=The ingredients of bread.=——The essential ingredients are flour, water, and yeast. The liquid may be milk, or milk and water, the milk changing the flavor slightly and increasing the nutritive value, while the cream in the milk increases the tenderness of the crumb and crust. The non-essentials include salt to develop flavor, sugar sometimes added to hasten fermentation and also for flavor, and a fat to increase tenderness, as, for instance, butter or some cheaper fat. Spices and dried fruits are used in sweet breads, and when eggs are added sweet bread becomes a plain cake having a delicious and characteristic flavor. =The characteristics of good flour=.——The average composition of flour is as follows: Protein 11.4 per cent Fat 1.0 ” Carbohydrate 75.1 ” Fuel value 1610 Cal. per pound 100-Calorie portion 28 grams (1 ounce) The protein occurs in the form of gluten, which has the property of stretching and expanding, and which makes the framework of the loaf of bread, since it retains the air and carbon dioxide, and hardens when baked. The protein of oats and corn lacks this property, and therefore oatmeal and corn meal give a very different type of bread. Rye flour contains gluten, and the rye loaf therefore resembles the wheat loaf. Wheat and flour differ largely on account of the difference in the amount of gluten, and the gluten itself varies in quality with the variety of wheat. [Illustration: FIG. 52.——Experiment illustrating the effect of the kind of wheat upon the size of the loaf. _Courtesy of Utah Agricultural College._] Figure 52 shows the result of an experiment with flour made from different kinds of wheat, all the other factors in the bread making being identical. This effect of the difference in the composition of the flour is very striking. Again, the same variety of wheat will differ from season to season, and the time of planting, also, affects the quality of the grain. The time of planting and reaping gives us two classes of wheat and flour, the winter and spring. Winter wheat is sown in the fall and obtains its first growth before winter, living through the winter in those latitudes where the climate is sufficiently mild, being harvested in early summer. Spring wheat is sown in the spring and harvested late and it is the wheat of the great flour-producing state, Minnesota. The difference in the composition of the two wheats is shown in this table.[13] =============================================================== | WATER | PROTEIN | FAT |CARBOHYDRATE| ASH | --------------------|-------|---------|-----|------------|-----| Wheat | | | | | | Spring varieties | 10.4 | 12.5 | 2.2 | 73. | 1.9 | Winter varieties | 10.5 | 11.8 | 2.1 | 73.8 | 1.8 | ---------------------------------------------------------------