B. Class Experiments. 1. Fill a cup with unsifted flour. Sift the flour and refill the cup, being careful not to pack the flour. Recipes always call for flour measured after one sifting. Why ? 2. Drop a teaspoon of unbeaten white of egg into hot fat. What immediately happens to the water in the white of egg? What makes pop- overs pop ? Why is so hot an oven used ? FLOUR MIXTURES Cream soup and white sauce are made with compara- tively little flour for the liquid used, and without the use of eggs. Beginning with pop-overs come a series of thick- ened mixtures, usually with more or less egg. Of these the more liquid are termed batters. A mixture thin aTest the heat of the oven at 482° F. with your hand. An " educated " hand is of the greatest help when trying to bake with- out a thermometer. Also test by putting a piece of white paper in the oven for five minutes. 218 FOOD STUDY enough to pour is called a "pour-batter"; it is about as thick as thin cream. Then comes a "drop-batter", thicker than a pour -batter but still liquid enough to drop from a spoon, "breaking" when it is poured. It has the consistency of thick cream. Thicker than this is " soft dough" ; then, still thicker, is " dough." Obviously pop-overs are a pour-batter ; so are griddle-cakes. Muffins are drop-batter, baking-powder biscuits are soft dough, and bread is dough. Cookies and pastry are still stiffer mix- tures. But none of these terms are exact, because the proportions of flour and liquid in any one may vary a good deal. Also, it will readily be seen that eggs act as a liquid until they are cooked, and that fat is liquid while it is melted. All these things, therefore, must be taken into consideration. Then, one flour differs from another in its gluten content, so, therefore, in the amount of liquid it can absorb. But in spite of all this, quite accurate results can be obtained with definite proportions, until one comes to a mixture like bread which must be handled. In considering the whole question of proportions, think of the liquid as fixed in amount, one cup, and then the proportion of flour used with it. In pop-overs equal amounts are used, one cup of each. Therefore, pop-over batter is said to be 1:1, — one cup of liquid to one cup of flour. As griddle-cakes, fritter-batter, muffins, and bread vary mainly in the amount of flour used, this is an easy way to remember proportions. Cake ordinarily contains so much fat or so many eggs that these must be taken into consideration in counting liquid. The method of mixing depends upon the leavening agent and the result to be accomplished. If the leavening is steam, as in pop-overs, beating in air is evidently unneces- sary. Therefore the separate beating of the egg, folding in the white, gives no better pop-overs than are obtained by FLOUR MIXTURES 219 the shorter method. Beating the flour with the liquid develops the gluten in it, which is necessary to retain the steam which expands and so makes the pop-overs hollow. Notice in each mixture exactly how you combine the in- gredients and see the reasons in every case.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

B. Class Experiments. 1. Fill a cup with unsifted flour. Sift the flour and refill the cup, being careful not to pack the flour. Recipes always call for flour measured after one sifting. Why ? 2. Drop a teaspoon of unbeaten white of egg into hot fat. What immediately happens to the water in the white of egg? What makes popovers pop ? Why is so hot an oven used ? FLOUR MIXTURES Cream soup and white sauce are made with comparatively little flour for the liquid used, and without the use of eggs. Beginning with pop-overs come a series of thickened mixtures, usually with more or less egg. Of these the more liquid are termed batters. A mixture thin [illustration: Test the heat of the oven at 482° F. with your hand. An "educated" hand is of the greatest help when trying to bake without a thermometer. Also test by putting a piece of white paper in the oven for five minutes.] enough to pour is called a "pour-batter"; it is about as thick as thin cream. Then comes a "drop-batter", thicker than a pour -batter but still liquid enough to drop from a spoon, "breaking" when it is poured. It has the consistency of thick cream. Thicker than this is " soft dough" ; then, still thicker, is " dough." Obviously pop-overs are a pour-batter ; so are griddle-cakes. Muffins are drop-batter, baking-powder biscuits are soft dough, and bread is dough. Cookies and pastry are still stiffer mixtures. But none of these terms are exact, because the proportions of flour and liquid in any one may vary a good deal. Also, it will readily be seen that eggs act as a liquid until they are cooked, and that fat is liquid while it is melted. All these things, therefore, must be taken into consideration. Then, one flour differs from another in its gluten content, so, therefore, in the amount of liquid it can absorb. But in spite of all this, quite accurate results can be obtained with definite proportions, until one comes to a mixture like bread which must be handled. In considering the whole question of proportions, think of the liquid as fixed in amount, one cup, and then the proportion of flour used with it. In pop-overs equal amounts are used, one cup of each. Therefore, pop-over batter is said to be 1:1, — one cup of liquid to one cup of flour. As griddle-cakes, fritter-batter, muffins, and bread vary mainly in the amount of flour used, this is an easy way to remember proportions. Cake ordinarily contains so much fat or so many eggs that these must be taken into consideration in counting liquid. The method of mixing depends upon the leavening agent and the result to be accomplished. If the leavening is steam, as in pop-overs, beating in air is evidently unnecessary. Therefore the separate beating of the egg, folding in the white, gives no better pop-overs than are obtained by FLOUR MIXTURES 219 the shorter method. Beating the flour with the liquid develops the gluten in it, which is necessary to retain the steam which expands and so makes the pop-overs hollow. Notice in each mixture exactly how you combine the ingredients and see the reasons in every case.

Food study