The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1905-02-11
The Testing of Flour.
From New York Tribune

From New York Tribune
The mysteries of bread manufacture be-
long to the domain Of the housewife. The
rise or fall of the biscuit, while it affects
the digestion of the male fraction of the
household, strikes a deeper, if not more
responsive, chord Of the feminine nature,
for, after all, every woman must regard
herself, potentially at least, as good cook,
just as masculine character piques itself
on the power to elucidate railroad time
table. OF course in cooking, as in card
playing, the quality Of the material is i'm
portant. What the player ascribes to bad
cards the cook equally certainly lays to
poor -four. Hence the manufacturers of
flour in self defense have fallen back upon
scientific methods for determining the
quality of their flour
When Mrs. Brown, indignant at the
failure of her biscuits on three successive
mornings, exhausts her temper in an in-
dignant epistle to the manufacturer whose
name appears on the head of the -four
barrel she is, after all uneonsciously rem
dering him valuable service, for the man
ufacturer is seeking to provide what Mrs.
Brown is insistent on receiving
good and pure -four. The process of ac-
complishing this is exhaustive, and it would
doubtless surprise Mrs. Brown to learn
that when she sifted her flour she was put
ting it through the one hundred and fifty
first repetition of this process. When Mrs.
Brown sends her complaint, with her own
little theory Of the cause, her letter, if
properly written, will indicate the number
of her package, and, with this as a clew,
the manufacturer viii investigate
To be able to fix upon the exact loca-
ton of the difficulty in mill turning out
thousands and thousands of barrels of -four
each year requires system which can
cope with the magnitude of the problem,
which is greatly complicated by the fact
that the wheat is gathered from half a
dozen States To do this the great mills
all employ a regular staff Of chemists
Every hour there comes to these chemists
samples of the -four that is being manufac-
tnred This they test and label and file
away in little bottles properly indexed
When Mrs. Browns complaint comes in
the chemist goes back in his index to the
sample taken the hour Mrs Browns flour
was ground and is able to tell at once just
what kind of -four the irate woman re-
eeived, where it came from and whas its
quality was He keeps these samples a
year; then they give way to new ones.
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To determine the purity of their product
before it goes on the market the manufac-
turers have an elaborate and comprehen-
sive system, which would doubtless con-
vince Mrs. Brown Of their good faith could
she visit one of the great mills. The
process begins when the wheat comes in.
Samples of every lot are sent through-a
tiny mill which is an exact model of the
great mill, sort of scientific toy as well
as a valuable and practical machine. Here
the samples are ground. Then comes the
first test, which is denominated the gluten
test. The -four is made into dough balls,
which resemble the biscuits with which
Mrs Brown had such an unhappy expe
rience These are weighed and then
washed with pure water until the raising
qualities are eliminated This takes the
starch out of the dough, somewhat com
plicated result. The gluten that remains
thus indicates the amount of this property
in the wheat Then there is ''doughing
test, which consists in making little dough
patties, such as children delight in. These
are placed on glass plates, and the expert
determines the quality of the wheat by the
color Of the various patties, while twice
day the wheat is critically analyzed by the
regular chemists.
But the most interesting of all the tests
is the bread baking. This process would
be at once the admiration and despair of
any good housekeeper. Doubtless even
the masculine mind would find charm in
the resulting bread. From samples of -four
the loayes are made and then consigned to
raising ovens, where the temperature is
kept even. Before they are put in these
ovens the loaYes are measured. Next they
90 10 other ovens, heated by electricity,
and are baked Once baked to an even
brown, they are ruthlessly cut in half and
turned over to the expert tasting commit
tee. which decides upon their relative
merit. labels them and indicates the mill
from which the -four in them came and
the wheat growing district which produced
them. Not infrequently the tasting com
mittee decides that two brands of -four
must be blended to produce a harmonious
loaf. and this is done and the baking ex-
pertinent repeated. Out of all this tasting
and blending, weighing and testing, Mrs.
Browns -four is finally evolved, catalogued
aud placed on the shelves of the reference
library of -four to be once more tested by
the librarian chemist when Mrs. Browns
complaint, induced By a steady drop in her
biscuits, comes TO him.