WHEAT.

The cereal grains consist of solidified vegetable milk, drawn from the bosom of Mother Earth. But two of them all are used for making light and spongy bread with yeast, and wheat has the universal preference because it contains all the elements necessary to the growth and sustenance of the body. It makes bread which is more inviting to the eye and more agreeable to the taste. It is the highest type of vegetable food known to mankind, and it is claimed that the most enlightened nations of modern times owe their mental and bodily superiority to this great and beneficent product.

There is little if any difference in the nutriment or value of spring and winter wheat. Some prefer the one and some the other. Southern raised wheat is apt to be drier than northern and will better stand the effects of warm climates. Wheat varies in weight per bushel as the season is wet or dry. The best is round, plump and smooth. It contains about fifteen parts of water, sixty-five to seventy-five parts of starch, and about ten parts of gluten. The average annual production of wheat in the United States during the past eight years has been 448,815,699 bushels; an increase over the preceding ten years of forty-four per cent., while the increase of population has been only twenty-five per cent.

Wheaten Flour.

Wheat was formerly ground by mill stones, and the product bolted and sifted into the different grades. But during the last twelve years, this process has been largely superseded by the “Patent Roller” process of crushing and separating the flour from the bran. This is a great improvement over the old method; more flour is obtained from the wheat, and it is whiter, contains more gluten, and is therefore stronger.

The first consideration is the color or whiteness; second, the quantity of gluten the flour contains. The eye determines the first, and a hasty test of the quantity and quality of the gluten may be made by squeezing some of the flour into a lump in the hand. This lump will more closely show the prints of the fingers, and will hold its form in handling with considerable more tenacity if the flour is good, than if it is inferior and deficient in gluten.

Grocers and bakers test flour by smoothing a little out on a board with a knife or paper cutter, to see its color, and if it contains specks of bran, etc., which may show that it has not been well bolted or “dressed.” To determine the quantity and strength of the gluten, they mix some of the flour with water, and judge by the tenacity of the dough—the length to which it may be drawn out by the fingers, or spread into a thin sheet.

Injury to flour is shown most quickly in the gluten, which may lose its vitality. The gluten of good flour will swell to several times its bulk under a gentle heat, and give off the pleasant odor of hot bread, while the gluten from poor flour swells but little, becomes viscous or nearly fluid, and smells disagreeably.

Points for Purchasers of Flour.

As starch is whiter than gluten, whiteness is therefore really no indication of the sweetness and strength of flour; and, although flour becomes whiter with age and will take up more water and make a whiter loaf, many prefer freshly ground flour for family use, as being better in flavor, while others claim that flour will “work better” if kept for some time after grinding.

The brand or word “Patent” on packages of flour has come to signify, not that the flour is really patented, but that it is or should be finest quality. Fancy brands may mean little; they are put on at the whim of the maker. Flour is rarely adulterated at present, but good and poor grades are sometimes mixed. Inferior grades of flour are largely exported, while the best are mainly used at home. Graham flour is ground wheat from which the bran has not been removed.

Flour is put up in barrels of one hundred and ninety-six pounds net weight, and in muslin sacks of various weights. Families everywhere invariably want “the best,” and dealers often adopt the excellent plan of buying quantities of some very choice and tried grade of flour and selling it in convenient sized packages for family trade, under their own brand and guarantee.

Corn or Maize.

This is one of the most beautiful of plants, and the Indians formerly ascribed to it a Divine origin. Hiawatha watched by the grave of the Spirit Mondamin,

Indian corn contains more oil or fat than any of the common cereals. It will make as white and fine flour as wheat, but this does not make good fermented bread, unless mixed with wheaten flour. Corn Meal is healthful, nutritious and cheap, but, owing to its fat, is prone to attract oxygen and spoil, especially in warm weather. There are two kinds, one WHITE, the other GOLDEN YELLOW. They are equally nutritious, and about the same in price. Some prefer the one and some the other, but probably the yellow is rather the most popular. The starch extracted from corn is very extensively used throughout the country, and such leading brands of CORN STARCH as those of Kingsford, Duryea, etc., are well known. In fact, the consumption of all the products of corn is enormous.

Samp is corn deprived of its skin and eye and left whole or cracked in halves. Hominy is corn ground or cracked into coarse, medium or fine grains, and pearled or polished. Dried Corn, largely prepared by the Shakers, is sweet corn boiled and dried. It is excellent and much used as a vegetable.

Rye Flour.

Rye ranks next to wheat for bread making, and is equally nutritious. It yields less flour and more bran than wheat, contains more sugar, and is darker in color. Its gluten has less tenacity and it will not make as light and spongy bread as wheat flour, hence is little used in this country. Rye flour should contain a little of the bran, as this has a pleasant, aromatic flavor. The “Black bread,” so extensively eaten in portions of Europe, is made of rye flour. It is dark, heavy and sourish, but like all rye bread, has the property of keeping moist a long time. Two parts of wheat with one of rye flour makes wholesome and palatable bread.

Barley.

This grain is less nutritious and less digestible than wheat, but contains more sugar and more of the phosphates, and is also cooling. It will not make good bread, but is sometimes used for the purpose, mixed with wheaten flour.

Pearl Barley is the whole grain freed from its hulls like rice. It is used in soups, etc., and is sold by all grocers. In the best qualities the grains are large and well rounded. It is sold in bulk and in pound packages.

Oatmeal.

Oats are substantial, nutritious and wholesome, being rich in gluten and fat. Oatmeal for the table is made from kiln dried, large, white oats, freed from the husks. Alone it does not make good bread. If long used as a sole or chief food it is reputed to overtax the digestive organs, heat the blood, and produce eruptions of the skin. Many claim, however, that these effects are due solely to insufficient cooking of the meal or porridge, and there are excellent preparations in market which have been well cooked by steam and afterwards dried.

Besides these there are various brands of Scotch, Irish, Canadian and American oatmeal, “Crushed,” “Rolled,” “Granulated,” etc., also oat “Avena,” “Farina,” etc. Groats are the whole kernels of oats deprived of their husks. The consumption of oatmeal has vastly increased within five or six years, and is rapidly becoming universal. Salt only after cooking. If added before, salt tends to harden the meal and prevent its swelling.

Buckwheat.

This grain may be classed with wheat as regards its nutritive qualities. It contains thirteen or fourteen per cent. of water, about fifteen per cent. of gluten, and sixty or sixty-five per cent. of starch. It will not make good fermented bread, but its delicious cakes are an essential and attractive feature upon American breakfast tables everywhere, especially in cool weather. It is sold in bulk and is also put up in three and six pound packages.

Rice.

Although this grain is the main food of one-third of the human race and is very easily digested, it contains too little gluten and fat and too much starch to be considered alone as a perfect food for man. Rice has a slightly constipating effect but is an excellent and wholesome occasional article of diet, and one which could not well be spared from the family list. Rice is sold deprived of its husk. It is imported from the East Indies, but the best is the fine, large head rice of the Carolinas. As some of the most valuable qualities of rice dissolve out in hot water, it should be steamed until tender, rather than boiled.

Farinaceous Foods.

These are very numerous and some of them are excellent. Among them may be named the “CEREALINE FLAKES,” made from white corn; CRACKED and CRUSHED WHEAT, WHEATEN GRITS, FARINA, which is the inner part of the wheat granulated, SELF-RAISING, BUCKWHEAT and other FLOURS; “WHEATLET,” “GRAINLET,” “GRANUM,” “FARINOSE,” “MAIZENA,” MANIOCA, INFANT FOOD, MILK FOOD, ARROW ROOT, CORN STARCH of various makes, GRAHAM FLOUR, BOSTON BROWN BREAD MIXTURES, etc. Many of these preparations are eaten with milk, and prove valuable additions to the family diet.

Sago is the pith of an Indian palm steeped in water until it becomes a paste, then formed into little balls by rubbing it through a perforated plate. The best is the whitest. Tapioca is the pith of the Manihot tree, washed like sago, but granulated differently. Both are nutritious and easily digested, and are made into puddings, often with fruit, and eaten with milk or sauce.

Bread.

One hundred pounds of good, fine, wheaten flour will take up forty-five pounds of water, and yield one hundred and forty-five pounds of bread. The proper and legal weight of bread is while it is hot. A four pound loaf loses in twenty-four hours one and one-quarter ounces; in forty-eight hours five ounces; in seventy hours nine ounces. The quantity of water which flour will absorb depends largely on the proportion and quality of the gluten. The best flours absorb most, and will take up more in dry than in wet seasons; hence a dry season is good for the baker. Thorough kneading increases the absorption of water, and should be continued until none of the dough will stick to the hand.

Feed for Stock.

Among the articles largely used as food for animals are the refuse products of the various grains made in preparing them for human consumption; as, for instance, the refuse left in the pearling of barley, or in making hominy and samp; dried Barley Sprouts from malt, low grade flour; Middlings, which are a mixture of bran and flour; Bran, etc. Besides these, Oats, white, black and mixed, and vast quantities of Southern and Western Corn are also used for stock, ground into coarse meal.

Bread Raising Materials.

Fermentation, says Liebig, is not only the simplest and best, but likewise the most economical way of making light and porous bread.

Yeast is a true fungous plant, which has the power of establishing fermentation and changing starch into sugar, and the escaping gas makes the loaf light and spongy. Hops prevent too great fermentation and impart an agreeable flavor. Brewers’ Yeast is largely used when obtainable, and there are many domestic modes of preparing yeast from potatoes, flour, etc.

Dried Yeast.—But as all these fresh yeasts are liable to spoil and affect the bread unpleasantly, there is an extensive demand for a yeast which shall possess the same properties and which may be kept a long time. Hence, the various brands of yeast cakes sold by the grocer. They are made usually by adding corn meal to the yeast and carefully drying the cakes in the sun. It is singular that a fall or sudden jar may injure yeast cakes and deprive them largely of their qualities.

Cream of tartar, BI-CARBONATE OF SODA, BI-CARBONATE OF POTASH (SALERATUS), are all used in bread making, and are to be had in all sorts of packages of the grocer. Cream of tartar is tartrate of potash, and is made from the argols found incrusted upon the inside of wine barrels. It should be white, and not yellowish in tint. The effect of these chemicals in raising bread is due chiefly to the liberation of the carbonic acid gas they contain when mixed with water, incorporated with the dough and put in the oven, and the great requisite is that they should be pure and unadulterated.

Baking Powders are much used for making light and palatable domestic biscuits, etc. They are convenient, and generally lessen the quantity of shortening required. They are made chiefly of tartaric acid and bi-carbonate of soda, and should be neutral to the taste, and without effervescence if either an acid or alkali is added. One popular variety, called “Phosphatic Baking Powder,” consists of acid phosphate of lime instead of cream of tartar, with soda.

Biscuits, Crackers, etc.

The word biscuit means twice baked, and is a survival from the ancient mode of cooking the cakes which is now no longer in use. Plain biscuits are said to be more nutritious than bread in the proportion of five to three, and are most digestible when light and well browned in baking, so as to turn much of the starch into dextrine. Sea biscuit or ship bread is made simply of flour and water baked at a high heat. In the large cracker bakeries the dough is mixed, rolled and cut by machinery and the cakes travel on through patent ovens until baked, when they drop out into baskets. Those made by hand are, however, considered best.

The variety of biscuits and crackers in market is utterly bewildering. These are among the standards: Boston, SODA, BUTTER, OYSTER, SUGAR, FRUIT, MILK, ENGLISH ALBERT, WATER, CREAM, GINGER, LEMON, OATMEAL, CARAWAY, VANILLA, and dozens more kinds of biscuits, crackers and wafers at various prices; besides GINGER and LEMON SNAPS and JUMBLES, and even DOG BISCUIT. There is also CRACKER DUST, for frying oysters, fish, etc. Some of the above come in handsome tin packages.

Maccaroni, VERMICELLI, Spaghetti.—These are all made from the dough of the hardest and most glutenous Southern wheat, and the domestic are inferior to the Italian or French. The best will merely swell and soften after long boiling, and still retain its form. Maccaroni is in small tubes, spaghetti in small stems, and vermicelli in threads or shreds. Letters, stars, and other figures are also made from the same material or paste; all are largely used in soups. Egg noodles are ribbon maccaroni.