Foods and home making

Variation: Drop Biscuits. — After mixing the dry ingredients with the milk, drop the dough into a greased muffin pan. Bake at the same temperature as cut biscuits. A little more liquid may be needed. Breads for Luncheon or Supper 303 Baking-powder biscuits differ from muffins in that they contain no eggs, and in the method of mixing fat with the dry ingredients. Instead of being melted, the fat is left in the solid state and worked into the dry ingredients. What is baking powder? If some baking soda and corn- starch are mixed together, the soda cannot be distinguished from the cornstarch. Baking powder looks like one kind of finely powdered substance. But it is really a mixture of at least three white powdered substances. When these powdered materials are mixed together, no one can be recognized. Baking powder is a mixture of (1) baking soda, (2) material having acid properties, and (3) cornstarch. When baking soda and the acid materials are moistened, a gas is formed. That gas is carbon dioxide. If the soda and acid substance are not only moistened but heated, the gas is formed more quickly. The starch is mixed with the soda and material having acid properties merely to keep these two substances apart, so no gas will form until the baking powder is used. How do different kinds of baking powder vary? At the grocery store one finds baking powders with different names. If the labels are examined one can see they all contain sodium bicarbonate. This is baking soda. They all contain starch also. But the substance with acid properties varies in the different baking powders. It is a phosphate , a tartrate, or an alum phosphate. The gas produced by all baking powders, when they are moistened and heated, is carbon dioxide. Why is baking powder stored in a tin can ? The tin can keeps air away from baking powder better than a pasteboard box would. It is necessary to keep air away from it so the moisture of the air will not cause the gas to form while baking powder is in the can. Keep the lid on the baking-powder box. How are sour milk and baking soda used in quick breads? The quick breads you have learned to make were leavened with 3° 4 Luncheon or Supper baking powder. In these sweet milk was used for moistening. It is convenient and often desirable to use sour milk for moisten- ing a quick bread. One would not care for quick breads which tasted sour. What can be done to sour milk used in quick breads to remove the tart taste? Housekeepers have found that when the proper quan- tity of baking soda is used with sour milk, its acid taste dis- appears. Hence, when sour milk is used for moistening a quick bread, baking soda is always added. Baking soda destroys the sour taste of sour milk, because an interesting change takes place. Let us learn something of what happens when baking soda and sour milk are mixed together. Experiment 20: To learn what is formed when sour milk and baking soda are mixed and heated. (a) Put a teaspoon of sour milk in a test tube. Add a teaspoon of cold water merely to dilute the milk so you can easily see the changes which will take place. Now add a pinch of baking soda. Do you notice any bubbles forming in the mixture? (b) Slightly heat the tube. Do you notice bubbles now? Bubbles appearing indicate that a gas is forming.