Experimental cookery

Sudan III was first used in oils and fats. In trying to take photomicro- graphs it was found that the Sudan III dye was not always deep enough in value to give a clear picture. Dr. Benbrook and Miss Sloss of the Veterinary Department suggested using Scarlet R or Scharlach R, which stained the fat or oil a deeper color than Sudan III. It was a surprise to find that Scarlet R aided In locating some distributions not found w^ith Sudan III. Often the dyed fat can be seen through the microscope when the color Is not Intense enough to show clearly in a photomicrograph. Fisher found lard to have the greatest shortening power of the plastic fats tested in pastry. Using 41 and 44 per cent of fat (based on weight of the flour) she found the shortening value of 5 lards, 2 hydrogenated cottonseed oils, 1 hydrogenated lard, an animal stearin, and 1 all-vegetable oil compound as determined by breaking strength with the Bailey Shortom- SHORTENING EXPERIMENTS WITH PASTRY 569 eter approximately paralleled their congealing points, those fats having the lowest congealing point having the greatest shortening power. Noble, McLaughlin, and Halliday investigated several factors influenc- ing the apparent shortening value of a fat, using a modified shortbread (sugar added to a pastry formula). They found that creaming the fat and sugar to a maximum volume produced wafers with smaller breaking strength, as determined by a Bailey Shortometer, than when the same fat was creamed to a minimum volume. Also after adding the flour and liquid to the creamed mass, thorough mixing so that no spots of creamed fat and sugar showed produced markedly more tender wafers than when the dough was incompletely mixed. If no flour was sprinkled on the board for rolling, wafers markedly more tender resulted than when the minimum amount of flour to prevent sticking was used. Beating the extra flour into the dough gave a more tender product than using it in rolling but a less tender one than omitting it entirely. Shortening experiments with pastry. Denton and Lowe have determined the shortening power of different fats in pastry. 'Tastry was chosen for the baked product in their experiments, as it is commonly used, contains a large proportion of fat and is made with a small number of ingredients. In addition to fat it contains water, flour, and salt." The pastry was mixed in a KitchenAid and the materials were incubated before mixing, so that the temperature of the ingredients when mixed was 80 °F. Denton and Lowe used the shortometer as designed by Davis for the shortening tests. Weight is applied at the upper end of a vertical rod. At the lower end of the rod a bar is attached which rests across the material to be broken. The crushing strength was determined by substituting for the bar a rod which punctured a hole in the pastry. Sometimes the weight rested an appreciable length of time on the pastry before breaking or crushing occurred. Thus they found in the breaking and crushing tests that the rate at which the load is applied and the time through which the load acts are both factors in determining the breaking and the crushing strength of pastry, which is quite fragile. In order to obtain a more uniform rate of loading than with shot they used mercury, run from a burette into a receptacle resting on a cap at the top of the shortometer.