564 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



and baked out of contact with the combustion gases no reaction was secured 

 for nitrites. Bread can not contain any appreciable amount of nitrite reacting 

 material, as llie carbon dioxid and organic acids produced during bread-ma liing 

 liberate nitrites. 



" In 15 digestion experiments with men no difference whatever was observed 

 in the digestibility of breads from bleached and unbleached flour. The bleach- 

 ing of the flour exerted no influence whatever upon the amount of nutrients ab- 

 sorbed and digested. Artificial digestion experiments with pepsin solution gave 

 similar results. 



"A kerosene lamp will produce in 1 hour 0.00027 gm. of nitrite nitrogen. 

 This is over five times more than is present in a pound of an average sample of 

 commercially bleached flour. Nitrites are produced as a result of combustion of 

 all fuels and organic substances containing nitrogen. Flour exposed to wood 

 smoke for a few minutes will contain more nitrites than when electrically 

 bleached. Foods prepared by recognized and approved methods, as smoking of 

 meats, contain nitrites. Salted, smoked and cured bacon, hams and similar 

 meats, contain much larger amounts of nitrites than bleached flour. . . . 



" In bread-making tests of commercially bleached flours no difference what- 

 ever was observed between the breads produced from the bleached and the un- 

 bleached flours milled from the same wheats, except that the bleached flours pro- 

 duced a whiter bread and also showed a tendency to produce larger sized loaves. 

 Bleaching of the flour did not impart any odor or taste to the bread or leave in 

 it any residue. ... 



" The bleaching of flour has a slight drying effect resulting in the consumer 

 receiving a proportionally larger amount of dry matter in the flour." 



Causes of the quality strength in wheaten flour, A. E. Humphries {Rpt. 

 Brit. Assoc. Adv. 8ck, 1901, pp. 487, 488). — The author states that although 

 climate and soil influence quality they are not the determining factors in pro- 

 ducing strength in flour. Manuring or early cutting at harvest time has no 

 beneficial effect on quality, nor does the percentage of natural moisture in well- 

 harvested wheat indicate it. " Quick growth or rapid maturation of wheats 

 grown in England is not correlated with strength." 



According to the home-grown wheat committee of the National Association of 

 British and Irish Millers strength should not be measured by the quantity 

 of water required to make doughs of standard consistency, or the quantity of 

 bread per sack, or the way flour behaves in the dough, " but by its capacity for 

 making big, shapely, and therefore well-aerated loaves. This definition covers 

 two characteristics; one, a flour's capacity for making gas in yeast fermenta- 

 tion, more particularly its capacity for making gas at the latest stages of 

 fermentation ; the other, its capacity when made into dough for retaining the 

 gas so generated." 



Some considerations determining the strength of flours, J. L. Baker and 

 H. F. S. HuLTON {Rpt. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci., 1907, pp. 488, 7/89).— From their 

 studies of the subject the authors do not believe that the diastatic activity 

 of flour is likely to afford evidence as to baking quality, but in their opinion 

 a study of enzyms other than diastase which may be present, seems a hopeful 

 line for investigation. 



New process of bread making [using cotton-seed meal] (Oper. Miller, 

 13 {1908), No. a, p. 280). — A brief account of the use of cotton-seed meal with^ 

 wheat flour for making bread and similar foods, according to a process devised 

 by C. E. Wait. 



Do macaroons contain hydrocyanic acid (prussic acid)? W. T. Koch (Pure 

 Products, 4 (1908), No. 5, pp. 205-207). — According to the author's observations,- 

 macaroons containing some bitter almonds or other fruit kernels which generate 



