Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 25.djvu/533

Rh to each sack of flour weighing two hundred and eighty pounds, so that the proportion of alum is but two ounces to two hundred and eighty pounds. As one sack of flour is (with water) made into eighty loaves weighing four pounds each, the quantity of alum in one pound of bread amounts to ounce.

The rationale of the action of this small quantity of alum is still a chemical puzzle. That it has an appreciable effect in improving the appearance of the bread is unquestionable, and it may actually improve the quality of bread made from inferior flour.

One of the baker's technical tests of quality is the manner in which the loaves of a batch separate from each other. That they should break evenly and present a somewhat silky rather than a lumpy fracture, is a matter of trade estimation. When the fracture is rough and lumpy, one loaf pulling away some of the just belongings of its neighbor, the feelings of the orthodox baker are much wounded. The alum is said to prevent this impropriety, while an excess of salt aggravates it.

It appears to be a fact that this small quantity of alum whitens the bread. In this, as in so many other cases of adulteration, there are two guilty parties—the buyer who demands impossible or unnatural appearances, and the manufacturer or vender who supplies the foolish demand. The judging of bread by its whiteness is a mistake which has led to much mischief, against which the recent agitation for "whole meal" is, I think, an extreme reaction.

If the husk, which is demanded by the whole-meal agitators, were as digestible as the inner flour, they would unquestionably be right, but it is easy to show that it is not, and that in some cases the passage of the undigested particles may produce mischievous irritation in the intestinal canal. My own opinion on this subject (it still remains in the region of opinion rather than of science) is that a middle course is the right one, viz., that bread should be made of moderately dressed or "seconds" flour rather than overdressed "firsts," or undressed "thirds," i.e., unsifted whole-meal flour.

Such seconds flour does not fairly produce white bread, and consumers are unwise in demanding whiteness. In my household we make our own bread, but occasionally, when the demand exceeds ordinary supply, a loaf or two is bought from the baker. I find that, with corresponding or identical flour, the baker's bread is whiter than the home-made, and correspondingly inferior. I may say, colorless in flavor, it lacks the characteristic of wheaten sweetness. There are, however, exceptions to this, as certain bakers are now doing a great business in supplying what they call "home-made" or "farm-house" bread. It is darker in color than ordinary bread, but is sold nevertheless at a higher price, and I find that it has the flavor of the bread made in my own kitchen. "When their customers become more intelligent, all the bakers will doubtless cease to incur the expense of