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THE

ENGLISH BREAD-BOOK.

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PART I.

CHAPTER I.

Bread.—Its Value.—Its Wholesomeness.—Its faulty Fabrication here.—The Waste of it.—The Necessity for a more general Knowledge of the Mode of preparing it.—The Bread Trade of France.

A country which possesses the agricultural and commercial advantages that England does, ought to be celebrated at least for the purity and excellence of its bread, instead of being noted as it is, both at home and abroad, for its want of genuineness, and the faulty mode of its preparation. The production of the corn from which it is made is an object here of earnest and unceasing solicitude to cultivators of every class; and all that energy, intelligence, and lavish expenditure can do for its improvement, is freely done; but the fabrication of the bread itself,—by which its value as human food is so materially affected,—is treated almost with neglect. It is not easy to account for this; for it is by far the most precious aliment that we possess, being indeed the very "staff" of man's strength and "life," and adapted equally to persons of all ranks and of all ages. It is in daily demand for millions of consumers, many of whom consider themselves fortunate if they can but procure a sufficiency of it to satisfy the cravings of their hunger, and who seek for little else. It may be further said, that, from its peculiarly pleasant flavour, it never palls on the palate as stronger and coarser diet often will, but becomes more and more a requirement of nature the longer it is subsisted on; and when in times of scarcity the people are compelled by its high price to have recourse to any substitutes for it of smaller cost which they can obtain, it will be seen that, as soon as the pressure is removed, they return always with renewed zest and thankfulness to bread. Their preference for it, when it does not exceed certain limits, and lead to a prejudiced and absolute rejection of the cheaper varieties of wholesome food which they might use in part, and in turn with it, is a proof of their just discernment of what is best suited to their need; but it happens unfortunately, from the ignorance which prevails amongst them of the art of preparing it well and frugally for themselves, and from its passing, in some form or other, through many intermediate hands after it leaves the grower, before it reaches them, and being taxed, though perhaps not unfairly, for the profit of each separate agent, they obtain it often only at the dearest rate. It is no unusual circumstance for the entire earnings of a poor hardworking man to be expended upon bread only, for himself and family, without their being nourished as they really ought to be, even then. The usages and abuses of the bread-trade—of which I find myself compelled to speak, though I do it with the utmost unwillingness—tend in a measure to augment this misery, which it might sensibly relieve if its operations were conducted on the principles of sound reason and strict integrity, by saving the time of those whose lot it is to labour incessantly for the means of existence; for it is a precious commodity to them,—a fact which philanthropic theorists do not always keep sufficiently in view when they are suggesting economical plans for bettering their domestic condition. As it is now fabricated, however, the bread prepared for sale by the trade is, from the mode of fermentation adopted for it, so unsubstantial as not easily to satisfy the keen appetites of those who are engaged in daily active toil,—often in the open air; and it so quickly becomes dry and unpalatable that they are tempted, not unnaturally, to the wastefulness of eating it always new. This is a great drawback on their insufficient means; but when, in addition to it, they have to contend against its adulteration and a deficiency of its weight also, their lot becomes one of severe hardship and struggle. What can be done for its improvement? is the question which naturally arises here. Much, by having the bread which they purchase of genuine and strength-sustaining quality; much more, by affording them the means of having it made as it ought to be in their own homes. For the first, there must be effectual changes or a thorough reform in the bread trade; and for the second alternative, such true practical education must be given to the female children, and to the women of the working orders, and such domestic appliances* furnished to their dwellings, as shall suffice for the purpose. Mr. Cobbett, in his "Cottage Economy," — a work possibly now out of print, but portions of which will always be valuable for their clearness and sound sense,—puts thus forcibly before the labourer the different facts connected with the present subject:—"As I have before stated, sixty pounds of wheat, that is to say, where the Winchester bushel weighs sixty pounds, will make sixty-five pounds of bread, besides the leaving of ten pounds of bran. This is household bread, made of flour from which the bran only is taken. If you make fine flour you take out pollard, as they call it, as well as bran, and then you have a smaller quantity of bread; but even of this bread, equal in fineness to baker's bread, you get from fifty-eight to fifty-nine pounds out of the bushel of wheat, supposing it to be of fine flour in the first place. You get thirteen quartern loaves and a half. These cost you, at the present average price of wheat, seven and sixpence a bushel; then three-pence for yeast; then not more than three-pence for grinding, because you have about thirteen pounds of offal*, which is worth more than a halfpenny the pound, while the grinding is nine-pence the bushel. Thus, then, the bushel of bread of fifty-nine pounds costs you eight shillings, and it yields you the weight of thirteen and a half quartern loaves. These quartern loaves now (1821) sell at Kensington at the baker's shop, at one shilling and a penny; that is to say, the thirteen quartern loaves and a half cost fourteen shillings and seven-pence halfpenny. The baker's quartern loaf is indeed cheaper in the country than at Kensington, by probably a penny in the loaf, which would still, however, leave a saving of five shillings upon the bushel of bread. But, besides this, pray think a little of the ingredients of which the baker's loaf is composed,— the alum, the ground potatoes, and other materials. It is probable that out of a bushel of wheat they make between sixty and seventy pounds of bread, though they have no more flour, and, of course, no more nutritious matter, than you have in your fifty-nine pounds of bread. Even supposing their bread to be as good as yours in quality, you have, allowing four-pence for salt and a shilling for heating the oven [both these expenses would not now (1856) amount, at the utmost, to more than eight or nine-pence, seldom to more than six-pence], a clear four shillings saved upon every bushel of bread. If you consume half a bushel a week, this is a saving of five pounds four shillings a year, full a sixth part, if not a fifth, of the earnings of a labourer in husbandry.
    How wasteful then, and indeed how shameful, for a labourer's wife to go to the baker's shop; and how negligent, how criminally careless of the welfare of his family must the labourer be, who permits so scandalous* a use of the proceeds of his labour." . . . . "As to the art of making bread, it would be shocking indeed if that had to be taught by the means of books. Every woman, high or low, ought to know how to make bread; if she do not she is a mere burthen upon the community. Yet it is but too true, that many women, even amongst those who get their living by their labour, know nothing of the making of bread; and seem to understand little more about it than the part which belongs to its consumption. Many women in England seem to know no more of the constituent parts of a loaf than they know of those of the moon. Servant women in abundance appear to think that loaves, made by the baker, are things of their pure creation—things, too, in which no one else can participate. Now, is not this an enormous evil? Servant women are the children of the labouring classes; and they would all know how to make bread, if they had been fed on bread of their own and their mother's making."
    The ignorance of which Mr. Cobbett speaks as prevailing so generally in his time is, strangely enough, when our vaunted "progress" is considered, more than ever perceptible at the present day,—when a better state of things might naturally be expected from us; and it is often less easy to obtain, at any price, a loaf of really good homemade bread in an English household, than the rarest foreign dainty, the servants knowing nothing of the process of preparing it*, and their mistresses being unable to direct them. The result is, frequently, an amount of inconvenience, discomfort, and (to persons not in health) of suffering also, which could scarcely be credited unless they were personally experienced.
    It is sincerely to be hoped that more rational training and true enlightenment will soon remove this domestic grievance from us; and that we may altogether cease to deserve the reproach of being unable to make bread for ourselves; and that the immense loss which now arises from constant failure, where its preparation is attempted without due skill or experience, may be totally avoided for the future. The portion of excellent corn wasted yearly in England from this cause only, would abundantly nourish some thousands of its half-starving inhabitants.
    Is it not then an imperative duty, for all who have power to assist in the work, to exert their best efforts for an entire suppression of this crying injustice towards those whom it helps to deprive of necessary food? Surely it will appear so to every really thoughtful and feeling mind! But it may be said in reply,—and it will, by many persons who do not penetrate beyond the surface of things, and are well content to take them quietly as they are, so long as their own tastes and convenience are entirely suited,—Why should this loss be risked, or any trouble incurred, when both may be avoided by procuring bread at once from the bakers, where it can always be had good?
    The reasons why the bread of the shops, however excellent of its kind, is unadapted to the labouring classes and to the needy, have already been sufficiently explained. Others, equally potent, render it positively injurious often to invalids,—putting quite aside all question of its not being thoroughly genuine; while families who, through their whole lives, have been supplied with sweet, pure, well-baked, household bread, can seldom or ever reconcile themselves to any other; nor escape impaired health when deprived of it. It cannot be disputed that the bakers have all the advantage which the expertness derived from constant practice of the details of their business can give them; and that the form, colour, and lightness of their bread are well calculated to please the eye; indeed, from the delicate texture and attractive appearance of the small fanciful loaves, habitually furnished by first-class bakers to aristocratic tables, and made in what is considered perfection by the eaters, it is sometimes difficult to convince persons of rank and influence that there is any foundation for the complaints which occasionally reach them of the mal-practices of the trade. And, after all, to them it is not a matter of vital importance whether the small portion of bread which they consume, amidst the abounding variety of their richer fare, be of indisputable genuineness or not. The grievous wrong of gross adulteration and of short weight falls the most oppressively on the very poor—often on those who are surrounded by half-famished children, for whom their utmost efforts can scarcely procure the means of life.*
    To foreigners, it may be observed, the want of good bread in England is known to be a source of severe privation; the best which they can purchase here—from its totally different character to all they have been accustomed to—often disagreeing with them extremely, and failing, when it does not derange the digestive organs, to satisfy the appetite like that which is more wholesomely prepared. As a general rule, they prefer infinitely the brown bread of our shops to the white. Probably, as the same motives do not exist for mixing alum with it, they find it less prejudicial to them.
    In France almost from time immemorial the operations of the bread-trade have been considered as far too important to be entrusted to the control of private companies, or to that of individuals, and they have been regulated by especial and stringent laws emanating from the government. Some curious and interesting particulars of these may be gathered from two able articles on the Boulangerie de Paris, which appeared in the Journal des Débats of January 6, and in that of January 27, 1855; in which it is shown that the first edict relating to the company of bakers is of the remote date of 630, and speaks of the proprietors of the mills on the banks of the river (the Seine, probably), who ground corn for their customers and even converted it into bread for such of them as did not like the trouble of having it made in their own homes. In the reign of the emperor Charlemagne, a. d. 800, another edict was issued, enjoining the provincial authorities to take heed that the appointed number of the tameliers, as these miller-bakers were called, was kept properly filled up "by well conducted men," and that the places where they exercised their trade were maintained in good condition. From this time until the reign of Philip-Augustus the Paris company of bakers enjoyed no very high degree of importance, the greater number of the inhabitants making their own bread, and having it baked in the public ovens6 belonging to the great nobles; but the extension given to the capital in the thirteenth century by Philip the Fourth imparted a new impulse to the bread-trade, and caused the number of those who followed it to be augmented. A distinction was then established between the bakers of the city (or royal domain) and those of the suburbs; and the king bestowed many privileges on the former, to the entire exclusion of all others.
    In these days of free trade and of independent action, we read almost with astonishment of the entire monopoly of any branch of commerce by a government; and of such regulations as the following being enforced in a country which has been one of the foremost in taking the lead in what is called civilisation:—"It was forbidden to the factors (or suburban bakers) to bring their bread into the city, except on the Saturday, which was the market day; but these factors could, in conjunction with the bakers of Paris, and to the entire exclusion of the country factors, sell on the Sunday, in the space between Nôtre Dame and the church of St. Christopher, the bread which remained on their hands when the Saturday's market was over. This was permitted for the benefit of the poorer classes, who bought the stale bread at a low price, the sellers being obliged to leave after sunset with empty hands. The organisation of various trade-companies being completed under St. Louis, Etienne Boileau confirmed the regulations of the Parisian confraternity of bakers. The feudal ovens were gradually abolished; the bakers were exempted from military service; and the king's bread-purveyor (or bread-controller) was invested with complete jurisdiction over them. This office of bread-purveyor was created by Philip the Fourth; but under Philip-le-Long the title of grand bread-purveyor of France was assumed by the Panetier du Roi*, and the function became subsequently one of the great offices of the crown, which was filled successively by members of the Montmorency, de Mailly, and Chabannes families. From the time of Henry the Second to that of Louis the Fourteenth it remained with the house of Cossé-Brissac.
    To punish the bakers for their excesses in the conflicts which arose from their resistance to the royal bread-controller and the provost of Paris, Philip-le-Bel annulled their privileges, and permitted all the inhabitants to make and to sell bread, and allowed the factors to bring it into the market on all the week-days, in addition to the Saturdays, to which they had been restricted under Philip-Augustus and St. Louis.
    The lieutenant of the Grand Panetier, assisted by four jurymen, and a police-sergeant of Châtelet, visited from time to time the stalls of the bakers. If the bread were under weight, that is to say, if the larger proportion of loaves were so, the whole was confiscated for the benefit of the poor; a fine also was inflicted on the culprits, whose shops were closed until it was paid, and it was forbidden to give employment during the interim to their journeymen.
    The charter of the company of bakers having been renewed, they were again guilty of such flagrant misdemeanors in their encounters with the bakers of the suburbs, that Charles V. issued letters patent addressed to the provost of Paris, 1366, to put an end to them. These letters decreed, that the factors (or suburban bakers) should be allowed to bring their bread into Paris for sale only on the regular market days, and to sell it only in the market place; moreover, that all the loaves vended by them should be of the same weight, the same form, and made with flour of the same quality; and that their price should be threepence or sixpence (2 et 4 deniers, or 30c. to 60c.*), and never more. In addition, the factors were obliged to sell them in person, or through the agency of their wives, children, or servants, and could not dispose of them wholesale to the retail dealers! Once deposited in the market, too, they could not carry their bread out of it again; but (as they were obliged to leave it early) were necessitated to part with it at any price they could get.
    Still the factors did not give themselves up as vanquished; they made every endeavour to take their bread into Paris on the forbidden days; in consequence of which, a new act of Parliament again prohibited the sale of their bread on any other than the market days, but gave permission for them to deliver it on those days at the doors of such of their customers as had ordered it. This was a source of what were considered as fresh abuses, for the factors sold the bread from their carts as they went along, to any buyers who presented themselves; and it was impossible for the regular inspectors (maitres jurés) to examine their loaves. "These disorders were therefore repressed by further edicts."
    But if the bakers of the suburbs appear to us to have been subjected to somewhat arbitrary laws, those of the city, with all their privileges, were not exempt from an equally rigid control.
    They were restricted in the quantity of corn which they could purchase at each market, and incurred the penalty of its forfeiture, and that of a fine also, of eight hundred francs, if they exceeded it. They were constrained to have four different kinds of bread always on sale, and to have it all stamped with a mark by which the maker might be known; and likewise to have their carts, windows, and bake-offices, furnished with scales and legal weights. They were not allowed to wear arms, "neither swords, daggers, nor other offensive weapons;" nor to wear "hats, boots, or cloaks, except on Sundays and fête-days, and then no other than grey or white cloaks, on pain of imprisonment, corporeal punishment, and confiscation of the said garments."
    In 1757, some fresh enactments with regard to them were confirmed and registered in the Parliament. By these it was decided that it was necessary to be twenty-two years of age to become a master-baker; to be a man of "good moral conduct, and free from all contagious disease*; to be of the Roman Catholic religion; and to be able to fabricate, in perfection, different kinds of paste and bread." No baker could have a partner, nor more than one shop; and no apprentice, when setting up in business for himself, could fix his residence within two streets of his master. In 1783, a slight change was made in the preceding regulations, which fixed the age at which the baker could exercise his trade on his own account at twenty-five years, instead of twenty-two; and secured to the Parisian bakers the exclusive privilege of making the finer kinds of white bread, leaving to those of the suburbs permission for a coarser sort only.
    During the consulship of Napoleon, the organisation of the Boulangerie Parisienne underwent some changes and modifications. One provision of a new act which related to it was, that "no person could exercise the trade of a baker without the permission of the Prefect of Police; and no baker could quit his business without having given six months previous notice to the proper authorities.*
    In 1817, the price and the weight of bread were fixed by a new regulation emanating from the government of that epoch, which, at the same time, forbade the bakers to sell flour; and the police were ordered to maintain an active surveillance to prevent their doing so, that the supplies of corn deposited for the fabrication of bread, might be strictly appropriated to that purpose only.
    In 1828, some indulgences were granted to the trade: "the bakers, who were formerly obliged to sell their bread in person, were thenceforth permitted to do so through confidential agents; and (an innovation well worthy of remark)—after all the restrictions again and again confirmed, and which dated from the 13th century, the bread which remained on hand at the close of the markets, was allowed to be carried away by the factors, instead of being sold, as it had been until that period, for any price that could be obtained for it.
    Under every succeeding government some alteration has been made in the baking and bread-laws of France; but many of these would possess but slight interest probably for the generality of English readers. The abstract given above will serve to show the high degree of importance attached in that country to everything appertaining to the baking-trade, and the sort of dignity even with which it has been invested. At the present day, great progress, as will be shown in another part of this volume, has recently been made there in the mode of fabricating bread, an example which, it is to be hoped, will speedily be followed in this country, where a better system is so much needed.
    The number of bakers in Paris is now limited to 601. "If we cross the Channel," says the article from which we quote, "and compare the organisation of the baking-business of Paris with that of London, we shall find that in the English metropolis, where trade is free, there were, in 1851, for a population of nearly 2,300,000 inhabitants, 2286 bakers, being 1 for every 1500 persons; and as in London the average consumption of bread is only 375 grammes* for each inhabitant, while in France it is 500 grammes, it may be concluded that the English baking-trade works under less advantageous auspices than those which have just been guaranteed to our own capital."
    There are many other particulars given in these articles, both of the past and present laws, by which the bread-trade of Paris is regulated; of the amount of security which is required from the bakers; and that of the supply of flour which they are compelled to keep in store for provisioning the metropolis; but as these affect the interests of that one city only, they are omitted here, at least for the present.