Читать книгу The Bread and Biscuit Baker's and Sugar-Boiler's Assistant - Robert Wells - Страница 10
ОглавлениеII. GENERAL REMARKS ON BAKING.
Baking as a business or profession has never been confined to the making of bread alone—that is to say, bread in everyday use. A baker we take to mean a person who bakes and prepares any farinaceous substance intended for human food. Therefore baking not only includes loaf-bread baking, biscuit baking, fancy-bread baking, but also pastry-making and confectionery. It is common for all these branches to be practised by the same person, and it is therefore fitting that they should all be treated of in a work of this kind. This we intend doing under separate heads.
Essentials of Good Bread-Making.
Two of the most essential things in bread-baking, in order to produce a full-flavoured, showy, and sweet loaf, are good yeast and good flour. A good oven is also necessary. An oven which is either too hot or too cold will spoil what would otherwise be a good batch of bread: so great care should be used in order to have the oven of the proper heat. Pan bread, or bread baked in tins, need a greater heat than batch bread, as pan-bread dough is of a lighter nature than batch-bread dough, and consequently requires more heat to keep it up. I do not intend, however, going into the merits of different ovens, as I am not competent to do so. There are so many different kinds, and each baker, as a rule, seems to fancy what he has been most used to. For heating purposes, cinders have taken the place of coals and wood, and (I think) to the advantage of both master and journeyman. Cinders are cheaper for the master and cleaner for the workman.
German Yeast and Parisian Barm.
Yeasts, or barms, are of many varieties, but I purpose here to deal with only two kinds—that commonly known as German yeast, which is mostly used in England, and Parisian barm, the kind most in use in Scotland.
A great point in working German yeast is to know when it is in proper condition, as it is very liable to go bad in very warm weather, or if kept in a very warm place. Care should be taken to keep it in a place as near a temperature of 56° to 60° Fahr. as possible. Should there be any suspicion that the yeast is not up to the mark, a simple and sure test is to get a clean cup or tumbler, half fill it with warm water of a temperature of 100°, put an ounce of loaf sugar in the water, and when dissolved add one ounce of yeast. The yeast will, of course, sink to the bottom, but if it is sound and in good condition it will rise to the top in two minutes. Should it take much longer than that, the less you have to do with it the better.
Parisian barm makes a nice showy loaf, but for flavour I prefer German yeast. To make Parisian barm 1 gallon of water is put into a pan at, say, 140° Fahr.; weigh 2 lbs. of crushed malt, put it into the water at the above temperature, cover it up for about three hours; one hour before you are going to make your barm, that is two hours since you put your malt to steep, put 3 gallons of water into a large pan, put it on the fire; when it boils, add 2 oz. of good fresh hops, well boil for twenty minutes; after which well strain the malt through a hair sieve. Put it into the barm tub and add as much flour as can be nicely stirred in with the barm-stick. Then put the boiling hop-water through a sieve on top of the malt water and flour and well stir it. It should be properly scalded. Some put the hops in a small linen bag made for the purpose and put it in the boiling water, squeezing it against the side of the pot before taking it out. Supposing it to be five o’clock in the afternoon, it may be put by with a couple of sacks over it till five o’clock next morning. Then “set the barm away” (as they say in Scotland), by adding to the above liquid half a gallon of the barm previously made.
After the old barm is added to the new, in a few hours a scum gathers on the top. This scum will either start at the side of the tub and work gradually to the other side, or I have seen it start in the middle and work itself slowly to the sides of the tub. When ready it should have a nice clear bell top. It takes from ten to twelve hours to work before it is ready.
By following this method one may always have good barm. Cleanliness is very essential for barm, and care should be taken that neither grease nor churned milk shall get near it. We need scarcely say that experience is required in this as in other things.
American Patent Yeast.
I may add the following recipe for American patent yeast:—Take half a pound of hops and two pailfuls of water; mix and boil them till the liquid is reduced one half; strain the decoction into a tub, and when luke-warm add half a peck of malt. In the meantime, put the strained-off hops again into two pailfuls of water, and boil as before till they are reduced one half; strain the liquid while hot into a tub. (The heat will not injuriously affect malt previously mixed with tepid water.) When the liquid has cooled down to about blood heat, strain off the malt and add to the liquor two quarts of patent yeast set apart from the previous making by the above process. Five gallons of good yeast may thus be made which will be ready for use the day after it is made. It takes about eight hours’ time to manufacture, but gives very little trouble to the baker.
Good or Bad Flour.
Experience is also necessary to judge of flour; but any one in the habit of using flour may form a pretty accurate idea whether it is good or bad. If fine and white, it may be considered good so far as colour is concerned; but if it be brown, it shows that it was either made from inferior wheat, or has been coarsely dressed—that is, that it contains particles of bran. However, brown flour may be of a good sound quality, and fine white flour may not.
To judge of flour, take a portion in your hand and press it firmly between the thumb and forefinger, at the same time rubbing it gently for the purpose of making a level surface upon the flour; or take a watch with a smooth back and press it firmly on the flour. By this means its colour may be ascertained by observing the pressed or smooth surface. If the flour feels loose and lively in the hand, it is of good quality; if it feels dead or damp, or, in other words, clammy, it is decidedly bad. Flour ought to be a week or two old before being used.
Alum in Bread.
A common custom to improve flour was to add a small quantity of alum to a sack of flour—a custom which, it may be hoped, is entirely a thing of the past. According to Liebig, the action of alum in the process of bread-making is to form certain insoluble combinations which render digestion difficult, and detract largely from the value of bread as food. Professor Vaughan, of the University of Michigan, says: “The use of alum is an adulteration which is injurious to health. It unites with the phosphates in the bread, rendering them insoluble, and preventing their digestion and absorption. In this way, alum, when present, diminishes the nutritive value of bread. While some gain may perhaps temporarily accrue to the manufacturer through the covert perpetration of this fraud, still no good to any one can result therefrom.”
Butter for Pastry and Cakes.
Butter, which so largely enters into the pastrycook’s business, is another important point for consideration. It should be perfectly sweet, and before it is used made smooth on a marble slab. Salt butter made from cows fed on poor pasture is the best for puff paste, and is the most proper for ornamental work; it should be washed in water two or three times before being used. On the other hand, for every kind of cake the butter cannot be too rich.
In the course of this work I likewise intend to touch on the icing of bride and other cakes.
