WAR BREAD
Bread is the staff of life for all nations. But "bread" does not
necessarily mean the wheat loaf. At one time and place it has been
barley cake, at another oaten cake, and at another corn pone. Bread
has always been whatever cereal happened to be convenient. Even such
unbreadlike food as rice is to some races what bread is to us.
Why, then, have we developed our wheat-bread habit? Partly because
wheat bread has been easy to get and we have grown to like the taste,
but chiefly because wheat flour gives the lightest loaf. To understand
why, make a dough with a little white flour and water and then gently
knead it in cold water. The consistency changes, the starch is washed
out and a rubbery, sticky ball is left--the _gluten_, which is the
protein of the wheat. It is this gluten in the flour that stretches
when bread rises and then stiffens when it is baked, making a light,
porous loaf. Wheat is the only one of the cereals that has much
gluten; rye has a little and the others practically none.
Gluten seems to be essential to the making of a light, yeast-raised
loaf. Products raised with baking-powder, for which our standard of
lightness is different--"quick breads" like biscuits and muffins
and cakes--do not require the gluten and can easily be made from
substitute cereals. But for our ordinary loaf of bread, at least some
wheat seems to be almost essential, though with skill in the making,
rye can be made to serve in its place. Patriotic bakers and housewives
all over the country have been trying to produce a wheatless
loaf which is light, palatable, and sufficiently durable to stand
transportation. The durability is a very important consideration;
crumbly corn bread cannot be distributed by bakers nor served to
armies. Corn bread and the other quick breads are chiefly home-made
products.
OUR PRESENT PROBLEM, THEREFORE, IS TO MAKE THE MOST EFFECTIVE
POSSIBLE USE OF OUR WHEAT GLUTEN, TO MAKE IT GO AS FAR AS POSSIBLE IN
OUR BREADS. BOTH BAKERS AND PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS HAVE THEIR SHARE IN
SOLVING THE PROBLEM.
THE BAKERS' REGULATIONS. VICTORY BREAD
The bakers have co-operated loyally. Probably no other food industry
has been more vitally affected by the war. ALL BAKERS USING THREE
OR MORE BARRELS OF FLOUR A MONTH HAVE BEEN LICENSED AND SO ARE UNDER
THE CONTROL OF THE FOOD ADMINISTRATION. This means practically all
the commercial bakers of the country, and many hotels, clubs, and
institutions. About two-fifths of the bread in the United States is
made in bakeries and three-fifths in the home. The bakeries have used
35,000,000 barrels of flour each year, so the importance of this field
for conservation is plain.
The amount of wheat flour they are now permitted to have has been
reduced: at present 80 per cent of their last year's quantity, or,
if they are pastry and cracker bakers, 70 per cent. They must make no
bread wholly of wheat flour. Some substitute must be mixed with the
wheat. When the regulation went into effect in February, 1918, 20 per
cent was required and later, 25 per cent. In pies and cakes there must
be at least one-third substitute. The amounts of sugar and fat used
are limited. Even the sizes of the loaves are fixed, so that the
extravagance of making and handling all sorts of fancy shapes and
sizes may be avoided. Bread must not be sold to the retailer at
unreasonable prices.
Victory bread is bread made in accordance with these regulations.
The name "Victory" was chosen as representing the idea underlying
the conservation of wheat. The name is really a present to the Food
Administration, having been used by two large firms who gave up all
rights to their trade-mark.
Hotels and restaurants are required to make or serve bread containing
at least as much of the wheat substitutes as Victory bread. They may
not serve more than two ounces of bread and other wheat products to a
guest at a meal. Many of them have recently promised to use no wheat
at all till the next harvest. That means, of course, that only through
intelligent effort can they serve yeast bread.
THE INDIVIDUAL'S ANSWER TO THE BREAD CRY
UNTIL THE WHEAT-SUPPLY INCREASES AND THE FOOD ADMINISTRATION LESSENS
RESTRICTIONS, USE NO WHEAT AT ALL IF YOU CAN POSSIBLY DO WITHOUT.
Remember that you can make delicious muffins and other quick breads
from the substitute flours. And you need no bread at all at some
meals. An extra potato or a serving of rice can be eaten instead of
the usual two slices of bread and the body will be supplied with the
same amount of energy. Do not be the slave of old food habits. WHEN
ALL EUROPE IS EATING TO KEEP ALIVE, FASTIDIOUSNESS AND FOOD "NOTIONS"
MUST PLAY NO PART IN THE DIETARY.
Some people find it is almost impossible to do without the baker's
loaf. Hundreds in crowded city quarters have no facilities of their
own for baking. Women doing their share in factories and workshops
cannot get up earlier to make corn bread for breakfast. Victory bread
must be saved for them. For households which must use wheat, the Food
Administration has fixed a voluntary ration of 1½ pounds of wheat
per week for each person. This includes wheat in the form of bread,
pastry, macaroni, crackers, noodles, and breakfast foods.
All who can should do more than their share--they must do their utmost
to make up for those whose circumstances prevent them from doing it.
THE INTERESTS AND DESIRES OF EACH OF US IN THIS WAR CAN BE TRANSLATED
INTO SERVICE IN NO MORE EFFECTIVE WAY THAN BY CONFORMING OUR FOOD
HABITS TO THE NEEDS OF THE HOUR.
FLOUR AND BREAD IN THE ALLIED COUNTRIES
All the Allied countries have been stretching their meagre
wheat-supply to the limit and are enforcing the most stringent
regulations.
The flour is required to be of high extraction--ordinarily from 81
per cent to 90 per cent, decidedly higher than our 74 per cent. Even
with this coarse, gray flour a large percentage of substitute must be
mixed, usually 25 per cent. In England there are local regulations on
the use of mashed potato in bread. Their bread must be twelve hours
old before it is sold, so that people will not be tempted to eat too
much. The result is seldom palatable. In France no flour at all may
be used to make the delectable pastries and cakes which have long been
the delight of the French people and their guests. In Italy, macaroni,
which in many regions is as much the "staff of life" as bread,
must contain 43 per cent substitute, and in some places may not be
manufactured at all.
Both England and France have subsidized bread; the Government has set
a price below cost and itself makes up the difference to the baker.
England has appropriated $200,000,000 for the purpose.
Bread rations are in force in both France and Italy. France has
recently put her whole people on a rigorous ration which limits them
to two-thirds of the amount of bread that they have been accustomed
to. Remember that bread is a far more important part of the French
diet than of ours. Even children under three have bread cards allowing
them 3½ ounces a day. Rations are not a guarantee that the amount
mentioned will be forthcoming; they only permit one to have it if it
can be obtained. One interesting result of the stringency, according
to an American officer writing from Paris, is that guests even at
formal dinners, may be asked to bring their own bread, finding this
postscript on their invitations: "Apportez un peu de pain si vous le
voulez."[1] In Italy the very limited bread rations are fixed locally.
[Footnote 1: "Bring a little bread if you wish it."]
England has compulsory rations for meat and butter or margarine and
sugar, but not for bread. Her bread system is voluntary like ours,
but much more detailed. The voluntary ration allows one-half pound of
bread a day for sedentary and unoccupied women and larger allowances
up to a little over a pound for men doing heavy labor. Waste of any
kind is very heavily punished--one woman was fined $500 for throwing
away stale bread.
"Why not send corn abroad?" One hears the question over and over
again. The answers are many. In the first place, we _are_ sending corn
over--our exports of corn during March, 1918, increased 180 per cent
and of corn meal 383 per cent over the pre-war average. This they
are using as we are using it in our Victory bread. But they must have
enough wheat to make a durable loaf of bread at the bakeshops, where
for generations all the baking has been done. The French housewife
has no facilities for bread-making and the French woman does not know
how and has not the time to learn. She is doing a man's work and her
own woman's labor besides, and the extra unaccustomed labor of
bread-making cannot be added to her burdens.
WHY WE IN THE UNITED STATES DO NOT HAVE BREAD CARDS
Some people, disturbed either selfishly or patriotically by the
failure of a neighbor to conserve wheat, have asked why the Food
Administration trusts to voluntary methods, why it does not ration
the country.
Rationing may come yet, but any such system bristles with
difficulties. The cost to the Government has been variously estimated
all the way from $10,000,000 to $45,000,000 a year. Fifty per cent
of the population could not be restrained in their consumption by
rationing, for they are either producers or live in intimate contact
with the producer. A wheat ration which would be fair for the North
might actually increase the consumption in the South. Finally, the
burden of a bread card would fall largely not on the well-to-do, who
eat less wheat already and can easily cut down further, but on those
with little to spend, who might have to change their whole food
habits.
The success that is meeting our method of voluntary reduction of
consumption "will be one of the remembered glories of the American
people in this titanic struggle."