The Parker post., 1916-03-11
SUBSTITUTE FOR MEAT
PEOPLE OF UNITED STATES TURN
TO VARIOUS WHEAT PRODUCTS.
Are Beginning to Realize the Value OF
Such Foods as Macaroni, Etc.,
Which Make for Health and
Financial Saving.

AS far back as history records,
wheat has been the main food element
of the human race, and today, as in
the time of King Pharaoh, the prod
ucts made from this grain figure large
ly in the sustaining of life the world
over.
In the United States, we have con.
fined the use of wheat largely to max
ing -four for breadstuffs, and until re-
cent years have overlooked the use of
it in making one Of the most healthful,
savory and nourishing of foods that
could grace our tables, viz: macaroni,
spaghetti, vermicelli, noodles and kin
dred products.
For centres Europeans on the
shores of the Mediterranean sea have
used macaroni and spaghetti as their
principal article of diet, and these peo-
pie are today the hardest races in the
world. The hardness of Americans
in taking up this food product has
been largely due to the surplus pro-
duction of meats, but for the past few
years this surplus has actually
changed to shortage, caused by the
passing of the large ranches. and cheap
grazing lands, and meats have been
mounting higher and higher in the
scale of prices until meat dinners are
fast becoming luxury. This condi-
tion will never be changed-the day
of cheap meats in the United States,
as in Europe, is forever behind us, so
we must find a substitute that is
equally as meritorious and nutritious
an article of diet.
Macaroni or spaghetti can be cooked
in such variety of ways that the
heartiest or most fastidious palate can
be pleased-with cheese, with to-
matoes, oysters, cheap cuts of meat,
mushrooms, fish, eggs or cream, the
most toothsome dishes can be pre-
pared and a perfectly balanced meal
served in this one dish alone, and
that, too, at a financial saving to the
good housewife that makes her smile
with satisfaction.
One reason for the growing popu-
larity of macaroni products in this
country is the fact that large and spot
lessly clean American factories have
been built during the past few years
for the manufacture of the finest quail
ity of macaroni and spaghetti the
world has yet produced. Until recent
ly Italy and France were the only ma
tions turning out such products; but
Durum wheat, from which macaroni
products are made, grows to greater
perfection in the middle Western
states than in any other place on the
globe, even surprising the product Of
Russia, from whence the seed was i'm
ported by the United States depart
ment of agriculture several years ago.
The Durum wheat, which is richer in
gluten than any other variety, is
ground into what is technically termed
by millers "Semolina:" fairly coarse
-four made from the berry of the
wheat, from which only the outer COW
ering, or bran, has been removed.
This is mixed with pure water and
kneaded into a dough in large ma
chimes. The dough is put into hy-
draulic presses and comes out through
dies in variety of shapes. The prod
uct is then put through a curing proc
ess in humidors and drying rooms
which must be maintained at specif-
ic degree of humidity and temperature,
and finally is packed in dust and mois-
ture-proof cartons and boxes.
The American system of manufac-
turing macarOni and sna photti ia s0
clean, SO efficient, and so mcch SUI
perior to the foreign process that it is
small wonder the wideawake house
wives here are quickly adopting this
most healthful food as one of their
staple articles of diet, and it is not too
much to predict that these products
bearing the label Made in U. S. A."
will be found in use the world over
before many years have elapsed.