquid form and most of it has escaped into the stomach. ”

“ So that, to those ever-present clever folk, who, in reading the following pages, may find themselves able to point out portraits here and there, I take this opportunity of humbly suggesting that they should give those good keen eyes of theirs just a little further exercise; and, having made the discovery that any loaf, however badly mixed and baked, does really presuppose some growing grain, should go on to remark that, after all, a paddock of wheat is not really one and the same thing as a bit of brown bread. ”

“ We have long since exploded the idea that whiteness is a test of superiority, for we know that this is attained by excluding the most wholesome and nutritious part of the wheat and by the use of chemicals. Even when we use brown bread, we are by no means sure of having a wholemeal loaf, for it is as often as not merely the ordinary flour with some bran mixed in. And bran is only one part—by no means the most important—of that in which the meal is lacking. ”

“ For this purpose the flour ought to be well prepared, and kept in a dry place. Some persons like brown bread, but it is not, in general, so wholesome as that which is all white. Six pounds of rye flour, to a peck of wheaten flour, makes very good bread. ”

“ If whole-meal bread is ordered of the English baker, he throws a handful of bran into this same flour; and the brown loaf looks tempting enough, but both it and the white one are alike tasteless and insipid, and destitute of nutritious qualities. What is really wanted for good bread is just simply the entire contents of the grain, as nature, who after all knows best, has given it to us. ”

“ The nature of the mixture, however, is governed by the proportion of flour and liquid, the two ingredients that form the basis of all bread mixtures; and by incorporating with them such ingredients as eggs, sugar, shortening, flavouring, fruits, nuts, etc. there may be produced an almost endless variety of appetising hot breads, which include popovers, griddle cakes, waffles, muffins, soft gingerbread, corn cake or corn bread, Boston brown bread, nut loaf, and baking-powder and beaten biscuit. ”

“ The real black bread is heavier, and as clammy as if potatoes entered largely into its composition. It is used almost exclusively by the peasants, and is doubly economical, being in the first instance cheap in price, and moreover a very little of it goes a long way, as it resists digestion as long as a hard-boiled egg. The black bread used by the well-to-do classes is a compromise, and is of a black-brown colour, known as demi-blanc. ”

“ Because of the variety these hot breads afford, they help considerably to relieve the monotony of meals. In fact, the housewife has come to depend so much on breads of this kind that their use has become almost universal. As is well known, however, certain kinds are typical of certain localities; for instance, beaten biscuit and hoe cake are characteristic of the Southern States of the United States, while Boston brown bread is used most extensively in the New England States and throughout the East. The popular opinion of most persons is that hot breads are injurious. ”

“ Besides march-pain or pain-main, and pain-puff, two sorts baked on special occasions, and rather entering into the class of confectionery, our better-to-do ancestors usually employed three descriptions of bread: manchete for the master's table, made of fine boulted flour; chete, of unboulted flour, but not mixed with any coarser ingredient; and brown-bread, composed of flour and rye meal, and known as maslin (mystelon) . ”

“ Many seem to think that they have made toast when they brown the outside of a slice of bread. Have they?
The object in making toast is to evaporate all moisture from the bread, and holding a slice over the fire to singe does not accomplish this; it only warms the moisture, making the inside of the bread doughy and decidedly indigestible. The true way of preparing it is to cut the bread into slices a quarter of an inch thick, trim off all crust, put the slices in a pan or plate, place them in the oven—which must not be too hot—take them out when a delicate brown, and butter at once. ”

“ If one gallon of meal as it comes from the mill, be well mixed with an equal measure of flour, and made into a dough in the manner directed for white household bread, the loaves will still be sufficiently brown for the general taste in this country, and they will be good and wholesome, though not, perhaps, so entirely easy of digestion as Baron Liebig’s Bavarian bread. ”

“ When bread crumbs are used for puddings or molds the quantity will vary with the kind of bread. Fewer will be required with home-made bread than with baker’s bread.
Bread, cracker or zwieback crumbs, corn meal, flour or browned flour No. 1, or a mixture of crumbs and brown or white flour may be used for rolling croquettes or cutlets, or for sprinkling the top of scallops or gratins.
Nut meal is suitable for the outside of rice croquettes and the top of many dishes.
Grated or chopped onion is apt to become bitter if prepared long before using. ”

“ Place the bread thus dipped in a hot frying pan and sauté it until the under side is brown; then turn it and brown the other side. Serve hot with sirup or jelly.
LEFT-OVER BREAD
97. Bread that has become stale need not be wasted, for there are many uses to which it may be put. As such bread has lost much of its moisture, it is desirable for toast, for it browns more quickly and makes crisper toast than fresh bread. Thick slices of it may also be cut into cubes or long, narrow strips and then toasted on all sides, to be served with soup instead of crackers. ”

“ No bathing conveniences whatever, and often not a wash dish about the house, is the rule. The most inveterate eaters in the world, yet these people have no idea of cooking outside of hog, hominy, corn bread, and coffee. Yes, there is one more dish, it is the negro’s sun-flower in the South, cabbages.
It is usual to see a woman coming from the market about five o’clock in the evening, with a basket under her shawl, and in it a piece of pork, bacon, or half a hog’s head, and one or two large heads of cabbage, and some sweet potatoes. ”

“ I am sure that if a tempting course dinner were set at one side, and a slice of white bread at the other, he would not hesitate to choose the bread. It is white bread that they all beg for, tho the brown war bread made from flour milled at 82 per cent. is really very palatable, and superior to the war bread of other countries. ”

“ Rye is a grain whose cultivation is not much encouraged in this kingdom, but in the northern parts of Europe it is in very extensive use as a nourishing food for mankind. When made into bread alone, it is of a dark brown colour, and sweetish taste, and if eat by people unaccustomed to its use, it is found to have a laxative effect. In some parts of this kingdom, a mixture of rye and wheat is reckoned an 113excellent bread. ”

“ It seemed to Dorcas that night as if she could not wait to finish the bowl of bread and milk that made her supper, and to put on her white muslin and seat herself by the window. She felt as if the world were rushing fast, the flowers in the garden hurrying to open, the sun to get into the sky and make it redder than ever it had been before, and all happy people to be happier. Something seemed sweeping after her, and she dared not turn and look it in the face. But her heart told her it was the moment that would come after her work had been accomplished and Newell had found Alida. ”

“ As colored men, we only ask to be allowed to do with ourselves, subject only to the same great laws for the welfare of other men—Jews, Gentiles, Barbarian, Scythian. Let us stand upon our own legs, work with our own hands, and eat bread in the sweat of our own brows. When you, our white fellow-countrymen, have attempted to do any thing for us, it has generally been to deprive us of some right, power, or privilege, which you yourselves would die before you would submit to have taken from you. ”

“ My tale is not, therefore, one of horrid inflictions of the lash upon my naked body; of cruel starvings and of insolent treatment; but is the very best representation of slavery which can be given; therefore, reader, allow me to inform you, as you, for aught I know, may be one of those degraded mortals who fancy that if no blows are inflicted upon the slave’s body, and a plenty of “bread and bacon” is dealed out to him, he is therefore no sufferer, and slavery is not a cruel institution; allow me to inform you, that I did not escape from such deprivations. ”

“ Unbolted flour, altogether more wholesome than the fine wheat, and when properly prepared more palatable,—rye-flour and corn-meal, each affording a thousand attractive possibilities,—each and all of these come under the general laws of bread-stuffs, and are worth a careful attention.
A peculiarity of our American table, particularly in the Southern and Western States, is the constant exhibition of various preparations of hot bread. In many families of the South and West, bread in loaves to be eaten cold is an article quite unknown. ”

“ They have not only succeeded by such means, in making light and white bread out of extremely poor flour, but they have also been able so to disguise their adulterations, as to work in with their flour, without being detected by the consumers, a 45portion of the flour of beans, peas and potatoes—and even chalk, pipe clay and plaster of Paris, have been employed to increase the weight and whiteness of their bread. ”

“ Such seconds flour does not fairly produce white bread, and consumers are unwise in demanding whiteness. In my household we make our own bread, but occasionally, when the demand exceeds ordinary supply, a loaf or two is bought from the baker. I find that, with corresponding or identical flour, the baker’s bread is whiter than the home-made, and proportionally inferior. I may describe it as colourless in flavour, it lacks the characteristic of wheaten sweetness. ”

“ GRAINS USED FOR FLOUR.--As has been pointed out elsewhere, numerous grains are raised by man, but only two of them, namely, wheat and rye, are used alone for the making of yeast, or leavened, bread. The other grains, such as corn, rice, and oats, produce a flat, unleavened cake, so they are seldom used for bread making unless they are mixed with white flour. Wheat and rye have been used for bread making for a very long time, and their universal use today is due to the fact that they contain considerable protein in the form of gluten. ”

“ The people of South Britain generally prefer bread made of the finest wheat flour, while those of the Northern countries eat a mixture of flour and oatmeal, or rye bread. The common people of Scotland also eat a mixed bread, but more frequently bread made of oatmeal only.
In Germany the common bread is made of rye. The flour of millet is made in France, Spain, and Italy, into wholesome and nourishing pastry and puddings. The American and West Indian labourer thinks no bread so strengthening as that which is made of Indian corn. ”

“ Whole Wheat Flour.—It is claimed that bran in Graham flour often proves an irritant to delicate digestive organs. In whole wheat flour we have the entire food principle of the grain without the hull. The cold blast process of milling gives us this flour of a very superior quality.
Whole Wheat Flour Bread should be made in every particular like patent or new process flour bread, and baked in loaves, twists, or fancy rolls. ”

“ From experiments in which I have been employed, with the assistance of skilful bakers, I am authorised to state, that without the addition of alum, it does not appear possible to make white, light, and porous bread, such as is used in this metropolis, unless the flour be of the very best quality. ”

“ I have witnessed at a baker’s, who has the reputation for making excellent rolls, forty-eight pounds of dough moulded into one hundred (penny) rolls; they weighed, when drawn out of the oven, twenty-six pounds.
The bread called in this metropolis French rolls, and French bread, is made precisely in the same manner, namely, from common bread dough, but of a less stiff consistence; they are suffered to rise to a greater extent than dough intended for loaf-bread. ”

“ In the first place, much can be effected by keeping on hand a good supply of the various bread-stuffs. Good raised bread, of fine flour, must be the grand staple, but this may, every day, be accompanied with varieties of bread made of unbolted flour, or rye and Indian, or Indian alone, or potato and apple bread, or rice bread, or the various biscuits and rusk. ”

“ In cities and towns and in many country villages the baker supplies the general need. Yielding to the popular demand for white bread, he uses flour that has been robbed of its most nutritious properties, and introduces unwholesome substances to make it light and white. The best bread is that in which the starch cells are most completely burst. The making of wholesome, palatable, home-made bread is becoming a “lost art” even among farmers’ wives and daughters. ”