When I submit to such indignities, Philips. I neither have been bred a scholar, a soldier, nor to any kind of business; this creates uneasiness in my mind, fearing I shall in time want bread. Spectator. Mankind have found the means to make grain into bread, the lightest and properest aliment for human bodies. Arbuthnot. Bread, that decaying man with strength supplies; And generous wine, which thoughtful sorrow flies. Pope. There was not one drop of beer in the town; the bread and bread-corn, sufficed not for six days. Hayward. When it is ripe, they gather it, and, bruising it among bread-corn, they put it up into a vessel, and keep it as food for their slaves. Broome. At my request mortality is fed From heaven's high storehouse with celestial bread. Elizabeth Rowe. The same care and toil that raise a dish of peas at Christmas, would give bread to a family during six months. Hume. BREAD. The manufacture of bread in this country has attained a high degree of perfection, especially in that part of the process which depends on manual labor; but we are still far behind our continental neighbours in the chemical manipulations; and, what is somewhat singular, the bakers who pursue their useful avocations in the north of England, appear better acquainted with the art than the tradesmen of our own metropolis. We need hardly add, that there is no subject of more home importance in domestic economy, than the preparation of farinaceous food for this purpose. Prior to any very particular examination of the mode of making bread, it may, however, be advisable to notice the chemical constituents of which it is formed. Wheat grown in this country contains from 18 to 24 per cent. of gluten, the remainder being principally starch. The wheat of the south of Europe, generally contains a larger quantity of gluten, and is, therefore, more excellent for the manufacture of macaroni, vermicelli, and other preparations requiring a glutinous paste. The excess of gluten in wheatflour compared with other grain, renders it peculiarly fit for making bread; for the carbonic acid, extricated during the fermentation of the paste, is retained in consequence of its adhesiveness, and forms a spongy and light loaf. 100 parts of barley contain upon an average 80 parts of starch, 6 of gluten, and 7 of sugar, the remaining 7 parts being husk. From 100 parts of rye, Sir Humphery Davy, obtained 61 parts of starch, and 5 of gluten. From 100 parts of oats he procured 59 of starch, 6 of gluten, and 2 of sugar. 100 parts of peas afford about 50 of starch, 3 of sugar, 4 of gluten, and a small portion of extractive matter. 100 parts of potatoes yield, upon an average, 20 parts of starch; they may be considered, in general, as containing from one-fourth to onefifth their weight of nutritive matter. As to the proportion of these three constituents, they differ so much in different kinds of wheatflour, that nothing precise on the subject can be determined. The greater the proportion of gluten, the better in all cases is the flour. When the wheat has not fully ripened, or when it has been exposed to rain, while lying on the field, the gluten cannot easily be separated from the it form an elastic adhesive mass; but a friable starch by the process above described; nor does substance, distantly resembling the fibrous matter of potatoes. Hence the goodness of the flour may be determined by the state of the gluten. Flour owes its property of making dough with water to gluten. Dough, in fact, is only a viscous and elastic tissue of gluten, the small cavities of which are filled with starch, albumen, and sugar. Hence it may be conceived that it is also to the gluten that dough is indebted for the property of rising by its mixture with barm or leaven. The yeast, by acting on the sugar of the flour, gives rise successively to the spirituous and the acid fermentations, and consequently to alcohol, acetic acid, and carbonic acid gas. This gas has a tendency to fly off, which is opposed by the gluten; but the latter giving way, becomes extended like a membrane, and forms numberless small cavities, which impart to the bread lightness and a white color, and prevent it from being close or heavy. Hence it follows, first, that in panifaction, too much care cannot be taken to mix the barm well with the paste; for whenever they are not intimately mixed, the bread will be necessarily heavy Secondly, that the dough will be so much the longer in rising, and be more capable of rising, and the bread will be so much the whiter and lighter, as the flour contains more gluten; bakers are well aware of this, and therefore, when they would judge whether flour is good or bad, they make it into dough, which they extend by pulling it in contrary directions, and the longer it can be drawn, the better the flour is; it is for this reason that wheaten flour, independently of its being more nutritive, is preferred to the flour of the other cereal grains: Thirdly, that by kneading either pure starch, or starch that is mixed with parenchyma, such as the flour of manioc (anAmerican shrub, from the root of which a kind of bread is made called cassavi), a mass will result which will never rise, even by the addition of matters fit for developing fermentation, and which will make only a very close heavy bread. We may now notice the mode of preparing bread as practised by the London bakers. A sack of flour being sifted into the kneading trough, to make it lie loose; six pounds of salt, and two pounds of alum, are separately dissolved in hot water, and the whole (in the quantity of a pail-full), being cooled to about 90°Fahrenheit, is mixed with two quarts of yeast. When this mixture has been well stirred, it is strained through a cloth or sieve, and is then poured into a cavity made in the flour. The whole is now mixed up into a dough, and a small quantity of flour being sprinkled over it, it is covered up with cloths, and the trough-lid is shut down, the better to retain the heat. The fermentation now goes on, and the mass becomes enlarged in bulk, In the course of two or three hours, another pail. ful. of warm water is well mixed with the sponge, and it is again covered up for about four hours. At the end of this time, it is to be kneaded for more than an hour, with three pails full of warm water. It is now returned to the trough in pieces, sprinkled with dry flour, and at the end of four hours more, it is again kneaded for half an hour, and divided into loaves. The most wholesome bread that has yet been made is decidedly the most economical. It is made of wheat-flour, mealy potatoes, the common culinary salt, and water. The component parts of the culinary salt are used separately, viz. soda and muriatic acid, in the following manner: first rub four drachms of carbonate of soda, reduced to a fine powder, with six pounds of flour, then, with six pounds of the pulp of steamed or boiled potatoes, mix three drachms of muriatic acid, diluted with a pint of water: when well blended add the flour with the carbonate of soda, and as much water as may be necessary to form it into a proper consistence; then knead it for about three minutes, form it into a loaf, and put it within the heat of the fire, covered with a wet cloth, for an hour, when it will be fit to put into the oven. The acid and soda, uniting in the mass, form the culinary salt, and during the union a considerable quantity of fixed air is disengaged, producing the good effects of fermentation without any of its bad. This process continues during the time the mass is before the fire; and, in order to prevent the surface from becoming so dry as to prevent the expansion of the loaf, it is necessary to cover it with a wet cloth. A greater quantity of the carbonate of soda being employed than is necessary to neutralise the acid. the bread may be considered much more wholesome than if common salt had been employed; the excess of the carbonate of soda acts by correcting acid matter in the stomach, and thus promoting digestion. For invalids whose stomachs do not properly digest the food they take, and for weakly children, this is of great importance. If, however, any person should object to an excess of soda, which certainly renders the bread darker, the same quantity of muriatic acid may be employed. The bread thus made, notwithstanding the great proportion of potatoes, is more nutritious than the fermented bread of bakers, on account of the saccharine matter, and the whole of the gelatine of the flour, being preserved. This is proved by the strong jelly it affords on boiling it in water. Bread prepared in this manner has now kept perfectly sweet and good a fortnight, and will, no doubt, keep good many months. French bread is usually considered as a desideratum at the tables of the opulent, and as some part of the process pursued by our Gallic neighbours might with advantage be adopted by the English baker, we furnish our readers with the most approved mode of bread-making in Paris. The ingredients of their best bread are wheaten flour, water, yeast, and salt. 150 lbs. of flour require about eighty-five pints of water, three pints of yeast, and a proportion of salt which varies considerably according to the fancy of the baker, and the degree of dryness which is to be given to the bread in the oven. The manufacture commences by diluting the yeast with about an equal quantity of warm water, and then stirring in one pound of flour for every pint of liquor. The whole being well incorporated, it is put into a wooden bowl, and set in a warm place for about seven hours, in order to ferment. At the end of this period, the mass (our English bakers call it sponge) is put into a large wooden trough, and mixed with one-seventh of the whole quantity of flour, the whole of the salt, and with water in the proportion of one pint to two pounds of flour. The dough is now brought into a warm situation, and allowed to remain quiet for four hours, that the fermentation may be established throughout the whole. The salt somewhat retards the progress of this action, but at the same time has the advantage of rendering it more gentle and uniform. The next step is to mingle twosevenths of the flour, and three-fourths of its weight of water, with the dough, in the same manner as before; after which it is to be allowed two hours to ferment. Now commences the kneading and hard manual labor of the process, during which the remaining four-sevenths of the flour, and half as many pints of water as there are pounds of flour, are to be thoroughly mingled with the fermented dough. At first the mass is very adhesive and clings to the fingers, but it becomes less so the longer the kneading is continued; and when the hand on being withdrawn leaves its perfect impression in the dough, none of it adhering to the fingers, this laborious part of the business is completed. The dough is now immediately divided by weight into loaf-pieces, each of which is once more separately kneaded, and then made up into the proper form. The loaves as they are made are placed on wooden table, and piled on each other two tiers high, and covered with a blanket to promote the last rising or fermentation, which soon commences, and is judged to have proceeded sufficiently far when a somewhat penetrating acidulous odor of carbonic acid is perceived. The oven is in the meantime heated, and when the temperature is such that a little flour spread at its mouth is browned, but not burnt, the loaves are deposited within, the mouth is closed up with an iron door, and at the proper time (varying according to the size of the loaves) the bread is withdrawn, is replaced on the table, and again covered with a blanket, in order to cool as slowly as possible; the ashes and adhering flour are then removed with a brush, and the bread is ready for sale. a Rice will serve the purpose of making very good bread, and the method practised in Carolina is as follows:-the grain is first washed by putting it in a vessel and pouring water upon it, then stirring it, and changing the water until it is sufficiently cleansed. The water is then poured off, and the rice placed in an inclined position to drain. After being sufficiently drained, it is put, while damp, for the greater facility of pulverisation, into a mortar, and beaten to powder. It is then completely dried, and passed through a common kitchen hair-sieve. The rice flour, thus obtained, is kneaded with a small proportion of Indian corn-meal, and boiled into a thickish consistence; or it is sometimes mixed with boiled potatoes, and a small quantity of leaven and salt is added to the mass. When the fermentation has been sufficiently excited, the dough is put into pans and placed in an oven to be baked. By this process, a light wholesome bread is made, which is not only pleasing to the eye, but agreeable to the taste. M. Parmentier obtained well fermented bread, of a good color and taste, from a mixture of raw potatoe pulp, with mealy wheat, or potatoe-meal, with the addition of yeast and salt. Upon the whole he recommends, after various trials, the mixture of potatoes, in times of scarcity, with the flour of wheat, instead of employing rye, barley, or oats, which has frequently been done. When grain is altogether wanting, he recommends the use of bread made from a mixture of the viscid powder of potatoes and their pulp, fermented with leaven or honey. The meal of this root, diluted with hot water, acquires a tenacious and gluey consistence. This meal, however, gives a gray color to bread made by mixing it with the flour of wheat; but a mixture of the pulp of potatoes with the flour of wheat, does not produce brown-colored bread. M. Parmentier made bread very much resembling that of wheat, by mixing four ounces of amylaceous powder of potatoes, one dram of mucilage extracted from barley, one dram of the bran of rye, 14 dram of glutinous matter dried and powdered. M. Parmentier also recommends the use of the horse-chestnut for the purpose of making wholesome bread. With this view he advises taking off the skin, and pressing out the juice, and reducing the fruit into a paste, which being diluted with water, and strained through a sieve, will yield a milky-colored liquor, that, on being left to stand, deposits a fine powder. This powder, when dried, has neither smell nor taste, and is very fit for aliment; the mass from which it is procured retaining the bitterness of the fruit. The roots of the briony, he says, treated in the same manner, yield a similar white powder. By the same treatment, fine, white, insipid, inodorous powder may be procured from the roots of the iris, gladiolus, ranunculus, arum, dracunculus, mandragora, colchicum, filipendula, and helleborus, plants which grow spontaneously, and in great abundance. To preserve yeast through the winter, it may be beat up with a whisk until it appears thin and even; then spread it in thin coats upon plates, coating each over again as they dry, until half an inch in thickness, when they may be taken off the plates, broken into small pieces, and kept for use in bottles, closely stopped. If there be a cheese-press or screw-press at hand, the yeast may be preserved by a simpler method. Fill a canvas bag with the yeast, and submit it to the action of the press, which will squeeze out all the moisture, when the residue may be well packed in paper, so as to keep it from the air, and from moisture. The following mode of making yeast is both easy and expeditious-Boil one pound of good flour, a quarter of a pound of brown sugar, and a little salt, in two gallons of water for an hour. When milkwarm, bottle it, and cork it close. It will be fit for use in twenty-four hours. One pint of this will make eighteen pounds of bread. The mode of ascertaining the temperature of the oven, prior to the introduction of the dough, is merely to observe whether the soot burns from the side of the oven most distant from the fire, and when that is the case, the bread will be baked in the most advantageous way. This plan, however, is liable to many objections, and the writer of the present article is preparing a simple apparatus which will mark with precision the precise temperature of the oven without opening the door. This, however, will be described under the article OVEN. One of the principal objections to the baking of animal food, arises from the confined vapor which forms in the nearly close chamber of the oven. To prevent the mephitic vapor, which is thus imprisoned, from communicating an unpleasant savor to the meat, it has been common to perforate the oven, and as such to ensure a current of air. A complete apparatus for roasting, valuable in an economical point of view, may not unaptly find a place under this head. This is principally effected by casting the heat entirely upon the object roasting, instead of sending three-fourths of the heat up a capacious chimney, and expending the greatest part of the remainder upon the cook, and the walls and furniture of the kitchen. The roaster above alluded to, is made of sheet iron, of the strength of about one pound to the square foot. Its form is that of a parallelopipedon, about twenty-five inches high, twenty-two long, and eighteen in breadth. The fire is put under it, but one course of bricks is placed immediately over the fire, and above this a cavity of five inches deep, between the brick roof and the oven bottom. The flame of the fire passes a little to the right and left, and rises perpendicularly up the sides of the roaster, freely communicating with the top of the same. By this means the flame and hot vapor will be hottest at the top of the oven, because of its greater levity, and its not being allowed to escape at this point, according to the common practice. After the hot vapor has bestowed its heat on the superior part, it now descends and enters on each side the cavity under the oven, whence it passes up the back of the same, which back forms one side of the smoke chimney. This arrangement is sufficient for distributing all the disposable heat equally on every side of the roaster. We shall next point out the contrivance for disposing of the smell above alluded to:-The door of the oven is cased with wood a piece of thick paper steeped in a solution of alum, and smeared with clay, being placed between the wood and the iron, to prevent the wood from being charred. The door extends below the bottom of the oven about three inches. This, when the door is open, exposes a plate three inches deep, and the width of the oven, and which constitutes the front of the cavity under the oven. At one side of this plate is a hole at the entrance of the tube, which extends to the other end of the cavity, where it is bent, and returns on the other side of the cavity, and opens into another cavity, formed by a double plate, which constitutes the iron part of the door. The first entrance of this tube corresponds with an opening at the bottom of the door, so that when the door is shut, cold air can enter the tube. In its passage it becomes heated, and then enters the oven at the top, from the cavity in the door. It now passes over the meat, and escapes through a tube in the back plate, which extends so high as to reach above the smoke damper. By this means the roaster is constantly cleared of any disagreeable vapor, by a force equal to the draft of the chimney. Loaves are heaviest when just taken out of the oven; they gradually lose part of their weight, at least if not kept in a damp place, or wrapt round with a wet cloth. Thus Mr. Tillet found that a loaf of four pounds, after being kept for a week, wanted 3125, or nearly of its natural weight. When bread is newly taken out of the oven, it has a peculiar, and rather pleasant smell, which it loses by keeping, unless its moisture be preserved by wrapping it round with a wet cloth; as it does also the peculiar taste by which new bread is distinguished. This shows us that the bread undergoes chemical changes; but what these changes are, or what the peculiar substance is to which the odor of bread is owing, is not known. The laws which relate to the manufacture of bread underwent an entire alteration in the year 1822, and by an act passed 3 George IV. they are allowed to sell bread by weight in loaves of any given number of pounds avoirdupois, without reference to the quartern or half quartern, as heretofore. They are, however, to be furnished with weights and scales, placed in such a situation, that the purchaser may ascertain for himself the weight of the loaf purchased. BREAD, EARTH. In the German Ephemerides for 1764 we have the following account of a kind of bread made of earth. In the lordship of Moscaw, in the Upper Lusatia, a sort of white earth is found, of which the poor, urged by the calamities of the wars which raged in those parts, made bread. It is taken out of a hill where they formerly worked at salt-petre. When the sun has somewhat warmed this earth it cracks, and small white globules proceed from it as meal; it does not ferment alone, but only when mixed with meal. Mr. Sarlitz, a Saxon gentleman, informed us that he has seen persons who in a great measure lived upon it for some time. He assures us that he procured bread to be made of this earth alone, and of different mixtures of earth and meals; and that he even kept some of this bread by him upwards of six years: he further says, a Spaniard told him that this earth is also found near Girona in Catalonia. BREAD FRUIT. See ATROCARPUS. BREADTH', I Ang.-Sax. bræd, brad, BREADTH LESS. broad, from the Goth. braids. Formerly breadth was written brede. Wicliffe writes it breed, from the verb bradan, to broaden, to expand, to dilate; the measure of any plain superfices from side to side. And whan this Troilus, Within the temple of mighty Mars the Rede, All peinted was the wall, in length and brede, Like to the estres of the grisly place That highte the gret temple of Mars in Trace, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. There is, in Ticinum, a church that hath windows only from above; it is in length an hundred feet, in breadth twenty, and in height near fifty; having a door in the midst. Bacon. The river Ganges, according unto latter relation, if not in length, yet in breadth and depth, may excel it. BREAK', v. & n. BREAKFAST, V. & n. Gibbon. More's Song of the Soul. The three principal significations attached to this word, are distinctly marked BREAK NECK, N. & adj. by the synonymous terms in other languages, from which it may have been derived. These significations are, To fracture, to change, and to manage. Thus, to part by force, to rive, split, or burst asunder, to crush, to ruin; we refer to the Goth. breka, Heb. berek, Arabic and Persian bruga, Eolian Bonyvw, Teut. brechen, Belgic breeken, Ang.-Sax. brecan, Swed. braka, Isl. braka, Irish bracam, Welsh brigu, Arm. brica, frica, Lat. frago, frango. The class of words which illustrate the second meaning; namely to change, to assume a different form or appearance, to falsify, is the following: Goth. brega, bregda; Ang.-Sax. brægdan, Swed. bregda tru, to break faith; Scot. break, to deceive; Isl. bregda bit, to change color or countenance. The third sense; namely, to accustom, to habituate, to tame, is marked by the Goth. braka, Ang.-Sax. brucan, Teut. brancha, brechen. The Encyclopædia Metropolitana, has happily distinguished many of the shades of metaphorical and literal application of which this word is susceptible; concluding that it is of most universal application to any separation, particularly when made with suddenness, violence or injury.' The following is the catalogue of meanings annexed to a somewhat meagre exhibition of etymonical lore: To make or cause a rupture or breach; a disruption, or breaking apart; an eruption or breaking out; an irruption or breaking in. To separate, (Met.), to disjoin, to dispart, to force apart; to dissever, to interrupt, to intercept. To break down; to suppress, to subdue, to subject, to crush, to tame, to overpower, to bring or reduce to obedience, to poverty, to decay. To break, or infringe, to violate; implying deceit. Adultery in old writers is called spouse Chaucer's Troilus and Cresseide. breach. To break, is to effect a change, either by violence, by insinuation, by a single act, or by a series of acts; by power or by sublety, and the change may be simple difference, or complete destruction. Right as the hunter, in the regne of Trace, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. To all which cruell tyranny, they say, Who counsels him, through confidence of might, Spenser. What boots it to break a colt, and to let him straight run loose at random? Why then thou can'st not break her to the lute. Why, no; for she hath broke the lute to me. Lovers break not hours, Id. Shakespeare. Id. Pardon this fault, and by my soul I swear, I never more will break an oath with thee. Break their talk, mistress Quickly; my kinsman shall speak for himself. O father abbot! An old man broken with the storms of state, Is come to lay his weary bones among ye; Give him a little earth for charity, I must Forsake the court; to do't, or no, is certain To me a breakneck. So fed before he's broke, he'll bear Too great a stomach patiently to feel The lashing whip, or chew the curbing steel. Did not our worthies of the house, Before they broke the peace, break vows? Id. I, who much desired to know Of whence she was, yet fearful how to break, My mind, adventured humbly thus to speak. Think not my sense of virtue is so small; I'll rather leap down first, and break your fall. Id. She held my hand, the destined blow to break, Then from her rosy lips began to speak. As soon as Phoebus' rays inspect us, First, Sir, I read, and then I breakfast. I'll brave her to her face; Id. Prior. I'll give my anger its free course against her: And now, as near approaching as the sound Fades o'er the waters blue; The night-winds sigh, the breakers roar, And shrieks the wild seamew. Yon sun that sets upon the sea, We follow in his flight; Byron. Farewell a while to him and thee, My native land-good night! BREAKERS, in maritime affairs, are distinguished both by their appearance and sound, as they cover that part of the sea with a perpetual foam and produce a hoarse and terrible roaring, very different from what the waves usually have in a Id. deeper bottom. When a ship is unhappily driven among breakers, it is hardly possible to save her, as every billow that heaves ner upward serves to dash her down with additional force when it breaks over the rocks or sands beneath it. BREAKING OF HORSES. See MENAGE. BREAK-WATER, see CHERBOURG and PLY Id. May. Hudibras. When any new thing shall be propounded, no counsellor should suddenly deliver any positive opinion, but only hear it, and, at the most, but to break it, at first, that it may be the better understood at the next meeting. Bacon. Upon the breaking and shivering of a great state, you may be sure to have wars. The breaking of that parliament, Killed with report that old man eloquent. MOUTH. BREAM', n. s. Swed. bressem, Belgic braessem, Teut. brachsem, bresm, Fr. breme, barbarous Latin, brama, abramis. Bright or brightsome seems to have been the meaning of the Gothic. A fish of the carp kind. A broad breum, to please some curious taste, While yet alive in boiling water cast, Vexed with unwonted heat, boils, flings about. Waller. BREAM, in ichthyology, the cyprinus brama of Linnæus. See CYPRINUS. BREAM, to burn off the filth, such as grass, ooze, shells, or sea-weed, from a ship's bottom, that has gathered to it in a voyage, or by lying long in a harbour. It is performed by holding kindled furze, faggots, or the like, to the bottom, so that the flame incorporating with the pitch, sulphur, &c. that had formerly covered it, immediately loosens and throws off whatever filth may have adhered to the planks. After this, the bottom is covered anew with a composition of sul |