Other Breadstuffs
The bean, pea, lentil, lupin, and vetch are included under the common name of pulse. They form a most useful class of breadstuffs, and enter largely into the food of both man and animals. The usefulness of pulse is due to the large amount of glutinous or tissue-forming matter which they contain; 100 lbs. weight of pulse averages about 24 lbs. of gluten.
The gluten of pulse is known as legumin. It resembles the gluten of oats rather than that of wheat. Pulse meal, although it is highly nutritious, will not make light, spongy bread, and in the countries where it is most eaten it is prepared in the form of cakes. The Scotch people, you remember, make their oatmeal into cakes; this, however, is not because they prefer close, heavy cakes to ordinary bread, but because the oatmeal will not make up into light, spongy loaves. Pulse meal alone would not make a good food, as it contains a very small percentage of fat. This perhaps will show you that it is no mere whim or accident that leads people to prepare a dish of baconand beans. The fat of the bacon gives the very thing that is wanting in the beans, and the two together make an excellent food. On the same principle a mixture of beans and oats is found to make the best food for horses which are engaged in laborious work. The oats contain a large proportion of tissue-forming matter (about 16 percent),but they contain in addition an abundance of fat, whichmakes up for the deficiency of that material in the beans. On the other hand, the proportion of tissue-forming matter is much larger in the beans than in the oats. Thus a mixture of the foods gives more strength and endurance than either could give separately.
The common French or kidney bean is mostly eaten in the green state in this country. These beans are natives of India, but they are now grown in most temperate climates. The useful haricot-bean is simply the ripe seed of the French bean.
The broad or Windsor bean is not only grown largely for use as a green vegetable, but is imported in great quantities, in the ripe state, for feeding horses. In this state the beans are commonly known as horse-beans. Lentils make excellent soups, and they also yield a highly nutritious meal, from which is prepared the well-known food-revalenta-for infants and invalids.
There is a small kind of pulse grown in the East, andknown as chickpea or gram. Travellers about to cross the deserts carr y with them a supply of these peas, roasted ready for use. Heavy, bulky food would be anencumbrance; these peas are light and take up little room, while they are said to be more life-sustaining in their properties than any other food.
In Lombardy immense quantities of lupins are grown, and the meal which their seeds yield forms the staple food of the common people. The peanut or ground-nut belongsto the pulse family, and in the