584 MISCELLANEOUS FARM SUBJECTS 



Meal or flour from any of the cereals may be used for unleav- 

 ened bread, but leavened bread can be made only from those which 

 contain gluten, a mixture of vegetable proteids which when moist- 

 ened with water becomes viscid, and is tenacious enough to confine 

 the gas produced in the dough. Most cereals, like barley, rice, oats, 

 and corn are deficient or wholly lacking in gluten, and hence can 

 not be used alone for making leavened bread. Rye and wheat, which 

 contain an abundance of gluten, are best fitted for bread, wheat being 

 in this country more commonly used. 



Macaroni, vermicelli, and other forms of Italian paste constitute 

 a very important class of foods made from wheat. In food value and 

 in use in the dietary they are very similar to unleavened bread. For 

 the finest of these materials a very hard sort of wheat has lately as- 

 sumed importance in this country, and is known best as macaroni 

 wheat. 



The grain of rye, similar to that of wheat, differs in some fea- 

 tures. The rye loaf is not as light and well raised as that of wheat. 

 Rye flour when used alone produces the dark-colored bread which is 

 extensively used in European countries, in many of which it forms 

 the staple article of diet among the poor people, rye flour there being 

 cheaper than wheat. It is commonly regarded as inferior to wheat 

 bread in flavor, but approaches it closely in nutritive value. Rye 

 flour mixed with a considerable proportion of wheat flour makes a 

 much better bread than rye flour alone. 



YEAST. 



Keeping the above facts in mind, it is easy to understand the 

 leavening effect of yeast in dough. The yeast, working in the warm 

 water and flour, feeds on sugar originally present or else produced 

 from the starch grows and spreads throughout the dough, giving off 

 carbon-dioxid gas, which forces its way between the tenacious par- 

 ticles of gluten and lightens the dough. 



Scientifically speaking, yeast is a minute fungus. A single 

 plant is a round or oval one-celled microscopic body which repro- 

 duces in two wayseither by sending put buds which break off as new 

 plants or by forming spores which will grow into new plants under 

 favorable conditions. It grows only in the presence of moisture, heat, 

 and nutritive material. Yeast develops best at a temperature of 77 

 to 95 F. (25 to 35 C.) It is believed that some nitrogen is 

 necessary for the best development of yeast, and that such develop- 

 ment is most complete in the presence of free oxygen. 



RAISED BREAD, GENERAL METHODS. 



Ordinarily a baker mixes his dough with water. Sometimes, es- 

 pecially in private families, milk is used in the place of part or all 

 of the water. Such dough is slower in rising but makes an equally 

 light loaf. Milk bread contains more proteids and fats than water 

 bread, and is equally digestible. Its use is by all means to be advo- 

 cated, especially on farms where skim milk is abundant. The hard- 

 ness or softness of the water used makes little difference in the quality 

 of the bread. Salt is used in bread because it imparts a flavor with- 



