FoodNet

Handbook of domestic science and household arts for use in elementary schools

1900

Page 124 · 1 recipe record on this page

Presented as published in 1900. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Individual Rule. — \ cup sugar, 1^ tablespoon butter, ^ egg, 2 tablespoons milk, i cup pastry flour, ^ teaspoon baking powder, 8 drops of flavoring, sprinkling of saltIndividual Rule Cake. The cake is to be put together by the method given above for mixing butter cakes. 258 HANDBOOK OF DOMESTIC SCIEIifCE With this simple foundation a variety of cake may be made. Not only may different flavors be used, and some of the cake frosted, but to one may be added : — ■| teaspoon of molasses, 2 tablespoons of raisins, stoned and cut fine, a few slices of citron, 2 salt spoons of cinna- mon, 1 salt spoon each of clove and allspice, and 1 teaspoon of flour. (These proportions are for the individual rule). This may be baked in thin sheets and put together in alternate layers with some of the plain cake baked in the same form, and the layers held together by a little jelly, or some white of egg, slightly beaten. Another variation may be made by baking some of the white cake in layers and making a chocolate or other filling for it. To one portion English walnuts may be added, to another dried currants, and to a third some sliced citron. It is better to teach the cake lesson by giving one rule (any simple foundation may be substituted for the one given) and varying it, than by giving separate recipes ; as this method makes the child see the unity underlying all the variations, and gives her the power to change her own rule if she chooses. A second lesson may be given to gingerbread and cookies. PASTKY Pastry is not a form of food to be recommended, and should never be eaten by young children or by people of delicate digestion. The large amount of fat mixed with the flour and coating the starch grains, makes it difficult for the digestive juices to penetrate to the starch ; and as fat is digested neither in the mouth nor the stomach, the starch is not acted upon until late in the process of digestion. If pastry is to be eaten, however, it should be light, flaky, and thoroughly cooked; and one lesson may well be devoted to its preparation. Puff paste is difficult to make and expen- PASTRY 259 sive, and its preparation has no place in a public school course, but a plain paste may be given. The principles of cookery involved in pastry making are those of starch cookery, and of the expansion of air to lighten the food materials. The materials used are : — 1. Pastry flour. Since this contains more starch and less gluten than bread flour it makes a more tender jjaste. 2. Fat: either butter, beef dripping, lard, or sometimes cottolene. Lard makes a whiter pastry than butter, but pastry made with butter and beef dripping is considered more digestible. 3. Cold water. In summer ice-water is desirable. It is essential to good pastry that the fat should not melt until after the baking begins.