4 o 



Quality in Wheaten Flour. 



essentially different characteristics, frequently combined in the 

 same flour but in reality independent units of quality. Strength 

 should be defined as "the capacity for making large, shapely, and, 

 therefore, well-aerated loaves." High dietetic value is the result 

 of the proper combination of various qualities and need not there- 

 fore be specified as a separate characteristic. 



It should be remembered that in the economy of Nature wheat 

 is a seed. The true function of the husk is to protect the food of 

 the plantlet, and it therefore resists disintegration and can be 

 found in existence in the ground six or nine months after planting. 

 The endosperm or kernel is converted by the action of enzymes, 

 operating on a damp or wet pabulum, into the food of the plantlet 

 until the latter is able to get its sustenance from soil and air. 

 These agents and operations have to be controlled or influenced 

 by the miller and baker when wheats and wheaten flour are 

 diverted from their natural functions to use as food for man. 



Flavour. — If an extremely small proportion of diastase — say 

 o'02 per cent, of absolute diastase or its equivalent in the malt 

 extracts of commerce — be added to flour in milling or in baking, 

 a very perceptible improvement in flavour is produced. If sugar 

 itself be added, its effect on flavour is either nil or harmful. It 

 seems, therefore, that the improvement in flavour due to the 

 addition of diastase is caused by the production in fermentation 

 of intermediate products of a dextrinous nature. An improve- 

 ment in flavour is usually or frequently correlated with an 

 increased moistness of the bread. The water-retaining capacity of 

 dextrinous matter is well known. One charge against modern 

 milling is that the germ of wheat is now extracted. In a Paper 

 ("Modern Developments of Flour Milling ") read before the Royal 

 Society of Arts in 1906 the author showed that a substantial pro- 

 portion of the germ was extracted by millstone milling, but a 

 larger proportion is extracted by roller milling. The percentage 

 of the wheat extracted as germ by either process is very small, 

 but as a consequence enzymic action is diminished to an appre- 

 ciable extent. Some harm is also done to flavour, but, on the 

 whole, it is desirable to extract the germ. Enzymic action depends 

 not only upon the presence of enzymes in sufficient quantity, but 

 upon the physical state of their pabulum. The methods of 

 milling, in particular the skilful use of water in conditioning the 

 wheat before grinding or in the processes of grinding and 

 separating, or even the addition of water by the miller to certain 

 flours after milling, may materially assist enzymic action. 



Colour. — Opinions differ as to whether perfection of colour 

 implies whiteness of chalky or of creamy hue ; all are agreed it 

 should imply brightness of appearance in crumb and crust. 

 Excellence of colour in bread cannot be measured by any absolute 



