Aërated bread : the new system of bread manufacture.

Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Aërated bread : the new system of bread manufacture. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    merited by others—will be the chief aim I shall have in view. I believe I am in a condition to prove incontestably, by many authentic cases in my own practice and in that of others, that unfermented bread alone is a cure for many most serious forms of dyspepsia, in which medicines, &c., are merely palliative. AERATED BREAD Is the invention of Dr. Dauglish, who, having triumphed over all difficulties, has at length perfected his ideas,—brought them into working order, and is now supplying the bread very largely to the public. The idea Dr. Dauglish wished to carry out was to make the mixture of flour and water spongy,, without exciting fermentation in the flour. This, although apparently simple, has been found, on account of the difficulty in adapting machinery to it, to be exceed¬ ingly tedious ; and even after the patent for the process was taken out, more than two years expired before the bread could be made in any quantity. The process of manufacture is as follows. I shall confine myself more to general principles, than enter into the details already so ably done by Dr. Odling and others :—Carbonic acid gas, prepared in the usual way, is forced by powerful pumps, working under a pressure of seven atmospheres, into a vessel containing water, by which it is absorbed. The carbonic acid water passes into an air-tight mixer, into which a sack of flour and three pounds of salt have been intro¬ duced beforehand, and in which a vacuum of thirty inches has been produced by an air-pump. A kneading fan is now set to work in the mixer, and this process is easily and rapidly effected ; the flour and carbonic acid water being incorporated under pressure, the dough cannot rise and become spongy to impede the progress. Flours contain¬ ing well-elaborated gluten take but three or four minutes’ kneading ; inferior flours, from five to ten minutes, so that the toughness of the gluten may be developed by working. After the kneading has been completed, a small valve is removed to allow the dough to escape through a pipe, which is trumpet-shaped, to prevent the sudden ex¬ pansion of the dough as it escapes from the mixer ; the aperture of the trumpet, as it leaves the mixer, is about the size of a shilling, and the mouth about that of the closed fist, the dough gradually expanding to fill this as it is forced out by the pressure from behind of the con¬ densed gas. Before the opening of the trumpet, a boy sits with a large knife, and as the dough is forced out he receives it in a small wooden trough, nolding sufficient to make a half-quartern loaf; when full, he cuts of the dough with the knife, and passes on the trough to the scale, where it is weighed, and made up to 21b. 4oz. By this method, from the first placing the flour in the mixer to the moment when it is baked, it is not touched by the hand. The following remarks are extracted from