Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-08-14
EDITOR
Bread From Other Flour

Men ar" The bread winners and women the bread
takers. without which the winners are Of no. much
value
Experts VIII" have h'"n rlmvaS>iMg the food sit
nation. tell us that the bread maker is the
chief fgur" of the hour. a bread maker who can
produce bread made of other -four than wheat
and prov" paIatabIe and POPULAR
We are told that world needs require doubling
the wheat supply. and that cannot I~ done in the
allotted time But there is plenty and to spare
of other food products, which if mad" into flour
capable Of competing with wheat flour would solve
the one great bread problem.
"Nheat the whole is no more nutritious than
the other grains, SAYS a writer for the Pan Amer
lean Union. In any other form than bread its
taste is no better and to people is not as good
as the taste Of corn. or buckwheat or oats. Yet
IS bread making material wheat. at higher price
does win its way against all the substitute grains.
corn included. The answer unQuestionablv TO this
apparent cOnundrum is that man has learned in
bread making to bring out all the inherent good
qualities of wheat and has not learned this lesson
as to any other grain except perhaps rye In other
words. man has learned how to utilize wheat and
has not vet learned how properly to utilize other
grains. Furthermore. he has neglected the bread
making material possibilities of thousands of fruits
and vegetables apparently better ecOnomcallv suit
ed for breadmaking than any of the grains
SInce he first found out how to use fire. to cook
his food man has made but two other really i'm
porant food discoveries. These are the preserving
OF meats and other perishables by salt smoking. or
drying. and the use of leaven in bread making
These two discoveries are both prehistoric The
Importance of leaven in bread making cannot be
OVerestlmated, because without leaven wheat and
rye would never have become leading food grains
W lth0ut leaVen the cultivation opLJ ry-o
would practically cease. Without eaven wheat is
the most stubborn and ntractable of possible foods
Even an amateur cook can make an edible bread
from indian corn, or barley -four and water with
out heaven, but a professional would be stunned
10 make anything edible from wheat -four and water
alone. But with leaven Yeast or baking powder
wheat becomes the supreme bread making grain In
Otner words, wheat the least suitable of all the
grains for use as human food with leaven becomes
the most suited. This is because it is best shifted
for making that kind of food, bread. which is the
base food OF all civilized peoples Here we are at
the root of one of the most significant facts of
present-day civilization. Man BY the discovery
OF leaVen has been able to raise one grain and that
IN Its natural state the least promising of all
grams to be not only the prime grain but the prime
food as we'll This marvel was wrought bv prehis-
torlc man. Can it be possible that chemists of this
"so cannot WORK an equal marvel with corn? Or
II not chemists the mechanical inventors? 1t NAV
be problem of chemistry, or it may be problem
of mechanics"
In short, what is wanted is a new bread. bread
made OF corn, potato, banana mandioca. or some
other kind of flour, that will be as palatable, as
cheap as nourishing, and as acceptable to all the
world as the bread made of wheat -four with the
aid OF leaven. Given such a substance the food
problem OF the world would be solved and we could
easily make two loaves of bread where now we can
make but one.