TX 551 ,#6 Class Book s_ Copyrights COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. Food Wealth from Grain How They Supply Basic Nutriment for All the World By C. HOUSTON GOUDISS Food Advisor of The People's Home Journal; Author of "Foods that Will Win the War" and "Making the Most of Our Meat Supply"; Food Economist of national reputation. PRIVATELY PRINTED BY THE PEOPLE'S HOME JOURNAL NEW YORK COPYRIGHT, 1921 F. M. LUPTON, PUBLISHER NEW YORK 0)CI.A654921 ^>^^«^«i?iK^^^^^«^^ /. iV this land of ours are at least 100,000,000 men, women and children who sit down three times a day to eat. The balance of what the new census may- show are babies. This huge army which pauses in its work or pleas- ure with machine-like regularity to refill the stom- ach-furnace with food-fuel for heat and energy, and supply the blood with building material for bone and tissue, eats all manner of food in all kinds of places. Its dinner tables range from the tin pail of the day laborer to the carved mahogany of the mil- lionaire. Yet a common bond unites these extremes and all that lies between in the daily brotherhood of bread. Whatever else may be missing from the work- man's noonday meal, bread is bound to be there. Whatever else is present on the table in the rich man's palace, bread is bound to be there also. It was there and everywhere at breakfast; it will be there and everywhere for the evening meal. If we allow an average of two slices of bread per meal to these 100,000,000 eaters — this surely is a FOOD WEALTH FROM GRAINS reasonable average — we face the astonishing total of 219,000,000,000 slices of bread consumed every year in this land alone. As a matter of fact, the actual figures mount higher, because the mass of the people average more than two slices a meal. But 219,000,000,000 is sufficient to prove bread's right to be called the staff of life. Say these slices average five inches square. Place them end to end and you would have a bridge of bread spanning more than 17,000,000 miles of space — enough to wind nearly 700 times around the earth at the equator. Now there are 1,500,000,000 mouths to feed in this world, and except for the babies, each of these is an open door for some kind of bread three times a day! Yet bread is only one form of the food- wealth we get from grains ! Do you think the man who first called it the staff of life made a mistake ? Can you imagine what would happen to humanity if the grain fields of the earth were to strike for just one growing season? Well, if such a thing were to happen, another dead world would be swimming through space. But there is no likelihood of this kind of a strike, so we may content ourselves with the pleasant prospect of what these grain fields do for us in the way of food. In the first place, the flours and cereals made from grains supply the race with most of the carbohydrate food elements needed as fuel to run the body ma- chinery and heat the human house. Since they are FOOD WEALTH FROM GRAINS also rich in protein, the food element which supplies material for building and repair of body tissues, they furnish "lumber" as well as "coal." In addition to this, most of them contain a certain amount of fat ; all are more or less rich in necessary mineral salts, and without exception they provide a generous share of fibre or cellulose which is a necessary aid to nor- mal functioning of the intestines. We don't half appreciate the place and power of grains in our daily food, because we seldom stop to think about them. We accept bread as a matter of course, just as we accept water. Cereal dishes of all sorts are so commonplace as to excite no attention or comment. Yet take these two forms of grain- food from our tables for ten days, and there would arise the greatest hue and cry the world ever has known. It is wheat which supplies most of our flour for bread — the first staff of life — and for macaroni, often called the second staff of life because of its great nutritive value and its widespread use. Macaroni is both bread and meat, for in addition to its large content of bread-nutrients, it is far richer in body-building gluten than the indispensable loaf. It is an effective flesh-forming food and many per- sons find it easier to digest than beef, mutton or pork. In view of the fact that nearly everyone eats too much meat and the further fact that the world's meat supply will continue short for many years, macaroni must be viewed as a meat substitute of the highest value. FOOD WEALTH FROM GRAINS A few years ago it was used in American homes only as a side dish — a sort of vegetable adjunct. To- day we consume nearly half a billion pounds annu- ally, and its popularity is on the increase. Macaroni is made from a special grade of hard wheat containing an unusually high percentage of gluten. This gives it its peculiar meat-and-bread food value and makes it a dependable first-aid to health and strength. From corn we get corn-meal, corn- starch, hominy, corn oils for frying and shortening, and corn syrup for sweetening. Barley is the source of all the malts and, aside from its cereal gifts, makes possible the great food benefit of malted milk. Oats, rye and rice complete the big six in the cereal world, though there are other grains such as barley which already have attained prominence in other countries, and which yet may rise to positions of equal importance in our land. Before going further, it is well to pause a moment to ponder the remarkable food value of malted milk. This palatable product, which places the full food- value of milk within monetary reach of anyone any- where at any time, is made possible by the barley malt. Recent tests made at my suggestion in one of the leading medical colleges of the United States have shown malted milk to be one of the most easily di- gested and promptly assimilated of foods. These interesting experiments, which included feeding FOOD WEALTH FROM GRAINS tests on human subjects, scientifically proved its high worth as a builder of weight and strength. Wheat, of course, is the most valuable and the most popular of all grain foods and, next to corn, the most largely produced. In 1918, the latest year for which complete crop records are available, the world's total wheat production amounted to 2,350,- 000,000 bushels, and this vast store of food was grown in countries as far separated as Australia, Chile, India, Canada, Egypt, Cuba, Persia, Scot- land, Norway, Greece, Argentina, Roumania, Spain, New Zealand, Mexico, and South Africa. Wheat is the one foodstuff which is cultivated in every civilized country. In the wild state it is found only in the temperate zone, but the Caucasian race has been so faithful to it as the chief sustaining food that wherever the white man has gone he has taken wheat with him and trained it to meet the conditions of his new surroundings. Literally, "from Green- land's icy mountains to India's coral strand" it waves its message of strength and sustenance to a world which for centuries has favored it as the first of foods and which now would not know how to get along without it. In fact western civilization is in a great measure built on wheat, for the dominant races are those who consume the most wheat. It is a better food than rice, and wheat eaters must always be superior in mental and physical energy to rice eaters. So long as we get wheat we are fit to hold our place in the van of civilization, but if ever wheat fails us we shall probably decline to a lower level of FOOD WEALTH FROM GRAINS energy. It is strange to think that proud man should be so dependent on this product of the field. Wheat became the principal bread grain of these dominant races because it yields the best flour at the least expense. Next to wheat in this particular comes rye, the smallest in point of world-production among the much used grains, yet immensely popu- lar in some countries. Rye bread has better keeping qualities than wheat, but it never has attained such widespread popularity. The third grain bread, dif- ferent in texture and mode of making from the other two, is corn bread. And this brings us to a consideration of the world's chief grain crop which, though grown in only eight countries, reached in 1918 a total of nearly 3,000,000,000 bushels. The cheapest nourishment it is possible to secure comes through corn meal. Indeed, it may be said without fear of contradiction that corn is man's kindest friend. From the tall stalk with its glimmer- ing green flags and feathery top-piece comes not only the wide variety of corn cereal foods which enter into our daily diet ; not only the indispensable corn-starch and the golden fat oil and sweet syrup, but also the food value and flavor of most of our meat. For it is the ideal fodder for most animals. What did Old World folk do before Columbus carried back to Spain those few grains of Indian maize which, had he but known, represented a gold more valuable than any ever dug from the ground? They did much the same then as they still are doing in Europe, for even today this wonderful grain food 8 FOOD WEALTH FROM GRAINS is not appreciated overseas. But here in America it has come into its own as one of the indispensable factors in the feeding of the people. Here in America we have learned through experi- ence that it not only is good for our physical being, but also for our pockets. For it is a fact that even at present prices a dime's worth of corn-meal contains enough food-fuel units to provide the average mod- erate worker with a day's supply of energy. And from the American standpoint, corn is the most patriotic of foods. For this country is its home, and it has done more for us than any other one crop.' How generous Mother Nature has been to us in her gift of oats, which next to corn, constitutes the world's largest grain crop! What a marvelous food she offers in it— with energy provision four times that of potatoes, twice that of eggs, and one and a half that of wheat bread! Oatmeal not only leads all cereals in content of fat, but also contains valuable mineral salts, such as potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, phosphor- us, sulphur and iron— mineral elements needed by the blood to maintain body balance. You pay a hio-h price for the bottle whose label bears the names of those mineral salts and you make a wry face when swallowing the dose that comes in that bottle. How much pleasanter to take these necessary minerals in a dish of oatmeal— and how much more sensible? For it is a fact substantiated by science that the minerals in the bottle are for the most part not assimilated by the human system, while those in FOOD WEALTH FROM GRAINS oatmeal and other cereal grains are eagerly sucked into the blood and swiftly carried to the tissues and organs which need them. If wheat be the best of cereals oats are a good second. Scotland has raised a fine brand of men upon them and England, horses of the first class. For man and beast oats are an essential food. Corn, wheat and oats form the triumphant trinity of grain foods. After them come rye, barley and rice, and the greatest of these is rice. A good many persons discovered its value as a starch food when potatoes not long ago soared to unheard-of prices. All cereals are rich in starch, but rice heads the list in this particular, so whenever potatoes are rare or costly use rice or hominy in their place. Thus far I have dealt only with the best known and most widely used forms of grain foods. Many a lover of buckwheat cakes might accuse me of having neglected one of the tastiest of grain dishes, and so far as this qualification is concerned, I plead guilty. They are delicious when eaten with butter and sugar or syrup; they provide a wealth of necessary food elements. Among the peoples of the Orient, rice, of course, constitutes the staple food. Of all the grains it is the most generally used, constituting the staff of life for one-third of mankind. It is much poorer in fat and protein than wheat or oats but much richer in starch. When polished it consists almost entirely of starch and loses with its protein the vitamine con- 10 FOOD WEALTH FROM GRAINS tent which is necessary for health — so necessary that the abstraction of it leads to the disease called beri- beri among those peoples who depend mainly on rice as a staple food. In parts of Africa and Asia is grown a sorghum called Kaoliang, the grain of which can be milled and, when mixed with a certain percentage of gluten, made into bread. Millet is used as a food in Russia, China and India and its grain can be milled and cooked in much the same way as other cereals, and is rich in protein. In some parts of the world sorghum is used as a bread- stuff, but in this country it is grown solely for the molasses and syrup that can be obtained from it. Of late years increasingly large use of various grains has been made in the preparation of break- fast foods, many of which are ready prepared for immediate use without cooking, while others are semi-prepared. These contain about the same per- centage of nutriment as the cereals from which they are made. In flavor and palatability they vary much, but some of them have gained great popularity and are used daily in millions of homes. There are some other things to remember in con- nection with grain foods, the first of which is their freedom from waste. There is not a cereal grain which comes into your kitchen, whatever its form, that isn't 100% edible. I imagine few ever have thought of this, yet once recognized it immediately appeals as a fact of the highest importance. Another equally important phase of grain foods 11 FOOD WEALTH FROM GRAINS is their digestibility. Bread and cereals constitute, next to milk, the most easily digested form of nutri- ment. The baby's first solid is a cereal. The old folks' last standby is a cereal. The strong man finds bread or cereal a sufficient support for his day's labor. The weakling, the sick person, the invalid can assimilate certain cereal dishes when nearly every other form of food has to be forsaken. As if to crown them, nature has endowed cereal grains with incomparable keeping qualities. So in these fruits of the field which excel in flavor, food value and health-giving properties, we have an in- heritance which makes for strength from generation to generation and supplies the surest foundation for our annual service of Thanksgiving. In order to appreciate the extent of our depend- ence on grains in our daily food, let us pause a min- ute to consider what would happen if the grain fields were to go on strike for just one season. First, no bread at any meal. The very thought is appalling. Yet we could live without bread if we had grain foods in some other form. But the strik- ing fields also would deprive us of our many forms of breakfast cereals ; they would take from us those grain beverages which are used by so many persons in place of coffee. We could not have crackers, muffins or crullers. Griddle cakes and waffles would be mere memories. The breadless noonday meal would be minus macaroni or spaghetti. The meat gravy would be as thin as water, for it is thickened with flour or corn- 12 FOOD WEALTH FROM GRAINS starch. And to concoct a pudding, pie or piece of cake without the aid of grain material would pass the power of the cunningest cook. No bowl of mush at supper time. No dish of any sort into the composition of which flour or corn- starch formerly entered. No rice cakes or shredded wheat, no noodles, or vermicelli. Indeed, if you will carefully note your three meals tomorrow and consider what would happen to them if every grain food or every dish in which grains play any part were withdrawn, you will begin to sense the real meaning to mankind of the corn and wheat fields, the rye and barley stretches, the oat fields and rice swamps which carpet this fertile land with a magic covering of greater carrying power than ever existed in any fabled floor-piece. And if some visitor from a distant world were suddenly to stand before you and ask, "What are you?" truth would compel you to answer, "Mostly grain of the field." None of our human inheritances is worth more than that which prompts such a reply. For grains supply a larger portion of man's nourishment than any other foodstuff, and in such convenient, eco- nomical form as to constitute them prime arbiters of man's destiny. 13 RECIPES Fruit Corn Muffins Mix together one-fourth cupful of melted fat and one-fourth cup- ful of sugar. Stir in one beaten egg and three-quarters cupful of milk. Mix and sift one and one-half cupfuls of corn meal, one and one-half cupfuls of flour, three teaspoonfuls of baking powder and one teaspoonful of salt. Add to the liquid mixture and when thor- oughly mixed stir in one-half cupful of seedless raisins and one-half cupful of chopped dates. Pour into well greased muffin pans and bake in a moderate oven about twenty-five minutes. Oatmeal Bread Pour two cupfuls of boiling water over two cupfuls of rolled oats. Cover and let stand until lukewarm. Dissolve one yeast cake in one- half cupful of lukewarm water, add one-quarter cupful of brown sugar and two tablespoonfuls of shortening, melted. Stir this mixture into the oatmeal and add one cupful of flour or enough to make a sponge. But until well mixed, cover and set aside until light, about one hour. Add one teaspoonful of salt and three cupfuls of flour or enough to make a dough. Knead until smooth, place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk — about one and one-half hours. Mold into loaves, fill well-greased pans half full, cover and let rise again until doubled in bulk. Bake forty-five minutes in a hot oven. One-half cupful of chopped nuts may be added, if desired. Casserole of Hominy and Beef Melt three tablespoonfuls of fat, add three tablespoonfuls of flour and when well mixed stir in two cupfuls of milk. Cook until thick and boiling, stirring constantly. Add four cupfuls of boiled hominy, four potatoes boiled and diced, one and one-half cupfuls of cooked, diced carrots, one teaspoonful of salt and one-quarter pound of dried beef, pulled apart and scalded. Mix carefully and pour into a cas- serole dish. Cover with buttered bread crumbs and brown in a hot oven. Macaroni with Anchovies and Capers Heat four tablespoonfuls of olive oil in a deep frying pan, stir in three cupfuls of cooked macaroni, well seasoned, six or eight anchovies washed and cut in pieces and one pimento cut fine. Stir until thor- oughly heated, add two or three capers and serve very hot; garnish with strips of pimento. 14 FOOD WEALTH FROM GRAINS Hominy Gems Cook one-fourth cupful of hominy in one-half cupful of boiling water for five minutes, or until water is absorbed. Add one-half teaspoonful of salt, one cupful of scalded milk, one cupful of corn- meal, three tablespoonfuls each of butter and sugar. Cool slightly, add two egg yolks beaten until thick and fold in two whites beaten stiff. When well mixed sift in three teaspoonfuls of baking powder, mix quickly, pour into well greased gem pans and bake in a hot oven about twenty-five minutes. Rice Waffles Mix and sift one and one-half cupfuls of flour, two tablespoonfuls of sugar, three teaspoonfuls of baking powder and one-half tea- spoonful of salt. Work in two-thirds cupful of boiled rice, using a fork or the fingers. Then add one beaten egg yolk and one and one-quarter cupfuls of milk mixed together. Beat until smooth, add two tablespoonfuls of melted butter and the stiffly beaten white of one egg. Bake in hot, well greased waffle irons and serve at once with maple syrup. E scalloped Rice and Cheese Wash one cupful of rice thoroughly and cook in six cupfuls of boiling, salted water for twenty-five minutes or until tender. Drain and rinse with hot water. Melt two tablespoonfuls of butter, add two tablespoonfuls of flour and stir in one and one-half cupfuls of milk. Cook until thickened and smooth, and then add one-half tea- spoonful of paprika, one-half teaspoonful of salt and one cupful of grated cheese. Mix with the rice and pour into a greased baking dish. Spread with one-half cupful of buttered bread crumbs and brown in a hot oven. Scrapple Scald two cupfuls of milk. Mix three-fourths cupful of cornmeal with enough cold milk or water to make a thick paste. Stir it into the scalded milk and cook for five minutes, stirring constantly. Then add one and one-half teaspoonfuls of salt, one-fourth teaspoonful of ground sage or thyme and cook in a double boiler for thirty minutes. Stir in one-half cupful of finely ground peanuts and pour into a small, greased bread pan. When cold, turn out, cut in slices one- quarter inch thick and brown in a small amount of hot fat. Serve plain or with ketchup or chili sauce. 15 FOOD WEALTH FROM GRAINS Macaroni with Vegetables Cook one-half pound of macaroni until tender in boiling. Drain and mix with one-half cupful each of cooked carrots and turnips and one cupful of cooked peas. Melt four tablespoonfuls of butter or margarine. Add one-half cupful of sliced onions, cover and cook about five minutes or until soft but not colored. Add four table- spoonfuls of flour and one and one-half cupfuls of milk. Cook until thickened, season with salt and pepper and pour over the macaroni mixture. Mix lightly, reheat if necessary and serve in a hot dish. Sprinkle with finely chopped parsley. Oatmeal Pudding Mix two cupfuls of scalded milk with one and one-half cupfuls of cold oatmeal. When the mixture is free from lumps add one- fourth cupful of molasses, two well beaten eggs, one-half teaspoonful of cinnamon, one-fourth cupful of sugar and two-thirds cupful of raisins, chopped prunes or dates. Mix all together, pour into a buttered baking dish and bake in a slow oven about forty minutes or until firm. Serve hot or cold, plain or with milk or cream. Rice Dumplings Wash one cupful of rice, and cook in six cupfuls of boiling salted water for twenty minutes, then drain. Have ready six squares of cheesecloth six by six inches. Spread a half-inch layer of rice in the center of each square. Place a peach, apple, a few strawberries, raspberries, etc., in the center of the rice. Gather up the sides of the cloth so that the rice covers the fruit entirely and tie tightly. Drop into a kettle of boiling water and boil for fifteen minutes. Remove from the cloths, arrange on a serving dish and serve with fruit, sugar and milk or cream. 16 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS