Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1874-10-08
WHEAT.

heat and fat producers, sixty nine per
! cent; Of the nitrates or muscle makers
fourteen per cent of the phosphates, or
food for brain and bones, two per cent.
These proportions constitute for a tenn
perate climate, and with a moderate
degree of exercise, model food. So if
wheat were eaten in its natural con,
dition, without boiling. it would supply
all the needed elements of the human
body, and would sustain life for an
indefinite period. But, in the process
of boiling, a large proportion Of the
nitrates and phosphates are removed;
so that bread made of superior fine
-four will sustain life only few weeks.
Perhaps the most palatable way in
which wheat can be eaten is when
boiled whole and used with little
cream. For myself, have never eaten
any food so sweet and satisfactory to
the palate, as boiled wheat. When
visiting some friends in Georgetown,
hy., many years ago, l was invited to
dine with Professor Thomas, of the
college located in that city. Mrs.
Thoma served as a dessert boiled
wheat with cream and sugar At that
time | had never eaten it. The COM
pany (Which was large one)unanimous-
ly voted that they had never eaten
dessert so delicious, have tried it
many times since, and am always sur
prised that an article of food SO cheap,
SO easily prepared, and every was so
desirable, should not find general favor.
A man may perform hard labor on
wheat and water for years; but give
him as much superfne four>bread as
he can eat, and add, if you please,
butter and sugar, and be will starve to
death. lr .--t
Several Of the menageries have
starved their bread~eatiug ANNALS by
feeding them on white bread. If they
had fed them upon boiled wheat, end
occasionally upon wheat without grind
ing or cooking, they wonld have
fourished.
Cracked wheat, or -four made of
wheat without boiling, is likewise very
grateful and healthful.
The ordinary process of mankind
superhne -four results in the loss of the .
most nutritious portion of the wheat.
Under the microscope, grain of wheat
divides into three principal layers-the
hull, or bran proper, which is not
nutritious; the gluten, which lies next
within the hull, and which is the most
nutritious part of the grain; and the
starch, from which the ordinary wheat,
flour is made. Usually the gluten is
removed with the bran in the ordinary
process.
A mode of preparing wheat and
other grain for grinding into flour has
been invented in Basel, Switzerland,
the object of which is to retain in the
white flour the nutritive properties
which have heretofore been lost by
the separation of the bran. This pro
cess, invented by Herr E. Weiss, of
Switzerland, has been received with
favor by scientific and practical men Of
Europe. 1t consists simply in moist
euing the wheat before grinding, in a
solution of caustic soda in water, one
hundred and forty pounds of the liquid
being required for two thousand pounds
of grain. The solution is prepared by
dissolving six and two thirds pounds of
caustic soda in one hundred and thirty,
three pounds of water. The sleeping,
which occupies about fifteen to TWEEN.
ty minutes, can be done in watts SINH
lar to those used by brewers. The
caustic solution loosens the hull, SO
that it may be removed by the slight,
est friction, leaving the gluten with
the body of the grain. The flour thus
prepared is as white as the present su~
perfne, and contains all the highly
nutritive properties of the Graham and
bran breads. s..s