IMPROVEMENT IN THE PREPARATION OF FOOD PRODUCTS
Year: 1886

page_text: CHARLES SMITH BOYNTON of Burlington Vermont in the United States of America
Chemist and WILLIAM JAMES VAN PATTEN of the same place Wholesale Druggist do
hereby declare the nature of our invention for AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE PREPARATION
OF FOOD PRODUCTS and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:—
This invention has reference to products-such as grits, flour, crushed grain, meal,
&c. obtained from cereal grains and intended for food; and its object is to obtain a
new series of such products, in which shall be combined, with the material nutritive
properties of the grain, the self-digesting agent diastase in such manner as to produce
food of superior flavor, of greater nutritive value, and of more casy digestibility.
The invention is not directed to obtaining prepared foods or food compositions—such.
as are on the market for the use of invalids and children-but rather to the treatment
and preparation of the various known cereal grain products now on the market in such
manner as to improve them in the respects above noted, while leaving them still as
fitted for general use as before-that is to say, the product treated-as, for instance, grits,
cracked wheat, flour or the like-would still remain grits, cracked wheat, or flour, and
susceptible of being put to all uses for which such products are usually intended. By
treating the grain with diastase a partial transformation of the starch of the product
into dextrine is accomplished, there being thus produced in the article one of those
agents classed as peptogens" which are capable, when introduced into the stomach,
of promoting the healthy secretion of pepsin, the natural digestive agent, while at the
same time the food product is of itself much more digestible, inasmuch as dextrine is a
soluble form of starch.
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To enable others skilled in the art to understand and use the invention, a more
particular description will now be given of the manner in which it is preferred to
practice it.
Take any of the cereal grains-wheat, oats, barley, maize, rice, &c.—which, after
being deprived of the outer husk, are crushed, ground, or granulated, as may be
desired. The grain is then subjected to a heat of, say, 180° Fahrenheit, for the purpose
of depriving it of its natural moisture, and thus bringing it to a condition in which the
absorption of the liquid containing the diastase will be rendered more uniform and

page_text: The said solution is
obtained by macerating, say, fifty (50) pounds of fresh barley malt with twenty (20)
gallons of water at a temperature of 160° Fahrenheit. Of the liquid thus obtained
complete. To this dried product is added a solution of diastase.
take one-eighth part by weight, for each part, by weight, of the grain to be treated.
After the solution of diastase has been added to and mixed with the dried product, the
latter is at once placed in a drying-room, where a temperature ranging from 160°
Fahrenheit to 175° Fahrenheit is maintained. We do not restrict ourselves, however,
to this precise range of temperature. What is essential is, that the heat should not
be so great as to burn, scorch, or cook the article under treatment. The product there
remains until thoroughly dried, and when thoroughly dried it is ready for use.
In practicing the invention it is neccessary to take great care that the action of the
diastase upon the starch of the grain is not carried to that extent to transform it into
grape-sugar, as by so doing the food would become a nearly-liquid mass with a
disagreeable sweet taste, entirely unfit for the use intended, which, as before stated, is
a food for general use.
It is of course to be understood that the invention in its practical application is not
limited to the exact proportions and quantities hereinbefore stated. In some cases the
malted barley is richer in diastase than others, and so different proportions may be
required, to produce the same effect. Some cereal grains, also, being richer in starch
than others, require a larger proportion of the diastase solution. Solutions of diastase,
also, can be obtained from other bodies than malted grain, as from cerealine, although
it is believed that the solution of diastase from malted grain is practically the best.
Either kind, however, may be used in carrying out the invention.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we claim is :
As a new manufacture, an uncooked cereal food product consisting of any of the
cereal grains, crushed, ground, or granulated, and impregnated with diastase, substan-
tially as hereinbefore set forth.
CHARLES SMITH BỤINTUN.
WILLIAM JAMES VAN PATTEN.