Baking, as a business or profession, was never confined to the baking of common bread alone, that is to say, bread in every-day use. A baker we take to mean a person who bakes and prepares any farinaceous substance intended for human food. If this definition be correct, then it will follow that not only loaf-bread baking, biscuit-baking, fancy-bread baking, belong to the business of the baker, but also pastry making and confectionery. We know, indeed, that all these branches are frequently to a certain extent practised by the same individual, and therefore, in a work of this kind, they ought all to be treated of, which we intend to do under separate heads.

The ancients had a great variety of spice bread and sweetmeats, and these, there is every reason to believe, were produced by the persons called bakers; pastry-cooks and confectioners being unknown as separate professions. The Asiatics were exceedingly fond of sweetmeats, and there can be little or no doubt that a similar taste was introduced by them among the Romans, when they were carried to Rome to practise their calling there. The Rhodians, we are told, had a particular kind of bread sweetened with honey, so exquisitely pleasant, that it was eaten with other delicacies after dinner by way of dessert.

The French, who are excellent bakers, have a great variety of breads, and these for the most part have been long introduced into Great Britain. The common bread of that country, or bread for general use, may be divided into three classes: - wheaten bread, made of the finest flour, sometimes called firsts; second, or household bread, made of flour somewhat coarser, called seconds; and brown bread, made of flour called thirds, and sometimes of flour of various degrees coarser than thirds. The coarseness or fineness of flour (supposing the wheat of the same quality) depends upon the dressing, or the separating of the flour from the husks of the wheat, after it has been reduced to a powder. The finest flour is entirely separated from the bran or husks - the other description not entirely so, but the broad bran is removed from the coarsest flour. The writers in many of our celebrated Encyclopaedias say, that "our household bread is made of the whole substance of the grain, without the separation of either the finest flour or the coarsest bran." This is a mistake altogether.

In making pure wheaten loaf bread, no other ingredients should be employed but flour, water, yeast, or some other innocent fermenting matter. Various other ingredients are used, principally by those engaged in making bread for sale. The London bakers employ alum, for the purpose of making the bread whiter, etc. Home-baked bread is never so white, even when made from the same flour, as that produced by the public baker; but of this we shall speak when we come to describe the methods of bread-making used by public bakers; present we shall confine ourselves to bread as made in families for daily use.

The goodness of bread, whether baked at home or abroad, will depend, firstly, upon the quality of the flour employed; secondly, upon the quality of the yeast; and, thirdly, upon the skill and care of the baker. The process of baking, though simple enough, requires some experience on the part of him or her who may undertake to perform it. We need scarcely say, that experience is only to be acquired in one way, and that way is too obvious to need pointing out. To judge of flour, experience is also necessary; but any one may form a pretty accurate idea whether it is good or bad, by attending to the following directions: - If flour is of a fine white colour, it may be pronounced good, so far as colour is concerned; but if it be brown, it shows that either it was made from bad wheat, or that it has been coarsely dressed - that is, particles of bran, more or less fine, have been left in it. Brown flour, however, may be of a good, sound quality, and fine white flour not so. To judge of flour, take a portion in your hand and press it firmly between your thumb and fore-finger, at the same time rubbing it gently, for the purpose of making a level surface upon the flour. By this means you will be able to ascertain the colour, by observing the pressed and smooth surface; and the act of pressing and smoothing it, will enable you to ascertain these facts. If it feel loose and lively in the hand, it is of good quality; if on the contrary it feels dead or damp, or in other words clammy, it is decidedly bad.

Flour ought to be a few weeks old before it is used; but it will keep good much longer, if kept in a dry place covered over. But it is, perhaps, better to trust to your miller or mealman, who, if you are a good and constant customer, will take care to serve you with good flour for his own sake; for if he employs any tricks, he is sure to be discovered when the bread comes out of the oven.

It has been found by analysis, that wheat flour consists of three principal substances, namely, starch, gluten, and sugar, and a very small portion of albumen; of these, the starch is the most nourishing as food. The gluten resembles animal glue in its tenacious qualities; and its smell, when subjected to a strong heat, is foetid, like burning horn or feathers. It will not ferment in warm water and yeast, but like a piece of flesh will become putrid. Mr. Edlin says, that "this substance is totally different from vegetable matter, but rather resembling animal." The gluten in wheat-flour is the cause of its forming an adhesive paste with water, and of its rising in leaven.

Starch forms the most considerable part of wheat-flour, and there is reason to believe, from so many persons subsisting on potatoes, which contain much starch and no gluten, that it is the most nutritious; but starch cannot be made into bread, because it wants the mucilaginous gluten to give it tenacity, and the saccharine matter, or sugar, to induce fermentation.

From experiments made by Mr. Edlin, it appears that a pound of wheat contains three ounces of bran, ten ounces of starch, six drachms of gluten, and two drachms of sugar; which, with the loss of two ounces in grinding and reducing the flour to starch, make one pound, or sixteen ounces. From this it appears that he did not discover the albumen, which M. Seguin considers the fermenting principle.

Mr. Edlin also ascertained by experiment, that starch, isinglass, and sugar, mixed in proper quantities, and fermented with yeast, will make a light and porous bread.

Flour-paste may be considered as merely a viscid and elastic tissue, the interstices of which are filled with starch, albumen, and sugar. We know that it is from the gluten that the dough derives its property of rising on the admixture of leaven; the leaven acting on the sweet principle of the wheat, gives rise in succession to the vinous and acetous fermentation, and of consequence to alcohol, acetic, and carbonic acids. The latter gas tends to fly off, but the gluten resists its disengagement, expands like a membrane - forms a multitude of little cavities, which give lightness and sponginess to the bread.

To judge of good yeast, no positive directions can be given. Yeast should always be fresh, and if made from table ale it is better, because less bitter than that made from very strong ale. If the yeast is sour, the dough will not rise. Originally what is called leaven was uniformly employed, and it is now sometimes used as a substitute for yeast. Those who use it, keep a pound or more dough from baking to baking. It is kept in a wooden barrel, or bowl, covered with flour. Before it is fit to use, it must be both stale and sour. Bread made in this way is said to be more digestible, but it is not so pleasant to the taste. Leaven is now only used at sea.

A good oven is necessary for the production of good bread. If the oven be heated, as in country places, by dry wood, furze, or fern, burnt in the oven itself, it ought to be built round, not long, as there will be in the former case a greater equality of heat. The roof should be from twenty inches to two feet high in the centre; the mouth no larger than will be sufficient to admit the bread. But many people who make their own bread send it to be baked at the baker's. We have seen good ovens attached to a stove, and heated by the kitchen fire. These are not sufficiently capacious to contain loaves enough for the consumption of a large family, but they answer the purpose of a small family very well. To save room, it will be necessary, in stove ovens, to bake in tins. Bread thus baked is much more smooth and neat than when baked in the ordinary way; but the pleasant crispness of the crust is wanting.

The ovens used in London and some other large towns are, for the most part, heated by a furnace placed on one side. The heat in these ovens is very equable, and the baker is enabled to keep it up at all times with very little trouble, and with less expense than by the old method.