Read Ebook: Food Guide for War Service at Home Prepared under the direction of the United States Food Administration in co-operation with the United States Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Education with a preface by Herbert Hoover by Blunt Katharine Powdermaker Florence Swain Frances Lucy United States Food Administration

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WHEAT FLOUR IN WAR-TIME

To use this country's share of the short supply of wheat to the greatest advantage the Food Administration has changed the making of flour to include more of the wheat-kernel. The difference between peace and war time flour is easily understood if the structure of grains is considered. Wheat and other cereals have kernels much alike; all have three principal parts:

The kind of flour made depends on how much and what parts of the kernel are used. Graham flour is manufactured by grinding practically all of the wheat-kernel--a 100-per-cent use of the grain, called 100-per-cent extraction. Some people still fail to realize that Graham flour and Graham bread are wheat, perhaps because of the different name and brown color. The so-called "whole-wheat" flour is often 95 per cent of the kernel only, but may be as little as 85 per cent, depending on the amount of the bran and germ removed in the making.

Ordinary white flour contains the endosperm alone, with practically none of the bran and germ. Some brands before the war used up as little as 56 per cent of the wheat, leaving the rest of it to be turned into lower-grade flours and cattle-feed. White flour thus uses less of the wheat for human food than Graham or whole-wheat flour.

Yet to convert all the country's wheat into Graham flour would not be a wheat-saving measure, because it is not so well suited to our trade conditions. Graham flour, for one thing, does not keep so well as flour of lower extractions, as the fat in the germ may become rancid in a comparatively short time. Flour in this country is often thirty days or longer in transit and may be months in warehouses, stores, and homes. A flour to be satisfactory under extreme conditions here or for shipment abroad must keep at least six months--too long to be sure that Graham flour will keep. In small countries like England, where flour is used up more promptly, a high extraction is more practicable than in the United States.

Moreover, while Graham and whole-wheat flours with their larger quantities of mineral salts are a more desirable food for some people than white flour, they are occasionally irritating to people with weak digestions, so that it would be unfortunate to have only these flours on the market.

The Food Administration, therefore, has considered that the most effective use of our wheat could be obtained by forbidding the manufacture of fancy flours of low extraction and making all flour contain at least 74 per cent of the wheat. This still gives a fine white flour that keeps well and is difficult to distinguish from that on the market before the war.

To help in the enforcement of its flour rulings, the Food Administration has licensed all mills and elevators which handle over 100 barrels of flour a day. If the rulings of the Food Administration are not obeyed the license may be taken away, and the business closed. The hoarding of flour has been stopped by prohibiting mills, elevators, and bakers from having more than 30 days' supply on hand.

THE 50-50 RULE. ANOTHER WAY TO CUT THE CONSUMPTION OF WHEAT

NOT ONLY MUST THE MILLER MANUFACTURE FLOUR IN ACCORDANCE WITH NEW REGULATIONS, BUT THE INDIVIDUAL CONSUMER MUST BUY IT UNDER RESTRICTIONS. To many people the first realization that war and food difficulties are necessarily associated, came with the announcement in the spring of 1918 of the now familiar rules for the purchase of flour. With every pound of white wheat flour, the purchaser must buy a pound of some other cereal; with every pound of Graham flour, three-fifths of a pound of other cereal.

The purpose of this regulation is, of course, to lessen the use of wheat by increasing the use of the substitutes. The housekeeper who through lack of initiative or ingenuity fails to feed the family the substitutes and lets them accumulate on her shelf has just so far failed to co-operate with the Food Administration. Many a housewife has learned the value of these cereals and will continue to use them long after the war and the Food Administration have passed into history.

A little thought will show the absence of any real burden in the 50-50 rule. A housekeeper for her family of four buys five pounds of wheat flour and five pounds of other cereals. She may use 1 1/4 pounds of the substitutes with the 5 pounds of wheat flour to make about 8 pounds of Victory bread--sufficient to give each member of her family 2 pounds of bread during the week. She may serve an ounce of oatmeal as the breakfast cereal and an ounce of rice, hominy, or other cereal for each person daily and will then have used all the substitutes. These cereals can be made into an endless variety of quick breads, cakes, and pastry, or combined with other foods as the main dish of the meal.

SUBSTITUTES FOR WHEAT FLOUR

The cereals on the market are varied enough to suit any taste. REMEMBER THAT AS FAR AS NUTRITIONAL VALUE IS CONCERNED, IT MAKES PRACTICALLY NO DIFFERENCE WHETHER WE EAT WHEAT OR OATS, RYE OR BARLEY. The quantities of starch, protein, mineral matter, and fat are so nearly the same that any one of them can take the place of another. Oatmeal has a slight advantage over wheat both in protein and fat, and since oats is an abundant crop in our country it is an excellent substitute. Rice has a very little more starch and less protein than the others.

There is just one advantage that wheat flour has over the other cereals--it can be made into lighter and more durable bread. The reason for this is given in the next chapter.

The foods from corn and the ways of using them are more numerous than is often appreciated. Corn meal and corn flour are the most important. We are making almost as much corn meal as wheat flour. The yellow and white corn meals, milled from different kinds of corn, are practically the same in composition, though slightly different in flavor. The method of milling corn meal makes more difference in the composition than the kind of corn used. The old "water-ground" meal was simply crushed between millstones and only the coarsest particles of bran bolted out. This ranks with Graham as a product of 100 per cent extraction and like Graham, it may not keep well, because the germ is left in. The new process, more like modern flour-milling, removes some of the bran and germ. The product is a granulated corn meal which keeps better than the other, and has practically the same composition, though to some people a less desirable flavor.

If corn meal is further ground and bolted, we have corn flour. Some of this has been put on the market lately and is proving a good substitute for wheat flour; but the amount available is only a small fraction of the amount of corn meal. Other important corn products are hominy of different kinds, hulled corn, and popcorn. The latter, usually eaten as an "extra," is really a valuable part of the diet.

The United States, more like England than Scotland, has used oats mostly for feed. The crop is second only to the corn-crop. Oats are eaten in the form of oatmeal, which is a finely granulated meal, and as the common rolled oats which have been steamed and put through rollers. There is little oat flour on the market at present. A successful and palatable home-made flour may be prepared by putting rolled oats through a food-chopper. Any of the forms of oats can be used in breads of all kinds, but the more finely ground flour can be substituted in larger proportion. The demand for oat products has grown so rapidly the last year that mills are running to their limit. Special machinery is required for its manufacture, so that a great increase in the supply is not feasible in a short time.

The rice-growers of the South are doing their best to supply the country with rice in quantity and to make known the possibilities of this cereal. The rice flour supply, though not large now, will doubtless be much increased by next year. One Louisiana mill, for example, is increasing its output from 150 to 1,200 barrels a day.

Flours are made from the Irish and sweet potato, from tapioca, from soy beans, and bananas, but they are manufactured in such small amounts that they do not take the place of wheat to any great extent. Potato flour comes nearest to doing this. It has always been used to some extent in Europe and it is being widely used in Germany now. Potato itself can be used instead of wheat. An extra potato at a meal will take the place of a large slice of bread.

Many of the substitute cereals do not keep so well as wheat, especially if they contain more than a minimum of moisture and fat. The housekeeper and the baker should therefore buy them in small enough quantities to use them up promptly and should keep them in a cool, well-ventilated place. May and June and the summer months are the time when most care is needed.

It is the free use of these many wholesome substitutes that is making possible the necessary saving of wheat. We who appreciate their wholesomeness and their value can well break away from our wheat habit and gladly make the little effort sometimes necessary to begin using newer foods.

WAR BREAD

Bread is the staff of life for all nations. But "bread" does not necessarily mean the wheat loaf. At one time and place it has been barley cake, at another oaten cake, and at another corn pone. Bread has always been whatever cereal happened to be convenient. Even such unbreadlike food as rice is to some races what bread is to us.

Gluten seems to be essential to the making of a light, yeast-raised loaf. Products raised with baking-powder, for which our standard of lightness is different--"quick breads" like biscuits and muffins and cakes--do not require the gluten and can easily be made from substitute cereals. But for our ordinary loaf of bread, at least some wheat seems to be almost essential, though with skill in the making, rye can be made to serve in its place. Patriotic bakers and housewives all over the country have been trying to produce a wheatless loaf which is light, palatable, and sufficiently durable to stand transportation. The durability is a very important consideration; crumbly corn bread cannot be distributed by bakers nor served to armies. Corn bread and the other quick breads are chiefly home-made products.

OUR PRESENT PROBLEM, THEREFORE, IS TO MAKE THE MOST EFFECTIVE POSSIBLE USE OF OUR WHEAT GLUTEN, TO MAKE IT GO AS FAR AS POSSIBLE IN OUR BREADS. BOTH BAKERS AND PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS HAVE THEIR SHARE IN SOLVING THE PROBLEM.

THE BAKERS' REGULATIONS. VICTORY BREAD

The bakers have co-operated loyally. Probably no other food industry has been more vitally affected by the war. ALL BAKERS USING THREE OR MORE BARRELS OF FLOUR A MONTH HAVE BEEN LICENSED AND SO ARE UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE FOOD ADMINISTRATION. This means practically all the commercial bakers of the country, and many hotels, clubs, and institutions. About two-fifths of the bread in the United States is made in bakeries and three-fifths in the home. The bakeries have used 35,000,000 barrels of flour each year, so the importance of this field for conservation is plain.

The amount of wheat flour they are now permitted to have has been reduced: at present 80 per cent of their last year's quantity, or, if they are pastry and cracker bakers, 70 per cent. They must make no bread wholly of wheat flour. Some substitute must be mixed with the wheat. When the regulation went into effect in February, 1918, 20 per cent was required and later, 25 per cent. In pies and cakes there must be at least one-third substitute. The amounts of sugar and fat used are limited. Even the sizes of the loaves are fixed, so that the extravagance of making and handling all sorts of fancy shapes and sizes may be avoided. Bread must not be sold to the retailer at unreasonable prices.

Victory bread is bread made in accordance with these regulations. The name "Victory" was chosen as representing the idea underlying the conservation of wheat. The name is really a present to the Food Administration, having been used by two large firms who gave up all rights to their trade-mark.

Hotels and restaurants are required to make or serve bread containing at least as much of the wheat substitutes as Victory bread. They may not serve more than two ounces of bread and other wheat products to a guest at a meal. Many of them have recently promised to use no wheat at all till the next harvest. That means, of course, that only through intelligent effort can they serve yeast bread.

THE INDIVIDUAL'S ANSWER TO THE BREAD CRY

UNTIL THE WHEAT-SUPPLY INCREASES AND THE FOOD ADMINISTRATION LESSENS RESTRICTIONS, USE NO WHEAT AT ALL IF YOU CAN POSSIBLY DO WITHOUT. Remember that you can make delicious muffins and other quick breads from the substitute flours. And you need no bread at all at some meals. An extra potato or a serving of rice can be eaten instead of the usual two slices of bread and the body will be supplied with the same amount of energy. Do not be the slave of old food habits. WHEN ALL EUROPE IS EATING TO KEEP ALIVE, FASTIDIOUSNESS AND FOOD "NOTIONS" MUST PLAY NO PART IN THE DIETARY.

Some people find it is almost impossible to do without the baker's loaf. Hundreds in crowded city quarters have no facilities of their own for baking. Women doing their share in factories and workshops cannot get up earlier to make corn bread for breakfast. Victory bread must be saved for them. For households which must use wheat, the Food Administration has fixed a voluntary ration of 1 1/2 pounds of wheat per week for each person. This includes wheat in the form of bread, pastry, macaroni, crackers, noodles, and breakfast foods.

All who can should do more than their share--they must do their utmost to make up for those whose circumstances prevent them from doing it. THE INTERESTS AND DESIRES OF EACH OF US IN THIS WAR CAN BE TRANSLATED INTO SERVICE IN NO MORE EFFECTIVE WAY THAN BY CONFORMING OUR FOOD HABITS TO THE NEEDS OF THE HOUR.

FLOUR AND BREAD IN THE ALLIED COUNTRIES

All the Allied countries have been stretching their meagre wheat-supply to the limit and are enforcing the most stringent regulations.

The flour is required to be of high extraction--ordinarily from 81 per cent to 90 per cent, decidedly higher than our 74 per cent. Even with this coarse, gray flour a large percentage of substitute must be mixed, usually 25 per cent. In England there are local regulations on the use of mashed potato in bread. Their bread must be twelve hours old before it is sold, so that people will not be tempted to eat too much. The result is seldom palatable. In France no flour at all may be used to make the delectable pastries and cakes which have long been the delight of the French people and their guests. In Italy, macaroni, which in many regions is as much the "staff of life" as bread, must contain 43 per cent substitute, and in some places may not be manufactured at all.

Both England and France have subsidized bread; the Government has set a price below cost and itself makes up the difference to the baker. England has appropriated 0,000,000 for the purpose.

Bread rations are in force in both France and Italy. France has recently put her whole people on a rigorous ration which limits them to two-thirds of the amount of bread that they have been accustomed to. Remember that bread is a far more important part of the French diet than of ours. Even children under three have bread cards allowing them 3 1/2 ounces a day. Rations are not a guarantee that the amount mentioned will be forthcoming; they only permit one to have it if it can be obtained. One interesting result of the stringency, according to an American officer writing from Paris, is that guests even at formal dinners, may be asked to bring their own bread, finding this postscript on their invitations: "Apportez un peu de pain si vous le voulez." In Italy the very limited bread rations are fixed locally.

England has compulsory rations for meat and butter or margarine and sugar, but not for bread. Her bread system is voluntary like ours, but much more detailed. The voluntary ration allows one-half pound of bread a day for sedentary and unoccupied women and larger allowances up to a little over a pound for men doing heavy labor. Waste of any kind is very heavily punished--one woman was fined 0 for throwing away stale bread.

WHY WE IN THE UNITED STATES DO NOT HAVE BREAD CARDS

Some people, disturbed either selfishly or patriotically by the failure of a neighbor to conserve wheat, have asked why the Food Administration trusts to voluntary methods, why it does not ration the country.

Rationing may come yet, but any such system bristles with difficulties. The cost to the Government has been variously estimated all the way from ,000,000 to ,000,000 a year. Fifty per cent of the population could not be restrained in their consumption by rationing, for they are either producers or live in intimate contact with the producer. A wheat ration which would be fair for the North might actually increase the consumption in the South. Finally, the burden of a bread card would fall largely not on the well-to-do, who eat less wheat already and can easily cut down further, but on those with little to spend, who might have to change their whole food habits.

The success that is meeting our method of voluntary reduction of consumption "will be one of the remembered glories of the American people in this titanic struggle."

THE MEAT SITUATION

Meat shortage is not a war problem only. We had begun to talk of it long before the war, and we shall find it with us after peace is declared. Great production of beef can take place only in sparse settlements. As the tide of increasing population flows over a country, the great cattle-ranges are crowded out, giving place to cultivated fields. More people means less room for cattle--a relative or even absolute decrease in the herds.

WHERE EUROPE'S MEAT HAS BEEN PRODUCED

In spite of their crowded territory, the majority of European countries have raised most of their meat themselves, though usually they have had to import fodder to keep up their herds. They have been less dependent on import for meat than for wheat. Great Britain is the only country which has imported much meat--almost one-half her supply. Her imports, and to a lesser extent those of other European countries, have come chiefly from Denmark and Russia in Europe, and from six countries outside--the United States, Canada, Argentina, Uruguay, Australia, and New Zealand.

THE WAR AND THE EUROPEAN MEAT-SUPPLY

Imports of both animals and fodder are interrupted. With meat as with wheat, the great shortage is due to lack of ships. Australia and New Zealand, and to a lesser extent South America, are cut off. Fodder such as cottonseed press-cake cannot be shipped in large amounts as it takes three times as much shipping to transport feed as it does the meat made by the animals from it. Denmark's supply of animals to Great Britain has practically stopped, because of her own shortage, and because much of what she has goes to Germany.

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