Bread, cakes, and biscuits / collected and described by S. Beaty-Pownall.

  • Beaty-Pownall, S.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Bread, cakes, and biscuits / collected and described by S. Beaty-Pownall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/216
    are mixed with a certain proportion of actual coarse bran. This bread, though not always found perfectly digestible, has yet a very decided medical value, and is often recom- mended by doctors as a useful change. It is considered a valuable assistant in cases of constipation. (Besides these there are “bran bread” (made by mixing certain propor- tions of bran with good and rather fine wheatmeal), ftovis (sometimes called “germ” bread), Bermaline, Cytos, and innumerable other brands of bread, the foundation of which is the varying preparation of the meal, more or less of the bran, pollard, &c., having been left in or added to the fine flour.) As against this opinion it is, however, fair to add that some noted authorities on the chemistry of baking are by no means so favourably impressed by the value of these wholemeal or blended flours, which they assert do not keep so well as bread made from pure white flour will do, becom- ing heavy, “ sad,” indigestible, and even musty from keeping. But having put both sides of the question forward it may be safely asserted that, whatever the flour used, home- made bread is, as a rule, both nicer to the palate and more digestible than the average baker’s bread, and that the absolute purity of the flour, being unfortunately very diffi- cult of attainment, is more likely to be obtained in the ordinary “ seconds ” than in the super-whitened flour, which is somewhat apt to owe a good deal of its puritv to art rather than to nature. That really good bought bread cannot be obtained I by no means assert, for there are well-known bakers whose bread is widely renowned for its excellence, both of flavour and keeping powers; but those accustomed to such bread will allow that its use indisposes one to the enjoyment of bread made by less conscientious and capable bakers. In this I speak from experience, having for years gone to one bakery when in town, and having found that bread procured elsewhere, in the country, &c., was notice- ably different and less palatable. Home-made bread has at all events the merit of relative purity, for you know pretty B 2