A text-book of cooking

If more baking soda than is necessary to neutralize the acid of the sour milk is used, some unnentralized soda will remain in the mixture. This is undesirable, since soda has a " bitter taste." An excessive quantity of unneutralized soda also discolors the mixture. Experiments 70 and 71 indicate that the approximate proportion of baking soda to sour milk is: % teaspoonful of baking soda to 1 cupful of sour milk. The following crude equations indicate the importance of* using the proper amount of baking soda to neutralize the acid materials : 1 cupful of sour milk + £ teaspoonful of baking soda yield carbon dioxide gas + neutral material. 1 cupful of sour milk + 1 teaspoonful of baking soda yield carbon dioxide gas + neutral material + unneutralized soda. CORN BREAD 1 cupful corn meal 1 teaspoonful salt 1 cupful flour 1J cupfuls sour milk | cupful sugar 1 egg { teaspoonful baking soda 2 tablespoonfuls fat Mix the dry ingredients thoroughly. Beat the eggs ; add the sour milk to the beaten eggs. Sift the dry ingredients into the egg mixture. Melt the fat. Add it to the cornmeal mixture. Mix quickly and thoroughly. Turn at once into an oiled pan, and bake in a hot oven until sufficiently baked, usually 25 to 30 minutes. (See tests below.) Tests for Sufficient Baking of Quick Bread. — Quick Bread is usually sufficiently baked : (a) when it is a golden brown in color ; (b) when the mixture shrinks from the pan ; (c) when the crust springs back into place, if pressed gently with the fingers; or (d) when no batter or dough clings to a wire skewer or knitting needle (see Fig. 15) that has been inserted. Usually it is not necessary to apply this last test, unless the quick bread is baked in a loaf or in a very thick layer. Mention the materials used in Corn Bread to make it light. Explain their action. Explain why satisfactory results could not be obtained by using 1} teaspoonfuls of baking soda in this Corn Bread recipe. What is the price per half-pound of baking soda ? How many persons does this Corn Bread recipe serve ? LESSON LXV Leavening with Baking Soda, Sour Milk, and Molasses : Gingerbread Experiment 72: Action of Baking Soda on Molasses. — Place a teaspoonful of baking molasses in a test tube and dilute with a little water. Test it with litmus paper. What is its reaction? Add a pinch of baking soda. Heat. What does effervescence indicate? What do we call the gas formed by the action of the baking soda and an acid substance ? Explain how baking soda and molasses could be used to lighten a quick bread. Experiment 73: Quantity of Baking Soda to use with Molasses. — Carefully measure \ cupful of molasses. 1 Dilute it with much water and pour into a saucepan Carefully measure ^ teaspoonful of baking soda and dissolve it in water. Add about } of the soda solution to the molasses. Stir and heat. Test with blue litmus. If it changes color, keep adding the soda solution, until the litmus paper does not change, as in Experiment 70. When neither blue nor pink litmus paper changes color, what kind of substance, — acid, alkaline, or neutral, — is present ? What change has taken place in the materials placed in the saucepan ? This experiment shows that the approximate proportion of baking soda to molasses is : ^ teaspoonful of baking soda to 1 cupful of molasses This " equation " expresses the chemical change in the experiment: 1 cupful molasses -f- \ teaspoonful of baking soda yield neutral material -h carbon dioxide gas. GINGERBREAD WITHOUT EGGS 1 cupful sour milk 2 teaspoonfuls ginger 1 cupful molasses 1 teaspoonful baking soda Salt 2<J cupfuls flour 1 teaspoonful cinnamon 2 tablespoonfuls fat