FoodNet

Experimental cookery

1932

Page 118

Presented as published in 1932. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
To determine the effect of alkaline and neutral water upon the color of white cereals and vegetables. \a. To ly^ cups of boiling water add % cup of washed rice. Cook until tender. Add more boiling water if necessary during cooking. Remove about 3^ of the cooked rice from the sauce pan and drain. lb. To the rice remaining in the sauce pan from la, add % to 1/16 of a teaspoon of cream of tartar. Cook 2 minutes and drain. 2a. To 1^ cups of boiling distilled water add %. cup of rice washed in distilled water. Add boiling distilled water during cooking if necessary. When the rice is tender remove about ^ of the cooked rice from the sauce pan and drain- 146 FRUITS AND VEGETABLES 2b. To the rice remaining in the sauce pan from 2a, add y% to 1/16 tea- spoon of soda. Cook 2 minutes, then drain. 3. Add half a white onion to 1 cup of boiling tap water. Cook until tender. Save the other half of the onion for 4. 4. Repeat 3, but use distilled water. Cook the same length of time as 3. 5. Repeat 3 and 4, using flowerlets of cauliflower or white cabbage. Results and conclusions. Experiment 19. To determine the effect on the flavor and tenderness of a strong-flavored vegetable cooked by different methods and for different lengths of time. Use Ys pound (56 grams) of cabbage, Brussels sprouts, or turnips cut into pieces. Onions can be used but they become milder with longer cooking. Add 1 pint of boiling water. Cook until tender. A. Methods of cooking. 1. Cook in a covered vessel. 2. Cook in an uncovered vessel. 3. Blanch, i.e., pour off the water after cooking 5 minutes, add 1 cup of freshly boiled water, and finish cooking. 4. Cook in a steamer. 5. Cook in a steamer. Add 1 gram of ammonium carbonate per quart of water to the water in the lower part of the steamer. 6. Cook in a pressure cooker. 7. Cook in a fireless cooker. 8. Cook in a waterless cooker. 9. Cook in a distilling flask, catching the distillate in a flask held in ice water. Catch the distillate in 4 portions, changing the flask every 3 minutes. Do not count the time for the first distillate caught in the flask until the water in the distilling flask is boiling. Cork the flasks containing the distillate until the class is ready to taste and smell the distillate. Which is stronger, the first liquid that distils over or the last portion? Are any of the flavoring and aro- matic substances of cabbage, turnips, and onions volatile? Some of the distillate may be tested for sulfides by adding a few drops of lead acetate. Test the distillate with litmus. Taste the cooking water and vegetable. In which case is the flavor of the vegetable best? Is blanching desirable? Do these experiments suggest any reason why the juice of most canned vegetables is stronger than that from the fresh vegetables? If you do not want to discard the water in which a strong-flavored vegetable is cooked, how would you cook the vegetable? How use the water? Test some of the cooking waters for sugar. Vegetable used: Time of cooking Tend( Flavor of vegetable Flavor of water Flavor of distillate Color of water FRUITS AND VEGETABLES 147 Conclusions. B. Time of cooking.