Experimental cookery

Sodium carbonate 0.01 M Ammonium hydroxide 0.01 M 67 4 0 Van der Marel decided that the softening effect was due to action on the pectic substances of the peas and that anything that made the pectic substances more soluble had a softening effect in cooking. The results of Huenink and Bartow and of Van der Marel show why some waters are not desirable for cooking dry legumes. With increasing hardness of the water the hardening effect on the vegetable is more notice- able. Some housewives have found this out from experience. The writer remembers her grandmother's insisting that dried beans should be cooked in cistern water, because they cooked more quickly than in the well water which was permanently hard. Hard water. Hard water contains salts of calcium, magnesium, and sometimes iron. Hardness of water is designated as temporary or perma- nent. Water containing calcium and magnesium bicarbonates is termed temporary hard water since the heating of the bicarbonates decomposes them and carbonates are formed which are deposited as crusts on the inner part of the tea kettle or cooking utensil. Such waters are rendered less 138 FRUITS AND VEGETABLES hard by boiling. Permanent hard water contains the sulfates of magnesium and calcium. Some water is both temporarily and permanently hard. Softened water, which is used a great deal at the present time, has the calcium and magnesium replaced by sodium. The author has noticed that, since softened water is used in the Home Economics building at Iowa State College, fresh green peas never become hard as they sometimes did with the old permanently hard water and that the difference between the time required for cooking dry beans not soaked and those that are soaked is very much shorter. The pectic substances o£ bean coats. Snyder noticed that if the seed coat of pea or Great Northern beans was injured or scarified, the beans swelled in soaking and cooked in a shorter time. Next she noticed that entrance of water into the beans is not uniform over the entire surface of the bean but most of the water entered through the micropyle and germinal area. Substances that dissolved the pectic substances shortened the soaking and cooking time. Beans with very hard skins neither soaked nor cooked satisfactorily and contained a higher percentage of pectic substances than skins of beans that soaked and cooked easily. The major portion of the calcium of beans was found in the seed coat. Snyder's results with calcium and magnesium salts, with acids, and with soda substantiate those of earlier investigators, with the exception that oxalic acid, which cannot be used in preparation of edible products, did not depress absorption of water. Oxalic acid would render the calcium salts insoluble. Snyder found that ^ teaspoon of soda per pint of water was sufficient for soaking to shorten the cooking time, except with one very hard water. If the beans were soaked in water at 120°F. the maximum amount of water was absorbed in 6 hours. Molasses and tomato juice had an effect similar to that of acids but could be added without injurious effect after the beans were cooked. Beans that cooked rapidly on top of a burner also baked satisfactorily.