Arrhenatherum is a genus of oat-like grasses, of which Arrhenatherum elatius, sometimes called French rye-grass, is a valuable fodder plant. Research Arrhenatherum
The bullhead or Miller's Thumb (Cottus gobio) is a small freshwaterfish, about 10 cm long with a large broad head, and sharp spines on the gill covers. The armed bull-head is the Aspidophorus europoeus, found in the Baltic and northern seas; the six-horned bull-head (Cottus hexacornis) is a North American species. In America this name is given to a species of Pimelodus, called also Oat-fish and Horned-pout. Research Bullhead
Rice (Oryza sativa) is a cereal plant of the family Graminaceae or Grasses. It is an important food plant. The culm of the rice is from 30 centimetres to two metres high, annual, erect, simple, round and jointed; the leaves are large, firm and pointed, arising from very long, cylindrical, and finely striated sheaths; the flowers are disposed in a panicle somewhat resembling that of the oat; the seeds are white and rectangular, but vary in size and form in the numerous varieties. Cultivation requires a hot summer with plenty of water.
Bread is the flour or meal of grain kneaded with water into a tough paste and then baked. There are numerous kinds of bread, according to the ingredients and methods of preparation, but they may all be divided into one of two groups: fermented, leavened, or raised and unfermented, unleavened or not raised. The latter is the simplest, and no doubt was the original kind, and is still exemplified by biscuits, the oat-cakes of Scotland, the corn-bread of America, the dampers of Australia.
It was probably by accident that the method of bringing the paste into a state of fermentation was found out, by which its toughness is almost entirely destroyed, and it becomes porous, palatable, and digestible. All the cereals are used in making bread, each zone using those which are native to it. Thus maize, millet, and rice are used for the purpose in the hotter countries, rye, barley, and oats in the colder, and wheat in the intermediate or more temperate regions. In the most advanced countries bread is made from wheat, which makes the lightest and most spongy bread.
The fermentation necessary for the ordinary traditional loaf-bread was generally produced by means of leaven or yeast, and the first thing to be done towards the manufacture of a batch of bread was, in the language of the baker, to stir a ferment. For this purpose water, yeast, flour, and some potatoes mashed and strained through a colander, were mixed together and worked up into a thin paste, in which, on being left at rest for a time, an active fermentation set in, the carbon dioxide generated causing the mixture to rise and fall. In about three hours the fermenting action was at rest, and the mixture could then be used, but it was not generally used until at the end of four or five hours. The next operation was called setting the sponge. This consisted in stirring up the above ferment well, adding some lukewarm water, and mixing in as much flour as would make the whole into a pretty stiff dough, which received the name of the sponge. The sponge being kept in a warm place began to ferment in the course of an hour or so, heaving and swelling up until at last the imprisoned carbon dioxide burst from the mass, which then sank or collapsed. This was called the first sponge, and from it the bread could be made; but the fermentation was often allowed to proceed, and the rising and falling to go on a second time, producing what the bakers called the second sponge.
The next process in traditional bread making was called breaking the sponge, and consisted in adding to it the requisite quantity of water and salt, the sponge being thoroughly mixed up with the water. The remainder of the total quantity of flour intended to be employed was gradually added, and the whole was kneaded into a dough of the due consistency. The dough being allowed to remain in the trough until it rose or gave proof, it was then weighed off into lumps, which were shaped into loaves and placed in the oven. In the process of baking they swelled to about double their original size.
The chemical changes which took place during the traditional process may be explained in the following way: An average quality of flour consists of gluten 12, starch 70, sugar 5, gum 3, water 10; total, 100. When water is added to the flour, in the first operation of baking, it unites with the gluten and starch, and dissolves the gum and sugar. The yeast or barm added acts now upon the dissolved sugar, especially at an elevated temperature, and produces the vinous fermentation, forming alcohol and setting free carbon dioxide as a consequence of the transformation of the elements of the sugar. The gaseous carbon dioxide is prevented from escaping by the gluten of the mass, and if the mixing or kneading has been properly performed it remains very equally diffused through every part of the dough. The alcohol and carbon dioxide are carried into the oven with the dough, and the former partially escapes, while the latter gas, being expanded by the heat, produces the lightness and sponginess of the loaf. It may be produced in bread-making by other means than fermentation, as by some of those well-known preparations called 'baking powders,' which usually contain bicarbonate of potash or of soda, with tartaric acid.
Aerated bread is so called because made with aerated water - that is, water strongly impregnated with carbon dioxide under pressure, the dough being also worked up under pressure and caused to expand by the carbon dioxide when the pressure is removed.
The bread eaten in the West is almost all leavened bread, the dough should be left to rise naturally - a process which takes at least six hours. During the 1960s it was found that by adding enzymes to and rapidly working the dough in high speed mechanical mixers the rising process could be cut to twenty minutes, thereby greatly increasing the quantity of bread which could be produced, though the finished product lacks the taste, texture and wholesomeness of real leavened bread. This process is known as the Chorleywood bread process or CBP. CBP processed bread accounts for almost all the bread sold in Britain in the 21st century, and has been widely criticised for its health implications, and for not revealing to consumers the additives contained in the bread. Research Bread
Dragonfly is a low-strength seasonal summer session caskale from the Harviestoun brewery in Scotland. Dragonfly is a light golden beer brewed from a mixture of oat and roast malt and flavoured with three varieties of hops which combine to make a dry beer reminiscent in flavour of grapefruit-juice. Research Dragonfly
Abbreviations
Research Arrhenatherum
