The Physical Chemistry of the Loaf.

Abstract

THE question of strength in wheaten flour has of late years repeatedly engaged the attention of chemists. Recent researches, more particularly those of Prof. T. B. Wood, have established that strength, or, in other words, the capacity of the flour to give a bold, well-risen loaf, depends in the main on the influence of the electrolytes naturally present on the gluten. The difficulties of the problem have hitherto prevented a more quantitative study of the electrolytes present in flour, but a recent paper from the Carlsberg Labora-tory, Copenhagen, by Jessen-Hansen, perhaps marks a first step in this direction. Use is made by him of Sorensen's methods of determining small amounts of acidity, either colorimetrically or by determinations of electrical conductivity, to study the degree of acidity, or, as it is usually termed, the “hydrogen ion con-centration ” of a number of doughs made in the usual way.