history of soy yogurt, soy acidophilus milk and other ... - SoyInfo Center

that the soybean as a forage crop attracted attention and
Beattie’s experiments came to be looked upon as important.
We planted larger patches of soybeans on a tract of land near
Bethesda, MD...
“And then we ran into the diffi culty of harvesting
the soybeans. P.H. Dorsett of the offi ce, one of the most
ingenious and most indefatigable workers I have ever
known, and his friend Rankin, who was running the little
experimental farm, put their heads together and adapted
a bean picker then in use–in California I think–and
discovered that it was perfectly possible to harvest soybeans
mechanically...
“I went out exploring again and my travels with Mr.
Lathrop this time took me into the soybean fi elds of Japan.
The tremendous importance of the crop as I saw it there
made a great impression on me. Also the almost universal
use of soy sauce, which Americans were just beginning to
appreciate, fi xed my interest...
“Dr. Yamei Kin, an extraordinary Chinese woman
whose acquaintance I had made on the boat returning from
Japan, made a visit to Washington and captivated us all by
her enthusiasm over soybeans. She introduced us to ‘tofu,’ a
delicate cheese which has not even yet attracted the attention
it deserves from the American public.
“In 1903 A.J. Pieters came to me one day and told me
of an amazing young Hollander who had been a gardener
of the great geneticist, Hugo de Vries. He was then on his
way back from a trip on foot to Mexico, and I wired him to
come to Washington. For 13 years, as agricultural explorer of
our offi ce, Frank N. Meyer tramped from village to village
over much of China. He gathered soybeans whenever he
saw them, for he felt it was important to secure all the local
varieties he could for our plant breeders before they should
have disappeared as the result of the spread of standard
varieties he thought was bound to come.
“The importance of getting as many as possible of these
local varieties and these, or selections from them, form, I
believe, the basis of the very extensive soybean breeding that
has been done by the various plant breeders of America.”
Note: According to Vivian Wiser of the USDA and to
the Washington D.C. Historical Society (13 Feb. 1991; phone
301-785-2068, Mrs. Offut), in 1897 Merton Waite lived in
downtown Washington, D.C. in a built-up area. There is no
record of his owning a farm outside Washington D.C., but
he may have owned the farm as a sort of summer home or
he may possibly have worked with the group at the USDA
farm at Somerset, Montgomery County, Maryland. He was
a plant pathologist and physiologist, in charge of diseases of
orchard fruit trees, especially pears and peaches. There is a
collection of David Fairchild’s materials at Coconut Grove.
His personal residence, The Kampong near Coconut Grove,
is still (as of 1998) well preserved and open to the public.
Address: “The Kampong,” Coconut Grove, Florida.
HISTORY OF SOY YOGURT & CULTURED SOYMILK 94
© Copyright Soyinfo Center 2012
177. Koch, Carrie Funk. 1949. The soy bean–health and
beauty value. Vegetarian News Digest (Los Angeles) 1(4):6-
7. Jan.
• Summary: Gives a brief history of the soy bean, and
its nutritional value. Good Health magazine (Sept. 1936)
reported that the Dionne quintuplets were save by a new type
of lacto-bacillus bifi dus acidophilus grown in soy bean milk.
178. Milyutina, L. 1949. [Lactic acid beverage from soy
milk]. Molochnaya Promyshlennost (Dairy Industry) 9:34.
Also in Chemisches Zentralblatt 1949, p. 257. *
• Summary: “Soja Kefi r” was prepared by the addition
to soya-milk of 4% Dispora caucasica culture and 1%
Lactobacillus acidophilus.
179. Ray, Georges. 1951. Technologie laitière. 2e éd. [Dairy
technology. 2nd ed.]. Paris: Ed. Dunod. vii + 743 p. See p.
703-09. Illust. Index. 25 cm. [Fre]
• Summary: The chapter on “Milk substitutes” (p. 696+)
contains a subchapter titled “Soymilk (Lait de soya)” (p.
703-09), which has the following contents: Introduction.
General rules to follow in the preparation of soymilk.
The North Vietnamese (Tonkinoise) method. Method of
preparation used in dairies in the Far East: Castagnol
process. Modern methods for the preparation of soymilk.
Composition of soymilk. Properties of soymilk. Fermented
soymilk (using Bacillus acidophilus, British patent No.
441,574, 22 Jan. 1936). Concentrating / condensing and
drying soymilk (including yuba). Soymilk curds (Caillebotte
de soya). The future of soymilk.
Contains two full-page ads by Alfa-Laval for dairy milk
equipment.
Vegetable milks have certain advantages over animal
milks. They are easily made in a state of microbial purity,
free of tuberculosis bacteria. Their casein precipitates more
rapidly than that of cow’s milk and does not coagulate in the
same manner in the stomach. And it can be sold at a lower
price. Later: It contains no cholesterol, and makes better
use of world food supplies. Disadvantages: It has a lower
calcium content and many Westerners prefer the fl avor of
animal milks.
Here is a quick review of the processes for making
soymilk, described at length in a monograph (written under
the direction of G. Ray) by D. Kaltenbach and J. Legros
[1936]. Precise information about the soya industry is
assembled is a more recent work by A. Matagrin. Soymilk
pioneer in France were [Li Yu-ying], L. Rouest, and H. de
Guerpel (p. 703).
The Castagnol process was developed by Ray at the
agronomic research Institute in Indochina (p. 704).
Starting in 1910, a Franco-Chinese society was founded
for the study of the utilization of artifi cial milk from the
soybean. The experiments were abandoned in 1912. In 1916
Prof. O. Laxa of Prague recommended for making soymilk