The Richmond Virginian

POTATO MEAL AS
AID TO ECONOMY
MIXED
WITH
FLOUR
MAKES
GOOD SUBSTITUTE FOR
ALL FLOUR BREAD

Washington, Feb. 20.--Baking experiments to test the value of making bread of potato-meal mixed with wheat flour are now being undertaken by the United States Bureau of Chemistry. This is to test the possibilities of the potato in the same manner as Germany and Austria are now advising their people to do. The increased cost of living throughout the world has emphasized the fact that flour made of other substances than wheat, or of these substances mixed with wheat, might provide people with healthful food quite as nutritious as the pure wheat flour, and at the same time cheaper.

Bread Has Coarse Texture.
Austrian bakers are now compelled by law to use at least 30 per cent potato-meal in making this bread. The Bureau of Chemistry's potato-meal bread has been baked with from 25 to 50 per cent potato-meal and the remaining percentage wheat. The most satisfactory loaves in combining economy and appearance were those made with the minimum percentage allowed in Austria or less. The loaves made with more than 30 per cent potato-meal were not so satisfactory. as they were heavier and less attractive in form. The bread had a rather coarse texture and dark appearance but possesses a distinctive and agreeable flavor. It also retains moisture for a much longer period than ordinary wheat bread.

The Bureau of Chemistry used the imported potato flake in some of its experiments and in others, meal made by slicing. milling and drying potatoes on a small scale in its laboratories. It should be added that such ordinary potato flour as it on our American markets is not the same as the German potato flake or Walz-mehl which has give such satisfactory results in the experiments.

Ordinary Potato Might Serve.
The question has been raised as to whether the ordinary cooked potato might not be satisfactorily substituted for the prepared potato-meal. The experimenters believe that it might serve the same purpose if used in just the right proportion. but this would be difficult for the average housewife to determine, as there is great danger of using too much and producing a very soggy loaf. However, the custom of adding a very little potato is already used by many housekeepers to keep their bread moist and this practice can be very well be recommended for more general use.

Cheap and Nutritious Bread.
Dried bananas, ripe and unripe, and chestnuts. are other substitutes for wheat flour made by the Bureau of Chemistry. Still other products which offer promise of furnishing the public with a cheap and nutritious bread are the following: Bran. soy bean. white bean, millet, kafir. milo, dasheen. cottonseed flour. oatmeal, cassava. buckwheat. rye. corn, gluten. kaoliang. rice. peas, corn meal (white and yellow).

The breads made from these various ingredients have already been analyzed. The flours from which the breads were made are being analyzed that it may be known exactly how nutritious they are in comparison with the pure wheat flour. The soy bean and cottonseed flours when mixed with wheat flours in proper proportions (about 25 per cent) give a bread with about twice the amount o protein (muscle-building element) that ordinary wheat bread contains.