Foods and home making

Should fruits be cooked in covered or in uncovered pans? Because of the fact that the fruit is not covered by the small amount of water in which it is cooked, cover the pan so that the steam formed by the boiling water will cook the upper layer of apples. When fruit is baked uncovered in the oven, „ „ „ the dry heat of the oven Figure 13. Water and Solids in an Apple . . , t ,. . will, of course, cook the Are you surprised that a firm apple is ’ ’ five sixths water ? Although only one sixth uPPer portion of the of the edible part of an apple is solid material, fruit. However, some it is composed of substances which are very prefer to cover fruit dur- nourishing. What these nourishing sub- ingbaking. Apples baked stances are will be found in a later chapter. „ . , in a covered pan will keep their shape better, but they will not brown as well as when baked uncovered. The browning may be accomplished by placing the apples in a broiling oven for a few minutes. When should sugar be added to cooked fruit ? In the direc- tions given for apple sauce, sugar is added after the fruit is cooked, while the sugar is added to apple compote and baked apples before the fruit is cooked. Let us see why the sugar is added to these fruit dishes at different times. In making apple sauce, we expect the fruit to break up or lose its shape during the cooking process. In making apple compote we try to keep the fruit whole — to prevent it from breaking up. When it is desired to prevent fruit from breaking, we first make a sirup and Cooking Fresh Fruits 29 cook the fruit slowly in the sirup. Other conditions being the same, fruit will break up more readily when cooked in plain water than when cooked in a sirup. The fact that the flavor of most fresh fruits is more delicious than that of cooked fruits has been discussed. In cooking fruits, it is desirable to make them taste as much like the fresh fruit as possible. When sugar is added to fruit sauces after cooking rather than before cooking, it is thought that the fruit has a finer flavor — more like fresh fruit. Then, too, fruit sauce is less apt to scorch when the fruit is cooked with water to which no sugar is added. SUMMARY Underripe fruits should be cooked to make them wholesome. Cooking prevents fruits from spoiling readily. Three common methods of cooking fruit are : 1 . Cooking it in water to make a sauce. Add only a small quantity of water. Add sugar after taking from fire. 2. Cooking it in sirup so as to preserve its shape. Cook fruit slowly so it will not break up. 3. Baking it at 400° F., 20 to 40 minutes. Water is boiling when its surface is bubbling. Water is boiling vigorously when its surface is bubbling rapidly. Water is boiling gently when its surface is bubbling slowly. Enamel, aluminum, glass, or earthenware utensils should be used for cooking fruits. REVIEW QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES Answer each of the following questions with one or very few words. Without copying the questions write the answers on a sheet of paper or in your notebook. Number the answers as the questions are numbered. 1. What percentage of water do pared and cored apples contain? 2. How should fruits be pared? 3. In wha^, should whole fruits be cooked to hold their shape? 4. How should fruit sauce boil? 5. If fruit is to boil gently should the flame be long or short?