Maize flour

“ The maize requires more labour by far: it is first pounded to remove the outer scales from the grain, then steeped for three days in water, then pounded, the scales again separated by the shallow-basket tossings, then pounded fine, and the fine white flour separated by the basket from certain hard rounded particles, which are cooked as a sort of granular porridge—"Mtyéllé." ”

“ MAIZE.—Next to wheat and rice, maize is the grain most used in the nourishment of man. In Asia, Africa, and America, it is the principal daily food of a large portion of the population, especially of the colonists. In some of the provinces of France, too, it is consumed in large quantities. There are eight varieties of the maize; the most productive is the maize of Cusco. The flour of maize is yellow, and it contains an oily matter, which, when fresh, gives it an agreeable flavour and odour ”

“ When deprived of the gluten it constitutes oswego, maizena or corn flour. Maize contains more oil than any other cereal, ranging from 3.5 to 9.5% in the commercial grain. This is one of the factors in its value for fattening purposes. In distilling and some other processes this oil is separated and forms an article of commerce. When maize is sown, broadcast or closely planted in drills the ears may not develop at all, but the stalk is richer in sugar and sweeter; and this is the basis of growing “corn-fodder.” ”

“ Corn ranks high in comparison with other cereal grains as a food for man. Large quantities are eaten in the United States, in Southern and Eastern Europe, and in the Orient, but it is little known in Northern Europe. Cornmeal, made into corn bread, mush, and many other foods, is wholesome and nutritious. It cannot be leavened with yeast like wheat flour in bread-making, as the corn does not possess gluten, and the proteids of the maize kernel have other properties than those which characterize gluten. Large quantities of corn are consumed in the form of hominy and other breakfast foods. ”

“ But good corn bread, hommony, mush, and various other dishes cannot be made of flour ground too fine. For all ordinary purposes, the common mill employed for grinding wheat, answers equally well for grinding maize. When it is required to grind the corn coarse, it is necessary only to elevate the uppermost stone and increase its speed ”

“ A study of the analytical data of the whole grain shows that in so far as actual nutrition is concerned the maize is fully as nutritious as wheat. In respect of its content of fat Indian corn and its direct products easily take precedence of all the other cereals, with the exception of hulled oats. In round numbers Indian corn flour or bread made therefrom contains twice as much fat or oil as wheat, three times as much as rye, twice as much as barley, and nearly as much as hulled oats. ”

“ All the cereal grains, as millet, rice, maize, rye, barley and oats are utilized more or less by the inhabitants of the countries where these are cultivated, but wheat is the most suited for the purpose of making the best qualities of bread. Wheaten flour contains in slightly varying proportions, according to the kind of wheat from which it is manufactured, starch, gluten—a grey, viscid, elastic, nitrogenous substance, consisting chiefly of vegetable fibrine—sugar, gum, mineral matter and water. ”

“ Of the vegetable productions transplanted from other climes, maize flourishes beyond any other grain. And as it affords a strong and nutritive article of food, its propagation will, I think, altogether supersede that of wheat and barley. ”

“ Flour or meal produced from barley, maize, or rice, cannot be employed satisfactorily for the manufacture of bread unless a considerable portion of wheat flour is added, and in countries where these grains are the staple food of the people they are as often eaten as porridge or mash as in the form of bread.
On examining a grain of corn from any of the numerous cereals used in the preparation of flour, such as wheat, rye, barley, etc., it will be found to consist of the husk, or exterior covering, which is generally of a dark colour, and the inner part, which is more or less white. ”

“ Note.—Hominy is the inner part of the maize and bears about the same relation to maize-meal that coarsely-ground flour does to whole wheat meal. It is not so nourishing, but being less oily it keeps well, and has not the characteristic flavour of maize-meal, which is unpleasant to some persons.
3146.—HOMINY FRITTERS.
Ingredients.—Cold hominy porridge, fat to fry, flour.
Method.—Cut the cold porridge into slices, about 1 inch thick, flour them lightly on both sides, and fry in a frying-pan with butter or oil. Serve hot. ”

“ BARLEY BREAD, INDIAN-CORN BREAD, &c.—Bread made from barley, maize, oats, rice, potatoes, &c. "rises" badly, because the grains in question contain but little gluten, which makes the bread heavy, close in texture, and difficult of digestion; in fact, corn-flour has to be added before panification can take place. In countries where wheat is scarce and maize abundant, the people make the latter a chief article of sustenance, when prepared in different forms. ”

“ The pounding of the grain is about the heaviest work; the maize is first husked, then the grain is stripped off the cobs with the fingers, and put into the mortar for the first rough pounding. It is then taken out and winnowed by being shaken in a flat basket, and after being separated from the bran (which is given to goats, fowls, and pigeons, or used to make coarse porridge in time of scarcity) , pounded over again, sifting out the coarser particles after each pounding, till at last it is fine and white like flour. ”

“ I had for breakfast more paprika, and a sort of porridge of maize flour which they said was "mamaliga," and egg-plant stuffed with forcemeat, a very excellent dish, which they call "impletata." (Mem., get recipe for this also.) ”

“ One of the most beautiful, and at the same time useful, crops in the world is that of maize, which feeds not only vast numbers of human beings, but also countless flocks and herds, the latter eating the green stalks as well as the ripened grain. The United States alone produced no less than 2,523,648,312 bushels of this cereal in 1902, as against 987,000,000 bushels of wheat, and 670,000,000 [326] bushels of barley. Now, maize has a very tough stalk, often 10 feet high and an inch thick, which cannot be cut with the ease of wheat or barley. So a special machine has been devised to handle it. ”

“ They sow as much hemp and flax here, as they want for home consumption.
They sow maize in great abundance: A loose soil is reckoned the best for this purpose; for it will not grow in clay. From half a bushel they reap a hundred bushels. They reckon maize a very good kind of corn, because the shoot recovers after being hurt by the frost. They have had examples here of the shoots dying twice in spring, to the very ground, and yet they shot up again afterwards, and afforded an excellent crop. Maize has likewise the advantage of standing much longer against a drought, than wheat. ”

“ Maize grows on the ridges of the Cordilleras where the mean temperature is about 48° of Fahrenheit, and on the plains or in the valleys where it is 80°,—where the climate is adverse to rye and barley, and where wheat cannot be produced, either owing to the heat or the cold, this grain, whose farinaceous property has the greatest volume, produces its seed from 150 to 1200 fold. Thus it may be said to be the most useful grain to man ”

“ Thirty-five and forty bushels of wheat is considered a very abundant crop,—the average produce in that part of the United States in which wheat is grown, is said not to exceed thirteen bushels, while in England it is reckoned at twenty-five bushels.
‘Barley or oats very frequently succeed wheat before the land is laid down in grass, or again bears a crop of maize; but it is not to be understood that barley, and even oats, do not in many cases follow the crop of maize immediately, and precede the wheat crop. ”

“ It is extensively grown throughout India, both for the ripe grain and for use of the unripe cob as a green vegetable. It is the most common crop throughout South Africa, where it is known as mealies, being the staple food of the natives. It is also largely used for fodder and is an important article of export.
As an article of food maize is one of the most extensively used grains in the world. Although rich in nitrogenous matter and fat, it does not make good bread. ”

“ Few attempts have hitherto been made to cultivate any grain, except Indian corn, though the soil is thought to be in many places well adapted to wheat, barley, oats, &c. The maize cultivated in the Arkansa territory, and in the southern and western states, generally is the variety called the ground seed, having a long and compressed kernel, shrivelled at the end when fully ripe; and crops are not uncommon yielding from sixty to ninety bushels per acre. In all the uplands, the prevailing growth is oak. ”

“ It is fitting that a grain which is so peculiarly adapted to be the aid and support of a great civilization should grow upon a plant of such dignity and beauty as is the maize. The perfect proportions of the slender stalk to the long gracefully curving leaves; the plumed tassels swaying and bowing to every breeze and sending their pollen showers to the waiting skeins of silk hidden below; the ripened ear with its exact rows of shining yellow grains wrapped in silken husks; all these make the corn plant as delightful to the eye as it is intrinsically important to the welfare of nations. ”

“ MAIZE, or INDIAN CORN (Zea mays, Fig. 58) , is a species of grain much cultivated in America and other climates: the grains are of yellow colour, somewhat shaped like flattened peas, and grow closely set round the upper part of high perpendicular stalks. To the inhabitants of many countries of warm climates the cultivation of maize is a very important pursuit. These plants are propagated by sowing the seed in rows, in March, April, or May: they generally produce two crops in the year, and yield, according to the soil, from fifteen to forty bushels per acre. ”

“ All experience, as well as all chemical researches, go to prove that potash and phosphoric acid are important elements in the organisation of maize. Corn yields more pounds of straw and grain on poor land than either wheat, rye, barley, or oats; and it does infinitely better on rich than on sterile soils. To make the earth fertile, it is better economy to plant thick than to have the rows five feet apart each way, as is customary in some of the Southern States, and only one stalk in a hill. ”

“ A standard wheat should be hardy, strong in the straw; not easy to shell and waste, prolific, thin in the bran, white in flour, and the flour rich in starch and gluten. The earliness or lateness of a variety affects its liability to disease.
Much may be done by every farmer to secure a variety suited to his soil from his own fields. Let a watchful eye observe every remarkable head of wheat—a very early one, a very long head, any which have an unusual sized grain, or is distinguished for any excellent property. ”

“ They make it into puddings and cakes, or bread, the quality of which is extremely nutritive. Maize is useful for poultry and cattle of every kind; and, if converted into malt, a wholesome beverage may be brewed {207}from it. Of the leafy husk which surrounds the ear of the maize a beautiful kind of writing paper is manufactured at a paper-mill near Rimini in Italy; and a greyish paper may be manufactured from the whole plant. The stalks are said to afford an excellent winter food for cattle. When the young ears are beginning to form, they have a sweet and agreeable taste. ”

“ My wife was satisfied when she saw the straw carried home and stacked; our crop of maize, which of course had not been threshed like the other corn, afforded soft leaves which were used for stuffing mattresses, while the stalks, when burnt, left ashes so rich in alkali as to be especially useful.
I changed the crops sown on the ground to rye, barley, and oats, and hoped they would ripen before the rainy reason. ”

“ If the pioneers had been obliged to depend alone upon the wheat and rye of Europe which would only grow with good tillage they might have starved before they had gained a foothold on our forest-covered shores. While maize has never been a popular grain in European countries outside of the southermost parts, yet on the great continents of Africa and Asia it was welcomed from the first, and is now largely grown. ”

“ The field should have two or three regular hoeings, and the weeds be carefully kept under.
In harvesting the following will be found a good plan:—Let two hands take five rows, cutting the corn close to the ground. A hill should be left standing to form the centre of the shock, placing the stalks round it, so that they may not lie on the ground. After the shock is made of sufficient size, take a band of straw, and having turned down the tops of the stalks, bind them firmly, and the work is done.
Maize may be cut as soon as the centre of the grain is glazed, even if the stalks are green. ”

“ Being more easily cultivated than wheat, especially in cold countries, it is cheaper and therefore more of a poor man's food.
Indian corn, or maize, or Turkish wheat, is one of the finest of cereals. It is used extensively in America, North and South, in parts of the Orient, in Italy, the Balkans, Servia, and elsewhere. It is used as a green vegetable and when fully matured is ground into meal and made into bread, porridge, biscuits, Johnny-cake, etc., etc. Corn compared to wheat is rich in fat, but in protein wheat is the richer by about 3 per cent. ”