Magic in Plain Foods

All the World Serves a Woman when She Telephones

By Mrs. A.J. Wilder, Mansfield, Missouri

The thought came to me, while I wandered among the exhibits in the Food Products building at the San Francisco exposition, that Aladdin with his wonderful lamp had no more power than the modern woman in her kitchen. She takes down the receiver to telephone her grocery order, and immediately all over the world the monstrous genii of machinery are obedient to her command. All the nations of the world bring their offerings to her door - fruits from South America, Hawaii, Africa; tea and spices from India, China and Japan; olives and oil from Italy; coffee from strange tropical islands; sugar from Cuba and the Philippines.

This modern magic works both ways. The natives of all those far away places may eat the flour made from the wheat growing in the fields outside our kitchen window. I never shall look at Missouri wheat fields again without thinking of the "Breads of All Nations" exhibit, where natives of eight foreign nations, in the national costumes were busy making the breads of their countries from our own American flour.

We use raisins, flour, tea, breakfast food, and a score of other common things without a thought of the modern miracles that make it possible for us to have them. For instance, who would have thought that different varieties of wheat are blended to make fine flour, just as a blend of coffee is used to make a perfect beverage? An entire flour mill, running and producing flour for the market, in the Food Products building, illustrates this fact. In California mills, California, Washington, Idaho, and Kansas wheat is blended according to scientific tests for the proper amount of gluten and starch. It is interesting to mote that although this flour is not shipped east of the Rockies, because of the high freight rate, Kansas wheat is shipped west to make it.

One has a greater feeling of respect for the flour used daily, after seeing the infinite pains taken to turn out the perfect article. Every shipment of wheat to these mills, after being tested in the laboratories, is cleaned by a vacuum cleaner, ground through rollers and sifted, and then re-ground and re-sifted four times. During this process the finest, first grade flour is taken out, being sifted through 11 screens of fine, sheer silk. This first grade flour is kept for home use, the second grade being shipped to the Orient, where some of our middle-western wheat makes its final appearance in Chinese noodles.

From the time the wheat is poured into the hoppers until, in our kitchens, we cut the string that ties the sack, the flour is not exposed to the outer air. It is not touched by human hands until we dip the flour sifter into it. After the siftings, the flour, still enclosed, passes through a machine which automatically removes a small sample every half hour, to be inspected by the miller. From this machine it goes into a compartment where it is purified by a current of filtered air, then it enters the chute which fills the sacks.

The output of this modern machine, handled by one man, is 400 sacks of flour and 125 sacks of bran, shorts and middlings every 24 hours. With the machinery in use 10 years ago, 10 or 12 men were required to produce the same amount.

Ten years ago, too, we seeded our raisins by hand ourselves, or bribed the children to the task by giving them a share to eat. Today we buy seeded raisins in boxes, without giving a thought to hoe the seeding is done. You may be sure of this - these package raisins are clean. They are scientifically clean, sterilized by steam and packed hot. In the Food Products building I saw these machines at work. This is the process:

Sun-dried Muscat grapes are stemmed by machinery, then sent through 26 feet of live steam, at 212 pounds pressure. From this they fall onto a steel, saw-tooth cylinder, and pass under three soft rubber rolls, which crush the raisin and loosen the seeds. They then strike a corrugated steel roll, which throws out the seeds. The raisin passes on, is lifted from the cylinder by a steel rake and dropped into paraffine-paper-lined boxes, which are closed while the raisins are still hot from the steam sterilizing.

Steam is one of the commonest things in our kitchens. Until I went through the Food Products building I never realized how much it is used in the preparation of foods before they come to us. It sterilizes the raisins, cooks the oats before they are crushed into flakes for our breakfast oatmeal, puffs the rice, and cooks the wheat for the making of a well known wheat biscuit.

A full sized unit of the factory which makes those biscuit is in operation near the raisin machine. In the preparation of this biscuit, after the wheat is screened and cleaned it is steam-cooked for 30 minutes, which softens the grain. It is then put into hoppers, which feed onto a corrugated steel cone, where the wheat is crushed into shreds. Each wheat berry makes a shred about 2 inches in length. These shreds fall from the cone into a narrow tray, which slowly moves back and forth on a carrier under the cone until it is full. Thirty-six layers of the shreds make the proper thickness. They are then cut in to biscuit by steel knives, put on trays, and baked on revolving shelves in the oven. During all this process they are not touched by human hands. The moisture of the wheat and the heat of the baking combine to puff the biscuit to twice their former size.

Space forbids that I should describe the scores of exhibits in this enormous building devoted to the preparation of different foods, a task which always has been considered woman's work. I can only briefly mention the Japanese rice cakes, tiny bits of paste half an inch long and no thicker than paper. the smiling Oriental in charge drops them into boiling olive oil, and they puff into delicious looking brown rolls 3 inches long. They look as toothsome as a homemade doughnut, but to your wild amazement, when you bite them there is nothing there.

I must say one word about the rose cakes, delicious cakes baked in the form of a rose, and as good as they are beautiful. And I am sure nobody leaves the exposition without speaking of the Scotch scones; everybody eats them who can reach them. They are baked by a Scotchman from Edinburg, who turns out more than 4,000 of them daily. They are buttered, spread with jam, and handed over the counter as fast as four girls can do it. And the counter is surrounded by a surging mob all day long.

As I went from booth to booth they gave me samples of the breads they had made with our American flour - the little, bland Chinese girl in her bright blue pajama costume, the smiling, high-cheeked Russian peasant girl, the Hindoo in his gay turban, the swarthy, black-eyed Mexican - all of them eager to have me like their national foods. And I must say I did like most of it so well that I brought the recipes away with me, and pass them on to you:

Russian Forest - One pound flour, yolks of three eggs, 1 whole egg, 1/2 cup milk. Mix well and knead very thoroughly. Cut in pieces size of walnuts; roll very, very thin. Cut the center in strips, braid together and fry in deep fat. Drain, and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Mexican Tamale Loaf - One pound veal, 1 onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tablespoon chili powder, 1 can tomatoes (strained), 24 green olives (chopped). Boil the meat until very tender, take from the broth, cool and chop. Return to the broth, add salt to taste, add the onion and garlic chopped fine, then the tomatoes, olives, and chili powder. Let all come to the boiling point, then add enough yellow corn-meal to make as thick as mush, turn into molds and set aside to cool. The loaf may be served either cold or sliced and fried.

German Honey Cake - One cup honey, molasses or sirup, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon cloves, 1 teaspoon ginger, 2 teaspoons baking powder. Beat honey and sugar 20 minutes, then add the spices, the baking powder, and lastly the flour. Pour into well buttered baking sheets and bake 15 minutes in a moderate oven. Cover with chocolate icing and cut in squares.

Italian White Tagliarini - Three cups flour, 1/2 cup hot water, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon salt. Mix and knead thoroughly, roll very thin as for noodles, and cut in any desired shape. Allow to dry 1 hour and cook in boiling water for 10 minutes, drain, and serve with sauce. Sauce for Tagliarini - 1/2 cup olive oil, 1 large pod garlic, 1 large carrot, 1 large can tomatoes, salt and pepper, 2 large onions, 5 stalks celery, 1 cup parsley, 1/2 pound hamburg steak, 1/8 teaspoon cloves, 1/2 cup butter. Heat the oil in an iron skillet or kettle, then add onions and garlic chopped fine. Cook until transparent but not brown, then add the rest of the ingredients chopped fine. Cook slowly for two hours.

Croissonts (French Crescents) - Four cups flour, 1 cup warm water, 1 cake compressed yeast, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 cup butter. Sift and measure the flour into a bowl, add the yeast which has been dissolved in the water, then the salt. Mix and knead thoroughly. Let rise 2 or 3 hours, then roll out 1 inch thick and lay the butter on the center. Fold the dough over and roll out four times as for puff paste, then cut in pieces as for finger rolls, having the ends thinner than the middles. Form in crescent shape, brush with egg, and bake in a moderate oven.

Chinese Almond Cakes - Four cups flour, 1 cup lard, 1-1/4 cups sugar, 1 egg, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder. Mix and knead thoroughly. Take off pieces of dough the size of an English walnut, roll in a smooth round ball, then flatten about half. Make a depression on the top and place in it 1 almond. Place on pans, 2 inches apart, and bake a golden brown.

Unleavened Bread, or Matzas - From the earliest Bible times to the present, the Hebrew people have observed the feast of the Passover by eating unleavened bread. This bread is a hard cracker made from unfermented dough. The process of making is very simple. Mix flour and water to a very stiff dough. Roll this into a thin sheet, cut into round or square pieces, and bake in a hot oven.

Poori - This bread is considered by the Hindus as a luxury and usually is eaten on feast days. A rather stiff dough is made from flour, water and salt. Small cakes are cut from this dough and cooked in boiling butter.

Mrs. A.J. Wilder. "Magic in Plain Foods: All the World Serves a Woman when She Telephones." Missouri Ruralist (November 20, 1915): 12-13. The article is accompanied by a photograph of a large room with comfortable chairs, with the caption: "Here's the Reception Hall in the Missouri Building at the Panama-Pacific Exposition: Commodious, Beautiful and Comfortable."  CLICK HERE to see this article as it appeared in the Missouri Ruralist.

CLICK HERE to return to the list of articles from the Missouri Ruralist.