588 



flour and that from flour with the proportion of starch diminished. 

 Experiments were also made to determine the relation between 

 the nature of the gluten and the character of the bread. This was done 

 by comparing bread from normal flour with that from other flour of 

 the same lot, from which part or all of its gliadin had been extracted. 

 Dough made from the latter was not sticky, but felt like putty, and 

 broke in the same way. The yeast caused the mass to expand a little 

 when first placed in the oven ; then the loaf broke apart at the top and 

 decreased in size. When baked it was less than half the size of that 

 from the same weight of normal flour, and decidedly inferior in other, 

 respects. It was about as heavy as the same quantity of rubber. The 

 removal of part of the gliadin produced nearly the same effect as the 

 extraction of the whole of it, and even when an equal quantity of 

 normal flour was mixed with that from which part of the gliadin had 

 been extracted the bread was only slightly improved. 



Some experiments have recently been made at the Ontario Agri- 

 culture College to determine what kinds of flours were best adapted 

 to making milk biscuit with baking powder, and the conclusion 

 reached that soft flours, i. e., those in which the gluten was not too 

 strong, made biscuits that were tenderer and more easily handled 

 than strong flours. 



At the present prices of the different flours the strong wheat 

 flour biscuits cost more than soft wheat flour biscuits. It is possible 

 that a larger proportion of fat used with the strong wheat flour would 

 yield biscuits of tenderness equal to those of soft wheat flour, but 

 the cost of fat makes that method of improvement a disadvantage. 



Grades of Flour. There are several grades of flour obtained in 

 milling the wheat. These are known as first and second patent, first 

 and second clear grade and red-dog. The first patent is the highest 

 grade of flour manufactured ; the gluten in it has a greater power of 

 expansion than that in any other grade, and the loaf made is the 

 largest and whitest. Second patent is somewhat similar to first pat- 

 ent, but the gluten has not quite so high a power of expansion, and 

 the bread is a shade darker. The first clear grade, which comprised 

 about 12 per cent of the wheat, is obtained after the first and second 

 patent have been removed. This grade contains slightly more pro- 

 tein than either of the two patent grades, but the gliadin and glutenin 

 are not present in such favorable proportions for bread making. All 

 three of these flours are combined to produce the straight or standard 

 patent flour. The quantity of first or second patent flour put upon 

 the market is relatively small compared with that of standard patent. 



After the standard patent flour has been removed there is still 

 obtained about 0.5 per cent of a flour called second clear, or low 

 grade, which contains a high percentage of protein, but with a gluten 

 of poor quality for bread making. Finally there is the so-called red- 

 dog flour, the lowest grade produced, which is secured mainly from 

 the germ or embryo and adjacent parts of the wheat. It contains 

 large proportions of protein and fat, but the proteids of the wheat 

 germ are decidedly different from gluten in character and composi- 



