MACARONI.

The preparation of wheat flour of a high glutenous character and molded into various forms, usually tubes, cylindroids, or fine shreds, is known in the trade under various names such as noodles, spaghetti, and macaroni. An examination of a number of these bodies shows them to have the following average composition:

These bodies, it is seen, do not have a composition very different from that of a first-class bread except in their content of moisture and protein. They are made from various kinds of wheat, especially hard wheat which forms. a tenacious gluten product well suited to molding into the different forms which these bodies have. Their nutritive value is practically the same as that of good wheat bread of the same moisture content.

Domestic Macaroni.-The introduction of varieties of wheat with the properties suitable for making macaroni has been thoroughly exploited by the Department of Agriculture. The macaroni wheat grown as a subvariety is known botanically as Triticum durum. The durum wheats are not regarded as of equal value to the ordinary wheats for general milling purposes and command a lower price. The French name is Blé dur and the German name is Hartweizen. The wheat of this subspecies grows rather tall, having broad, smooth leaves of a whitish green color and a very hard cuticle. The heads are comparatively slight in most varieties, compactly formed, and occasionally very short. All the durum wheat is bearded. and the beards are exceptionally long. The kernels are hard and glassy, often partly translucent. They are generally yellowish white in color, occasionally inclined to red, and the grains are generally rather large. In other aspects this wheat resembles barley and for this reason in Germany it is often called Gerstenweizen. The general appearance of these wheats both in the field and in the individual heads is shown in the accompanying figures.

Macaroni wheats are well adapted to semi-arid regions; in fact it may be said that they are the product of such an environment rather than adapted

FIG. 38.-DROUGHT-RESISTANT MACARONI WHEATS (HEADS AND GRAINS).

1, Kubanka; 2, Nicaragua; 3. Velvet Don; 4. Black Don; 5, Wild Goose.-(Bulletin No.3, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.)

MANUFACTURE OF MACARONI.

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to it. For this reason they are wheats which are able to resist continued dry weather and high temperature. These wheats do not grow well in acid soils but flourish best in an alkaline soil of fine texture and well supplied with humus and the necessary plant foods. The largest quantity of macaroni wheat is grown in east and south Russia. These wheats have given very good results in the semi-arid regions of the United States. The appearance of the wheat as it grows in the field is shown in the accompanying plate.

The domestic macaroni is now made in many factories in the United States and there is a continually increasing demand for the domestic article. The hardiest varieties of wheat are used in the manufacture of this article in the United States, especially the hard Kansas winter wheat.

Composition of Domestic Macaroni.-In the table below is given the mean composition of twenty samples of macaroni of domestic origin, made from domestic wheat. In the second column is given the mean composition of five samples of imported macaroni.

Preparation of Flour for Macaroni.-The term Semolina or Semola (Italian) or Semoule (French) is usually applied to the flour used in the manufacture of macaroni. In the United States the flour which is used is obtained by selecting the hardest wheat and preparing the flour in the usual manner. In France and Italy the preparation of semolina is accomplished in separate mills. The devices for grinding are essentially the same as those for producing the best grade flour, the main difference being that the wheat is moistened slightly before grinding and the flour is less fine than ordinary baking flour.

Evidently very slight changes in the method of milling would enable the ordinary mill to produce a fine grade of macaroni flour either from the macaroni wheat or from any very hard glutinous wheat grown in the United States.

Manufacture of Macaroni.-As practiced in the best districts of Italy, macaroni is manufactured according to the following method:*

The durum wheat is ground into semola and sieved to remove the starchy part of the grains and leave the clear, light amber, or glutinous part. Three or four grades of quality are made, and these depend on the size of the sieve meshes.

The semola is put into a special iron mixer, shaped like an old-fashioned artillery mortar, except that it is square instead of cylindrical, and furnished in the bottom with special screw-shaped fans with which to stir the paste *Fairchild, U. S. Dept. Agr., Bureau of Plant Industry, Bulletin 25.

or dough. Boiling water is added to the semola and the dough is mixed for about seven minutes. The mass is then put on a flat, circular kneading board and kneaded by two sharp-edged parallel beams which rise and fall as the table turns and press into the dough as they descend. A few minutes of kneading are sufficient and the homogeneous dough is then put into the cylinder and the piston descends upon the mass, forcing it in strings slowly through the perforated plate at the bottom. Fifteen minutes are required to convert the gallons of dough into thousands of feet of yellow macaroni. The yellow color is produced by the use of saffron or of a coal tar dye of which a very small quantity is put into each batch of dough. This is a reprehensible practice.

As soon as the strings of fresh paste which issue continually from the die are of the proper length they are cut and thrown over a reed pole and carried into the sunlight, if the weather is fair, or into sheltered terraces, protected by curtains from the rain, if the weather is unfavorable. On bright days. the strings of macaroni are exposed to the sunlight only two hours. They must be dried out only slightly before being cellared for the night in dungeonlike underground vaults similar to the Bavarian beer cellars.

For twelve hours or more the poles of macaroni are kept in these damp places, until the dough has become moist and pliable again and the strings have lost the brittleness that the exposure to the sunlight has given them. From the cellars the poles are carried to shaded storehouses open on all sides to the air but not lighted from above. Here, in great masses of millions of strings, they hang for several days, from eight to twenty being required, depending upon the dryness of the atmosphere. According to the statements of a manager of a factory this process of drying is necessary to give to the brittle paste a horn-like toughness and fit it to withstand the rough handling to which it will be subjected without breaking into small pieces.

In all this simple process the one point at which bacteria might have a chance to play a rôle is in the first drying, cellaring, and subsequent slow drying in the shade. The theory that the water is responsible for the flavor must rest, it seems to the writer, on other than bacterial grounds, for from the appearance of the tank which supplied the hot water the inference is easy that the water is chalybeate, for the tank was incrusted with iron.

ROLLS.

The term rolls is given to bread usually leavened with yeast or baking powder, and usually eaten warm, or hot. The term biscuit is generally but improperly used in this country for hot bread made with baking powder. The composition of rolls varies greatly with their method of preparation. Those made with yeast have practically the same composition as ordinary