Page:Foods and their adulteration; origin, manufacture, and composition of food products; description of common adulterations, food standards, and national food laws and regulations (IA foodstheiradulte02wile).pdf/294

 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:

Moisture,            9.66 percent Protein,            12.02    " Ether extract,         .42    " Crude fiber,          .56    " Ash,                   .78    " Starch and sugar,   77.12    "

In the dry substance:

Protein,            13.33 percent Ether extract,        .47    " Crude fiber,           .62    " Ash,                  .86    " Starch and sugar,    85.34    " Calories,        4,428

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