Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, NOV. 26. 1898. Bread Making.

Manawatu Herald, 26 November 1898, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, NOV. 26. 1898. Bread Making.

As everybody eats bread so everyone imagines he understands the art and mystery of making bread. But is it so ? Bakers were supposed, by the general publio to so far understand their business that they consistently plundered .the poor man of the weight in each loaf. This accusation was more in theory than reality, as though a law was made in 1880 to stop adulteration generally and particularly in bread baking, it went further and provided that certain loaves should be of a certain weight, yet taking the colony through, there have been very few, if any, prosecutions for selling bread of a light weight. The Act is particularly c'ear upon the duty of anyone who imagines that shortweight is being nerved out to him, as he can call upou the baker to weigh any loaf in his presence, and if baked within twenty-four hours nexfc preceding the •ime of its being sold, must weigh ci her one, two, four, six, or eight pounds. Any person aggrieved has his remedy, by either not purchasing from such baker, or, bb is often the rase, there may be only one baker in the town, by recovering a penalty f:-nm the baker of not lees than forty shilling-* and not exceeding five pounds. The Act is extremely severe and places the baker in a position which makes him very careful, and the difficulty of po adjusting the weight of dough when mixed, and determining the time when the dough has been baked suffiVient'v and yet not too much so that its weight is not lost, is a difficult matter, and so the trade has a regulation overweight of dongh which experience has proved will give the actual two pound to four pound loaf when baked. Any baker can however Bell French bread, or fancy rolls., or twi-ti of such size and ■weight as he please?. Under these c'rcumstances it appears the height. ■ f folly for any parson to grunab'e at short weight in bread, as the government has done everything fo help them and they have but to help

themselves. Grumblers are not to ha credited with a fine sense of jistico, and it ia possible that though they can sco the mote in their baker's eye, they do not perceive the beam in their own eye, that of not settling for thrrir bread when the account is rendered. Bakers are possibly not better than any other men, bat their task is undoubtedly an arduous one, and not an all together a healthy one, yet the law is decidedly harder upon their conduct than upon their fellow tradesmen, and thus it i 9 possible that the grumbles one hears at times from bread consumers arises more at paying the bills than the fraction in the weight of a loaf. At present the public have bound the baker by heavy penalties, but thn butcher can err as to the healthiness of the meat he kills, without risk of fine : the grocer can hand you over a pound tin of some imported eatablp and lays the error as to weight, if any, upon the manufacturer. We all want sound and wholesome food, and honest weights, and while the bakers are made to toe the mark, we cannot see why some of the super fluou3 energy of the grumblers could not be utilised to test the weights received from other traders, as other food besides bread, is of interest to us all. There are always two side 9to every question, and though the consumer has the best side in the deal with the bakery they also can sho*w that the public are particularly hard to please. The baker, aq we have shown, is required to deliver to a person who wants a two pound loaf, to sell him one that weighs two pmnds. To enable the baker to be able to do this he must accept (he usual class of bread that is baked to this weight, the dough cannot have been too closely mixed, it must have only a certain thickness of crust, as then the baker knows that the weighnf dough he puts into the oven will weigh correct when offered for sale. But everyone does not like the same kind of bread, some want " a nice loaf," others a •• French " or a " twist," well baked and with plenty "f crust, and they can get it, but though the baker puts into the oven exactly the same weight of dough for these loaves, the extra baking reduces the weight when taken out of the oven, and the purchaser must not mind. It is the same in other descriptions of bread. A complaint; 13 at times made that the bread is too white, having the suspicion that rtlum has been used, which is for-birHf-n by the Act, and at other times tint the bread Is of too dark a colour. This is at time 3 beyond the control of the baker, arising from the flour >i-f(l, which a sain ia a fluctuating q i;i'i f y according to the season. \V>> hue however shown enough to p ove th-it rhe public are not so well 1 Dtpc'ed >'n their other food supplies '»a they are in their bread, and that =my idea as to the shortness in weight supplied arises from the oon Elinor varying in his taste to that of 'he general bulk of consumers for wlv>?e palate a certain mixture and a ceriain length of baking has been fmnd the most suitable to bake the in.ij nity of the loaves for sale, so a* to comply with the directions of .Ik 1 Act and be a fixed weight.