Flours and other grain products

Grain products represent - the most economical foodstuffs. Although they are chiefly starch, whole grains also contain proteins, fats, and valuable minerals. Grain products are very important foods. Because of their high starch content, the fuel value is high. Because of their cheapness they are eaten freely; they provide proteins and minerals in liberal amounts.

The more commonly used cereals are wheat, corn, and oats.

Composition of grains. Grains are seeds. There are four essential components of all seeds: the bran or skin, the aleu­rone layer, the endosperm, and the germ. The bran is chiefly cellulose, containing a high percentage of the mineral content of grain. The aleurone layer represents a thin section between the bran and the endosperm or kernel of the seed. The aleurone layer is rich in protein and minerals. The endosperm contains the rest of the protein in the form of meshwork in which the starch granules are embedded.

The germ is the fat-containing protein of the grain. The composition of a cereal, as purchased depends upon what parts of the whole grain have been removed in the course of its manu­facture. Because of the tendency of the fat to become rancid, the germ is removed in the manufacture of most cereals, al­though oatmeal and rolled oats form an exeption. Highly refin­ed flours are made chiefly from the endosperm, along with more or less of the aleurone layer. Polished rice represents the unground endosperm of the rice seed.

Wheat. Wheat products come on the market in the form of ' flours and breakfast foods. Wheat flours represent the most important of the wheat products.

The white flours on the market differ greatly in quality and use. There are four principle classes of flour marketed: straight or patent bread flour, family or all-purpose flour, pastry flour, and cake flour. These differ in composition, price and use. At the same time, there are varying grades of each kind. The variation in quality and use of flours is due to many fa­ctors, of which the more important are the kind of wheat grown, the time of planting and milling.

The so-called hard wheats are used for bread making flours, while the soft wheats are ground for pastry and cake flours. Certain wheats, such as the durum wheats, produce a flour best suited for the production of macaroni or spag­hetti.

Composition of flours. The composition of the different flours varies. If we compare bread making flours — straight bread and all-purpose flours — with the pastry and cake flours, we find that the bread making flours have consistently less fat and minerals, a larger percentage of the smaller starch granules, and give a dough containing a larger percentage of high-quality gluten.

The main proteins in wheat are gliadin and glutenin. When these are wet with water, they form a sticky elastic mass which is called gluten. It is the gluten of the bread dough which make; it possible for it to hold such large quantities of leavening agent and produce a fire-textured, light loaf of bread.

Bread making flour or flours containing the most and best gluten will absorb the most liquid and cake flours the least. Bread flours will vary among themselves. Because of this fact, the ratio of flour to liquid in stiff doughs such as baking-powd­er biscuits, pastry, and bread doughs can never be definitely stated, unless the flour used is always of the same kind and standard quality.

Bills of Lading

The bills of lading convey title to the goods described therein. It is a contract by a carrier for the delivery of the goods and a receipt by the carrier for the merchandise being shipped. The bills of lading should show the name of the shipper, the vessel or carrier transporting the goods, the type of grain being exported, the port of shipment, the destination, the consignee, and the party to be notified upon arrival of the grain.

Bills of lading can be issued in two forms: «straight» (non-nego-tiable) or «to order» (negotiable). Some countries prohibit the issue of a bill of lading «to order», in such cases the seller normally consigns the «straight» bill to an agent or a bank at the destination, with instructions to release the bills of lading to the buyer only upon payment. The shipping company should not release the bills of lading without the agreement of the agent or bank. If the straight bills are consigned to the buyer, the buyer can take possession of the goods upon identification without being required to present the bills of lading themselves.

Most bills of lading used in exporting grain are ocean bills of lading «to order». They are issued by the steamship company in two or three original sets, each of which is negotiable. Thus, any one set gives the holder title to the goods. The presentation of any properly endorsed original will allow a holder to pick up the merc­handise at the port of destination. The bills of lading may be endorsed in blank or endorsed to the buyer, his agent or some other third party.

The bills of lading must contain a dated «on board» endorsement initiated by the carrier or its agent indicating that the grain has been loaded. In very rare cases, bills of lading may be issued with a «Received for Shipment» endorsement, which indicates only that the grain has been received by the shipper and that space has been reserved on a particular vessel. Exhibit 3 in Appendix G shows a sample bill of lading.

OILS AND FATS

Hydrogenated fats. There are large quantities of solid and liquid fats which may be termed by-products of many indu­stries.

Mutton, lard, and suet are by-products of the meat packers. Cotton-seed oil is by-product of the cotton manufactures. The solid fats find a ready market. In the main they are sold for either margarine or soap, chiefly the latter. Oils do not make as good soap, and until recently their commercial value was low. From the point of view of economics, the difference bet­ween solid and liquid fat is great, while chemically speaking the main difference is only a molecule of hydrogen. After con­siderable experimental work, the proper conditions for hydrogenation of liquid were discovered. Solid fats in enormous amounts are now made from the less useful liquid fats. The hydrogenated fats on market are made from oleic and linoleic acids. In the manufacture, pure hydrogen (made by electrolysis of water), is passed through the purified oils which are kept at a suitable temperature in the presence of suitable catalyst (oxides of nickel and other metal). If all the unsaturated fats in an oil were completely hydrogenated, the resultant product would be extremely hard and, therefore, undesirable for shor­tening purposes.

Any fat too soft for use may be hardened by hydrogenation. Certain manufactures hydrogenate whale oil, which is then added to other fats to be made into a margarine. The removal of nickel from hydrogenated fat is never complete, but the amount left in the fat is insufficient to be harmful, as has been shown by a number of tests.

Fats hardened by hydrogenation have little tendency to become rancid by hydrolysis and may be heated to a high tem­perature without decomposition.

Their plasticity and degree of unsaturation flavour the preparation of well-shortened but flaky pastry.

Unlike butter and margarines, they have no flavour or odor and are, practically speaking, 100 per cent fat. When substitut­ed for butter or margarines, these differences must be taken into consideration. Because of their lack of flavour, they are often used as substitutes for lard or suet inspite of their greater cost. The digestibility of hydrogenated fats is practically ident­ical with that of butter.

Lard. Lard has excellent shortening power. When of high quality it decomposes at temperatures well above those required for deep-fat frying. Apart from cost, the chief difference in the lards marketed is in the acid content and the texture. The better quality lards are neutral, or nearly so, and are hard when cold but plastic at ordinary temperatures.

The cheaper grades are slightly acidic and, therefore, do not keep so well and decompose at a lower temperature. At ordi­nary temperatures they are usually softer than the better grades.

German wine guide.

Germany has a bipolar wine market. On the one hand, the most public face of its wine industry (and at this level it really is industry as opposed to agriculture) are the cheap, sugary, fruitless Liebfraumilch and other branded wines. These are of poor quality, and yet they are the first German wines most drinkers will come across, usually at the local supermarket. They hardly inspire the budding wine enthusiast to explore further, and they are the reason why many drinkers of everyday wines express surprise when I tell them of my love for German wine.

It is not these plonk wines, however, that I enjoy, but rather wines from a selection of producers that you are unlikely to find anywhere other than a specialist retailer. These wines are from the grand producers of the Mosel and Rheingau. German white wine leads the way, what reds are produced are of considerably less interest. When discussing German white wine the greatest are almost exclusively Riesling, although top producers may fashion good wines from less noble grape varieties (the reds are Pinot Noir, known in Germany as Spatburgunder). Just 100 years ago German white wine of this sort of quality was extremely popular. Widely regarded as the finest wines in the world, they sold for prices well in excess of the first growth chateaux in Bordeaux (and that's expensive!).

These wines are less prominent today because the German wine industry has a serious image problem. The downfall of German wine resulted from a number of factors, including German economic decline, two world wars, the introduction of brands focussed on quantity rather than quality, the use of lesser quality hybrid grapes such as Muller-Thurgau and, of course, the changing tastes of the consumer. Nevertheless, the top producers have continued in the background, consistently producing very fine wines, which frequently prove to be uneconomic to produce.