I Variations, Add i egg. This makes a delicious biscuit. Sprinkle the top with granulated sugar, and spice. Dried currants, washed and dredged with flour, may be laid on the top. Increase the butter to two or three tablespoonfuls and de- crease the wetting; the mixture becomes shortcake. This is the mixture to use for the true strawberry shortcake. Many other fruits may be used, both uncooked and cooked. THE HOME BREAKFAST 183 The class had learned how to grease their muffin pans and cups neatly, to fill each little pan or cup half full, and to bake them in a quicker oven than for loaf bread. A table for baking will be found on page 296. We shall not learn to bake properly until we have thermometers for our ovens ; no other test can be exact. A good general rule in baking is this : with batters and doughs, the larger the portion, the slower the oven. A cooky can be baked in a " quicker,'' or hotter, oven than a muffin, and a muffin or small cake in a quicker oven than a loaf. Cakes that have many eggs in them, like sponge cake and angel cake made only with the whites, are more tender baked in a slow oven. The reason for this you will understand because we have studied the egg in Lesson 19. On the day of the exhibit the quick breads were prettily displayed upon plates on a long table, and the recipes were written on the board. Miss Travers was there ; but before she began her talk, the pupils them- selves performed the experiments given in Marjorie's notebook, page 298, and gave little talks themselves about baking powder. One girl talked while another performed the experiment, and what they said was something like this : Making quick breads light. We can do this, partly, by beating air into eggs and putting the eggs into the batter. In popovers the steam puffs up the crust. But why do we use sour milk and soda, or molasses and soda, or cream of tartar and soda, or baking powder .? 1 84 FOOD AND HEALTH Agnes Groves will pour some boiling water on a mixture of cream of tartar and soda. See how it bubbles ! If we catch the gas in a small bottle and touch a match to it, see, — the match goes out. It is carbon dioxide gas. Here is a saucer that held a teaspoonful of cream of tartar and ^ teaspoonful of soda dissolved in water, and the water has evaporated. See the white powder left behind. It does not taste like the cream of tartar nor the soda ; and you could never guess what it is ! It is Rochelle salts ; and so every time we eat a biscuit made light with cream of tartar, we take a little dose of Rochelle salts.^ This is what the chemists say : whenever you put soda, or bicarbonate of soda, with an acid, this gas is formed, and some substance is left behind in the food, — one kind of thing from sour milk, another from cream of tartar, and so on. Some of the best baking powders are made with cream of tartar and soda with a little starch mixed in to keep the two substances from work- ing on each other. An acid phosphate powder also is on the market. The Mothers' Club and other guests were much pleased with the little talks and the experiments. Then Miss Travers was ready to answer questions. Here are a few of them : Question. What kind of baking powder would you buy ? Answer. Not the cheapest, for they may have alum instead of cream of tartar, and too much starch or flour. ^ Rochelle salts is a medicine. THE HOME BREAKFAST . 185 Question. Is it cheaper to buy or to make the baking powder ? Answer. It may cost a little less to make it, but in the factory, where it is put up, everything is weighed exactly and thoroughly mixed; you get a better product and it is just as economical. Question. Isn't quick bread just as wholesome as yeast bread ? Answer. Not when it is eaten just baked, and not for all the time. Question. But people always want quick breads hot. What can you do ?

AI-modernized reading of the original text

I Variations, Add i egg. This makes a delicious biscuit. Sprinkle the top with granulated sugar, and spice. Dried currants, washed and dredged with flour, may be laid on the top. Increase the butter to two or three tablespoonfuls and decrease the wetting; the mixture becomes shortcake. This is the mixture to use for the true strawberry shortcake. Many other fruits may be used, both uncooked and cooked. The class had learned how to grease their muffin pans and cups neatly, to fill each little pan or cup half full, and to bake them in a quicker oven than for loaf bread. A table for baking will be found on page 296. We shall not learn to bake properly until we have thermometers for our ovens ; no other test can be exact. A good general rule in baking is this : with batters and doughs, the larger the portion, the slower the oven. A cooky can be baked in a " quicker,'' or hotter, oven than a muffin, and a muffin or small cake in a quicker oven than a loaf. Cakes that have many eggs in them, like sponge cake and angel cake made only with the whites, are more tender baked in a slow oven. The reason for this you will understand because we have studied the egg in Lesson 19. On the day of the exhibit the quick breads were prettily displayed upon plates on a long table, and the recipes were written on the board. Miss Travers was there ; but before she began her talk, the pupils themselves performed the experiments given in Marjorie's notebook, page 298, and gave little talks themselves about baking powder. One girl talked while another performed the experiment, and what they said was something like this : Making quick breads light. We can do this, partly, by beating air into eggs and putting the eggs into the batter. In popovers the steam puffs up the crust. But why do we use sour milk and soda, or molasses and soda, or cream of tartar and soda, or baking powder .? Agnes Groves will pour some boiling water on a mixture of cream of tartar and soda. See how it bubbles ! If we catch the gas in a small bottle and touch a match to it, see, — the match goes out. It is carbon dioxide gas. Here is a saucer that held a teaspoonful of cream of tartar and ^ teaspoonful of soda dissolved in water, and the water has evaporated. See the white powder left behind. It does not taste like the cream of tartar nor the soda ; and you could never guess what it is ! It is Rochelle salts ; and so every time we eat a biscuit made light with cream of tartar, we take a little dose of Rochelle salts.^ This is what the chemists say : whenever you put soda, or bicarbonate of soda, with an acid, this gas is formed, and some substance is left behind in the food, — one kind of thing from sour milk, another from cream of tartar, and so on. Some of the best baking powders are made with cream of tartar and soda with a little starch mixed in to keep the two substances from working on each other. An acid phosphate powder also is on the market. The Mothers' Club and other guests were much pleased with the little talks and the experiments. Then Miss Travers was ready to answer questions. Here are a few of them : Question. What kind of baking powder would you buy ? Answer. Not the cheapest, for they may have alum instead of cream of tartar, and too much starch or flour. ^ Rochelle salts is a medicine. Question. Is it cheaper to buy or to make the baking powder ? Answer. It may cost a little less to make it, but in the factory, where it is put up, everything is weighed exactly and thoroughly mixed; you get a better product and it is just as economical. Question. Isn't quick bread just as wholesome as yeast bread ? Answer. Not when it is eaten just baked, and not for all the time. Question. But people always want quick breads hot. What can you do ?

Food and health