43. WHEAT, owing to the fact that it is grown in all parts of the world
and forms the basis for a large amount of the food of most people, is a
very important grain. It was probably a native grass of Asia Minor and
Egypt, for in these countries it first received cultivation. From the
land of its origin, the use of wheat spread over all the world, but it
was not introduced into America until after the discovery of this
country by Columbus. Now, however, the United States raises more wheat
than any other one country, and nearly one-fourth of all that is raised
in the world.
Wheat is universally used for bread, because it contains a large amount
of the kind of protein that lends a rubbery consistency to dough and
thus makes possible the incorporation of the gas or air required to make
bread light. The use of wheat, however, is by no means restricted to
bread, for, as is well known, many cereal foods are prepared from
this grain.
44. In its simplest food form, wheat is prepared by merely removing the
coarse bran from the outside of the wheat grain and leaving the grain
whole. This is called _hulled_, or _whole_, _wheat_, and requires
soaking or long, slow cooking in order that all its starch granules may
be reached and softened sufficiently to make it palatable. The other
preparations are made by crushing or grinding the grains from which some
of the bran and germ has been removed. Besides flour, which, as has been
implied, is not considered as a cereal in the sense used in this
Section, these preparations include _wheat grits_, such foods as _cream
of wheat_ and _farina_, and many _ready-to-eat cereals_. In the
preparation of wheat grits, much of the bran is allowed to remain, but
neither cream of wheat nor farina contains cellulose in any appreciable
quantity. As the addition of bran, however, serves to give these foods
bulk, a much more ideal breakfast cereal will result if, before cooking,
equal portions of the cereal and the bran are mixed. In preparing
ready-to-eat wheat cereals for the market, the manufacturers subject the
grains to such elaborate methods of cooking, rolling, and toasting that
these foods require but very little additional attention before serving.
The only wheat products that demand further attention at this time,
therefore, are those which must be cooked before they can be served
and eaten.