The technology of bread-making : including the chemistry and analytical and practical testing of wheat, flour, and other materials employed in bread-making and confectionery / by William Jago and William C. Jago.

William Jago

Date:: 1911

Credit: The technology of bread-making : including the chemistry and analytical and practical testing of wheat, flour, and other materials employed in bread-making and confectionery / by William Jago and William C. Jago. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

892/944 page 880

$by one British manufacturer ^\'a8 found to be contaminated with arsenic. As a result an active search for that poison lias been made in all sorts of articles of food, and among these starch sugar, because of its unfortunate popular name, has been an object of much sus])icion. Many samples of such starch maltose have been examined by the authors for arsenic, and up to the present they have not found one containing any arsenic contamination ; neither, so far as they are aware, has any specimen of this substance, among the multi- tude which have been submitted to analysis by public analysis and others, received condemnation. It is no more than justice to state that starch sugar or starch maltose is made from pure materials, absolutely harmless in the manner in which they are employed, and that the manufacture is conducted under perfectly sanitary conditions. In fact, neither on scientific, nor even on sentimental grounds, is there anything any more objectionable in the manufacture of starch maltose than there is in that of cane sugar. Of the constituents of starch sugar it may be said that maltose, although a crystalline sugar, crystallises much less readily than does cane sugar. Dextrin, or as it is sometimes called, British gum, is a tasteless gummy body, which does not crystallise itself, and exercises an inliibitory action on the crystallisation of other sugars. Its use is, therefore, as a preventa- tive of crystallisation ; and in some goods starch sugar is employed, in order to prevent cane sugar crystallising, on much the same lines as a por- tion of the cane sugar is inverted by the addition of cream of tartar or other similar acid during sugar boUing. In addition to this, dextrin also seems to exercise a specific moisture-retaining effect, and the use of starch sugar is therefore indicated in those goods which are desired to retain a moist character. Flavouring Ingredients. 977. Fruit.—Fruit of various kinds is a most important flavouring agent in flour confectionery. Passing mention only need be made of the employ- ment of fresh fruits in season ; thus, gooseberries, currants, raspberries, cherries, plums, and apples, in their respective turns, are used in the manu- facture of pies, tarts, and puddings. In chemical composition, most of the fruits consist largely of water, in next highest proportion containing carbo- hydrates, and lastly small quantities of other bodies, as set out in the follow- ing table, quoted from Hutchison’s Food and Dietetics :— Per cent. Water Carbohydrates Cellulose Protein Fat .. Mineral Matters The carbohydrates consist mostly of sugar, the principal one bemg Isevulose, or fruit sugar, beside Avhich, there are varjdng amounts of cane sugar and dextrose. In addition to sugar, many fruits yield gum-like bodies, to which, as a group, the name of “ pectm ” has been given. In unripe fruits there is present an insoluble body knomi as pectose, which, by the action of a natural ferment, is converted into pectin. Pectin exists ready formed in ripe fruits, and also very largely in Irish moss. Pectm is soluble in water, and is devoid of any marked flavour and odour. Treatment with a small quantity of acid causes its solution to gelatmise. Like most other gelatmising substances, the power of thus settmg or “ jellymg ” is seriously diminished, or even destroyed by long continued boiling of its solu- tion. A solution of apple juice, on being concentrated, exhibits this jelly- 85 to yu 5-5 to 10*5 2-5 0*5 0*5 0-5$