Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-06-12
MALT AS FOOD.
A Distinguished Medical Authority's Hint
to Dyspeptics.

/ A Distinguished Medical AuthorltyS HIM.
to D%yspeptics.
/! Malt as food has Il great future be-
| fore it. In the process of mailing
(Which is a rapid gcrmination) a dis
tinct change is brought about in the
seed. BY the action of the diastase the
insoluble starch is converted into solu-
bic dextrine, which goes sweet in the
mouth. so near maltese is it. The
malt combings, which are too rich in
albuminoids for the brewers purposes,
are useful when malt is looked at as q
food. Malt contains dextrine (some
diastase), soluble albuminoids, and
phosphates, and when ground is an
admirable food, while it is not expen-
sive. Its taste is pleasant. 1t can be
made into a pudding with an egg and
some milk, and as such is paiatablc.
1t can be made a'constitucnt of a milk
pudding with advantage. When the
brewer mashes his malt with hot water
the diastase remaining in the malt
converts the dextrine into maltese,
which the yeast (neXt added breaks
up into alcohol and carbonic acid gas.
The best white malt is not heated to
more than one hundred end ninety de-
grees, as the diastase is acted upon in
iuriously by a heat above that point.
Maltese is a sugarth that does not readily
undergo the acetous fermentation. and
therefore, as DR.. Mitchell Bruce points
out in his s'Materia Medica and The
rapeutics," evil not give rise to acid
ity and dyspepsia" This is a great
matter, as the cane sugar the cook
adds to stewed fruit and milk buildings
readily undergoes the acetous fcrmen-
lose sugar offruit, like maltese, readily
u%ndergoes the alcoholic but not the
acetous fermentation. Maltese being
less powerfully sweet than cane sugar,
a greater quantity is necessary to
sweeten the pudding. If the raw
starch, semolina, sago, or tap
ioca be first put in the dish by
itself, and placed in the oven for an
hour (taking care not to have it
burnt by the oven being too hot). not
only are the starch cells cracked. but a
certain conversion of the starch into
dextrine takes place. If to this be then
added an equal quantity of ground
malt and some hot milk poured on,
and the dish be allowed to stand a few
minutes before being put into the oven
again, the diastase of the malt acts up
on the farina and converts it into dex-
trine and maltese. DeStrine and NAL
tose being soluble, the pudding is very
thin. Such a pudding is admirably
adapted for invalids and dyspeptics, as
requiring scarcely any digestion in the
body. For those with whom ordinary
milk buildings produce acidity, such q
pudding is specially suitable.
Ground malt may be added to fresh
milk, and forms an admirable food in
cases of acute disease. Baked flour
perhaps goes better with meat broths,
to which it. gives a high food value.
(Well-baked flour requires but a
touch of saliva to render it
soluble, and added to meat broths
and gravy soups, renders them very
nutritive.) Malt, being sweet, goes
better with milk or apple-water, or
tamarind-watcr, or lemonade, and
gives us a food which, being all but in
dependent of the digestive act, can be
most u~sefully employed in the sick
room. Beef-tea (Which alone is scarcely
a food) and milk-and-scltzer water
pail upon the palate of the sick person,
who Graves variety Just as do healthy
persons. The adoption of ground malt
as a food will solve for us one or two
knotty questions connected with feed
ing people when the digestive power is
feeble. Drinks like lemonade, made
with malt instead of ane sugar, would
not only not go sour in theSmouth or
stomach, but would contain some
phosphates and soluble albuminoids,
and SO form admirable beverages in
pyrexial states.-Dr. FoAcrgiN, IN the
Lancet.