1 84 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



a doughy mass in the mouth, the saliva cannot be thoroughly 

 mixed with it, and an initial serious hindrance is placed in the 

 way of effective digestion. Flavour is a matter largely of 

 personal likes and dislikes. Some people like stodgy bread, 

 which keeps moist or even damp a long time. A good 

 deal of the so-called old-fashioned farmhouse bread is of this 

 description, the result of using weak flours, or of imperfect 

 aeration, or of both causes combined. It is very much open 

 to doubt whether a person used to high-class modern breads 

 would care to eat this stodgy bread for any length of time, 

 though as a change of diet it may at first be very agreeable ; 

 but, however that may be, it cannot be claimed that it is easily 

 digested. For thorough digestion, a well-aerated loaf is 

 essential, and that implies the use of a " strong " flour. There 

 exists a popular fallacy that the use of a strong flour means 

 dry-eating bread, and there is a substratum of truth in the 

 idea ; for strong flours will stand a long and severe fermenta- 

 tion. If poor-flavoured bread results, the process of bread- 

 making should be blamed, and not the strong flour. On the 

 contrary, a strong flour, with its concomitant high percentage 

 of natural sugar and its ability to stand a complete but rapid 

 fermentation, can and does produce bread of superb flavour, 

 free from stodginess, well aerated, and thoroughly digestible. 

 The Minnesota experiments already referred to have shown, 

 among other things, that the bread made from a strong flour 

 can be digested quite as thoroughly as bread made from weak 

 flours ; so that the consumer is able to secure the full advantage 

 of an increased proportion of nitrogen in his daily bread by 

 the use of strong wheats, for great strength is generally an 

 index of high nitrogen content. 



There is no necessity to dwell at any length on the causes 

 of whiteness in bread. The baker by scrupulous cleanliness 

 and careful intelligent attention paid to his bakehouse practice 

 has had an important share in the great and palpable improve- 

 ment in the appearance of modern bread, but the principal 

 cause of the improvement in this particular lies in the wheats 

 used and in their milling. A white flour which is weak will 

 not make bread of the best appearance. Whiteness in bread is 

 largely a question of optics. A stodgy bread will not appear 

 to be as white or nice as one which is properly vesiculated. A 

 loaf made from a weak white flour will not appear to be as 



