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.

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.