Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency)Alsaker, Rasmus Larssen
Science
Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency)
Alsaker, Rasmus Larssen
Diet; Hygiene
The rice that should be used is brown and unpolished. When it is cooked
it looks quite white. It is very satisfying.
Rye is extensively used in some lands. The bread is very good. Oats are
largely devoured in Scotland. Corn bread is a favorite food in the
southern part of our country. The negroes are fond of corn and pork with
molasses, which is far from an ideal combination in warm climates.
PREPARATIONS.
Wheat makes the best bread because it contains gluten. Among proteins
gluten is unique, because it is so elastic and after it has stretched it
has a tendency to retain its place. This is what makes bread so porous.
There are various meals or flours that can not be made into bread, or
even dough, because they lack compounds which will act as frame work.
Bread can be made in many ways. The chief question for the housewife to
decide is whether to make the bread from entire wheat flour or from
patent flour. They are so different in value that a decision should not
be difficult. It is also necessary to decide whether to use yeast bread
or some other kind.
Yeast bread is made essentially from flour, water and yeast in the
presence of heat. There are so many ways of making bread of this kind
that a recipe is not necessary. The amount of salt to be added depends
upon individual taste. Some like to set their yeast working in part
potato, part flour. Others use milk instead of water. Some add
shortening. And nearly all women believe that their own bread is the
best.
Yeast is made up of myriads of little plants or fungi, which thrive on
the sugary part of the flour. They convert this into alcohol and
carbonic acid gas. The alcohol is practically all gone before the bread
is brought to the table. The gas raises the bread, assisted by the
expansion of the water in the dough when it is placed in a hot oven.
The yeast consumes a great deal of the nutritive part of the flour. This
may amount to from 5 to 8 per cent. of the food value, and I have read
that sometimes it is as high as 20 per cent. Liebig said that the
fermentation destroyed enough food material daily in Germany to supply
400,000 people with bread. However, yeast bread is very agreeable to the
taste and therefore is probably worth more than the unfermented product.
One objection to yeast bread is that all the yeast is not killed in
baking, and the alcoholic fermentation may start again in the stomach.
If the bread is turned into zwieback this is remedied. Fresh bread is
not fit to eat, for it is very rarely properly masticated and if it is
merely moistened and converted into a soggy mass in the mouth it is hard
to digest.
Unleavened bread is made by making the flour into a paste, rolling out
thin and baking well. Any kind of flour may be used. This is the
passover bread of the Jews.
Dr. Graham's bread was made by mixing Graham flour with water, without
any leavening, mixing the dough thoroughly, putting this aside several
hours and baking.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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