CHAP. 27.—THE METHOD OF MAKING BREAD: ORIGIN OF THE ART.
It seems to me quite unnecessary to enter into an account of the various kinds of bread that are made. Some kinds, we find, receive their names from the dishes with which they are eaten, the oyster-bread,221 for instance: others, again, from their peculiar delicacy, the artolaganus,222 or cake-bread, for example; and others from the expedition with which they are prepared, such as the “speusticus,”223 or “hurry-bread.” Other varieties receive their names from the peculiar method of baking them, such as oven-bread,224 tin-bread,225 and mould-bread.226 It is not so very long since that we had a bread introduced from Parthia, known as water-bread,227 from a method in kneading it, of drawing out the dough by the aid of water, a process which renders it remarkably light, and full of holes, like a sponge: some call this Parthian bread. The excellence of the finest kinds of bread depends principally on the goodness of the wheat, and the fineness of the bolter. Some persons knead the dough with eggs or milk, and butter even has been employed for the purpose by nations that have had leisure to cultivate the arts of peace, and to give their attention to the art of making pastry. Picenum still maintains its ancient reputation for making the bread which it was the first to invent, alica228 being the grain employed. The flour is kept in soak for nine days, and is kneaded on the tenth with raisin juice, in the shape of long rolls; after which it is baked in an oven in earthen pots, till they break. This bread, however, is never eaten till it has been well229 soaked, which is mostly done in milk mixed with honey.