Domestic science (Clark, Cornell home economics)

Strawberries for the Shortcake. Spread the layers with softened butter. Mash 1 pt. strawberries and sweeten to taste. Spread on the bottom layer, put on the other layer of the shortcake and spread some mashed berries and some whole berries on the top. Serve with cream. Home Recipe. J c. flour, \ 1. tsp. baking-powder, 1 S.S. salt, 2 1. tsp. butter, 1^-2 tbsp. milk. Method. The method is exactly the same as in the individual recipe for baking-powder biscuit, except for increase in shortening. Mix and sift dry ingredients and cut in the butter. Add milk gradually, mixing with knife, divide dough into halves, and roll each half into a cake. These may be baked in individual pie tins, or in one large pan, put close SHORTCAKE 285 together. If there is lack of room, each individual recipe may make one cake, which may be split when done. This makes a very small shortcake. J c. berries will be enough for each student. Sugar to taste, from 1 to about 6 tsp., depending on the berries and the individual taste. Crush the berries, after saving a few whole ones for the top, and add sugar to them. Spread between the layers and on top. Shortcake may be served hot or cold. Notes If the time allows it might be mentioned to the class that the shortcake dough could be made into small cakes and cooked on a griddle. It is certainly true that the shortcake will be more digestible if baked in the oven. The mixture may simply be made into one cake, and when done, torn apart to make the two layers. Do not cut the cakes, as it makes them heavy. If for any reason you do not care to have strawberries for the fruit, use pineapple. Review batters. Compare other doughs, biscuit, bread, ginger-cooky doughs, etc., with shortcake mixture in respect to proportion of ingredients, amount of liquids, thickness, and mixing. While the shortcakes are baking, the students may prepare the berries, in order to be ready to put cakes together when baked. Order of Lessons 1. Review batters and dough. 2. Compare recipe for shortcake and baking-powder biscuit. 3. Discuss recipe. 4. Work. 5. Serve shortcake. 6. Wash dishes. FIRELESS COOKER Lesson XXXV One lesson may well be devoted to the demonstrations of cooking in the fireless cooker, as it is a valuable article and can be constructed at home. History. The principle was discovered in Norway. A Norwegian cook-box was exhibited at the Paris Exhibition in 1867. Food in tin utensils was placed boiling hot in the box and kept for some time. This box was lined with felt which retained the heat. Peasants in Germany used a similar method when they placed kettles of boiling soup in feather beds to cook over night. In a consular report from Germany in 1905, the wife of the Director of the Industrial School at Frankfort is reported as using the Norwegian method of cooking. She said that at first she used the hay-box to keep foods warm, but soon found that the cooking continued. Use. The fireless cooker can be used to finish all boiled and roasted meats, sauces, fish, soup, vegetables, fruits, puddings, etc. It cannot be used for beefsteak, cutlets, pancakes, and other articles that PIRELESS COOKER 287 require rapid cooking on a hot fire, but these can be done for the meal while the rest of the meat is in the box. The principles involved in the fireless cooker are: first, conservation of heat, i. e. the retention in foods of heat developed by contact with the fire; second, the cooking of foods with temperature below the boiling-point.