1. THE business of the Baker consists || expended in their completion, may fancy in making bread, rolls, biscuits, and crackers, and in 'baking various kinds of provisions.

that there is nothing more easy than to grind grain, to make it into paste, and to bake it in an oven: but it must have been a long time, before men came to prepare their grain in any other way than by roasting it in the fire, or boiling it in water, and forming it into viscous cakes. Accident, at length, probably furnished some observing person a hint, by which good and wholesome bread could be made by means of fermentation.

2. Man appears to be designed by nature, to eat all substances capable of affording nourishment to his system; but, being more inclined to vegetable than to animal food, he has, from the earliest times, used farinaceous grains as his principal means of sustenance. As these, however, cannot be eaten in their native state, without difficulty, means have been contrived for extracting their farinaceous part, and for converting it into an agreeable and whole-bers, or ashes, or before the fire. These some aliment.

3. Those who are accustomed to enjoy all the advantages of the most useful inventions, without reflecting on the labour

methods, with sometimes a little variation, are still practised, more or less, in all parts of the world. In England, the poor class of people place the loaf on the heated

hearth, and invert over it an iron pot, or kettle, which they surround with embers or coals.

5. The invention of the oven must have added much to the conveniences and comforts of the ancients; but it cannot be determined, at what period, or by whom, it was contrived. During that period of remote antiquity, in which the people were generally erratic in their habits, the ovens were made of clay, and hardened by fire, like earthenware; and, being small, they could be easily transported from place to place, like our iron bake-ovens. Such ovens are still in use in some parts of Asia. 6. There are few nations that do not use bread, or a substitute for it. Its general use arises from a law of our economy, which requires a mixture of the animal fluids, in every stage of the process of digestion. The saliva is, therefore, essential; and the mastication of dry food is required, to bring it forth from the glands of the mouth.

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ternal commotion in the particles of dough during fermentation.

9. There are three general methods of making bread: 1st. by mixing meal, or flour, with water, or with water and milk; 2d. by adding to the foregoing materials a small quantity of sour dough, or leaven, to serve as a fermenting agent; and, 3d. by using yeast, to produce the same gene

ral effect.

10. The theory of making light bread, is not difficult to be understood. The leaven, or yeast, acts upon the saccharine mucilage of the dough, and, by the aid of heat and moisture, disengages carbonaceous matter, which, uniting with oxygen, forms carbonic acid gas. This, being prevented from escaping by the gluten of the dough, causes the mass to become light and spongy. During the process of baking, the increased heat disengages more of the fixed air, which is further prevented from escaping by the formation of the crust. The superfluous moisture having been expelled, the substance becomes firmer, and retains that spongy hollowness, which distinguishes good bread.

7. The farinaceous grains most usually employed in making bread, are,—wheat, rye, barley, maize, and oats. The flour and meal of two of these are often mixed; 11. Many other substances contain ferand wheat flour is sometimes advantageous-menting qualities, and are, therefore, somely combined with rice, peas, beans, and times used as substitutes for yeast and potatoes. leaven. The waters of several mineral springs, both in Europe and America, being impregnated with carbonic acid gas, are occasionally employed in making light bread.

8. The component parts of wheat, rye, and barley-flour, are,-fecula, or starch, gluten, and saccharine mucilage. Fecula is the most nutritive part of grain: it is found in all seeds, and is especially abundant in the potato. Gluten is necessary to the production of light bread; and wheat flour, containing it in the greatest proportion, answers the purpose better than any other. The saccharine mucilage is equally necessary, as this is the substance on which yeast and leaven act, in producing the in

12. The three general methods of making bread, and the great number of materials employed, 'admit of a great variety in this essential article of food; so much so, that we cannot enter into details, as regards the particular modes of manufacture adopted by different nations, or people. There are, comparatively, but few on the globe,

in which this art is not practised in some way or other.

13. It is impossible to ascertain at what period of time the process of baking bread became a particular profession. It is supposed, that the first bakers in Rome came from Greece, about two hundred years before the Christian era; and that these, together with some freemen of the city, were incorporated into a college, or company, from which neither they nor their children were permitted to withdraw. They held their effects in common, without possessing any individual power of parting with them.

14. Each bake-house had a patron, or superintendent; and one of the patrons had the management of the rest, and the care of the college. So respectable was this class of men in Rome, that one of the body was occasionally admitted as a member of the senate; and all, on account of their peculiar corporate association, and the public utility of their employment, were exempted from the performance of the civil duties to which other citizens were liable.

16. In this country, laws of a character somewhat similar have been enacted by the legislatures of several States, and by city authorities, with a view to protect the community against impositions; but whether there be a law or not, the bakers regulate the weight, price, and quality, of their loaves, by the general principles of trade.

17. There is, perhaps, no business more laborious, than that of the baker of loaf bread, who has a regular set of customers to be supplied every morning. The twentyfour hours of the day are systematically appropriated to the performance of certain labours, and to rest.

18. After breakfast, the yeast is prepared, and the oven-wood provided: at two or three o'clock, the sponge is set: the hours from three to eight or nine o'clock, are appropriated to rest. The baking commences at nine or ten o'clock at night; and, in large bakeries, continues until five o'clock in the morning. From that time until the breakfast hour, the hands are engaged in distributing the bread to customers. For seven months in the year, and, in some cases, during the whole of it, part

one o'clock, in baking pies, puddings, and different kinds of meats, sent to them from neighbouring families.

15. In many of the large cities of Eu- || of the hands are employed, from eleven to rope, the price and weight of bread, sold || by bakers, are regulated by law. The weight of the loaves of different sizes must be always the same; but the price may vary, according to the current cost of the chief materials. The law was such in the city of London, a few years ago, that if a loaf fell short in weight a single ounce, the baker was liable to be put in the pillory; but now, he is subject only to a fine, varying from one to five shillings, according to the will of the magistrate before whom he may be indicted.

19. In large cities, the bakers usually confine their attention to particular branches of the business. Some bake light loaf bread only; others bake unleavened bread, such as crackers, sea-biscuit, and cakes for people of the Jewish faith. Some, again, unite several branches together; and this is especially the case, in small cities and towns, where the demand for different kinds of bread is more limited.

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1. THE Confectioner makes liquid and || confects are made by boiling the fruit a dry confects, jellies, marmalades, pastes, conserves, sugar-plums, ice-creams, candies, and cakes of various kinds.

in their materials, and mode of preparation. || of ingredients; the principal of which are, The difference consists, only, in their being flour, butter, eggs, sugar, water, milk,

reduced by evaporation to a consistence, which renders them capable of retaining a form, when put into moulds, and dried in an oven.

6. Conserves are a species of dry confects, compounded of sugar and flowers. The flowers usually employed, arc,-roses, mallows, rosemary, orange, violets, jessamine, pistachoes, citrons, and sloes: orangepeel is also used for the same purpose.

cream, yeast, wine, brandy, raisins, currants, caraway, lemon, orange, almonds, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and ginger. The different combinations of these materials, produce so great a variety of cakes, that it would be tedious to detail even their names.

11. The confectioner, in addition to those articles which may be considered peculiar to his business, deals in various kinds of fruits and nuts, which grow in different climates. He also sells a variety of pickles, which he usually procures from those who make it a business to prepare them.

7. Candies are made of clarified sugar, reduced by evaporation to a suitable degree of consistence. They receive their name from the essence, or substance, employed in giving them the required flavour. 8. Sugar-plums are small fruits, seeds, 12. Soda-water is, likewise, often sold by little pieces of bark, or odoriferous and the confectioner. This agreeable drink is aromatic roots, incrusted with hard sugar. || merely water, impregnated with carbonic These trifles are variously denominated; acid gas, by means of a forcing-pump. but, in most cases, according to the name The confectioners, however, in large cities, of the substance inclosed by the incrustation. seldom prepare it themselves, as they can 9. Ice-cream is an article of agreeable procure it at less expense, and with less refreshment, in hot weather. It is sold in trouble, ready made. confectionary shops, as well as at the pub- 13. Sometimes, the business of the paslic gardens, and other places of temporary try-cook is united with that of the confecresort in cities. It is composed, chiefly, oftioner, especially with that branch of it milk or cream, fruit, and lemon-juice. It which relates to making cakes. Pies and is prepared by beating the materials well tarts consist of paste, which, when baked, together, and rubbing them through a fine || becomes a crust, and some kind of fruit or hair sieve. The congelation is effected by meat, or both, with suitable seasoning. placing the containing vessel in one which The art of making pies and tarts is pracis somewhat larger, and filling the sur- tised, more or less, in every family: it is rounding vacancy with a mixture of salt not, therefore, essential to be particular in and fine ice. naming the materials employed, or the 10. Cakes are made of a great variety || manner in which they are combined.