As the result, we have a beautiful article spoiled--bread
without sweetness, if not absolutely sour.
In the view of many, lightness is the only property required in this
article. The delicate refined sweetness which exists in carefully
kneaded bread, baked just before it passes to the extreme point of
fermentation, is something, of which they have no conception; and thus
they will even regard this process of spoiling the paste by the acetous
fermentation, and then rectifying that acid by effervescence with an
alkali, as something positively meritorious. How else can they value
and relish bakers' loaves, such as some are, drugged with ammonia and
other disagreeable things; light indeed, so light that they seem to
have neither weight nor substance, but with no more sweetness or taste
than so much cotton wool?
Some persons prepare bread for the oven by simply mixing it in the
mass, without kneading, pouring it into pans, and suffering it to rise
there. The air-cells in bread thus prepared are coarse and uneven; the
bread is as inferior in delicacy and nicety to that which is well
kneaded as a raw servant to a perfectly educated and refined lady.
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