Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 2, 1802).djvu/340

30S] FLO ous vermin from breeding in flour, this valuable commodity should be kept thoroughly dry, as well as the barrels into which it is packed : with such precautions, if the flour be placed in a cool and airy room, it will be efteiSiually preserved. — Sometimes, however, it happens, that though every attention be be- stowed on it, flour becomes sprit, or damaged, and thus acquires an unpleasant flavour. This may be remedied by mixing a quantity of ground rice (in the proportion of one pound to ten of flour) with the usual quantity of yeast and water ; keeping the mixture before the fire for the space of two hours ; at the expiration of which time, the whole may be wrought into bread, in the common manner : thus it will be totally divested of its dis- agreeable flavour. — See also Bak- ing, vol. i. p. 150. The proportion of flour, which a bushel of grain affords, greatly varies. A bushel of Essex wheat, Winchester measure, weighs upon an average about 6olbs., which, when ground, will yi -Id (exclusive of the loss incurred by the grind- ing and drying) 45|lbs. of the flour called seconds, which alone is used for baking throughout the greater part of England, and which affords the most wholesome, though not the whitest bread. Beside the seconds, such a bushel of wheat yields 13lbs. of pollard and bran : the total loss in grinding seldom exceeds one pound and a half. A correspondent of the Editors of the Suppk inent to the Encyclopaedia Britannica (Art. Bread), states, that he weighed 2bushels, Wincles- ter measure, of white and red wheat, the whole of which amounted to 122 lbs. This wheat was ground under his own inspection, and FLO yielded 121 f lbs. of meal, fo thai the waste or loss in grinding the two bushels, amounted only to half a pound. The meal was also dress- ed in his presence, and produced 93 ! lbs, of seconds, and 25 lbs. of pollard and bran, so that the whole loss iii the two bushels, both by grinding and dressing, did not ex- ceed two pounds and a half. The bran and pollard were also dressed in a bolting mill, and produced lbs. ox. Sharps - 6 O Fine Pollard 5 8 Coarse ditto 7 8 Broad Bran -58 24 8 One pound only was thus lost in the bolting, and if the sharps had been sifted, they would have af- forded three pounds of good flour. We are inclined to think, from these and similar data, if the price of wheat were given, that of flour might be easily ascertained, and those frauds which are now prac- tised with impunity, could be effec- tually prevented. Many valuable substitutes for flour have already been mentioned under the head of Bread, vol. i. p. 332, and foil. In this place* there! ore, we shall only observe, that the most plentiful and the cheapest of these articles, in times of great scarcity, would doubtless be the Chesnut (of which we have given an account in its alpha- betical order) ; and likewise the different roots growing wild under fences, near ditches, and frequently on extensive commons. Of these bene tiei;il vegetables, the attentive leader will find numerous instances recorded in the progress of thi# wo, as well as a distinct enu- meration in the pages before cited. FLOWER,