Curious Facts

Everything below is in the book — each one links straight to the page it comes from.

The bread formula starts at two hundred pounds of flour. The standard bread runs: flour 200 lbs., water 118 lbs., with about eight hours to mature — trade quantities, where weight is the only measure that repeats. Read it in the book →
The sponge method predates the understanding of yeast. "The sponge method is the older of the two, and is that which was used when little or nothing was known of yeast" — before anyone knew the leaven was alive. Read it in the book →
The book prints a chemical analysis of American wheats. "Wheat varies somewhat in chemical composition depending upon the variety" — with a table, because a baker buying by the ton needs the gluten numbers. Read it in the book →
Wheat's magic is two named proteins. Wheat differs from other cereals "in that it contains gliadin and glutenin" — the pair that becomes gluten when water is added, and the reason bread rises at all. Read it in the book →
Bakers bought eggs three ways. Shell eggs, frozen eggs, and dehydrated or dried eggs — the trade's egg case had options the home kitchen never saw. Read it in the book →
There is a warning about ergot in flour. Flour milled from grain with fungous growths — "smuts, rusts and ergot" — deteriorates; the book teaches bakers to know damaged grain when they meet it. Read it in the book →
Food coloring was already regulated. Only certain colors are "permissible in food products… made under careful observation" — the Pure Food era reaching the cake decorator's bench. Read it in the book →
The mill's storage bins have thermometers. The milling diagram's description begins with wheat stored in bins "equipped with thermometers which indicate the temperature of the stored wheat" — industrial care invisible in a bag of flour. Read it in the book →
Vanillin and coumarin count as condiments. The condiments chapter sweeps in "spices, essential oils, vanilla, vanillin, coumarin and other volatile aromatic compounds" — synthetic flavor, listed beside the spice drawer in 1922. Read it in the book →
Boston Brown Bread, by the hundredweight. Formula No. 1: graham flour 14 lbs., corn meal 12 lbs., rye 6 lbs., baking powder 16¼ ozs. — a home classic rebuilt at bakery scale. Read it in the book →