The Bakers' Guide and Practical Assistant: To the Art of Making Bread in All Its Branches

From the PREFACE. IT is with more than ordinary pleasure that I write the few words asked from me by Mr. Blandy as a preface to the Fourth Edition of the "Bakers' and Confectioners' Guide." The circumstances under which this edition is called for and published are unique, and reflect the greatest credit on Mr. Blandy. That a trade in which reading and study is so little respected should have already bought up three editions is a circumstance in itself remarkable enough, but it is more than remarkable when the text is studied. Mr. Blandy does not spare his trade, but talks out straight, and points out without flinching the sins and shortcomings to which it is addicted. I cannot agree with all the strictures set forth in the "Bakers' Guide," or subscrible to all the modes of reform the author suggests, but I can bear witness to the integrity and honesty of his opinions, and to the unselfish enthusiasm with which he has pursued the good and great work of reforming and educating the baking trade. He knows, as all reformers know, what it is to have his work disparaged and his motives misconstrued, but he troubles not, keeping his face well set to the work before him, and going heroically forward. He acts up to his ideal: "It is of no consequence whether the outside world says ' successful' to you or not; your concern is to get the 'well done' at the finish of the journey from the man inside your own breast." It is not a worldly-wise ideal this, it is rather heroic; but it is men with such ideals who do the pioneer work of the world, although the credit does not always turn their way. The original edition of the "Bakers' Guide," published in 1882, was not the first book published for bakers, but there had been nothing of the kind issued for about thirty years before the "Guide " appeared, and the older works were either forgotten or obsolete, and were only interesting as ancient literature. In each subsequent edition-and I have read them carefully-some new matter and new feature has been added; but the present edition-of which I have had the privilege of reading the proof sheets-is quite a vade mecum for the baker and confectioner, whether he is old or young, master or man. If I have a preference for the "literary" part of the work-those little paragraph sermons which Mr. Blandy can write so ingeniously and so forcibly-it may be because of a personal predilection of mine, but it is also because there is wisdom and wit in them, and because where they are not directly instructive, they are always stimulating and provocative of thought. Mr. Blandy is original in the sense that his individuality predominates in all he does and all he writes; he cannot, even if he tries, think of, write, or speak as the ordinary man, so that his literary work, however one may disagree with its purport, is always refreshing and always instructive. Since the last edition of this book was published the author has had the important experience of successfully teaching for several sessions a large class of bakers-workers, managers, and masters-at the Borough Polytechnic, London, and the result of his experience, or part of it, is now incorporated in the new edition of " The Guide." He has learned that bakers don't care about long arrays of figures and compound technical terms, and he has tried, and tried successfully, to teach technics in language as plain as possible. But as knowledge of technical terms is absolutely necessary to the student, all that are essential and some more have been incorporated in "The Guide," in dictionary form, for ready reference. The multitude of recipes given are useful to those in search of variety, or to those so situated that they must be their own instructors: to such this book will be a real guide. I could wish for nothing better for the baking and confectionery trades than that every young man would carefully peruse this new edition of the "Bakers' Guide," in itself it is a liberal education....