FoodNet

Experimental cookery

1932

Page 294

Presented as published in 1932. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Cakes baked at 178°C. for 30 minutes had larger volume, were more moist and more tender, probably because of larger volume, than cakes baked at 163°, 152°, or at 138°C. The last required 100 minutes for baking. Baking at the highest oven temperature produced an interior tem- perature about 2°C. higher than in cakes baked at the lowest temperature, though the difference in oven temperature was 40 °C. Eggs several days old made poorer cakes than fresh eggs. The reason suggested for this is hydrolysis of the egg proteins rather than increased proportion of thin whites. No moisture was lost by evaporation by any portion of the cake farther from the outer edge than 1 cm. *'Cake baked at the low temperature appeared to contain less moisture, because the center of the cake felt and tasted much drier than that baked at a higher temperature for a shorter 358 EGG COOKERY time. The data show that one was just as moist in the center as the other. The difference in feel was apparently occasioned by the difference in the condition or location of the moisture. Perhaps in the low-temperature cake the moisture had been more completely removed from the sugar solution and absorbed by the starch or protein, because of the greater length of time the cake was maintained at a high temperature." In studying the influence of acid and sugar on the initial coagulation temperature of egg white (different proportions of sugar and acid added to egg white, placed in test tubes for heating) it was found that sugar in- creased but acid lowered the initial coagulation temperature of the egg white. Adding both sugar and acid in proportions used in cakes raised the temperature at which coagulation of the egg w^hite started. However, in spite of the lowered initial coagulation of the egg white by the addition of acid, its addition increased the tenderness of the egg white. In the test with egg white coagulated at various temperatures it was found that the lower the temperature at which coagulation occurred the more tender the egg white. ''With increases in altitude it has been shown that the amount of expan- sion during baking increases; the cake becomes more tender; the final cake volume changes and is related to tenderness; the amount and rate of evaporation increases; the maximum internal cake temperature decreases; the volume of the vapor escaping increases; and the color of the crust becomes lighter." Peet and Lowe baked angel food cakes in six ranges, three electric, two gas, and one kerosene. Cakes were baked in ranges cold at the start and in preheated ovens. The results of analysis of scores showed that the judges did not dif- ferentiate among cakes baked in the different ranges for total score, texture, and eating quality. However, for these same points the judges thought the cakes baked in the preheated ovens were superior to those baked in the same ranges from a cold start. Furthermore, these differences, as shown by analysis of variance, were highly significant. The scores for moistness w^ere higher for cakes baked in preheated ovens but these results were not analyzed statistically.