Processing of millets and cereals (other than rice) into rice substitutes.

India is essentially a rice-eating country. The acute shortage of rice
during the last few years has made it increasingly necessary to look for
other commonly available food grains, such as wheat, jowar (Sorghum
vulgare) and maize, as substitutes for rice. The main objection of the
habitual rice eating population of this country to utilization of these
grains as such is that they take much longer to cook than rice and the
cooked product remains tough to the palate because of the fibrous seed
coat which encloses the kernel of the grain. Earlier attempts towards
improΛ'ing the cooking quality and palatability of food stuffs have
mainly been confined to pulses (3, 5, 6) , fruits, and vegetables. Long
ago American Indians discovered that the seed coat from the maize
grains could be easily removed by treatment with wet wood ash resulting
in an improvement of the cooking quality and palatability of
the hominy (2). However, very little published scientific data are
available on the cooking quality of various millets and cereals.
The object of the present study was to explore the possibility of
evolving a simple processing technique by which wheat, jowar and maize
whole grain can be rendered palatable and amenable to easy cooking.