1. Make a thick batter, using flour, salt, baking powder,
sugar, with milk and egg in equal parts for wetting. Mix
as usual, and bake in greased gem pans.
2. Make a thick batter, using the same dry ingredients
as before, but omitting the egg and using milk alone for
the wetting. Add to the batter melted butter in the pro-
FLOUR MIXTURES AND LEAVENS: BATTERS 149
portion of two tablespoonfuls for every cup of flour used,
stir the mixture well, and bake as before.
3. Make a batter similar to 1, but stir into this for
the last thing melted butter in the same proportion
used in 2. Bake as before.
Compare. Which muffin was the tenderest? Which
the toughest? Which rose the highest? Which rose the
least? What ingredient contributed to the toughening
of the mixture? What ingredient counteracted this
effect? Which of the ingredients helped the mixture to
rise? Which seemed to retard the rising?
Can you estimate what proportion of butter is com-
plemental in its effects to the effect of one egg in an ordi-
nary flour mixture?
Experiments in the Use of Bread Flour and
Pastry Flour
1. Using one of the " strong " bread flours, make one
or two plain muffins, pancakes, or other simple mixture
where there is not too great a variety of ingredients to
obscure the results.
2. Using a fine pastry flour, repeat the mixture made
in 1, being careful to maintain the exact proportions of
wetting, leaven, etc., used in the first case.
Compare. Which flour made the thicker batter? Which
made the finer-grained and tenderer muffin? Which
muffin had the more decided flavor?
3. Using exactly equal quantities of bread flour and
milk, with the usual proportion of salt, make a thin bat-
ter, beat with a Dover beater for 5 m., pour into hot iron
gem pans, and bake as for popovers. This is one of the
standard recipes for wheat puffs.
4. Repeat, using whole-wheat flour.
150 PRINCIPLES OF FOOD PREPARATION
5. Repeat, using pastry flour. Note particularly that
the proportion of flour and liquid in each case is to be
equal, irrespective of the thickness of the batter.
Compare. Which flour made the lighter puffs? Which
the tenderer? Which formed the larger-sized and fewer,
and which the smaller-sized and more numerous holes in
the process of baking? What could be added to the flour
which yielded the poorest results in this experiment to
supply the property it lacks?
Experiments to Aid or Corroborate Inferences
1. Compare flour from spring and winter wheat, i. e.,
bread and pastry flour, as to
Color — whiter or yellower.
Texture — fine and smooth, or slightly gritty.
Cohesion — (by squeezing a handful in the hand and noting whether
it retains shape produced by pressure) .
Weight vs. Volume.
Thickening property.
To test the thickening property, mix a given quantity
(two tablespoonfuls will do) , of each kind of flour with an
equal volume of water in separate small bowls. Note
which kind makes the thicker batter. Add to the thinner
batter sufficient flour to make it equal the other in thick-
ness, adding only a carefully measured one-quarter tea-
spoonful at a time. Determine from your experiment
what proportion of the weaker flour has to be used as
compared with the stronger.
Page 66
Presented as published in 1914. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
1. Make a thick batter, using flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, with milk and egg in equal parts for wetting. Mix as usual, and bake in greased gem pans.
2. Make a thick batter, using the same dry ingredients as before, but omitting the egg and using milk alone for the wetting. Add to the batter melted butter in the pro-
FLOUR MIXTURES AND LEAVENS: BATTERS 149
portion of two tablespoonfuls for every cup of flour used, stir the mixture well, and bake as before.
3. Make a batter similar to 1, but stir into this for the last thing melted butter in the same proportion used in 2. Bake as before.
Compare. Which muffin was the tenderest? Which the toughest? Which rose the highest? Which rose the least? What ingredient contributed to the toughening of the mixture? What ingredient counteracted this effect? Which of the ingredients helped the mixture to rise? Which seemed to retard the rising?
Can you estimate what proportion of butter is complemental in its effects to the effect of one egg in an ordinary flour mixture?
Experiments in the Use of Bread Flour and Pastry Flour
1. Using one of the " strong " bread flours, make one or two plain muffins, pancakes, or other simple mixture where there is not too great a variety of ingredients to obscure the results.
2. Using a fine pastry flour, repeat the mixture made in 1, being careful to maintain the exact proportions of wetting, leaven, etc., used in the first case.
Compare. Which flour made the thicker batter? Which made the finer-grained and tenderer muffin? Which muffin had the more decided flavor?
3. Using exactly equal quantities of bread flour and milk, with the usual proportion of salt, make a thin batter, beat with a Dover beater for 5 m., pour into hot iron gem pans, and bake as for popovers. This is one of the standard recipes for wheat puffs.
4. Repeat, using whole-wheat flour.
5. Repeat, using pastry flour. Note particularly that the proportion of flour and liquid in each case is to be equal, irrespective of the thickness of the batter.
Compare. Which flour made the lighter puffs? Which the tenderer? Which formed the larger-sized and fewer, and which the smaller-sized and more numerous holes in the process of baking? What could be added to the flour which yielded the poorest results in this experiment to supply the property it lacks?
Experiments to Aid or Corroborate Inferences
1. Compare flour from spring and winter wheat, i. e., bread and pastry flour, as to
Color — whiter or yellower.
Texture — fine and smooth, or slightly gritty.
Cohesion — (by squeezing a handful in the hand and noting whether
it retains shape produced by pressure) . Weight vs. Volume. Thickening property.
To test the thickening property, mix a given quantity (two tablespoonfuls will do) , of each kind of flour with an equal volume of water in separate small bowls. Note which kind makes the thicker batter. Add to the thinner batter sufficient flour to make it equal the other in thickness, adding only a carefully measured one-quarter teaspoonful at a time. Determine from your experiment what proportion of the weaker flour has to be used as compared with the stronger.