Popular Science Monthly/Volume 91/August 1917/Lo, the Soya Bean! A Substitute for Meat, Fish and Fats
Lo, the Soya Bean! A Substitute for Meat, Fish and Fats
WITH all due respect to Western civilization and progress, we must nevertheless yield the palm to China for the production of the soya bean, a vegetable so full of promising possibilities that agricultural experimental stations all over the United States are concentrating attention upon it.
Milk from soya beans is no longer an experiment but has become a marketable commodity. It is sold in cans as a powder or in liquid form. As a substitute for meat and fish the experimenters say all that is required is the co-operation of good cooks to devise sufficient variety in preparation of the beans. The oil is considered of especial value. It may be used as a substitute for linseed oil or may be hardened into an edible fat suitable for cooking or even for table use. The pulp, or what is left over after the oil has been extracted, is conceded to be a valuable cattle food.
The only difficulty encountered thus far in the experiments with the soya bean has been in finding a suitable solvent to dissolve out any oil that may be left in the meal before the left-over portion is consigned to the cattle. Naphtha has been found to be good, but unless care is taken to remove all trace of it from the meal the new fodder loses its value as a cattle food, for the cattle refuse it on account of the smell. Another chemical which has been found to answer the purpose is try-chlorethylene. It is not offensive in odor nor poisonous. Yet a dangerous reaction has at times occurred when it has been used as a solvent.