THE BAKERS GUIDE

quality of the grist used, the amount of the best part it contains, the amount of the worst parts taken away, and the mode of its dressing. A flour that forms a ball when squeezed in the hand, that feels wooly, that feels soft and greasy when rubbed between the fingers, and that forms beads or peas when taking the sample paper containing it with both hands and making a rapid circular motion, shows that it is a damp, damaged, or residue flour from which the best has been taken, and its value will depend on how much has been taken from it, and also upon its condition and dressing.

Gluten— Gliadin, Glutenin, Fibrin.

Or in Other Words the Muscle and Sinew of the Flour

of Wheat.

How to Estimate its Presence, Quantity, and Quality and its Value in Bread-Making.

We are now getting into the arena of work, and may not occupy more space (to do our duty we could not have occupied less) with a discussion of the Chemistry of these subjects.

The term gluten becomes more and more narrowed in its meaning to the baker as the years go by. Yesterday all the glutenous substances in cereals were classed as gluten ; to-day the word gluten covers only that part which can be separated by washing the flour in water, is insoluble, and when obtained is elastic and tenacious. There are small quantities of glutenous substances obtained from rice, maize, and other cereals besides wheat ; but they are not elastic, will not stretch out, will not retain the gas generated during fermentation, and hence they have ceased to be classed as gluten.

Crude gluten while wet is a soft, sticky, looking mass, and consists of the insoluble albuminoids of the wheat ; it contains three albuminoids, glutenin, gliadin (vegetable gelatine), and fibrin. To the baker, although gluten may be by the chemists split up into several bodies, they have such a close relation- ship that it will be probably only necessary for him to call and know them all as gluten, at any rate this study can wait until to-morrow without loss to the workman.

Gluten is insoluble in water. When gluten has been dried and wetted again it loses its expansive power or principle. When dry it resembles glue, lighter in colour, but hard and shining.

Gluten when wet and left in contact with water is subject td the ordinary fate of moist nitrogenous substances. It decays and decomposes, and in that state, and exposed to atmospheric

TlfE BAKERS' GVlDE.

influences! it emits the usual unpleasant smell accompanying decay. Its elasticity is also broken down, and it will be found to be in a state of chemical transition, having new properties which will displace (according to the time it remains in the wet state) the power of expansion and gas-holding capacity for bread- making purposes ; but this chemical change also takes place in some degree during fermentation. The weaker, warmer, and wetter the dough is, the more rapid and thorough will this change be. This change is necessary in bread-making, we call it mellow- ing or ripening. It is owing to the excess and stability of gluten in wheat over the other cereals which makes the flour of wheat better for bread-making purposes than that of rice, barley, maize, etc. The presence in flour of a greater or lesser quantity of gluten does not prove its bread-making worth to the baker. The quality of the gluten, on the other hand, does.

Gluten tests are easy and reliable, and afford a safe guide when estimating value. It is not necessary when testing for gluten to adhere to a particular weight or measure, except when it is to be comparative, and then great care should be exercised to the end that each sample should have equal treatment. The ^ water and flour of each should be carefully weighed and measured and every particle of gluten secured and accurately weighed. The colour of glutens alternates from a very pale glossy brown and yellow — the best, to the dark brown and slate colour of the worst.

To make a Gluten test for use in the bakery, and when flour buying, take 20 grams flour and 10 c.c. of water, place in a basin and mix it into a clear dough, cover it up and let it lie three hours; weight 15 grams (this will give you 10 grams of flour, and therefore be a 10 per cent, estimation), then enclose it in a piece of miller's silk (or a better way when you have had some practice is to hold it in one hand, and gently squeeze under the water with the other — this prevents the sticking) ; tie the ends up and hold it under a dribble of water from the water-tap over the sink ; work it about gently with your hand until all the starch is washed out and the water runs away quite clear, and not milky ; then take out the gluten from the silk and carefully weigh it and tabulate how much remajns. This will show the difference in volume. Then take the wet gluten and test the difference in the elasticity by pulling and stretching, note the difference in colour, and then bake to show expansion when baking ; shut the gluten up in a tin box or inverted bread tin, and in every case so pro- tect it from actual contact with oven bottom that the utmost expansion may take place before it is fixed and set. When the glutens are .baked, judge difference in strength by the difference in size, also notice the colour after it is baked.

THE BAKERS' GUIDE,

Please note. — The test, to be of any value, must be carefully carried out ; no flour must be spilt ; the dough must not be made with hand, because some would stick to the fingers ; use a glass rod, spatula, or failing these, something smooth, such as the handle of a metal spoon ; no dough must be allowed to stick to the basin, and there must be exact weight of flour and gluten ; lastly, see that no gluten is left on the silk.

To test Flour for Colour Comparison.

The following is a simple and reliable test. Press the flour down firmly and smoothly into a very small box and dip it slant- wise under water until the whole of the surface is thoroughly wet, withdraw and place somewhere out of the dust to dry. This wetted and then dried sample will show the colour the flour will be when wetted into dough, and then baked into bread or boiled as a pudding.

There are five plain divisions of colour in flour. First and best, orange yellow of lighter or darker shades according to rich- ness in gluten, quality of grist, and fineness of dressing. Second And good, yellowish drown, lighter or darker according to quality of grist, and whether all the best of the flour is left in or some taken out. Third, reddish brown, a common, coarse class pf flour, shows that some of the fine white has been taken out of it. Fourth, white. The whiter a flour shows by this test, the higher in starch and therefore lower in gluten. It is the gluten which gives the yellow or pale brown. The reddish brown is jcaused by fine particles of bran and offal impurities. To be very white means that bran and gluten are both vanishing quantities. The fifth division is grey. A dark grey flour means # dirty flour. There is nothing in the wheat kernel to form this dark greyness. Sometimes when washing for gluten you will .come across a sort of a slate colour, but always in very common flour, and I think even a greyish or slaty gluten means dirt chiefly.

This wetting of flour for testing the colour is very eductionalC It will, when understood, give you a good idea of the all-round .quality of the flour without further testing. Small match boxes rnake excellent test boxes at no cost, or if you prefer something better, have the same size made in zinc — not tin, it rusts. Also for this test a good pocket lense is very necessary, you can see the little black and brown specks which come from cockle and bran, and therefore mean bad milling, or common flour and .cheap flour.

To Test For Water Absorbing Capacity.

Weigh 20 grams of the samples of flour you wish to test, and #dd to them each ioc.c. of water, mix into dough, and judge of