Cereal Preparations

Wheat makes the best bread because it contains gluten. Among proteins gluten is unique, because it is so elastic and after it has stretched it has a tendency to retain its place. This is what makes bread so porous. There are various meals or flours that can not be made into bread, or even dough, because they lack compounds which will act as frame work.

Bread can be made in many ways. The chief question for the housewife to decide is whether to make the bread from entire wheat flour or from patent flour. They are so different in value that a decision should not be difficult. It is also necessary to decide whether to use yeast bread or some other kind.

Yeast bread is made essentially from flour, water and yeast in the presence of heat. There are so many ways of making bread of this kind that a recipe is not necessary. The amount of salt to be added depends upon individual taste. Some like to set their yeast working in part potato, part flour. Others use milk instead of water. Some add shortening. And nearly all women believe that their own bread is the best.

Yeast is made up of myriads of little plants or fungi, which thrive on the sugary part of the flour. They convert this into alcohol and carbonic acid gas. The alcohol is practically all gone before the bread is brought to the table. The gas raises the bread, assisted by the expansion of the water in the dough when it is placed in a hot oven.

The yeast consumes a great deal of the nutritive part of the flour. This may amount to from 5 to 8 per cent. of the food value, and I have read that sometimes it is as high as 20 per cent. Liebig said that the fermentation destroyed enough food material daily in Germany to supply 400,000 people with bread. However, yeast bread is very agreeable to the taste and therefore is probably worth more than the unfermented product.

One objection to yeast bread is that all the yeast is not killed in baking, and the alcoholic fermentation may start again in the stomach. If the bread is turned into zwieback this is remedied. Fresh bread is not fit to eat, for it is very rarely properly masticated and if it is merely moistened and converted into a soggy mass in the mouth it is hard to digest.

Unleavened bread is made by making the flour into a paste, rolling out thin and baking well. Any kind of flour may be used. This is the passover bread of the Jews.

Dr. Graham's bread was made by mixing Graham flour with water, without any leavening, mixing the dough thoroughly, putting this aside several hours and baking.

Macaroni and spaghetti are made by mixing durum wheat flour with water, without any leavening. With the addition of eggs we get commercial noodles. The paste is moulded as desired.

All bread stuffs should be well baked. The baking turns part of the starch into dextrine, which is easy to digest. Biscuits should be placed into a hot oven, but bread should be put into an oven moderately heated, otherwise the crust forms too quickly.

Whenever a light product is desired, whether it is bread, biscuit or cake, sift the flour over and over again to get it well impregnated with air. The more air it contains the more porous will be the finished product. Five or six siftings will suffice.

Unleavened breads of excellent flavor can be made by using either cream or butter as shortening, rolling the bread very thin, like crackers, and baking thoroughly.

Shredded wheat biscuits, puffed wheat and puffed rice, flaked wheat and flaked corn are some of the good foods we can purchase ready made. Most of them should be placed in a warm oven long enough to crisp. Masticate thoroughly and take them with either butter or milk, or both. It is best to take the milk either before or after eating the cereal. Sugar should not be added to these foods. Those who are not hungry enough to eat them without sugar should fast until normal hunger returns.

"Baking powder bread" is very good. The essentials are well sifted flour, liquid, good baking powder, quick mixing and a hot oven. The following recipe, recommended by Dr. Tilden, is good: To a quart of very best flour, which has been sifted two or three times, add a little salt and a heaping teaspoonful of baking powder. Sift again three times. Then add one or two tablespoonfuls of soft butter. Mix rapidly into a rather stiff dough with unskimmed milk. The dough should be rolled thin, and cut into small biscuits or strips. Put into a pan and bake in a hot oven until there is a crisp crust on bottom and top, which will take about twenty minutes. The more thoroughly and quickly the dough is mixed, the better the result.

These biscuits or bread sticks are good, always best when made rather thin, not to exceed an inch in thickness after being baked. When an attempt is made to bake in the form of a fairly thick loaf it is generally a failure. Use the proportions of white and whole wheat flours desired.

If more butter or some cream is added and it is rolled out thin, it serves very well for the bread part of shortcake.

 

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