OCR Text |
Show CHESTNUT FLOUR O" CORSICA. Much Used but Produces Inferior Kind of Dread. The chcittnut Is the wheat of Corsica, Cor-sica, nnd Us Hour Is used In the form of bread or polenta by tho peasants throughout tho Island Tho chestnuts nro slowly dried ocr a small wood fire and stored until required for grinding The mills ate of tho simplest sim-plest construction, and consist of a wooden water wheel whoso axis turns n millstone which crushes tho shelled chestnutn against a fixed stono. The cheaper grades of Hour nro of a dirty color owing to tho pres-euro pres-euro of particles of the shells and contain between 11 nnd 12 per cent of moisture. The composition of different differ-ent varieties of tho flour haS been determined recently by M Comto. who finds that chestnut flour closely approximates wheat flour In Its food value. It contains about tho same amount of starch, moro fat and cellu lose, hut less nitrogenous substances (7 to 0 per cent, as ngalnst 12 to 1C per cent In wheat (lour). Chestnut flour nttrarts molsturo very rapidly, nnd therefore soon becomes molildy unless kept In air-tight vessels. It has nlso the draw-back of not being easily Influenced by tho action of yeast, and thus produces an Inferior kind of bread. |