Part 2 (1/2)
The United States, more like England than Scotland, has used oats mostly for feed. The crop is second only to the corn-crop. Oats are eaten in the form of oatmeal, which is a finely granulated meal, and as the common rolled oats which have been steamed and put through rollers. There is little oat flour on the market at present. A successful and palatable home-made flour may be prepared by putting rolled oats through a food-chopper. Any of the forms of oats can be used in breads of all kinds, but the more finely ground flour can be subst.i.tuted in larger proportion. The demand for oat products has grown so rapidly the last year that mills are running to their limit.
Special machinery is required for its manufacture, so that a great increase in the supply is not feasible in a short time.
_Barley and Rye_. In using barley and rye for bread we are only going back to the methods of our forefathers. Barley is supposed to be one of the first cereals used by man. Good barley flour is a very acceptable subst.i.tute for wheat, but if too large a proportion of the kernel is included, it may be bitter in flavor.
_Rye_, of all the cereals, makes bread nearest like wheat, though the rye bread formerly made usually contained from 20 per cent to 80 per cent wheat flour. The supply is far below what we could well use. For this reason it is not included among the cereals which the housekeeper is allowed to buy on the 50-50 plan, and since March 31, 1918, bakers have not been allowed to use it as a subst.i.tute in baking on the same basis as the other subst.i.tutes.
_Rice_. Rice forms the chief food of hundreds of millions of people, and in many oriental countries is the staple cereal, like wheat with us. As a wheat subst.i.tute we may use it cooked whole or ground into a flour. The rice flour may be mixed with other cereals in making bread and cakes. The rice polish, which is a by-product secured by rubbing off with brushes the outside coating of the brown rice, is much cheaper. It has been sold chiefly for stock-feed, but it has possibilities as a flour subst.i.tute.
The rice-growers of the South are doing their best to supply the country with rice in quant.i.ty and to make known the possibilities of this cereal. The rice flour supply, though not large now, will doubtless be much increased by next year. One Louisiana mill, for example, is increasing its output from 150 to 1,200 barrels a day.
_Other Cereal Subst.i.tutes_. Besides the subst.i.tutes which are common all over the country, there are products produced in too small amounts to make them universal subst.i.tutes, such as buckwheat, cottonseed meal, and peanut flour, any of which can be used with other flours for baking. The Southwest produces both flour and meal from milo, kaffir, and feterita.
Flours are made from the Irish and sweet potato, from tapioca, from soy beans, and bananas, but they are manufactured in such small amounts that they do not take the place of wheat to any great extent.
Potato flour comes nearest to doing this. It has always been used to some extent in Europe and it is being widely used in Germany now.
Potato itself can be used instead of wheat. An extra potato at a meal will take the place of a large slice of bread.
Many of the subst.i.tute cereals do not keep so well as wheat, especially if they contain more than a minimum of moisture and fat.
The housekeeper and the baker should therefore buy them in small enough quant.i.ties to use them up promptly and should keep them in a cool, well-ventilated place. May and June and the summer months are the time when most care is needed.
It is the free use of these many wholesome subst.i.tutes that is making possible the necessary saving of wheat. We who appreciate their wholesomeness and their value can well break away from our wheat habit and gladly make the little effort sometimes necessary to begin using newer foods.
CHAPTER III
WAR BREAD
Bread is the staff of life for all nations. But ”bread” does not necessarily mean the wheat loaf. At one time and place it has been barley cake, at another oaten cake, and at another corn pone. Bread has always been whatever cereal happened to be convenient. Even such unbreadlike food as rice is to some races what bread is to us.
Why, then, have we developed our wheat-bread habit? Partly because wheat bread has been easy to get and we have grown to like the taste, but chiefly because wheat flour gives the lightest loaf. To understand why, make a dough with a little white flour and water and then gently knead it in cold water. The consistency changes, the starch is washed out and a rubbery, sticky ball is left--the _gluten_, which is the protein of the wheat. It is this gluten in the flour that stretches when bread rises and then stiffens when it is baked, making a light, porous loaf. Wheat is the only one of the cereals that has much gluten; rye has a little and the others practically none.
Gluten seems to be essential to the making of a light, yeast-raised loaf. Products raised with baking-powder, for which our standard of lightness is different--”quick breads” like biscuits and m.u.f.fins and cakes--do not require the gluten and can easily be made from subst.i.tute cereals. But for our ordinary loaf of bread, at least some wheat seems to be almost essential, though with skill in the making, rye can be made to serve in its place. Patriotic bakers and housewives all over the country have been trying to produce a wheatless loaf which is light, palatable, and sufficiently durable to stand transportation. The durability is a very important consideration; crumbly corn bread cannot be distributed by bakers nor served to armies. Corn bread and the other quick breads are chiefly home-made products.
OUR PRESENT PROBLEM, THEREFORE, IS TO MAKE THE MOST EFFECTIVE POSSIBLE USE OF OUR WHEAT GLUTEN, TO MAKE IT GO AS FAR AS POSSIBLE IN OUR BREADS. BOTH BAKERS AND PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS HAVE THEIR SHARE IN SOLVING THE PROBLEM.
THE BAKERS' REGULATIONS. VICTORY BREAD
The bakers have co-operated loyally. Probably no other food industry has been more vitally affected by the war. ALL BAKERS USING THREE OR MORE BARRELS OF FLOUR A MONTH HAVE BEEN LICENSED AND SO ARE UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE FOOD ADMINISTRATION. This means practically all the commercial bakers of the country, and many hotels, clubs, and inst.i.tutions. About two-fifths of the bread in the United States is made in bakeries and three-fifths in the home. The bakeries have used 35,000,000 barrels of flour each year, so the importance of this field for conservation is plain.
The amount of wheat flour they are now permitted to have has been reduced: at present 80 per cent of their last year's quant.i.ty, or, if they are pastry and cracker bakers, 70 per cent. They must make no bread wholly of wheat flour. Some subst.i.tute must be mixed with the wheat. When the regulation went into effect in February, 1918, 20 per cent was required and later, 25 per cent. In pies and cakes there must be at least one-third subst.i.tute. The amounts of sugar and fat used are limited. Even the sizes of the loaves are fixed, so that the extravagance of making and handling all sorts of fancy shapes and sizes may be avoided. Bread must not be sold to the retailer at unreasonable prices.
Victory bread is bread made in accordance with these regulations.
The name ”Victory” was chosen as representing the idea underlying the conservation of wheat. The name is really a present to the Food Administration, having been used by two large firms who gave up all rights to their trade-mark.
Hotels and restaurants are required to make or serve bread containing at least as much of the wheat subst.i.tutes as Victory bread. They may not serve more than two ounces of bread and other wheat products to a guest at a meal. Many of them have recently promised to use no wheat at all till the next harvest. That means, of course, that only through intelligent effort can they serve yeast bread.