The US Department of Agriculture announced today that it has discovered a way to use an edible by-product from corn-based ethanol production, to make high-fiber, low-calorie food.
And just like most other nutritionally beneficial foods the cookies made with distiller’s dried grains taste positively awful. According to the Agricultural Research Service:
The cookies are smaller than those made with all-wheat flour because the high-protein/low-starch combination keeps the cookie batter from spreading as easily as batter made with 100 percent wheat. But the batter bakes consistently. The main problem right now is appeal. The fermentation process used to make ethanol often imparts a bitter off-flavor and odor to distiller’s grains. That’s why, to date, there have been no commercial foods made with ethanol byproducts.
Corn-based production facilities are currently operating in Sterling, Windsor, and Watkins and planned in Evans and Walsh. Molson-Coors Brewing in Golden is exapnding its facility that makes ethanol from beer waste. A sunflower-based plant in Dove Creek, in southwestern Colorado, expects to be in operation next summer.
No word yet on the cuisine possibilities from the manure-based ethanol plant based in Yuma.
