Foods and home making

The simplest dressing is French dressing. (See page 290.) If lemon juice is used instead of vinegar, French dressing is es- pecially good for fruit salads. Cooked dressings may be made using fruit juices instead of vinegar. Canned pineapple is one of the most popular fruits for salad making. The sirup drained from canned pineapple may be used in making a salad dressing suitable for serving on any fruit salad. The recipe follows : In the top part of a double boiler, put the lemon juice, pineapple sirup, cornstarch, and salt. Mix well. Stir and cook the mixture over boil- ing water until it thickens. Continue to cook for 5 minutes longer. Mix the egg yolk and sugar. Stir it into the hot mixture. Stir and cook until the egg thickens. Beat the egg white stiff. Fold it into the hot mixture. Replace the hot water in the lower part of the double boiler with cold water. Let the salad dressing remain surrounded by cold water until it is cool. Then place the dressing in the refrigerator to chill. Variation. — If desired, \ cup of whipped cream may be used instead of the egg white. Do not add the whipped cream until the dressing is cold ; fold the whipped cream into the dressing just before serving. Yield : 6 servings. FRUIT SALAD DRESSING Juice of 1 lemon \ cup pineapple sirup 1 tablespoon cornstarch Pinch salt \ cup sugar 1 egg white 1 egg yolk 296 Luncheon or Supper Should fried foods be used? What may cause much fat to soak into foods during frying? Some persons like fried foods for the main dish of luncheon or supper. There is no denying that many fried foods are good, but it is questionable whether one should eat them for this reason. Foods fried in fat usually absorb a good deal of fat. The large quantity of fat makes the foods digest slowly. If foods are cooked by frying, they should be fried in such a way that they do not absorb a great deal of fat. Less fat is absorbed by food fried in deep fat in a kettle than by food fried in a small quantity of fat in a shallow pan. Let us learn about the proper temperature for deep-fat frying. Experiment 19 : To show whether food should be fried in warm or in hot fat. (c) Put some fat suitable for deep-fat frying, such as lard, vegetable oil, or solid vegetable fat, into an iron frying kettle. Heat the fat. As it heats insert a thermometer in it occasionally to get the temperature. When the fat reaches 300° F., drop in it a piece of stale bread. Let the bread stay in the fat for 1 minute. Then with a wire spoon lift the bread out of the fat. Let it cool somewhat. Then cut the bread in two. How far has the fat soaked into the bread ? ( b ) Continue to heat the fat until its temperature is 365° F. Drop another piece of bread in the fat. Let it stay in the fat for 1 minute ; then remove it. When it is cool enough to handle, cut the bread in two. How far has the fat soaked into the bread ? (c) Which temperature do you think is better for frying foods? It is very important to have fat for frying hot. Foods absorb fat when it is not hot enough.