FOOD PREPARATIONS. 357 
should, however, not be underrated, for it is the foundation of all higher 
life and should be perpetually considered. If Paul were speaking today, 
he would say that what we eat and drink has much to do with the right- 
eousness, peace and joy which he once so earnestly advocated. He would 
say, looking through the lens of science, ‘‘I find that righteousness begins 
with the physical, and the right or wrong feeding of the body has much 
to do with the development of the mental and spiritual.” Taking this 
view of our subject,we feel that we cannot make use of too much research, 
nor can we Carelessly refuse to turn the light of science upon our present 
methods. 
Too long fomentation injures the flour and makes the labor of bread- 
making tedious; and, if a little more yeast, together with care in keeping 
the dough from becoming cold and not permitting it to get too light, will 
lessen our labor, it certainly would be wise to adopt the method. (See last 
year’s report.) 
Science does not give us many facts, but there are several which it may 
be well enough for us to note. Since there is pleasure in working intelli- 
gently, in understanding the materials we handle, I will give the constit- 
uent parts of wheat, and some of the changes these parts undergo in the 
process of bread-making. Iam indebted to the Encyclopedia Britannica 
and Williams’ Chemistry of Cookery for much of what follows. 
The grain of wheat consists of an outer husk, an embryo, and a central 
mass of farinaceous material. The husk is composed of several distinct 
layers of ligneous tissue, closely adhering to the seed and very hard in 
texture. In grinding, this is detached in scales and constitutes the chief 
proportion of bran. The seed contains gluten, starch and diastase. The 
grinding of the grain is the first process in the cookery of bread. The next 
stage is that of surrounding each grain of the flour with a thin film of 
water—then kneading in order to squeeze the water well between the par- 
ticles. If nothing more than this was done, and such simple dough were 
baked, the starch granules would be duly broken up and hydrated, and the 
gluten also hydrated, but,at the same time, the particles of flour would be 
so cemented together as to form a mass so hard and tough when baked, 
that no ordinary human teeth could crush it; but that difficulty is over- 
come in the every day method of bread-making. Who invented it and 
when, we do not know. Its discovery was certainly very far anterior to 
any knowledge of the chemical principles involved. 
Gluten is one of the most important properties of flour. It is the sub- 
stance which renders the dough firm and of sufticient consistency to hold 
the gases long enough to insure a light, palatable bread. When gluten is 
kept in a moist state, it slowly loses its soft, elastic and insoluble condi- 
tion. The gluten of imperfectly ripened wheat, or flour or wheat that 
has been kept in the midst of humid surroundings, appears to have fallen 
partially into this condition; glaten being an actively hydroscopic sub- 
stance. If kept in water for a few days, it gradually runs down intoa 
turbid, slimy solution, which does not: form dough when mixed with 
starch. We have here the reason for keeping flour in a dry atmosphere. 
Liebig’s experiments show that flour in which the gluten has under- 
gone this partial change may have its original qualities restored by mix- 
ing 100 parts of flour with 26 or 27 parts of saturated lime water and a 
sufficiency of reducing water to work it into dough. There are several 
