FoodNet

Handbook of domestic science and household arts for use in elementary schools

1900

Page 113

Presented as published in 1900. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
The practical side of the question may be studied in Mrs. Lincoln's well-known books, in Miss Farmer's Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, in iSIrs. Ewing's Bread and Bread Making, or in any of the good recipe books on the market. Excellent individual recipes by INIiss Spring may be found in the American Kitchen Magazine for April, 1898. Further references that will be found useful in presenting the sub- ject, and making it attractive and interesting, are : "Wheat : Commer- cial Geography, Chisholm ; Commercial GeogTaphy, Tilden ; Scribner's Monthly, vol. 22, p. 531 ; Popular Science Monthly, vol. 50, p. 101. Flour: The Nation, vol. 5-1, p. -12^. Yeast: Huxley. Manchester Sci- ence Lectures. Bread : Lippincott, vol. 58, p. 704. Bread in the East: Penny Magazine, vol. 3, p. 2. Bread in Spain: Once a Week, vol. 1, p. 217. Bread and Cake Ti'aditions: American Kitchen Maga- zine, vol. 7, p. 3. Tortillas: American Kitchen Magazine, vol. 7, p. 195 ; Boy Traveller in Mexico, Knox, p. 56. Festal Cakes : All the Year Kound, vol. 40, p. 79. Biscuit Making (History of Crackers): Chambers's Journal, April, 1899. BREAD Bread was one of tlie earliest foods of man. That it was used long before history was written, the discoveries of modern times have shown ns. In Switzerland, in the lake dwellings of prehistoric times, there have been f onnd stones for grinding meal and baking bread, and even bread itseK, in the form of ronnd cakes. The first mention of bread in literature is in Genesis, in the words of Abraham to the angels, "I will fetch a morsel of bread." The Egyptians knew the art of breadmakiug, and baked loaves and cakes in great variety of form and flavor. One ancient Greek writer names sixty-two kinds of bread in use ; and in Eome there Avere many bakeries, where not only was the baking of bread done, bnt the grain was pounded and sifted, to prepare it for use. In our own day bread is found in a great variety of forms, many of them characteristic of certain nations; familiar BREAD 239 examples are the black bread of Germany, the oat cakes of Scotland, the hard rye cakes of northern Sweden, baked only twice in the year, and the passover cakes or unleavened bread of the Jews. Bread forms the staple food of a large section of the human race, and is often the only means of subsistence of the very poor. Mr. Goodfellow, in some investigations made in London, found that in the worst districts fifteen per cent of the children ate only bread for the twenty-one meals of the week, while forty per cent more had other food only two or three times a week.