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165
If you should consider it within my province to
give advice to bakers, I would venture to suggest
that the introduction of Salt is too much a matter of
guess-work. The quantity I would suggest, as
derived from the analysis of several hundred samples
(of sixty-one in Camberwell), would be half-a-pound
to the hundred pounds of bread. Some bakers have
applied over one pound per hundred ; and, in such
cases, not only has the bread an appreciably salt
taste, but it does not keep as well as with the smaller
quantity. Several bakers have used so little salt as
to constitute a mere trace. Now this is a serious
matter, as your Medical Officer will point out, if I
may venture, without consulting him, to use his
authority. The children of many poor people obtain
all the salt they take as food either in their bread or
their butter. If, then, the salt is almost absent from
bread, an unhealthy condition of body must be
engendered. The microscope often reveals the
absence of such perfect cleanliness as is desirable in
food. But I must add that this is much more the
case with the ovens. There is more cinder in many
crusts than most of us would care for.
The moisture in the bread is a fair average;
the variations not all great.