Principles of cooking

When flour and water are mixed together and baked, the result is a hard, heavy, tough mass that is not appetizing. Flour contains gluten and starch. Gluten is a sticky, tenacious substance that has great expansive power when mixed with the water. Starch swells and gelatinizes when water is added and heat is applied, and tends to become lumpy. To make a light, porous, and tender food, some ingredients must be added that will separate the starch grains and give them room to expand, without lumping, and that will form a gas that can be inclosed in the sticky, tenacious gluten. When heated, the gas will expand. The gluten also has great expansive power, and the heat sets the walls of gluten at the right time, and this makes a light and porous product. If the heat is too strong at first, the gluten hardens before the gas expands it, and the mixture will not be light enough. If the heat is not strong enough to set the gluten, the gas forces its way to the surface and escapes, and the mixture will contain large holes, but will not be light. ; Shortening is a fat, as butter or lard, which is rubbed into the flour to separate the starch grains. When the mixture is cooked, the food is flaky and tender. Kinds of shortening most commonly used are butter, lard, one half butter and one half lard, oleomargarine, olive oil, and various preparations such as Cottolene, Crisco, Wesson’s Snowdrift Oil, and butter substitutes. LEAVENING AGENTS Leavening means to make light and porous. When steam or carbon dioxide is formed inside the mixture, or when air is inclosed, it expands when heated, and as the heat also hardens the gluten, the result is a light and porous loaf. The leavening agents are steam, soda and sour milk (or any acid), baking powder, eggs and air, and yeast. LEAVENING AGENT — STEAM Popovers. — When water is changed to steam, it expands many hundreds of times its volume, and if it can be inclosed in walls of gluten so that the substance expands, and yet remains intact, the food product so made will be very light. If the change from water to steam takes place slowly, the expansion will not be very great, for the steam will come to the surface and escape. If the change takes place very quickly and the steam is produced rapidly, the walls of gluten will be stretched to the utmost and the product will be a hollow shell. Eggs are used also in the product, because the albumin coagulates and holds the flour together, and this helps to form the hollow shell. Very strong heat must be used when the steam is utilized as a leavening agent, and it must be continued long enough so that the product is well dried. Popovers should not be soft and moist in any part. Yorkshire Pudding is another example of the use of steam as a leavening agent. It is not baked as long as popovers, because it should be somewhat soft in the interior. Cream puffs are also made light by expansion of water changing to steam. Milk is used instead of water in popovers, for it is 87 per cent water, and it furnishes flavor and adds to the nutritive value of the food. Recipe for Popovers. — Mix one and one half cups of flour, and one fourth teaspoon of salt. Make a hole in the center of it; add three unbeaten eggs and one and one half cups of milk. Stir until all lumps are out of the flour and the mixture is smooth. Turn into muffin pans and bake from thirty to forty minutes in a hot oven. This recipe makes twelve popovers. Popovers are made light by the water in them turning to steam. The strong heat causes the steam to form rapidly, and this produces a hollow shell. The egg coagulates and helps to form the — shell. LEAVENING AGENTS — Eccs INCLOSING AIR