Breads And Cereals

Bread is the staff of life and without the homely loaf we would often feel unsatisfied even though surrounded by the most tasty viands. Someone has well said that "there is true religion in a loaf of good bread." Today when the cost of living is high, the quality of our bread becomes a question of the greatest importance, and when we are confronted with the fact that the refined flour of today has been robbed of life giving properties by the removal of the outer layer of the grain, it behooves us to cultivate a taste for real graham bread and demand whole flour instead of that which has been devitalized. (See Chapter IX (Vitamines)).

The Whole Grain

Whether bread is made from wheat, rye, or corn, flour containing the whole grain should be obtained whenever possible. In this way not only are the valuable vitamines and mineral salts saved to the body, but the extra bulk is a great help in the prevention and treatment of constipation. One of the most generally recognized foods indicated in constipation is bread containing an excess of bran. However, the addition of sterilized bran to bread made from devitalized flour, while of some benefit, can not take the place of bread containing both the coarse outer covering and the vitamines which would be found in graham bread made from real graham flour.

Genuine whole wheat or graham flour is difficult to obtain, but its value as a food is worthy of a determined effort to obtain it and to eat it every day as bread, raisin bread, nut bread, or gems. The flour sold as whole wheat is usually a combination of a few of the several low grades of flour, middlings, and bran produced by the roller processes, and so does not contain vitamines.

Home Ground Wheat

After being ground the outer layer containing the germ will not keep more than a few weeks and so can not be stored indefinitely. For this reason the manufacturers will not keep it on hand until the demand for it is greater than it has been. But the occasional small miller can often be found who will grind the whole wheat berry, as it is called for, or the wheat can be ground at home in a small mill or even in a coffee mill.

Several families may club together and buy a mill in which a supply of whole wheat flour may be ground for them all.

This has been done by many with satisfactory results. We are too often prone to do the easy thing, but a sense of the importance of having the best, most wholesome bread will result in a determined effort to obtain it, and "where there is a will there is a way".

A mill can be bought at a small cost that will turn out 15 lbs. of whole wheat flour per hour. Larger and more expensive mills may be purchased that will grind as high as 50 lbs. per hour. With wheat at $2.25 a bushel it is worth 3 2/3c per lb. Labor time not counted, home grinding then saves per pound the difference between 3 2/3c and the 6c or 7c at which graham or whole wheat flour is marketed. At the same time the family is supplied with a fresh, whole grain containing its food elements entire. One who has suitable storage room may buy grain by the bushel and grind it as it is needed. It should, of coarse, be protected from dampness and mice. This home ground wheat may be coarsely ground and used as breakfast cereal, or in a more finely divided state it may be used in bread making. The wheat should first be washed until the water is clear and spread on a cloth to be dried before grinding. (See recipe 10, Chapter XXII.) This mill may be used in grinding other grains as corn, rye, buckwheat, rice, or in making peanut butter, and grinding dried fruits, etc.

Fresh Bread

Given bread made from flour which is of the right quality, it should be prepared in a way that will permit of easy digestion. Bread raised with yeast, most commonly used and undoubtedly the best, should, of course, be light and sweet, but aside from these qualities there is another qualification to which we pay little attention, and that is the process through which bread passes after it is baked. Fresh bread is difficult of digestion, and this difficulty is enhanced by the common addition to it of large amounts of butter. Being soft it is not thoroughly masticated and it is often swallowed in masses which become soggy in the stomach. The gastric juice is unable to mix thoroughly with it, digestion is delayed and fermentation results. On the other hand, if bread is allowed to stand for twenty-four hours or more, important changes take place which eliminate its indigestible qualities. It becomes drier, separates into small particles more readily, and certain chemical changes actually occur in the protein as the bread becomes stale that greatly increase its digestibility.

Oven Toast Or Zweiback

These conditions are enhanced when bread is twice baked, as in oven toast, and for one with a weak digestion there is no bread so well received by the stomach. The starch is partly digested by the extreme heat and we speak of it as being "dextrinized." Its brittleness allows of easy solution by the digestive fluids.

The Wrong Way

Toast, as often made, is not better than fresh bread. A slice of bread is taken and browned superficially leaving the center soft and often more like fresh bread than if it had not been toasted. This is then covered with butter and reheated, making a combination in the "hot buttered toast" as ordinarily served that can hardly be called hygienic, even though commonly considered under the head of invalid dietary. The thorough mastication of hard breads would tend to prevent much of the premature decay of teeth so prevalent among the American people. Here as elsewhere are often seen the results of lack of exercise, and the teeth tend, because of disuse, to fall into degeneration and premature decay.

Baking powder and soda breads are not the best for several reasons:

1. They are made usually of refined, devitalized flour.

2. They are served hot, and eaten with an excess of butter.

3. Soda and baking powder destroy the vitamines, so even though whole grain were used, the addition of these powders would tend to devitalize the grain, with a resulting vitamine-less bread.

4. Baking powders, even though the best, leave in the bread a chemical residue, the continuous ingestion of which is not conducive to health.

In a baking powder two substances are combined, one alkaline the other acid in character. The alkaline substance is soda, the acid may be cream of tartar, acid phosphate or an acid salt of alum. The chemical reaction between the acid and the alkali results in the formation of carbonic acid gas (C02) and a salt. The gas passes off and makes the bread light, the salt is left behind as a residue in the bread. In the alum baking powders the residue is particularly unhealthful.

Analysis has shown that a cream of tartar baking powder leaves about 70% of its own weight in Rochelle salts as a residue and that the acid phosphate leaves about 35% of its own weight in sodium phosphate. These salts are all saline cathartics. Rochelle salts is the basic element of a Seidlitz powder. From the U. S. Department of Agriculture in Bulletin No. 13 we receive the information that "a loaf of bread made from a quart of flour leavened with cream of tartar baking powder contains forty-five grains more of Rochelle salts than is contained in one Seidlitz powder." Also in a report on baking powders by the Referee Board of Consulting Scientific Experts, appointed by the United States Department of Agriculture, that "it is wise to be moderate in the use of foods that are leavened with baking powders." Dr. A. Warner Shepard, formerly Health Officer in Brooklyn, said: "I have not the slightest doubt that the mental and physical health of thousands is permanently injured by the excessive use of Rochelle salts in bread and other forms of food and drink. It irritates the kidneys, bowels and stomach and may therefore produce most unfortunate results.

Devitalized Bread. How To Use Soda

5. Soda, if used at all, should be used with an acid in exact proportions, so that there may be no excess of alkali. The most accurate way to use it is with hydrochloric acid in the proportion of one exactly level teaspoon of soda to 80 minims of hydrochloric acid. In this way the following chemical reaction takes place: HCL (hydrochloric acid) + NaHC03 (soda) = NaCL (salt) + H20 (water) + C02 (carbonic acid gas). The end products are simply common salt, water and carbonic gas or carbon dioxid. This measurement, however, must be exact. Only the careful housewife should use this combination.

We quote from "The New Cookery" by Lenna Frances Cooper: "It is advisable when using hydrochloric acid to have a minim glass, which can be purchased for a small sum at any drug store. One perfectly level teaspoonful of soda is neutralized by 80 minims of hydrochloric acid. The hydrochloric acid must be chemically pure (marked C. P.) and in the concentrated form. One teaspoon of soda and 80 minims of hydrochloric acid are equivalent to four level teaspoons of baking powder . . . for most recipes 1/2 teaspoon of soda and 40 minims of hydrochloric acid are sufficient to use with one cup of flour." (For warm breads without baking powder see recipes, Chapter XXII).

Very satisfactory breakfast gems may be made without the use of baking powder or soda. These are best made with whole wheat or graham flour and are light and easy of digestion (See recipes 1 and 2).

Cereals As Protein Foods

Cereals are very useful foods, and it is most important that their comparative values be understood by the housewife. The greater part of the protein of all cereals is found in the pericarp and just beneath it, so any whole cereal is comparatively rich in protein. Even rice ceases to be merely a starchy food when not deprived of its outer covering. The tables in Chapter VI (An Ample Supply Of Protein Is Important) give the approximate protein value of these foods. Whole or cracked wheat, oat meal, and whole rice contain 13 to 18% of protein and so are of great help in the making up of the necessary daily ration of nitrogenous food. The proteins of cereals often being incomplete need to be supplemented by those of other foods, as milk, eggs and vegetables. This is due in part to the fact that much of the cereal eaten has been deprived of important proteins in the outer covering. However, a monotonous diet largely of cereals or of a single cereal should be avoided. (See Chapter VI).

To Cook Cereals

Cereals should be thoroughly cooked; the cooking preferably prolonged at a low temperature as in a double boiler or fireless cooker. The length of time required varies, but is usually two and one-half to six hours. This softens the outer covering and prepares the grain for easy and complete digestion. Cooked at the simmering point, the temperature is not high enough to destroy the vitamines. For invalids or for small children it may be necessary to serve cereals without the rough elements, but the prolonged cooking has put into solution most of the salts and vitamines of the outer layer and they are not lost to a great extent when only the harsh exterior is strained away. Gruels, while usually considered invalid dishes, make a nice variation from the ordinary breakfast mush and may be served for a change to the entire family for breakfast or as an evening lunch. (See recipes 19 to 21, Chapter XXII).

"Oh for festal dainties spread, Like my bowl of milk and bread; Pewter spoon and bowl of wood, On the door stone, gray and rude!"

- Whittier.