NEW AND STALE BREAD.

Waikato Times, Volume XX, Issue 1672, 24 March 1883, Page 2 (Supplement)

NEW AND STALE BREAD.

The famous Leipsic physician, Professor Reclam, in a late number of the Gemndheit, has ventured to say a good word on behalf of newly-baked bread. The majority of the old people, dyspeptics and hypochondriacs, he observes, say that they can only eat stale bread; they find' new bread too indigestible. The virtue, he tells them, is not in the JJtaleness of the bread, but in the care and thoroughness with which they are compelled to masticate it, on account of its hardness. The tongue not only deceives, the human race in speaking, says the learned physician; it is a great deceiver in eating. As soon as the tongue perceives that any morsel in our mouth is soft and, yielding, we are persuaded that it may safely be swallowed. No time or labbr is spent upon its mastication. Hence so many people declare that sauerkraut, soft cakes, pat§ de foie gran, eel, and other favorite delicacies of the Teuton do not agree with them. The Professor declares that none of these are actually indigestible in themselves. As with new bread, it is the ease with which they are swallowed which makes them indigestible. Stale bread, and hard biscuit, on the other hand, are not of themselves inherently so very digestible; but they give ihe eater so much trouble to soften them, that they are not swallowed until they have been' reduced into a fit condition for that, process. Hence the stomach has not the trouble with them which it almost invariably has with the softer and more delicate food which has never received more than two or thee turns with the teeth. Rapid eating and insufficient chewing are the two worst foes of the majority of dyspeptics and hypochondriacs, says our authority, and he advises such persons to transfer to their own carelessness and idleness nine-tenths of the blame which they are in the habit of laying upon their food or upon their cooks. — London Globe.

EECIPES. A cheap FiLTEn. — Take a large garden pot ; cover the hole at the bottom with a piece of fine sponge (Turkish is the best) ; upon this put some smooth, clean pebbles to keep the sponge down. Fll up to within two or three inches of the top with one part of powdered charcoal and two parts of fine sand. Cover the top of the pot with a piece of fine white flannel, tied tightly round the edge with a string, so as not to give or budge. Set the flower pot in a pan, and pour the water on to the flannel, allowing the water to filter through the flower pot into the pan when the water will be found perfectly pure and clean.

Hop beeb. Eecipe for 10 gallons : lOlbs. sugar, 10 gallons water, 4 oz. hops, a pinch of isinglass, a few raisins, two large bottles of porter or a pint of yeast ; take four gallons of water' and boil it with the sugar and hops for one hour, then strain into a tub and put the hops back again in a little more water and boil for half an hour, then strain into the tub. Strain contents of tub into' a cask with a piece of .muslin over the .funnel to prevent seeds* going through, then till up with cold water, which will make the ten gallons. The 10 gallon' cask must be filled up every morning for four day's ' with cold water, and the day before bottling, a pinch' of isinglass dissolved in a little of the beer warmed, is a great improvement. Of course you put the yeast or porter in after you fill the cask, then also add the raisins. If bottled on the fifth day it is nearly ready for drinking.