FoodNet

Domestic science (Johnson, for schools and homes)

1911

Page 17

Presented as published in 1911. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
PopovERS: One cup flour, one-fourth teaspoon salt, seven-eighths cup milk, one teaspoon melted butter, one egg. Mix salt and flour together; add the milk gradually; add the egg unbeaten, and the melted butter; beat five min- utes with a fork or Dover beater; pour into hot, buttered, iron gem-pans or popover cups; bake thirty to thirty-five minutes in a hot oven. Lesson 19. Experiment: Stir flour and water together to make a stiff paste; beat with a fork for five minutes, drop a spoon- ful on a hot, buttered griddle. The air in the bubbles ex- pands, increasing the size of the mass greatly. This is leav- ening with air; The popovers made in the previous exercise were made light by air enclosed by the albumen of the egg when beaten. In baking, this albumen hardens around the bubbles of air, making little cells to imprison the air. The heat thus expands the mass to several times its original size. The water in such mixtures, in part, is con- verted into steam. The steam fills a space 17,000 times that of the water producing it. Here, again, we have a great source of leavening, steam. Alkalies are chemical substances that unite with fat to form a new substance, called soap. Common baking soda is an alkali. When an alkali is mixed with an acid, as vinegar, a gas is set free which is valuable to the cook. This gas (carbon deoxlde) is produced in a simple manner, Sy combining common baking soda with cream of tartar, or with vinegar, tartaric acid, sour milk, etc. Acid and alkaline substances, when combined in the proper proportions and moistened, neutralize each other; that is, each destroys the nature of the otlicr, and the resulting compound is neither acid nor alkaline, Cold COOKING 4S water added to a mixtute of bi-carbonale of soda and cream of tartar causes the gas to be liberated from the soda. The heat of the oven expands the gas, and forces much of it out of the mixture. « This process leaves batters and doughs full of fittle holes; and is called leavening by gas. Pancakes. Two cups flour, four teaspoons baking powder, one teaspoon salt, one egg, beaten, one and three- fourths cup milk, two teaspoons melted butter. Mix and sift the dry ingredients. Add the beaten egg, then the milk, gradually. Mix until smooth. Add the melted butter, beat thoroughly, and bake on a hot, greased griddle. When i\i]\ of bubbles, and brown on the under side, turn. The jgriddles should be smoking hot when the batter is placed oipon them. Lesson 20. The Acid formed in milk is called lactic acid; from the Latin, lactea; milk. The germs which form it are called lactic bacteria. These form the acid from the sugar in the i^ilk, as vinegar is formed from sweetened water or fruit juices; but the processes di£Fer, and the periods of time re- quired to produce the diflFerent acids diflFer. Lactic acid may be produced in a few hours; while several weeks, and some- times month* tre required to form vinegar from commoa sugar, or from fruit juices. s=^ Fig. 18. Figure 13, is a group of vinegar-producing bactent. The souring of milk is a natural process; one that •hould be expected after it has become a day or two -^'d. 46 DOMESTIC SCIENCE