The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1915-03-19


n value of making bread of potato
- meal mixed with wheat flour
are now being undertaken by the
U. S. Department of Agriculture's
Bureau of Chemistry. This is to test
the possibilities of the potato in the
same manner as Germany and Aus
tria are now advising their people to
do. The increased cost of living
! throughout the world has emphasized
the fact that flour made of other
substances than wheat, or of these
substances mixed with wheat, might
provide people with healthful 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 30 per cent
potato-meal in making their bread.
The Bureau of Chemistry's potato
meal bread has been baked with
from rs to so per cent potato-meal
and the remaining percentage wheat.
The most satisfactory loaves in COM
bining economy and appearance were
those made with the minimum per-
centage 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 possesses distinc-
tive and agreeable flavor. 1t also re-
tains moisture for much longer
period than ordinary wheat bread.
Potato Flake.
The Bureau of Chemistry used the
imported potato flake" in some of
its experiments and in others meal
made by slicing, milling and drying
potatoes on small scale in It's labor
atories. 1t should be added that such
ordinary potato flour" as is on our
American markets is not the same as
the German potato flake" or Walz-
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 substitut-
ed for the prepared potato-meal The
experimenters believe that 1t might
serve the same purpose II used in
just the right proportion, but this
would be difficult for the average
housewife to determine, as there is
great danger of using too much and
producing very soggy loaf. How
ever, the custom of adding very
little potato is already used by many
housekeepers to keep their bread
moist and this practice can very well
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 expert
ments are being made by the bu-
reau of chemistry. Still other prod
ucts which offer promise of furnish
ing the public with cheap and nu-
tritious bread are the following:
Bran, soy bean, white bean, millet,
kafir, milo, dasheen, cottonseed flour,
oatmeal cassava, buckwheat, rye,
corn gluten, kaoliang, rice (polished
and naturaD, peas, potato (Irish and
sweet, corn meal (white and yell
low).
The breads made from these vari-
GUS ingredients have already been
photographed and analyzed. The
flours from which the breads were
made are being analyzed that it may
be known exactly how nutritious they
are in comparison with the pure
wheat flour The soy bean and cot
tonseed flours, when mixed with
wheat flOurs in proper proportions
(about rs per cent?, give a bread
with about twice the amount of pro-
tein (muscle-building element) that
Fordinary wheat bread contains.
Law Makes Mixed Flour Unpopular.
The bureau of chemistry is making
these experiments in spite Of the
fact that there is law which makes
1t difficult for manufacturers to
make mixed flour satisfactorily. This
law surrounds the manufacture of
mixed flour with so many restrictions
that the business has not become a
popular one. The result is there is
very little mixed -four at present
manufactured and offered for sale.
The mixed flour act was passed in
1898 before there was food and
drugs act, and was passed for the
the purpose of raising war revenue
at time when many Of the common
articles of food did not command en-