Grain (food)

“ Of the different kinds of grain, oats are peculiarly the horse's food, and they are always safe, digestible, and nutritive. Barley is the best substitute for it. Wheat and Indian corn are sometimes given, but both are unsuitable; the first is too concentrated, and the last too heating. They ought to be sparingly used, and only when ground and mixed with chaff. The offal of wheat is never objectionable. [Pg 152]
Grain is always more advantageously fed when ground or crushed, and wet some time previous to eating; and it is still better when cooked. ”

“ Some varieties thrive in the hot countries, others flourish in the temperate regions, and still others mature and ripen in the short warm season of the colder northern climates. In fact, there is practically no kind of soil that will not produce a crop of some variety of grain. Since grains are so easily grown and are so plentiful, cereals and foods made from them furnish a large part of the world's food supply. Indeed, about one-fourth of all the food eaten by the inhabitants of the world, when it is considered as a whole, is made up of cereals. ”

“ Wheat, the other grain used for bread making, is an annual grass of unknown origin. It is used more extensively for food than any other grain. In fact, it has been estimated that the average quantity consumed by each person is about 6 bushels a year, and of this amount by far the greater part is used in the making of bread. Since so much of this grain is used as food, considerable time and effort have been spent in developing those qualities which are most desirable for the purpose to which wheat is put and in perfecting the processes whereby wheat flour of a good quality may be obtained. ”

“ They each contain one or more of the nitrogenous elements,—gluten, albumen, caseine, and fibrin,—together with starch, dextrine, sugar, and fatty matter, and also mineral elements and woody matter, or cellulose. The combined nutritive value of the grain foods is nearly three times that of beef, mutton, or poultry. As regards the proportion of the food elements necessary to meet the various requirements of the system, grains approach more nearly the proper standard than most other foods; indeed, wheat contains exactly the correct proportion of the food elements. ”

“ Nowadays we use a grain food as the standard, and of all grains wheat is the one which is nearest perfection, or which supplies to the body those elements that it requires, and in best proportions. A perfect food must contain carbonaceous, nitrogenous, and mineral matter in definite quantities ”

“ Bread.—Wheat is the principal and most valuable kind of grain for the service of man. Bread made from wheat-flour has been in use for many hundreds of years, and on this account, as well as because of its highly nourishing properties, has been aptly called "the staff of life." We never become tired of good bread as an article of daily food.
The white kinds of flour contain more starch and less gluten than the darker, and are therefore less nutritious. The hard-grain wheat yields the best flour. ”

“ Such are milk, honey, eggs, nuts, cereals, a few roots, legumina, and gums, and the countless variety of fruit, which are man-food par excellence. Our various kinds of bread, though artificially prepared, as well as other farinaceous dishes, are derived from an edible grain which is neither repulsive nor indigestible in its original state.
"To the second or adapted edibles belong different vegetables which are rendered palatable only by the process of cooking, as cabbage, beans, peas and lentils, and various roots and leaves. ”

“ It is chiefly to save the trouble of dressing any other kind of food, and that bread, from its portability and convenience of always being ready, has become the principal sustenance, but it is far from being the most economical method of using farinaceous grain. ”

“ Whole Wheat Flour.—It is claimed that bran in Graham flour often proves an irritant to delicate digestive organs. In whole wheat flour we have the entire food principle of the grain without the hull. The cold blast process of milling gives us this flour of a very superior quality.
Whole Wheat Flour Bread should be made in every particular like patent or new process flour bread, and baked in loaves, twists, or fancy rolls. ”

“ The body can digest and absorb sugar and starch more completely than any other kind of food.
All civilized people have a favorite cereal. The Chinese and Japanese use rice very extensively, and this grain is growing in favor with us. White people generally prefer wheat, which is an excellent grain that has been used by man for thousands of years. It has been found in ancient Egyptian tombs, and it is so retentive of life that it has started to grow after lying dormant for several thousand years. Truly it is a worthy food for man.
The table of cereals should be carefully studied. ”

“ A useful and nutritious grain, cultivated in immense quantities in India, China, and most eastern countries; in the West Indies, Central America, and the United States; and in southern Europe. It forms the principal food of the people of eastern and southern Asia, and is more extensively consumed than any other species of grain, not even excepting wheat. ”

“ The staple grain feeds are corn, oats, wheat, barley and buckwheat. The grain by-products, bran, middlings and gluten feed, to which may be added corn meal, ground oats and ground barley.
Animal food of some kind is an essential to growth and egg-production. Skim milk and butter milk, fish scrap made from oil-free fish, beef scrap, fresh cut green bone and good grades of digester tankage are all excellent. But use only feeds of this character which are of prime quality. Oily fish, poor beef scrap and mouldy green bone will surely cause trouble. ”

“ The ripe grain is used all over the earth as food for horses, pigs, and poultry. Nothing is better for fattening stock. 11. Green corn, or "roasting ears," hulled corn and hominy, New England hasty pudding, and succotash are favorite dishes with many persons. Then there are parched corn and pop corn—the delight of long winter evenings. 12. Cornstarch is an important article of commerce. Sirup and sugar are made from the juice of the stalk, and oil and alcohol from the ripened grain. ”

“ It is evident that every species of corn must have been originally the spontaneous production of the earth; but as the grain, previous to cultivation, would grow but scantily, its importance as food might long escape observation, and mankind would naturally derive a more obvious, though less nutritive subsistence, from acorns, berries, and other fruits which were within their reach. ”

“ To speak first of food, which nature requires most. This land abounds in singularly good wheat, rice, barley, and various other grains, from which to make bread, the staff of life. Their wheat grows like ours, but the grain is somewhat larger and whiter, of which the inhabitants make most pure and well-relished bread. The common people make their bread in cakes, which they bake or fire on portable iron hearths or plates, which they carry with them on their journeys, using them in their tents. ”

“ It is eaten that way by the peasant because he has no patent milling machinery at his disposal, to fan away the life-giving elements of his food. Nearly all the mineral elements of the grain are contained in the outer, dark-colored portion. The white part is almost pure starch; and when you use white flour, you are not merely starving your blood-stream, your bones, and your teeth, you are also depriving the digestive tract of the rough material which it is accustomed to handle, and which it needs to stimulate it to action. ”

“ It must be remembered that these percentages are given for the whole grain, and that the amounts of the nutrients in the manufactured product depend upon the process employed.
Manufacture of cereal food materials. [12] —The primitive method of making the material in the grain available for use was by grinding the grain between two stones, or by pounding one stone upon another, and this method is used by the Mexicans and certain of the American Indians to this day, human muscle being the power employed. ”

“ For this reason, the grains that remain whole and the cereal products that contain the entire grain are much more valuable from the standpoint of minerals than those in which the bran covering is not retained. If a sufficient percentage of minerals is secured in the diet from vegetables, fruits, and milk, it is perhaps unnecessary to include whole cereals; but if the diet is at all limited, it is advisable to select those cereals which retain the original composition of the grain. ”

“ Corn, oats, wheat feeds and oil meal will generally form the main part of our ration. The average farmer is hardly warranted in looking farther for [Pg 42] grains to feed. Oil meal helps as a conditioner and is fed in small amounts only. Cottonseed meal may be of value but has never proven so in the writer’s personal experience.
Grain should be ground so that all of the nutriments may be absorbed. The amount of grain to be fed varies with the amount of milk that the cow is producing. One pound of grain to every five pounds of milk is a fairly good rule to follow. ”

“ The grains belong to the family of grasses, and through cultivation their seeds, which store the nourishment for the growth of new plants, have been made to store a sufficient amount of nourishment to permit man to collect and use it as food. The name cereals was derived from the goddess Ceres, whom the Romans believed to be the protector of their crops and harvests. Numerous grains are produced, but only eight of these cereals are used extensively as food, namely, wheat, corn, oats, rice, barley, rye, buckwheat, and millet. ”

“ A grain should mash between finger and thumb. Fill up as the water boils away, and take care not to scorch. Cool uncovered, and keep cool. To cook, dip out a dishful, fry it in bubbling bacon fat as directed for corn. Or warm in a double boiler, and serve with butter and sugar or cream and sugar, as a cereal. Use also as a vegetable the same as rice or green corn. Hominy pudding, baked brown, and highly seasoned, helps out a scant dinner wonderfully, as corn is the most heating of grains, as well as one of the most nutritious. ”

“ On this supposition, eight pounds of wheat yield seven of flour consumed by man, and one of pollard and bran which are given to animals—chiefly to poultry and pigs. If the whole meal be used, however, eight pounds of flour will be obtained, or eight people will be fed by the same weight of grain which only fed seven before. ”

“ Whey is the product remaining after the removal of fat and casein from milk in the process of cheese-making.
2. Kumiss is the product made by the alcoholic fermentation of mare’s or cow’s milk.
II. VEGETABLE PRODUCTS. A. Grain Products. a. GRAINS AND MEALS.
1. Grain is the fully matured, clean, sound, air-dry seed of wheat, maize, rice, oats, rye, buckwheat, barley, sorghum, millet, or spelt.
2. Meal is the clean, sound product made by grinding grain. ”

“ But perhaps the time may come when we shall return to the use of unfermented bread, and shall think that bread made from other grains, and unfermented, is quite as good, or even better, than the fermented bread of flour. At the present time, however, wheat is more consumed than any other grain,” and with this long quotation I will conclude. ”

“ Description.—Corn, peas, and beans in their immature state are so nearly allied to vegetables, that we give in this connection recipes for cooking green corn, green beans, and green peas. A general rule applicable to all is that they should, when possible, be cooked and eaten the day they are gathered, as otherwise they lose much of their sweetness and flavor. For corn, select young, tender, well-filled ears, from which the milk will spurt when the grain is broken with the finger nail. ”

“ The Board of Agriculture, in order to ascertain what each of the various sorts of grain employed as substitutes for bread-corn 56would produce, when ground into flour, with only the broad bran taken out, caused a bushel of each of the undermentioned sorts of seeds to be ground for their inspection: the weight of the grain, as well as the bran and the flour, was as follows:
A bushel of wheat, upon an average, weighs sixty-one pounds; when ground, the meal weighs 603⁄4 lbs. ”

“ The ancients, as well as the moderns, caused wheat to undergo certain preparations to enable it to be transformed into bread, we shall enumerate in the following chapter the different processes by which they obtained flour, the essential foundation of the food of man.
Cereals.—This name has been given to all plants of the gramineous family, the fundamental base of the food of man. The cereals, properly speaking, are limited to wheat, rye, barley, and oats; however, there are others, such as canary grass, Indian corn, millet, rice, &c., &c. ”

“ In Middle and Western Asia, and in Africa, bread, though made of different kinds of grain, is prepared with almost equal simplicity. In Scotland, Ireland, and indeed throughout Europe generally, barley, oats, rye, potatoes, peas, beans, chesnuts, and other farinaceous vegetables, constitute the bread-stuff of most of the laboring people, 16or peasantry. In the islands of the Pacific and Southern oceans, the bread of the inhabitants consists of the plantain, bananas, yams, bread-fruit, and other like vegetables, simply roasted, baked, or boiled. ”