Murray Sherk, age lI, of Willowdale, Ontario, Canada, for his question:

 What exactly is malt?

It adds that new bread fragrance, plus extra nourishment to a malted milk drink. We also use it to enrich baby foods and to make breads more digestible, to make beers and other fermented beverages. Our ancestors discovered how to make malt before the dawn of history. The recipe has not changed much, though we use more modern methods. The main ingredient is a cereal, usually barley grain. Remarkable chemical changes occur when the barley is allowed to sprout and then dried in a slow oven.

The barley is soaked in water for a few days, then drained and spread out on well ventilated floors. After five to ten days, the sprouted grain is put into cool ovens and the temperature slowly raised to about 180 degrees. This kiln drying takes two or three days. After a month or two of aging, the malt is ready to be ground. Some of the tough starches in the barley are now changed to maltose sugar. The malt also contains the enzyme diatase that can change starch into sugar and the enzyme peptase that can help to digest proteins.