Evening star., 1915-02-12
Uncle Sam Tests Bread
Made With Potato Meal

/
Baking experiments to test the value
of making bread of potato-meaI mixed
with wheat -four are now being under
taken by the Department of Agricul-
ture's bureau of chemistry. This is
to test the possibilities of the potato
in the same manner as Germany and
Austria are now advising their people
to do. The increased cost of living
throughout the world has emphasized
the fact that flour made of other sub
stances than wheat. or of these sub
stances mixed with wheat. might pro-
vide people with hea1thful food quite
as nutritious as the pure wheat flour.
and at the same time cheaper.
Austrian bakers are now compelled
by law to use at least 80 per cent
potato-meal in making their bread. The
bureau of chemistry's potato-meal
bread has been baked with from 25 to
so per cent potato-meal and the re-
naming percentage wheat. The most
satisfactory loaves In combining econ
omy and appearance were those made
with the minimum percentage allowed
in Austria or less. The loaves made
with more than 80 per cent potato
meal were not SO satisfactory. as they
were heavier and less attractive in
form. The bread has a rather coarse
texture and dark appearance, but pos
sesses a distinctive and agreeable
flavor. 1t also retains moisture for a
much longer period than ordinary
wheat bread.
imported potato flake" in some of
its experiments and in others meal
made by slicing. milling and drying po-
tatoes on small scale in its labora-
ordinary potato -four" as is on our
American markets is not the same as
the German potato fake" or Wa1z-
mehl. which has given such satisfac-
tory results in the experiments.
The question has been raised as to
whether the ordinary cooked potato
might not be satisfactorily substituL.u
for the prepared potatO-meal The ex-
the same purpose If used in Just the
right proportion. but this would be diff
flcult for the average housewife to
determine. as there is great danger Of
using too much and producing a very
soggy loaf. However. the custom Of
adding a very little potato is already
used by many housekeepers to keep
their bread moist and this practice can
very we'll be recommended for more
general use
Banana and Chestnut Bread.
Dried bananas, ripe and unripe, and
chestnuts are other substitutes for
wheat flour with which experiments
are being made by the bureau of
chemistry. Still other products which
offer promise of furnishing the public
with a cheap and nutritious bread are
the following:
Bran, Cassava,
Soy bean, Buckwheat,
White bean, Rye,
Millet, Corn gluten,
Kafr Kaoliang,
Milo. Rice (polished and naturaD.
Cottonseed -four, Potato nrtsh and sweeo.
Oatmeal, Cornmeal Cwhite and yellow.
The breads made from these various
ingredients have already been photo
graphed and analyzed. me fiours from
which the breads were made are being
analyzed that it may be known ex-
actly how nutritious they are in COM
parison with the pure wheat flour. The
soy bean and cottonseed fours, when
mixed with wheat hours in proper
proportions tabout 25 per cent?, give
a bread with about twice the amount
of protein (muscle- building e1ement)
that ordinary wheat bread contains
Law Makes Manufacture Of Mixed
Flour an Unpopular Business
The bureau of chemistry is making
these experiments in spite of the fact
that there is a law which makes 1t diff
cult for manufacturers to make mixed
-four satisfactorily. This law surrounds
the manufacture of mixed -four with
so many restrictions that the business
has not become a popular one. The re-
suit is there is very little mixed flour
at present manufactured and offered
for sale.
The mixed flour act was passed in
1898, before there was a food and drugs
| act. and was passed for the purpose
of raising a war revenue at a time
when many of the common articles of
| food did not command SO high a price
as now.
The tax of 4 cents which is now i'm
posed on every barrel of mixed flour
| is not in itself a heavy one; it is
| the collection of 1t with the attendant
regulations and restrictions that ham
pers any manufacturer who would like
| to make such hours.
1t should be stated in connection
with the mixing of other materials
| with wheat -four in making bread that
this cannot always be done economical
| ly. There must be taken into con-
| sideration the prevailing market prices
of the commodities to be used.