A treatise on the art of baking : with a preliminary introduction, shewing the various productions of the different quarters of the globe -- observations on the present state of agriculture --the farmer and middleman -- strictures on the corn bill, &c. With a number of valuable receipts, original and selected for the baker and domestic circle / by John White.

  • White, John, active 1828.
Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the art of baking : with a preliminary introduction, shewing the various productions of the different quarters of the globe -- observations on the present state of agriculture --the farmer and middleman -- strictures on the corn bill, &c. With a number of valuable receipts, original and selected for the baker and domestic circle / by John White. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    case, the salt given is sufficient; but then, this statement is also incorrect, as he gives a spunge for three sacks of flour instead of one. Bread is properly termed the stafl' of life ; and does it not seem strange that so few people under- stand what bread is, or how it is made ? I grant that learned men have written upon the subject, but they have said but little, and that little as little to the purpose. Many say that the baking art is a simple one; so it is to those who know nothing about it, or to those who are in possession of scien- tific knowledge only. Simply to mix flour, water, and yeast, so as to produce fermentation, is no- thing ; a child or a fool may do this,—and to obtain a chemical knowledge of the constituent principles of flour, is level to the meanest capacity. But to make a good loaf of bread from this fermentation is not so easy as many are apt to imagine. If a baker learn the art in ten years, he is a clever fellow; I have seen many of twenty years standing that had not much cause to boast of this know- ledge. The man of science, by overlooking the baker at his work, may, in a short time, gain a very cor- rect idea of the mechanical part of the art, but he may look for twenty years, and at the end know as much of the chemical operations as the child that is unborn. In fact, he cannot learn simply as a spectator, he must put his hand to the work, not for once or twice, or for a short period, but for years, and that with unremitting attention.