FoodNet

Experimental cookery

1932

Page 299

Presented as published in 1932. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
In class work about nine times out of ten better results are obtained if all or at least half of the sugar is added to the egg white before any of the flour is added. Barmore reports the same result. Yet one person that the writer knows who makes excellent angel cakes always mixes all the sugar and flour together and then adds it to the egg white. It illustrates a point that constantly impresses all who have a chance to observe different people work with foods. There is no one method that always produces the best result. It seems best to give the method or methods successfully used by the majority. However, adding about three-fourths of the sugar to the egg whites and sifting the remainder with the flour make the flour easier to incorporate. Hence, the flour can be added with less folding with the result that tough- ness is not increased from long folding and the volume of the foam is not materially reduced. Mixing the sugar and the flour before adding to the egg white has not produced as satisfactory results as folding the sugar first. As one student remarked, *'The addition of the sugar to the egg white seems to prepare the egg for blending with the flour." Flour. The flour is folded into the mixed sugar and egg w^hite. Here the amount of mixing also affects the volume and tenderness of the cake. Too little mixing does not blend the flour sufficiently with the sugar and 364 EGG COOKERY Fig. 37. — Angel cake. Showing effect on the volume and texture of varying the folding of the sugar with the egg white. Cake flour used. Experiment (69,A). As shown in the illustration the cakes are about five-sixths actual size. Fig. 37. 1. The sugar folded 2. The sugar folded 3. The sugar folded 4. The sugar folded 5. The sugar folded 6. The sugar folded 20 strokes. 40 strokes. 60 strokes. 80 strokes. 120 strokes. 180 strokes. 366 EGG COOKERY Fig. 38. — Angel cake. Showing effect of substituting bread flour for cake flour in Fig. 37. Experiment (69,E). MIXING ANGEL CAKE 367 Fig. 38. 1. The sugar folded 2. The sugar folded 3. The sugar folded 4. The sugar folded 5. The sugar folded 6. The sugar folded 20 strokes. 40 strokes. 60 strokes. 80 strokes. 120 strokes. 180 strokes. 368 EGG COOKERY Fig. 39. — Angel cake. Showing effect on volume and texture of varying the extent of folding the flour with the sugar and egg white. Experiment (69, B). As shown in the illustration the cakes are about five-sixths actual size. 1. The flour folded 40 strokes. 2. The flour folded 60 strokes. 3. The flour folded 80 strokes. MIXING ANGEL CAKE 369 Fig. 40. — Angel cake. Showing effect on the volume and texture of beating the egg white to different stages of stiffness. Experiment (69,C). As shown in the illustration the cakes are about five-sixths actual size. 1. Egg white slightly under-beaten. 2. Egg white beaten sufficiently. 3. Egg white slightly over-beaten. 370 EGG COOKERY