Girl's home manual of cookery, home management, home nursing and laundry

Fry as for pancakes. Serve hot with sugar and butter or molasses. Sour milk and % tsp. soda may be used instead of sweet milk and baking powder. Pancakes with Yeast. Ls fcup flour. % yeast cake. Y% tsp. salt. 1 «cup milk. : 1 tsp. sugar. few gratings of nutmeg. Scald milk, add sugar, when lukewarm add yeast cake and mix in the flour. Beat batter well. Cover and leave in a warm place for two hours. Baked Batter or Yorkshire Pudding. 1% cups flour. 2. cups, milk YZ tsp. salt. % cup cold water. lor 2 eggs. > Sift flour and salt, make a hole in centre and slip in eggs unbeaten, add one cup milk. Mix slowly to a smooth batter. Beat well for five minutes, add _remainder.of milk and, water. Pour into a very hot meat tin containing 4 tbsp. hot fat. Bake in a moderate oven 35 minutes. The batter is better if it stands ~ several hours before being cooked. Serve with roast meat. GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING PASTRY (1.) Flour for pastry should be fine and white, indicating less gluten and a large proportion of starch, which is lighter for pastry. (2.) Lard, butter or dripping may be used to shorten pastry. If two are used blend them with a knife before adding them to the flour. Lard makes a tender crust but lacks the flavour of butter. (3.) Quantities. For everyday pastry use half as much shortening as flour. To % cup sifted flour (% lb.) allow 2 oz. shortening (4% cup packed). For richer pastry increase the amount of shortening. For puff pastry use equal quantities of flour and butter. (4.) All pastry, during the making, must be kept cold, and handled lightly. (5.) Use ice cold water to mix pastry. (6.) Roll lightly and from oneself. Never turn pastry over nor flour it. (7.) After rolling and shaping, chill before cooking. Pastry should be kept cold during the making for two reasons: (a) To prevent the shortening from melting. (b) To enclose as much cold air as possible, since bulk for bulk cold air takes up less room than hot, hence more air is enclosed; it is this which makes pastry light. (8.) Pastry must be baked in a hot oven: (a) So that the difference between the cold air in the paste and the hot air in the oven may be as sharp as possible, and the expansion of the former greater when heated. This expansion throws up and lightens the pastry. (b) The great heat causes the starch grains in the flour to burst. These act like little sponges and absorb the shortening. The reverse of this is seen when pastry is put into a cool oven, the moderate heat being insufficient to burst the starch grains but sufficient to melt the shortening, which melts and runs out, consequently the pastry never rises. It therefore follows that the richer the paste is the hotter the oven needs to be. Food Value and Digestibility of Pastry. Pastry, on account of the large proportion of fat in it, is rich and somewhat difficult to digest. The starch of the flour is coated with fat and unless well masticated is not digested in the mouth. Plain, short pastry containing only a moderate amount of fat is the easiest to digest. Flaky pastry and puff pastry are richer and the flakes are apt to be swallowed w ithout proper mastication. Pastry is best eaten with acid fruits; the acid offsets the richness of the fate Invalids, young children, and those suffering from indigestion should avoid pastry. Pastry is not a suitable food in hot weather as it is too rich and heating. S GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING PASTRY =: Short Pastry for Fruit Pies. 1% cups sifted pastry flour (7 0z.). 1% cup (scant) shortening. \% tsp. salt. Y% cup (about) iced cold water.