Page:The Boston cooking-school cook book.djvu/119

Rh EREALS (cultivated grasses) rank first among vegetable foods; being of hardy growth and easy cultivation, they are more widely diffused over the globe than any of the flowering plants. They include wheat, oats, rye, barley, maize (Indian corn), and rice; some authorities place buckwheat among them. Wheat probably is the most largely consumed; next to wheat, comes rice.

Macaroni, spaghetti, and vermicelli are made from wheaten flour, rich in gluten, moistened to a stiff dough with water, and forced through small apertures in an iron plate by means of a screw press. Various Italian pastes are made from the same mixture. Macaroni is manufactured to some extent in this country, but the best comes from Italy,