CAKES.
Wheat flour is one of the principal constituents of that class of sweetened bread known generally as cake. The kind and character of cake vary so greatly that no general statement of any very great value can be made respecting the average composition. In addition to the sugar and flour which are used in the manufacture of cake various flavoring ingredients or essences are employed, and usually excessive quantities of butter or lard for shortening purposes. In addition to this, other forms of cake are cooked in oil after the dough is made, thus adding an additional quantity of fatty matter to the material. Eggs are also a common constituent of cakes and these introduce into their composition additional quantities of protein and fat. Baking powder is very generally used in this country instead of yeast for the leavening of the cake and thus an additional quantity of mineral matter is introduced into their composition.
In the manufacture of sweetened cakes the flour is mixed with eggs and sugar and butter or lard to the proper consistency with or without the use of milk or cream. The cakes are baked in all kinds of sizes and shapes and may be eaten plain or in layers separated by a jelly, marmalade, or some other preserve. The exterior of the cake is often frosted with a mixture consisting of the white of egg beaten up with white sugar. The methods of mixing the ingredients of these cakes as well as the method of frosting are so various that it would not be possible to undertake any minute description of them.
For flavoring various materials are employed, either the real article or the imitation thereof, such as artificial strawberry, vanilla, etc. The cake or sweet cake is a very common dainty which is served at dessert. The ordinary cane sugar of commerce is the common sweetening matter usually employed in the refined state although sometimes yellow sugar is used. Honey is not so commonly used as a sweetening agent in this country as it is in European countries.
In the manufacture of one of the common varieties known as ginger cake sugar-cane sirup or molasses is a common ingredient.
An examination of a large number of samples of cake shows the following average composition:
| Moisture, | 11.65 | percent |
| Protein, | 6.29 | „ |
| Ether extract, | 9.81 | „ |
| Crude fiber, | 0.50 | „ |
| Ash, | 1.17 | „ |
| Salt, | 0.39 | „ |
| Sugar, | 24.57 | „ |
| Starch, | 46.01 | „ |
In the dry substance:
| Protein, | 7.29 | percent |
| Ether extract, | 11.41 | „ |
| Crude fiber, | 0.57 | „ |
| Ash, | 1.30 | „ |
| Salt, | 0.44 | „ |
| Sugar, | 27.84 | „ |
| Starch, | 51.59 | „ |
| Calories, | 4,805 |
A study of the individual data shows extremely wide variations from the mean. The ether extract in the moisture samples in some cases amounted to over 19 percent and in the dry substance to over 24 percent. The moisture in one case was over 64 percent while in the dry cake of biscuit character it sinks below 5 percent and in one case below 4 percent. The average data, therefore, are to be considered only as a representative of this class of bodies and not as a type of any particular variety.
Adulterations.
—It is difficult to speak of adulterations of a substance of the composition of cake. Any wholesome flavoring or sweetening ingredient or other wholesome ingredient may be used in the manufacture of a cake of this kind without being an adulterant. From this class of bodies, however, there is excluded artificial colors and artificial flavoring essences bearing the name of genuine. A yellow cake which does not owe its color to the eggs or other normal ingredients employed must be regarded as an adulterated article, especially if the dye used in producing the yellow is one of the coal dyes or coal tar derivatives such as naphthol yellow. The use of imitation fruit flavors such as the so-called strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, vanilla, etc., is also to be regarded as an adulteration. The adulteration of cakes may be regarded as confined particularly to these two classes of article assuming that all the other ingredients are wholesome and without injurious effects upon the digestion. The eggs used in cake making should be fresh and palatable. Too often passé storage eggs and eggs broken and preserved with borax or formaldehyde and unfit for consumption have been used by the bakers of cakes.
Mineral coloring matters have sometimes been found in cakes and these are more objectionable by far than the artificial colors above mentioned. Where molasses from sugar-cane factories is used in the manufacture of cake a considerable trace of chlorid of tin or of zinc salts may be found therein, derived from the wash used in the centrifugal when drying sugar crystals or from the process of bleaching the molasses. This must be regarded as a very serious adulteration and molasses of this kind should never be used in the manufacture of cake nor for edible purposes upon the table. Sulfurous acid may also be absorbed during the process of bleaching the sugar-cane juices.
It is needless to add that cake with its complex character should be eaten as a relish rather than a diet. There is no hygienic or dietetic objection to the mixture of sugar with the flour in the making of ordinary sweetened bread. Such bread must be regarded as highly nutritious and as differing from ordinary bread only in a disturbance of the natural food content of the loaf caused by the addition of a carbohydrate to the bread. Many of the cakes which are sold contain so small a quantity of sugar that they ought not to be classed with the sweet cake. Out of the whole number of samples used in the making up of the above average only four contained so little sugar as to be ineligible to bear the name of sweet cake or sweetened bread.
Breakfast Foods.
—A very large variety of cereal preparations are on the market under the general name of breakfast foods. These preparations are made directly from the cereals more or less completely ground by subjecting them to certain manipulations of a fermentative or culinary character by means of which the preparations are made ready for immediate consumption or at least with only a moderate degree of additional cooking. The changes which take place in the preparation of cereals for breakfast foods are of two general characters, namely, those produced by fermentative action with malt, yeast, or other ferments, and, second, changes produced by heating, either in the moist or dry state. Often both sets of changes are produced in the same product. The general difference, therefore, between a so-called breakfast food and the raw material from which it is made is found in the conversion of more or less starch into sugar and the change in the composition of the material produced by moist heat or dry heat. In the latter case the temperature may be raised to the state of considerable caramelization.
Breakfast foods may also contain added condimental substances, such as salt, sugar, etc., sometimes used in their preparation. Nearly all the cereals or mixtures of cereals are represented in these prepared foods. Oats probably occupy the first rank and the preparations of oatmeal have to a large extent in the United States taken the place of home-prepared oatmeal for the breakfast table. Wheat, barley, and Indian corn are not far behind oats in their contributions to the numerous varieties of breakfast foods.
The particular methods of preparation are usually trade secrets and at any rate the description of the extensive technical processes would be improper in this manual. The secrets, however, are merely methods of manipulation, since it is certain that the changes of a chemical nature which take place are of the general character or class described above.
Breakfast foods are usually sold under trade-mark names which may or may not give an indication of their origin or character. Sometimes, in fact, the trade name gives a false indication and the use of such trade names must be considered as entirely reprehensible. Whenever a name used is descriptive it should be used in a practical sense and not for the purpose of misleading or deceiving. Breakfast foods may represent practically the whole grain or the grain with a removal of a proportion of the outer covering or they may represent the refined flour from which all or a considerable proportion of the germ and some of the rich nitrogenous ingredients have been removed.
The attempt to give a list of the names which have been applied to breakfast foods would consume many pages and be of little value.
Composition of Breakfast Foods.
—In so far as possible the breakfast foods noted in the following tables have been arranged in accordance with the raw material from which they have been produced and the data given represent the average composition of breakfast foods of the classes mentioned. Individual variations from the average are often very great.
| Class | I. | — | Breakfast foods made from Indian corn products. |
| Class | II. | — | Breakfast foods made from wheat products. |
| Class | III. | — | Breakfast foods made from oat products. |
| Class | IV. | — | Breakfast foods made from starch and tapioca. |
| Class | V. | — | Breakfast foods made from noodles, spaghetti, and macaroni. |
| Class | VI. | — | Breakfast foods made from barley. |
| Class | VII. | — | Breakfast foods of miscellaneous origin, that is consisting of those compounds of raw material not specified. |
COMPOSITION OF BREAKFAST FOODS. [28]
| Moisture. | Proteids. | Ether Extract. | Fiber. | Ash. | Starch and Sugar. | Calories. Per Gram. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perct. | Perct. | Perct. | Perct. | Perct. | Perct. | ||
| Class I, Indian Corn Products: | |||||||
| In the original substance, | 12.33 | 7.92 | 0.58 | 0.67 | 0.66 | 78.51 | ... |
| In the dry substance, | .. | 9.02 | 0.66 | 0.76 | 0.75 | 98.57 | 4385 |
| Class II, Wheat Products: | |||||||
| In the original substance, | 10.08 | 12.01 | 1.80 | 1.48 | 1.55 | 75.62 | ... |
| In the dry substance, | .. | 13.36 | 2.01 | 1.65 | 16.73 | 84.08 | 4462 |
| Class III, Oat Products: | |||||||
| In the original substance, | 7.66 | 15.32 | 7.46 | 1.20 | 1.79 | 67.61 | ... |
| In the dry substance, | .. | 16.60 | 8.08 | 1.38 | 1.94 | 73.20 | 4875 |
| Class IV, Starch and Tapioca Products: | |||||||
| In the original substance, | 11.29 | .39 | .03 | .13 | .14 | 88.15 | ... |
| In the dry substance, | .. | .43 | .04 | .15 | .16 | 99.37 | 4193 |
| Class V, Noodles, Spaghetti and Macaroni: | |||||||
| In the original substance, | 9.66 | 12.02 | .42 | .56 | .78 | 77.12 | ... |
| In the dry substance, | .. | 13.33 | .47 | .62 | .86 | 85.34 | 4428 |
| Class VI, Barley Products: | |||||||
| In the original substance, | 10.92 | 7.50 | .89 | .67 | .86 | 80.35 | ... |
| In the dry substance, | .. | 8.42 | 1.00 | .75 | .97 | 90.19 | 4344 |
| Class VII, Miscellaneous Products: | |||||||
| In the original substance, | 6.41 | 12.81 | 1.05 | .99 | 1.06 | 78.68 | ... |
| In the dry substance, | .. | 13.68 | 1.12 | 1.04 | 1.13 | 84.07 | 4449 |
[28] U. S. Dept. Agr., Bureau of Chemistry, Bull. 13, Part IX, p. 1345.
Remarks on Table of Analyses.—
Class I, Indian Corn Products.
—The analytical data show that in the breakfast foods made from Indian corn products the germ has been quite uniformly removed. The quantity of fiber also shows that the maize flour produced has been very carefully bolted. The ash is almost normal, showing only a small addition, probably of salt. The mean quantity of protein is that which would be predicted of an Indian corn product ground by the most approved milling process in order to make as white a flour as possible. These methods of preparing the flour, although so common, are not to be preferred either by reason of palatability or nutritive properties of the products. The old-fashioned milling process makes a more palatable and more nutritious diet and affords a higher degree of heat and energy.
The analysis of the Indian corn products show that they are very much lower in protein than would be expected from an analysis of the whole kernels. The low content of fat in the products is doubtless due to the complete degermination of the grain during the milling and to the further fact that the baking and other preparation of the material tend to occlude the fat particles, making their extraction quite difficult.
Class II, Wheat Products.
—The study of wheat products used as breakfast foods shows that the wheat germ is not removed to any very great extent during the preparation of the raw material. In fact the quantity of ether extract appears somewhat greater than would be expected in pure wheat products, and this leads to the supposition that oatmeal or Indian corn must be mixed with the food product in small quantities, since the ether extract in the case of wheat products is more than three times as great as in the case of Indian corn products of a similar character. This is an indication either of the use of mechanical methods as stated above or else to the admixture of other bodies without mention. There does not appear to have been any notable quantity of mineral substance, common salt or otherwise, added during the process of preparation. The quantity of protein in the product is that which would be predicted from the composition of wheat flour from which the samples are supposed to be made.
Class III, Oat Products.
—The oat products have evidently been made without any extensive degermination, as is shown by the high content of fat or oil. The average composition of oat products shows that genuine oatmeal is used in their preparation and the probability is that little adulteration is practiced. The high content of oil and protein produces a corresponding depression in the quantity of carbohydrates. The high nutritive value of the product, both in respect of fat and of proteins, is fully illustrated by the analytical data obtained. The calories, as will be noticed, are very much higher than in the corresponding product from Indian corn, wheat, or in fact of any other of the breakfast foods.
Class IV, Products made of starch and tapioca
show, in the analytical data, that very high-grade starch materials are employed in the preparation of these bodies. The protein, ether extract, fiber, and ash almost disappear. As shown in the data for the dry substance, more than 99 percent of the whole material consists of carbohydrates, chiefly starch. The calories are correspondingly diminished since starch and sugar have the least heat value of any class of food products, except those of a mineral character. Foods of this kind are highly unbalanced, that is, contain a large excess of starch and sugar, and are often very prejudicial to the health of persons whose ability to digest starch and sugar has been lessened by disease.
Class V, Noodles, spaghetti, and macaroni
are often used as breakfast foods, though not by any means so universally as many others in this category. The analytical data show that these bodies correspond very well to the material, that is to the flour, rich in gluten, from which they are supposed to be made. The protein content is high,—the ether extract, fiber, and ash low, and the calories correspond to the chemical composition of the material.
Class VI, Barley Products.
—Barley products are not very commonly used as breakfast foods, but the malt used in the preparation of other breakfast foods is usually made of barley, since the barley malt has the highest diastatic value of any of the cereals.
Class VII, Miscellaneous breakfast foods
are so called because the character of the materials of which they are made is not known or no statement is made by the manufacturer or dealer concerning them. The analytical data, of course, do not lead to any decision regarding the nature of the raw material employed. The percentage of protein, however, taken in conjunction with the rather low ether extract, indicates that they are probably made chiefly from wheat products.
Much may be said in favor of the use of prepared breakfast foods, for, in so far as I know, they are usually palatable, wholesome, and nutritious. There are many points which may be urged against their general use, chief of which is in regard to their cost. There is no cereal now in general use for edible purposes which is worth as much as two cents per pound in the markets of this country, yet breakfast foods, which are only prepared cereals, are often sold for 10 or 15 cents per pound. This is a high price in comparison with the cost of the raw material, but it must not be forgotten that the cost of manufacture is to be considered. In the second place the cereal foods are undoubtedly best at the moment they are prepared. Unless carefully packed, they may become infected with insects of various kinds, which certainly add nothing to their value and detract very much from their desirability. In moist climates they become infested with mould and even with bacterial growths. Inasmuch as necessarily a large proportion of the prepared cereals remain for an indefinite time unsold, the consumer is liable at any time to come into possession of one of these deteriorated packages. In the third place there is no reason to believe that a prepared breakfast food is any more digestible, nutritious, or favorable to the health of the healthy individual than the broken cereal itself properly cooked. Further than this it may be stated that there is no preparation of cereals better than those which are freshly made from the freshly broken or ground grain. If, therefore, one has the time to properly prepare the fresh grains of the cereals they will be more palatable and more nutritious and equally as digestible as any of the prepared articles. On the other hand, there are cases of diseased or disordered digestion in which the prepared cereals will be more digestible, but this is certainly not the case in a state of health. There is reason to believe, therefore, that the demand for prepared cereals will continue, but the old-fashioned method of preparation of the cereal from the grain will still have its advocates.
I think it may be said with certainty that the proper home preparation of a cereal as a breakfast food will not cost any more than the original cereal itself, and hence the price of this food ought not to be much more than 4 cents per pound without counting the added water in its preparation.
I believe, therefore, that our people of limited means can be safely advised on the score of economy, palatability, and nutrition to prepare their own cereals for ordinary breakfast purposes.