Under the first head, that of farinaceous seeds, are in-
cluded wheat, rye, oats, Indian corn, rice, and a variety
of less-known grains, all possessing in greater or less
degree the same constituents. It will be impossible to
more than touch upon many of them ; and wheat must
stand as the representative, being the best-known and
most widely used of all grains. Each one is made up
of nitrogenous compounds, gluten, albumen, caseine, and
fibrine, gluten being the most valuable. Starch, dextrine,
sugar, and cellulose are also found ; fatty matter, which
gives the characteristic odor of grain ; mineral substances,
as phosphates of lime and magnesia, salts of potash and
soda, and silica, which we shall shortl}^ mention again.
THE CHEMISTRY OF VEGETABLE FOOD, 101
Hard Wheat, or that grown in hot climates and on
fertile soil, has much more nitrogen than that of colder
countries. In hard wheat, in a hundred parts, twenty-
two will be of nitrogen, fiftj^-nine starch, ten dextrine,
&c., four cellulose, two and a half of fatty matter, and
three of mineral, thus giving man}^ of the constituents
found in animal food.
This wheat is taken as bread, white or brown, biscuits,
crackers, various preparations of the grain whether whole
or crushed, and among the Italians as macaroni, the most
condensed form of cereal food. The best macaroni is
made from the red wheat grown along the Mediterranean
Sea, a hot summer and warm climate producing a grain,
rich, as already mentioned, in nitrogen, and with a smaller
proportion of water than farther north. The intense
though short summer of our own far North-west seems to
bring somewhat the same result, but the outer husk is
harder. This husk was for years considered a necessity
in all really nutritious bread ; and a generation of vege-
tarians taking their name from Dr. Graham, and known
as Grahamites, conceived the idea of living upon the
wheaten flour✪ Simple Bread in which husk and kernel were ground
together. Now, to stomachs and livers brought to great
grief by persistent pie and doughnuts and some other
New-England wickednesses, these husks did a certain
office of stimulation, stirring up jaded digestions, and
reall}' seeming to arrest or modify long-standing d3^s-
pepsia. But they did not know what we do, that this
outer husk is a layer of pure silica, one of the hardest
of known minerals. Boil it six weeks, and it comes
out unchanged. Boil it six years, or six centuries, and
the result would be the same. You can not stew a
102 THE CHEMISTRY OF VEGETABLE FOOD.
grindstone or bring granite to porridge, and the wheat-
husk is equally obstinate. So long as enthusiasts ate
husk and kernel ground together, little harm was done.
But when a more progressive soul declared that in bran
alone the true nutriment lay, and a host of would-be
healthier people proceeded to eat bran and preach bran,
there came a time when eating and preaching both stopped,
from sheer want of strength to go on. The enthusiasts
were literally starving themselves to death — for starva-
tion is b}^ no means mere deprivation of food : on the con-
trary, a man may eat heartily to the da}' of his death, and
feel no inconvenience, so far as an}^ protest of the stomach
is concerned, jQt the verdict of the wise physician would
be, "Died of starvation." If the food was unsuitable,
and could not be assimilated, this was inevitable.
Page 50 · 1 recipe record on this page
Presented as published in 1881. 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
Under the first head, that of farinaceous seeds, are included wheat, rye, oats, Indian corn, rice, and a variety of less-known grains, all possessing in greater or less degree the same constituents. It will be impossible to more than touch upon many of them ; and wheat must stand as the representative, being the best-known and most widely used of all grains. Each one is made up of nitrogenous compounds, gluten, albumen, caseine, and fibrine, gluten being the most valuable. Starch, dextrine, sugar, and cellulose are also found ; fatty matter, which gives the characteristic odor of grain ; mineral substances, as phosphates of lime and magnesia, salts of potash and soda, and silica, which we shall shortly mention again.
Hard Wheat, or that grown in hot climates and on fertile soil, has much more nitrogen than that of colder countries. In hard wheat, in a hundred parts, twentytwo will be of nitrogen, fifty-nine starch, ten dextrine, &c., four cellulose, two and a half of fatty matter, and three of mineral, thus giving many of the constituents found in animal food.
This wheat is taken as bread, white or brown, biscuits, crackers, various preparations of the grain whether whole or crushed, and among the Italians as macaroni, the most condensed form of cereal food. The best macaroni is made from the red wheat grown along the Mediterranean Sea, a hot summer and warm climate producing a grain, rich, as already mentioned, in nitrogen, and with a smaller proportion of water than farther north. The intense though short summer of our own far North-west seems to bring somewhat the same result, but the outer husk is harder. This husk was for years considered a necessity in all really nutritious bread ; and a generation of vegetarians taking their name from Dr. Graham, and known as Grahamites, conceived the idea of living upon the wheaten flour in which husk and kernel were ground together. Now, to stomachs and livers brought to great grief by persistent pie and doughnuts and some other New-England wickednesses, these husks did a certain office of stimulation, stirring up jaded digestions, and reall}' seeming to arrest or modify long-standing dyspepsia. But they did not know what we do, that this outer husk is a layer of pure silica, one of the hardest of known minerals. Boil it six weeks, and it comes out unchanged. Boil it six years, or six centuries, and the result would be the same. You can not stew a
grindstone or bring granite to porridge, and the wheathusk is equally obstinate. So long as enthusiasts ate husk and kernel ground together, little harm was done. But when a more progressive soul declared that in bran alone the true nutriment lay, and a host of would-be healthier people proceeded to eat bran and preach bran, there came a time when eating and preaching both stopped, from sheer want of strength to go on. The enthusiasts were literally starving themselves to death — for starvation is by no means mere deprivation of food : on the contrary, a man may eat heartily to the day of his death, and feel no inconvenience, so far as any protest of the stomach is concerned, jQt the verdict of the wise physician would be, "Died of starvation." If the food was unsuitable, and could not be assimilated, this was inevitable.
Records on this page
Simple Bread