A text-book of cooking

From these experiments, we find that dry heat has changed insoluble starch into a soluble substance called dextrin. Dextrin is found in the crust of bread and in toast. Since digesting is dissolving, which is the more quicklydigested, toast or the crumb of bread ? Give reasons for your answer. (See Solution and Digestion, p. 29.) Toast. — Bread is properly toasted when it is dried out thoroughly and then browned on the outside. Both the crumb and the crust of the toast are thus made crisp. Crisp toast crumbles during mastication and digestion and is easily digested or dissolved. (See Experiments 8 and 9, p. 29.) 1 Liquids pass through filter paper, but solids do not. Hence if a mixture of solid and liquid is poured upon filter paper, the liquid passes through, but the solid remains on the paper. toast: digestion of starch 57 Fresh bread contains much moisture. When it is toasted quickly, the moisture is inclosed in the interior of the slice and the resulting toast is very soft. This kind of toast is almost as difficult to digest as fresh bread. Instead of toast breaking into bits during digestion, it remains in a solid mass and is dissolved or digested with difficulty. Give at least two practical methods of toasting bread to produce the desired kind of toast. CREAM TOAST 1) tablespoonfuls butter J teaspoonful salt 2 tablespoonfuls flour 2 cupfuls milk or cream 6 to 8 slices of toast Heat the butter ; when it bubbles, add the flour and salt, mixing thoroughly. Add a small portion of the milk. Heat and stir continually until it thickens. Add another portion of the milk and proceed as before. Continue until all the milk has been added. The sauce is sufficiently cooked when it reaches the boiling point after the last quantity of milk has been added. Pour this sauce over dry or moist toast. Moist toast is prepared by dipping dry toast quickly into hot, salted water or hot milk. If the crust has not been cut from bread for toasting, only the outer edges of the toast may be moistened. Twice this quantity of butter is sometimes used for making Cream Toast. Digestion of Starch. — It was found in a previous lesson (Lesson V) that sugar is entirely soluble in water, and since digestion and solution are closely related, the digestion of some sugar is simple. Starch was found to be insoluble in cold water and only semisoluble in hot water. In the process of digestion it would seem that some change must take place in the starch to make it soluble. Such a change does take place; starch is changed into a soluble carbohydrate or a sugar before it is digested. Substances called ferments which are in the saliva of the mouth and in the digestive juices of the intestines cause this change. To show that this change takes place to some extent in the mouth, try the following experiments : Experiment 25 : Starch in Cracker. — Test a bit of cracker with iodine for starch. What indicates the presence of starch ? Does the cracker contain starch ? Experiment 26 : Action of Saliva upon Starch. — Thoroughly chew a bit of cracker, remove from the mouth, and place upon a piece of paper. Test it with iodine. A purple (port-wine) color indicates a soluble carbohydrate. (See Experiment 24, p. 55.) What substance does the masticated cracker contain? Explain the change that has taken place in the cracker by mastication. Give the reason for mixing flour and butter as directed in White Sauce. (See Experiment 22, p. 54.) What is the proportion of butter and flour ? What is the proportion of flour and liquid ? Using this proportion, how much flour should be used for one cupful of liquid ? What is the use of flour in White Sauce ? Note the consistency of the sauce, and keep it in mind as a standard of comparison for the thickness of other sauces.