The grain most used for breadstuffs of all kinds is wheat, though corn and rye are in frequent use and others have been brought to the fore by war conditions. Wheat is one of the oldest of the grains and was cultivated very early in China, India, and Egypt. There are several varieties grown and various methods used in its cultivation. The two grades that are primarily used for flour in this country are the one known as winter wheat which is sowed in the fall and harvested in the early summer, and the other known as spring wheat which is planted in the spring and is harvested in the late summer. The first of these has a kernel which is softer and more starchy-It produces a whiter flour with a less proportion of gluten and is used largely for pastry. The kernel of the other is harder, being richer in gluten, and is more difficult to separate from the bran. This gives a darker flour that is more granular to the touch. It will not compact when squeezed in the hand as does the pastry flour, and is gritty between the fingers. This is known as bread flour, though nowadays some of the mills are using combinations of different varieties of wheat for their fine-grade flours.

Every flour mill produces several grades of flour. The first of these is known as the patent or high-grade flour into which goes 72 to 76 per cent of the total weight of the wheat. The second grade is known as baker's flour and is made up of 18 to

Wheat

Flours

22 per cent of the wheat. The rest is sold as low-grade flour. Graham flour was originally a flour made from the entire kernel with the exception of the outer bran coats, while "entire" wheat flour is made from the endosperm part of the kernel but does not include the germ as does graham flour. It does, however, contain some of the bran and therefore more of the mineral salts than are found in ordinary white flour.

These various flours are used for the infinite variety of breads, muffins, cakes, and pastry which we are including under the general term of flour mixtures. The simplest form of any such mixture is the old-fashioned hoe-cake where the meal, usually corn, was mixed with water and salt and baked on a board before an open fire; or is found in the form of the corn dodger where the meal is scalded and when cooled is formed into small cakes, and cooked in a hot oven. Gradually, however, other ingredients have been added to give a greater variety and to make them more pleasing to the taste. We have built up, then, a definite series of these mixtures as follows:

When different ingredients are added to the original simple mixture, it must be noted whether they would fall under the heading of liquid or dry ingredient. Butter, for instance, or other shortening, melts when heated and so behaves like a liquid in the mixture; therefore the shortening should be counted in with the liquid and as more is used, the other liquid should be decreased to keep the proportion correct. Eggs become stiff in the oven, so that a mixture containing several eggs may be thinner before going into the oven than one without so many. As sugar is added, the mixture becomes heavier and more baking-powder must be used. Flavors may be either liquid or dry and should be counted in where they belong; coffee, for instance, must form a part of the total liquid, while spices are counted as dry ingredients. The ingredients for a plain cake are just the same as those for a rich muffin since they both belong in the same group of flour mixtures, the only difference between them being the manner in which they are put together.

There are four distinct methods of mixing bread-stuffs. If a cook is familiar with these and with the general proportions given above, she no longer needs to be bound to a cook-book but can make up her own recipes. She must, however, become familiar with the feel of different kinds of mixtures. She should also know that if the oven is hot the mixture can be thinner than if it is cool. Also where corn-meal is used the mixture must be very thin because cornmeal absorbs so much water in cooking.

I. Muffin Method

Mix and sift dry ingredients. Add eggs slightly beaten. Add milk. Add shortening melted.

Effect of ingredients

Methods of mixing

2. Cake Method

Cream the fat. Work in half the sugar. Beat the yolks of the eggs and rest of the sugar. Add this to the creamed fat. Sift salt and baking-powder with the flour, add this to the fat mixture, alternating with milk. Cut and fold in stiffly beaten whites of eggs.

3. Pastry or Baking-Powder Method

Mix and sift dry ingredients several times. Cut in the fat with two knives. Add moisture lightly. Toss on a board. Pat to about one half inch thickness and cut out.

4. Bread Method

Scald milk, or boil water. Pour onto fat, sugar, and salt. When lukewarm, add yeast dissolved in small amount of lukewarm water. Add flour, knead, let rise till double in bulk. Knead again. Put into bread-pans. Let rise till double in bulk. Bake 45 to 50 minutes in moderately hot oven.

In order to make the breadstuffs light and porous in texture, some leavening agent must be used. The simplest of these and the cheapest is air. This is incorporated in the mixture by the sifting of the flour, by the beating of the egg, and by the lightness with which the mixture is handled. It acts as a leavening agent because hot air occupies more room than cold air. The second is moisture, and this can be counted on more than is frequently realized. Since moisture is changed to steam in the oven it has a great expansive power which lifts the batter and helps to make it light. We count upon this agent for the popping of popovers and for the flakiness of pastry.

Our next agents are artificial ones. A gas is introduced into the mixture which will expand in the oven.

Leavening agents

In all these cases the gas used is the same, carbon dioxide, but it is formed in various ways. The simplest is by the use of a carbonate or baking-soda with a natural acid such as is found in sour milk or molasses. The quantity of soda used must be carefully measured because if more is used than can be split up by the acid present, it will be left in the gingerbread or griddle-cakes as soda, giving a very disagreeable taste to the food. One level teaspoonful of soda is all that is necessary to be used with two cups of sour milk. Since this would not make enough gas to make the mixture very light it is well to add some baking-powder along with it - one fourth as much as we would use if we were using sweet milk. Since the action takes place just as soon as the soda comes in contact with the sour milk, it is well to mix the soda thoroughly with the other dry ingredients and not add the sour milk until just as the mixture is ready to be put into the oven.