SOY-BEAN

Commercial and government circles both in Europe and this country are devoting increasing attention to the cultivation of the sov-bean as a human food product, on account of its large percentage of a tmilable protein and its considerable fat content. It has for hundreds of years largely taken the place of meat in the diet of millions of people in Japan, China, and other parts of Asia. It contains no starch, its carbohydrates consisting chiefly of galactans (of doubtful a imilation) and a small percentage of sugar. It may be prepared as a vegetable—first soaked to aid the removal of the skins, then boiled until soft, and seasoned—but it is too high in nutrition to be generally suitable or desirable for eating as an ordinary vegetable, i.e., with meat or other protein food. It is much better from both dietetic and gastronomic standpoints to regard it and employ it as a meat substitute—to be eaten as one eats cheese. It is, indeed, in ‘‘cheese’’ forms—commercially prepared—that its food.use in this country will probably develop, for it thus yields a variety and richne of flavor unobtainable by simple cooking. The most popular preparations in China and Japan are tofu, a curd cheese, which resembles our ‘‘cottage cheese’’; shoyu, or soya, or Soy (see preceding); miso, soybean milk—a strained water-solution of the pulverized beans which looks a good deal like cow’s milk; and mat to, obtained by simple fermentation of the boiled beans. Tofu is made by coagulating miso (by means of vinegar, or some of the ‘‘whey’’ from a gn fps. a: —. ra - on: -:: A 4 AYA i, P oh FORM pO pee rim, ok Copyright, Journal of Heredity The soy-bean plant and its ripe seeds 5 HI Soy-beans and soy-bean eake awaiting shipment, Dairen, Manchuria a previous making, or by various other additions), then pre ing between cloths and cutting into squares or molding into round cakes. In this form, it should he eaten fresh, either raw or cooked—particularly the latter —heing then, if well prepared, a real delicacy. The solid residue strained off in the making of miso is used both as human and hog food. The various degrees and styles of fermenting and cooking the beans serve the double purpose of rendering them more easily digestible and producing new flavors, just as by the various fermentations and ripening of milk and cream we produce the different flavors of cheese. The many other products include ‘‘soup noodles,”’ made of the curd, sweet ‘‘jellies’’ (particularly of paste or ‘‘fruit-cheese’’ type) and other sweetmeats. Any and all of these are eaten with rice or potatoes or yams, and in many other ways. A favorite combination—and one that is excellent in food value—is a dish of Bean Sprouts (which see) and tofu. The plant is an annual, growing chiefly in bush form to varying heights of from two to six feet, with branching, hairy stems, slightly hairy leaves, white or pale lilac or violet flowers, and hairy pods couta in ing from two to five beans, from round to oval, and more or le flattened. There are a number of different varieties under the principal cla ifications of yellow, black, white, and brown, according to the color of the beans. Under favorable conditions a single plant may bear a hundred or more pods. Some varieties will in good seasons ripen their seeds as far north as Ma achusetts but the southern states are more suitable for commercial cultivation. Beeause of their lack of starch, the beans have been recommended as a desirable food for diabetics, and soy-bean bread and soy-bean meal are prepared for that purpose in Paris. The dried beans are also used in Switzerland and elsewhere as a coffee substitute. Soy-bean oi] is commercially important, and is used for all the purposes for which other high-cla vegetable oils are employed.