View report page

191
The trade of most of the Bakehouses in Finsbury is to supply
the immediate neighbourhood in which the Bakehouse is situated,
either over the counter or by barrow. Many of the bakers also
supply bread to small general shops and coffee-houses. In no
case is there a Bakehouse used for sleeping purposes. One or two
instances occur in which the Bakehouse was used occasionally as
the family laundry, and in not a few cases dogs or cats are kept in
the Bakehouse, or have the run of the Bakehouse. In most cases the
"governor" or occupier himself works part time in the
Bakehouse.
Bread making in Finsbury is of a varied nature, but in the
main, consists of the manufacture of cottage,* tin and long loaves,
rolls and twists. These different kinds of loaf are made as a rule
from the same dough. The Hour is obtained from town or country
millers, the former commonly supplying a mixed flour, and the
latter a home grown. In the Bakehouse a mixture of flour is
used. In the better Bakehouses the blend consists of "whites"
and "best patents," and the poorer and cheaper bread is made
from a dough derived from a blend of "whites" and "households"
or "second patents." The "patents" flour, the result of
the mechanical process of milling, is as a rule poor in proteids,
but rich in starch. Its purity of colour makes it useful for the
preparation of fancy breads and pastry. It is found in practice
that the best bread is made from blends, because wheat differs in
composition, and by this means variations are harmonised. Hence
it comes about that the mixture of flour commonly used is partly
of foreign and partly of home growth. Potato is often mixed with
the dough to give it a lighter consistence (20 or more pounds to
every 3 sacks). There is said to be no alum used now-a-days.
The average amount of flour used is about 15 sacks per Bakehouse
per week, but it varies from 3 to 30.
Half of the underground Bakehouses possess two ovens each
although the two are not always in use. The size varies from
0 The well known cottage loaf is a half-quarten (2 lbs.); one sack of
flour (280 lbs.) would yield about 180 such loaves, and about 320 such
loaves would be baked in a 10 bushel oven.