Principles of food preparation

Method. Put flour, salt, pepper, and butter into a saucepan, and melt the butter over gentle heat until it is soft enough to blend with the flour. The butter should not be heated more than enough to soften it. (See Chapter XIII, page 122.) Add the milk, which may or may not have been previously scalded, about one-third at a time, and let the whole boil for about a minute. Buttered Crumbs Dry out pieces of stale bread in a very slow oven until they are crisp and brittle. Crush them with a rolling pin on a molding board, and sift through a flour sifter. Measure the amount needed, and mix with one-fourth the volume of melted butter. A half-cupful of crumbs should be enough for one baking-dish of potatoes and cheese. Note. Dry, sifted crumbs will keep indefinitely in a glass jar. This is a good way to utilize pieces of stale bread. Baked Potatoes with Cheese Proceed as for Potatoes with Cheese, but use freshly baked potatoes instead of boiled. Compare the two dishes, noting especially: (1) the consistency of the cheese; (2) the flavor of the dish as a whole. Baked Potatoes, Pared and Unpared Choose two potatoes of similar size. Pare one, leave the other unpared, and bake both on the grate of a hot oven until soft. Compare the two. Which potato was cooked the first? Experiments designed to Aid or Corroborate Inferences Analysis of Potato 1. Cut a thin cross-section from a raw potato, and hold it to the light to observe its structure. Make a diagram of what you see. 2. Pare the remainder of the potato, and grate it through cheesecloth into a bowl or beaker. Squeeze out the liquid, and examine the residue in the cloth. 3. Decant or filter the liquid. Examine the precipitate. Test this with iodine. Add to the precipitate four or five times its volume of water and boil the mixture. STUDY OF RICE IN COOKING 11 What was the precipitate? What are its characteristic properties? 4. Filter the hquid from 3 through finely pulverized bone black. (Why?) Add to the clear filtrate one drop of a solution of platinic chloride. In the presence of potassium salts a yellow precipitate will be formed. 5. Apply a piece of red htmus paper to the residue from 2, to the liquid from 4. 6. Wash the residue from 2 as thoroughly as possible by allowing water to run through it on the cheesecloth. What is this substance? Try it on the effect of water, heat, and acid. What are its characteristic properties? The Effect of Potassium Salts on Cheese 1. Melt a small portion of grated cheese, and divide it into two parts, A and B. Add to A a pinch of potassium chloride. Let it stand for a little while, and compare it with B. Relate your inference to the difference observed in the cheese dishes made today. STUDY OF RICE IN COOKING Boiled Rice Wash the rice until when it is rubbed between the hands in clear water no further cloudiness appears. Cook it in abundance of violently boiling water — six quarts to one cup of rice will not be too much. Sprinkle in the rice a little at a time, and cook it for 15-20 m., or longer, according to the age of the rice. Old rice takes a longer time to soften. The boiling should be so violent as to keep the rice agitated and the grains well separated from one another.