The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1924-01-17
Good Bread Made
With Potato Meal

bureau OF OnSHiStfy sAltSS VII 49,
man Potato Flake, and Also Makes
Experiments to Determine the Value
In Mixed Flour of Such inexpensive
and heaithful Products as Chestnut,
Banana, Rice and Peas
Baking experiments to test the
value Of making bread of potato meal
mixed with wheat -four are now being
undertaken by the u. S. Department
of Agriculture's Bureau of Chemistry.
This is to test the possibilities OF the
DoIat0 in the same manner as Ger
many and Austria are now advising
their people to do. The increased cost
of living throughout the world has en-
phasized the fact that flour made Of
other substances than wheat, or OF
obese substances mixed with wheat
might provide people with healthful
food quite as nutritious as the pure
whest flour, and at the same time be
cheaper
Austrian bakers are now compelled
by law to use at least 300 potato meal
in making their bread. The Bureau
Of Chemistry's potato meal bread has
been baked with from rs to 500 POI
tato meal and the remaining percent
age wheat The most satisfactory
loaves in combining economy and APP
pearcnce were those made with the
minimum percentage allowed in Aus
tria or less. The loaves made with
more than 5000 potato meal were not
so satisfactory as they we're heavier
and less attractive in form. The bread
! has a rather coarse texture and dark
appearance, but possesses a distinc-
tive and agreeable flavor 1t also re
tains moisture for a much longer pc
Rod than ordinary wheat bread.
The Bureau of Chemistry used the
imported potato flake in some of its
| experiments, and in others meal made
by slicing, milling and drying pota-
! toes on a small scale in its laborator-
les. It should be added that such or
binary potato flour" as is on our
American markets is not the same as
the German potato fake" 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 substi-
tuted for the prepared potato meal.
The expirementsrs believe that 1t
might serve the same purpose if 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 a very soggy loaf. How
ever, the custom Of adding very little
potato is already used by many house
keepers to keep their bread moist,
and this practice can very we'll be rec
commended for more general use.
Dried bananas, ripe and unripe. and
chestnuts are other substitutes for
wheat -four with which experiments
are being made by the Bureau Of
Chemistry. Still other products that
offer promise of furnishing the public
with a cheap and nutritious bread are
the following: Bran. soy bean, white
bean. millet, kafir, milo, dasheen, cot
tonseel -four, oatmeal, cassava, buck
wheat, rye, corn gluten, kaoliang, rice
polished and naturaD, peas, potato
Qrish and sweet, corn meal (whte
and Yellow.
The breads made from these vari-
Gus ingredients have already been pho
tographed and analysed. The lours
from which the breads were made are
being analysed. that it may be known
exactly how nutritious they are in
comparison with the pure wheat flour
The soy been and cottonseed fours.
when mixed with wheat flours in
proper proportions (about ESQ., give
a bread with about twice the amount
OF protein Glgsele-bu;lding element)
that the culinary wheat bread con-
tains.
The Bureau Of Chemistry is making
these experiments in spite of the fact
that there is a law which makes it
difficult for manufacturers to make
mixed flour satisfactorily This law
surrounds the manufacture of mixed
-four with so mixed -four with so many
restrictions that the business has not
become a popular one. The result is
there is very little mixed -four at pres
ent 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
purpose of raising a war revenue at
a time when many of the common arti-
| cles of food did not command so high
a price as now.
The tax of four cents which is now
imposed on every barrel of mixed
-four is not in itself heavy one; it
is the collection Of it, with the attend
ant regulations and restrictions, that
hampers any manufacturer who WOULD
like to make such flours.
1t should be stated in connection
with the mixing of other materials
with wheat -four in making bread that
this can not always be done econom-
ically. There must be taken into con-
sideFation the prevailing market price
of Ne commodities to be used. y
This article is written primarily for
| Sha Tr1rnose of brine ring tn the atfaD-