Elements of the theory and practice of cookery

Butter gives a fine flavor ; beef fat is less expensive than butter and in many cases serves equally well ; the peculiar greasy flavor of lard makes it less desirable than either of these. ^ Recipe for Tea-biscuit Flour, 2 cupfuls. Salt, % teaspoonful. Baking-powder, 3 teaspoonfuls. Butter, 1 tablespoonful. Milk (or milk and water), about ^ cupful. Sift the flour, baking-powder, and salt together. Rab in the butter (which should be cold and firm) with the tips of the fingers, or cut it with a knife, until 1 When substituting lard or beef fat for butter, add one-eighth tea- spoonful of salt for each two tablespoonfuls of shortening. 108 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY the mixture looks like meal. Pour in the milk slowly, cutting, not stirring, the mass with the knife. As soon as one portion of the flour becomes slightly moistened, push it to one side. When all is moist turn it on to a floured board. Knead it for a minute with the hands. Pat and roll it lightly with a rolling-pin to a thickness of three-fourths of an inch. Cut into biscuit with a small biscuit-cutter dipped in flour. Bake on a pan from twelve to fifteen minutes in a hot oven. For richer biscuits use from two tablespoonfuls to one-fourth cupful of butter. A Study of Baking-powder 200. Experiments with baking-powder. — A. Taste baking- powder. Test it with cabbage water (§ 195). How would you describe it? B. Add two tablespoonfuls of cold water to one teaspoonful of baking-powder; two tablespoonfuls of hot water to another tea- spoonful of baking-powder. Which foams the most ? What kind of bubbles do you think these are? C. Arrange an apparatus like that in Fig. 10. Use a cold- water solution of baking-powder instead of vinegar and baking- soda. Test for carbon dioxide. When the gas ceases to come off, heat the test-tube gently, and observe the result. Explain how biscuit are made light. Is heat necessary to make all the gas come off? What would be the effect on the biscuit if hot milk were used in mixing the dough ? D. Taste cream of tartar. Test it with cabbage water, or with litmus. What kind of a substance is it? E. Try to dissolve cream of tartar in cold water ; in hot water. Try to dissolve baking-soda in cold water ; in hot water. What can you say of the solubility of baking-soda ? BREAD 109 F. Mix one-half teaspoonful of baking-soda with two teaspoon- fuls of cream of tartar, and taste the mixture. Add water to the mixture (or, make separate solutions of soda and of cream of tartar, and pour one into the other). Compare the result with what happened when water was added to baking-powder. Of what do you think baking-powder is composed ? G. Test the mixed solution with cabbage water. If it is not neutral, try to make it so by adding either soda or cream of tartar, ;i little at a time. 201. What bakings-powder is; how it makes mixtures light. — Pure cream of tartar baking-powder contains one part of baking-soda to four parts of cream of tar- tar.i In solution these unite, forming carbon dioxide and Rochelle salts. ^ Cream of tartar being partly sol- uble only without heat, little of the gas is set free until the mixture is put into the oven.^ It then comes off