Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/297

BIS pounds of flour, which is kneaded ; but the water should be added by small portions, to prevent the ne- cessity of adding more flour : when the dough can no longer be worked by the hand, it is pressed with the feet till it is perfectly smooth, glu- tinous and compact. The knead- ing being finished, the douerh is worked up in parts : at first it is formed into rolls, which again pass through the hands of the baker ; this is called nibbing. When the weight of each piece is determined, it is made round, flattened with a roiling pin, and then placed on a table or board exposed to the fresh nir, in order to prevent too quick fermentation. Care is taken that the oven be less heated for the baking of biscuit than bread ; and as soon as the last cake is formed, that vi hich has been first made, is pierced with several holes, with the point of an iron, which at once flattens it, and gives vent to eva- poration : it is then placed in the oven. The biscuits are kept there about two hours, and when drawn out, they are packed with great caution in boxes, lest they should break. Each box commonly con- tains either a half, or a whole quin- tal j and, when rilled, is placed in a close, warm room, with which the heat of the oven has a com- munication. The biscuit here parts with its superabundant moisture, and undergoes what is called a sweating. A good biscuit breaks clean and crisp, has a shining appearance within, and the outside is glossy. When soaked, it swells considera- bly in the water, without crum- bling, or sinking to the bottom of the vessel. As the composition of biscuit is connected with the general princi- BIS. [267 pies of making bread, we shall only observe, that the defects which pre- vail in many bake-houses are simi- lar to those where biscuit is pre- pared ; such as an imperfect grind- ing, which leaves the bran in the flour, or the flour in the bran, and injures the manufacture. Ovens too high, and not closely stopped, consume much fuel, and produce an indifferent baking. One of the tirst rules in the pre- paration of biscuit should be, never to make it of any but choice wheat, very clean, and dry, because it ever continues to carry with it this original principle of preservation ; while corn, which is naturally moist, be it ever so well ground* and worked, has a tendency to be- come worse. For this reason, rye and maize are untit to be manu- factured into biscuit. It must be confessed with re- gret, that sea-biscuit of the best preparation often carries hi it a principle of destruction. Some- times it is in the bran, which oc- casions insects, and hollow spaces in the interior part of the biscuit, giving, it a disposition to mould ; and sometimes it is a want of cleanliness which prevails in the bread-room of the vessel. M. Cakdox, a biscuit-baker of Kesse, in conjunction with four others of the business, has recently made some experiments, the result of which is: that lOOlb. of flour give 1261b. of dough ; which, di- vided into cakes of eight cr nine ounces, when well baked, afford OOlb. of biscuit. Instead of mak- ing vise of old leaven, and of ten or twelve pounds weight to each quintal of flour, he recommends to use the leaven while fresh, in a quantity of fifty pounds, and to make the dough less Ann, that it may