*We have received many letters from people who have benefitted by eating our whole-
grain products. The one that pleased me the most was from a lovely girl I know who,
after being married for five years without issue, began eating wholegrain at least twice a
day, sometimes three. Ten months later I got a letter from her announcing the birth of
two bouncing baby boys. Twins!
Of course we can’t guarantee this every time.
12 COOKING WITH WHOLEGRAINS
aided) that you can cook nothing fit for human consumption of
wholegrain products and that you need white flour to make beauti-
ful light, fluffy bread, rolls, cakes, etc.
I sometimes wonder just how this food lightness and food white-
ness got started. My hunch is that the lighter and whiter a food is,
the less tasty and satisfying. I suspect that the desirability of
making foods as light as a feather and as white as chalk was brought
about, shrewdly, affer the millers and bakers found by the removal
of the germ, and by the introduction of bleaches and chemicals
they could make food that, like any other embalmed thing, kept
until it was sold! They have been able to educate the public into’
believing that lightness and whiteness are more important than
taste and nutrition. |
I strongly suspect that modern cooking, promoted by the cook
books and cooking schools subsidized by manufacturers of refined
and processed products, is a way of making something to eat that
will quickly and completely fool the eater into thinking it is some-
thing good to eat. One has only to look at the brilliant display of
items on the shelves of commercial bakers to realize that the eye-
appeal is the main desideratum. I feel that many of us, until we are
shown better, are very much like the woman who rushed home from
a meeting of the Woman’s Sewing Circle and, surrounded by her
husband and children, exclaimed with great pride: “Oh, I learned
a wonderful recipe for cake today from Mrs. Jones. She gave me
her rule for making cake without using amy eggs or butter at all!” The
next step would be cheating at solitaire!
For thousands of years bread was made of genuine wholegrain
flour, and man thrived. As a matter of fact the highest level of
cooking as an art, as well as a method of fortifying the human
frame, was reached in the 18th Century. Those great chefs of
France, such as Brillat-Savarin and Monsieur Careme now con-
sidered the greatest cooks of all time, were plying their art before
modern white patent flour was ever dreamt of. They cooked every-
thing with wholegrain flour and firmly established cooking among
the great arts of civilization. This was a contributing factor in
making France one of the great civilized nations of the world.
“CooKING WITH WHOLEGRAINS’’ is not, however, a book for pro-
fessional chefs or for those who believe that they can duplicate the
THE MYSTERY OF THE MILL 13
success of Brillat-Savarin and Careme. It is for everyday house-
wives and also men who are occasionally found in the kitchen, who
wish to cook something not only good to eat but good for them!
I will state unequivocally and without fear of contravention that
all edibles possible to be made of wheat, corn, oats, or rye, can be
cooked and better cooked with wholegrain wheat, corn, oats, and
rye, and what is more, better eaten and better for us.
The Vermont Guild of Oldtime Crafts and Industries here in
Weston was started in 1936 as a museum of early American crafts
and industries, and about twelve years ago began turning its stone
mill. Since that time thousands of people have cooked with these
wholegrains, but with the exception of a small brochure we issued
in 1938, there has not been available a comprehensive cooking book
dealing with more than a few recipes for wholegrain dishes.
VII
Page 4
Presented as published in 1947. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
*We have received many letters from people who have benefitted by eating our wholegrain products. The one that pleased me the most was from a lovely girl I know who, after being married for five years without issue, began eating wholegrain at least twice a day, sometimes three. Ten months later I got a letter from her announcing the birth of two bouncing baby boys. Twins!
Of course we can’t guarantee this every time.
aided) that you can cook nothing fit for human consumption of wholegrain products and that you need white flour to make beautiful light, fluffy bread, rolls, cakes, etc.
I sometimes wonder just how this food lightness and food whiteness got started. My hunch is that the lighter and whiter a food is, the less tasty and satisfying. I suspect that the desirability of making foods as light as a feather and as white as chalk was brought about, shrewdly, affer the millers and bakers found by the removal of the germ, and by the introduction of bleaches and chemicals they could make food that, like any other embalmed thing, kept until it was sold! They have been able to educate the public into’ believing that lightness and whiteness are more important than taste and nutrition. |
I strongly suspect that modern cooking, promoted by the cook books and cooking schools subsidized by manufacturers of refined and processed products, is a way of making something to eat that will quickly and completely fool the eater into thinking it is something good to eat. One has only to look at the brilliant display of items on the shelves of commercial bakers to realize that the eyeappeal is the main desideratum. I feel that many of us, until we are shown better, are very much like the woman who rushed home from a meeting of the Woman’s Sewing Circle and, surrounded by her husband and children, exclaimed with great pride: “Oh, I learned a wonderful recipe for cake today from Mrs. Jones. She gave me her rule for making cake without using amy eggs or butter at all!” The next step would be cheating at solitaire!
For thousands of years bread was made of genuine wholegrain flour, and man thrived. As a matter of fact the highest level of cooking as an art, as well as a method of fortifying the human frame, was reached in the 18th Century. Those great chefs of France, such as Brillat-Savarin and Monsieur Careme now considered the greatest cooks of all time, were plying their art before modern white patent flour was ever dreamt of. They cooked everything with wholegrain flour and firmly established cooking among the great arts of civilization. This was a contributing factor in making France one of the great civilized nations of the world.
“CooKING WITH WHOLEGRAINS’’ is not, however, a book for professional chefs or for those who believe that they can duplicate the
THE MYSTERY OF THE MILL 13
success of Brillat-Savarin and Careme. It is for everyday housewives and also men who are occasionally found in the kitchen, who wish to cook something not only good to eat but good for them!
I will state unequivocally and without fear of contravention that all edibles possible to be made of wheat, corn, oats, or rye, can be cooked and better cooked with wholegrain wheat, corn, oats, and rye, and what is more, better eaten and better for us.
The Vermont Guild of Oldtime Crafts and Industries here in Weston was started in 1936 as a museum of early American crafts and industries, and about twelve years ago began turning its stone mill. Since that time thousands of people have cooked with these wholegrains, but with the exception of a small brochure we issued in 1938, there has not been available a comprehensive cooking book dealing with more than a few recipes for wholegrain dishes.