CHAPTER XVI. 

 THE CONSUMPTION OF WHEAT. 



The Whole Wheat was used by the ancients for food. Pliny 

 describes "amylum," a food prepared from unground wheat, 

 which was first soaked, and then hardened into cakes in the 

 sun. At an early date in England whole wheat, known as 

 1 1 f rumity, ' ' was used as food. Here the grain was also soaked, 

 and then boiled with milk and sweetened. Ordinarily wheat is 

 no longer used as human food without first being ground or 

 crushed. Where mills are wanting, as is sometimes the case in 

 frontier and in savage life, the grain is often simply parched 

 or boiled. The Arabs, for example, have a dish known as 

 "kouskous," which is made by boiling fermented wheat. 



The Uses of Different Flours. When wheat is ground by the 

 modern processes many different grades of flour result, not 

 only from different kinds and grades of wheat, but also from 

 the same grade or variety. Over 50 direct milling products may 

 result from grinding one grade of wheat. These products 

 differ so in quality that many of them are each most suitable 

 for a certain purpose of consumption. What is true of one 

 grade or variety of wheat in this respect is true also of differ-' 

 ent grades and kinds of wheat, and the products differ more 

 widely yet. 



Hard- Wheat Flour. Hard wheat, of which the spring wheat 

 of the Red river valley and the Turkey red wheat of Kansas are 

 excellent examples, produces the flour that stands for the 

 world's white-loaf bread, or "light bread." This flour is rich 

 in gluten, which readily absorbs a considerable quantity of 

 water. As gluten becomes wet, it swells to several times its 

 dry bulk, and it grows elastic and tenacious. Gluten is the 

 nitrogenous or tissue-building part of the wheat, and it sup- 

 plies the same important food elements as are furnished by lean 

 meat and the casein of milk. 



Soft-Wheat Flour. The flour made from soft wheat is the 

 best flour for crackers (English "biscuits"), cake, pastry, and 

 the hot 'soda biscuits" so common in the southern portion of 



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