Adulteration at one time was almost universal in bakery ;
usually it must be conceded, however, that the foreign
substances, added to increase the bulk and diminish the
cost of bread production, were innocuous enough, their chief
fault being that they reduced the nutritive value of the
flour ; and when eating, and paying for what we believe to
be pure bread made from wheat flour, it is small consolation
to know that the raw or cooked potato, beetroot, or turnip
pulp, dextrine (potato starch), or rice added to it, are really
harmless ingredients. Of alum, used largely at one time
for whitening and improving (?) the keeping power o-f
bread, one cannot say even so much. However, the law of
adulteration, now generally and strictly enforced, lias
rendered the use of these substances too costly in actual
money, and too ruinous in reputation, for any decent miller
or baker to adopt them, so that in dealing with an honest
tradesman of good reputation one is fairly certain of
obtaining bread made from flour, at all events. But in
this, as in every case, fair value has to be paid for quality,
and the housewife who gives herself up to the fetish of
“ cheapness ” (at ail costs) must make up her mind to the
fact that, if she will not pay with her purse she will with
her person, or, worse still, the persons of her children and
household.
BREAD.
5
Breadmaking is an art that should, theoretically, be
possessed by every woman, though its practice need not be
always incumbent upon her. At the same time, iu these
days, when we all wander so much, it were well for every
woman, whatever her status, to have a working knowledge
of the matter. It may be added that ameinia, a disease
which has increased so largely of late years, in the country
especially, is by many doctors freely attributed to the
decline of home baking, and the consequent use of the
baker’s bread ; for which amongst working people, as a rule,
the sole test of purity is its whiteness, due in only too
many cases to an excessive use of alum.
The use of alum, especially as an ingredient in bread, has
for a vex-y long series of year's been declared illegal, and the
bakers employing it can, if detected, be severely fined. Its
employment was formerly defended by the bakers on the
ground that it rendered certain flours, which could not be
used under ordinary circumstances, fit for food. Wheat
harvested in wet seasons, when the grain is exposed to much
atmospheric moisture, yields a flour which cannot be used
advantageously; the bread made from it becomes sticky
and glutinous when masticated, adhering to the teeth, and
being objectionable not only on the ground of taste, but of
indigestibility. A small portion of alum added to the water
with which such bi'ead is made obviates this defect, and
thus enables the baker to use cheaper and inferior flour than
he otherwise coixld do, hence its use was formerly very
general. Heavy penalties were, it is true, incurred by its
use, so alum was seldom kept on the baker’s premises, and
before each baking the journeyman used to go to the
nearest chemist’s and purchase a pound of “ stuff ” — the
technical name under which alum was sold.
Used in baking powder, alum serves a totally diffex*ent
purpose. The most essential ingredient in baking powder
is carbonate, ox*, as it shoixld be called, bicarbonate of soda,
which contaixxs with the alkali a very large quantity of
G
Page 3
Presented as published in 1902. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
Adulteration at one time was almost universal in bakery ; usually it must be conceded, however, that the foreign substances, added to increase the bulk and diminish the cost of bread production, were innocuous enough, their chief fault being that they reduced the nutritive value of the flour ; and when eating, and paying for what we believe to be pure bread made from wheat flour, it is small consolation to know that the raw or cooked potato, beetroot, or turnip pulp, dextrine (potato starch), or rice added to it, are really harmless ingredients. Of alum, used largely at one time for whitening and improving (?) the keeping power o-f bread, one cannot say even so much. However, the law of adulteration, now generally and strictly enforced, lias rendered the use of these substances too costly in actual money, and too ruinous in reputation, for any decent miller or baker to adopt them, so that in dealing with an honest tradesman of good reputation one is fairly certain of obtaining bread made from flour, at all events. But in this, as in every case, fair value has to be paid for quality, and the housewife who gives herself up to the fetish of “ cheapness ” (at ail costs) must make up her mind to the fact that, if she will not pay with her purse she will with her person, or, worse still, the persons of her children and household.
Breadmaking is an art that should, theoretically, be possessed by every woman, though its practice need not be always incumbent upon her. At the same time, iu these days, when we all wander so much, it were well for every woman, whatever her status, to have a working knowledge of the matter. It may be added that anaemia, a disease which has increased so largely of late years, in the country especially, is by many doctors freely attributed to the decline of home baking, and the consequent use of the baker’s bread ; for which amongst working people, as a rule, the sole test of purity is its whiteness, due in only too many cases to an excessive use of alum.
The use of alum, especially as an ingredient in bread, has for a very long series of years been declared illegal, and the bakers employing it can, if detected, be severely fined. Its employment was formerly defended by the bakers on the ground that it rendered certain flours, which could not be used under ordinary circumstances, fit for food. Wheat harvested in wet seasons, when the grain is exposed to much atmospheric moisture, yields a flour which cannot be used advantageously; the bread made from it becomes sticky and glutinous when masticated, adhering to the teeth, and being objectionable not only on the ground of taste, but of indigestibility. A small portion of alum added to the water with which such bread is made obviates this defect, and thus enables the baker to use cheaper and inferior flour than he otherwise coixld do, hence its use was formerly very general. Heavy penalties were, it is true, incurred by its use, so alum was seldom kept on the baker’s premises, and before each baking the journeyman used to go to the nearest chemist's and purchase a pound of "stuff" — the technical name under which alum was sold.
Used in baking powder, alum serves a totally diffex*ent purpose. The most essential ingredient in baking powder is carbonate, ox*, as it shoixld be called, bicarbonate of soda, which contaixxs with the alkali a very large quantity of
G