=Margarine= is prepared from beef-fat by melting, the stearin becoming solid again at a temperature at which olein and margarine still remain liquid. It forms a wholesome and cheap food, being nearly as digestible as butter, for which more expensive food it is often fraudulently sold. When mixed with a small proportion of butter its recognition by smell, etc., is almost impossible, but on careful chemical analysis, it is found to have a higher melting point and a lower specific gravity than butter, and a much smaller percentage of soluble fatty acids than the latter. Thus:— ┌───────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ MELTING │ SPECIFIC │ SAPONIFICATION AND FORMATION │ │ │ POINT. │ GRAVITY. │ OF INSOLUBLE FATTY ACID. │ ├───────────┼──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │_Butter_ │ 32° C. │ .913 │ 88 per cent. insoluble fatty acid│ │_Margarine_│ 35° C.[1]│ .904─.907│ 95[2] „ „ „ │ └───────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────────────────────────────┘ CEREAL FOODS.—Gluten is peculiar to plants, and is chiefly found in plants belonging to the great family of grasses. Gluten is to bread what casein is to milk, and myosin to flesh. If one takes a piece of dough made from wheat flour, and holds it under a stream of water from the tap, a large part of it is washed away, while a sticky adherent mass is left behind. This is gluten, and it is its tenacity which enables bread to be made. If the fluid with which the dough was washed is collected, it will be found to contain a large quantity of starch, a small amount of sugar, of albumin, and certain salts. All cereals possess these constituents in various proportions, as may be seen from the following table:— ┌──────────────┬──────┬────────┬────┬──────────────┬──────────┬───────┐ │ │WATER.│PROTEID.│FAT.│CARBOHYDRATES.│CELLULOSE.│MINERAL│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │MATTER.│ │ ├──────┼────────┼────┼──────────────┼──────────┼───────┤ │_Wheatmeal_ │ 12.1 │ 12.9 │1.9 │ 70.3 │ 1.6 │ 1.2 │ │_Fine wheat │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ flour_ │ 13.0 │ 9.5 │0.8 │ 75.3 │ 0.7 │ 0.7 │ │_Oatmeal_ │ 7.2 │ 14.2 │7.3 │ 65.9 │ 3.5 │ 1.9 │ │_Barley meal_ │ 11.9 │ 10.0 │2.2 │ 71.5 │ 1.8 │ 2.6 │ │_Maize meal_ │ 11.4 │ 8.5 │4.6 │ 72.8 │ 1.4 │ 1.3 │ │_Rice (husk │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ removed)_ │ 12.0 │ 7.2 │2.0 │ 76.8 │ 1.0 │ 1.0 │ └──────────────┴──────┴────────┴────┴──────────────┴──────────┴───────┘ The proteid varies in character in the different cereals; wheat flour has the largest proportion of gluten (8 to 12 per cent.) and therefore makes the best bread.