The details of these experiments are of no service here. They are only referred to as indicating a difference of result obtained by the use of different shortenings. The same thing was noted in making experimental doughs. These were made of the same weight of flour, yeast, sugar, shortening, and water. They were then placed in a glass jar which was marked off so as to give clear readings of the expansion of each dough. The jars were then placed in a water bath maintained at a uniform temperature, and covered with glass to keep the surface of the dough moist. Some of the shortenings used permitted the doughs to rise very much higher than where other shortenings were used, and it made no difference how often these doughs were made and the tests repeated. The shortenings that permitted a very high expansion of the dough on one test always gave a high expansion in another test, so that the results were uniform. This gave us the very information we were in search of, showing us that we must find the best method for each kind of shortening, and for each kind of flour.
Best Method of Using Cotton Seed Oil.
The following instructions are based upon a part of these experiments under the following specific conditions: In the first place it must be understood that a method of making bread is best suited for a particular flour, and that alteration of flour usually requires an alteration in the method, or at least a modification of the method. Many of the spring wheat patent flours being sold are second patents, and as such they are best made into doughs by use of sponges. Take, then, spring wheat second patent flour and a four to six hour sponge. One-half of the total oil should be used in the sponge and the other half in the dough. This brings shortening in accomplishing the expansion of the loaf, in giving a clear whiteness to the loaf, and a bright sheeny coating of the cells making up the structure of the loaf. The average amount of shortening used for pan bread in the United States is five pounds per barrel of flour. Assuming this proportion, then, at least one-half pound of shortening can be discarded without any loss of the shortening power.
The foregoing instructions are not applicable to other flours than of the type given, nor can they be used properly with straight doughs.—Cotton Seed.
CORN FLAKES USED IN BREAD
Corn flakes are made from the starchy part of the maize kernel. The starch of corn itself has little value for the bread baker in its crude form. It is insoluble in cold water, and can only be dissolved by the disintegration of the organized structures of the granules.
On being boiled with water it forms a gelatinous looking mass, and dissolves.