amongst the worst enemies of
mankind. So far as health is concerned, bread made with leaven is
preferable to that made with yeast; the sour quality of leaven is more
agreeable to the ferment of the stomach than yeast; it is also easier of
digestion, and more cleansing. It opens the vessels, and gives a healthy
appetite; and a little use will make it familiar and pleasant to the
eater. This bread however seldom agrees with weak stomachs, especially
such as are liable to acidity and heartburn. One of the best kinds of
bread for sickly people, is made of wheaten flour, the coarse or husky
bran being taken out, but not finely dressed; otherwise it would be dry,
and obstructing to the stomach. The inner skin or branny parts of wheat
contain a moisty quality, which is opening and cleansing, while the fine
floury parts afford more nourishment. Bread therefore of a middling
quality is the wholesomest, and the best. Mixing in much salt is
injurious, from the change it occasions in bread of every description.
Finding no matter liable to putrefaction to work on, it acts upon the
best qualities of the flour, which it alters and corrupts. Hence, when
bread is intended to be kept a considerable time, as biscuits for a long
voyage, no salt is put into it. But bread for common use will admit of a
moderate portion of salt. It may be remarked however, that bread,
notwithstanding it is so excellent with meat, milk, and vegetables, is
not so substantial and nourishing as flour, when prepared in porridges
and other articles. To have good bread, it should not be baked in too
close an oven, but a free passage should be left for the air. The best
way is to make it into thin cakes, and bake them on a stone, which many
in the northern counties use for that purpose, making a wood fire under
it. This sort of bread is sweeter, of a more innocent taste, and far
easier of digestion, than bread baked the common way in ovens. In the
same manner cakes may be made of any kind of grain, such as rye, oats,
or barley, and will be found more wholesome and nourishing, and more
agreeable to nature, than bread made in the usual manner. Oat cakes are
often preferred to those made of wheat flour, as they tend to open the
body, and are rather warmer, to cold and weak stomachs. Barley is not so
nourishing, and requires more preparation to render it digestible, than
the other kinds of grain. Cakes, biscuits, muffins, buns, crumpets, and
small bread, made with eggs, bu