GENERAL METHODS AND RECIPES
Principles of cooking.
Fat melts at a low temperature.
At about 350° F. it begins to smoke.
At a higher temperature, a chemical change takes place, and the fat finally “burns,” as the hydrogen and oxygen pass off.
It is emulsified by mixing with a substance like egg.
1. To whip cream.—Chill the cream, and set it in a bowl of ice water, or chipped ice. If the cream is warm, the beating will churn the cream to butter.
(1) For a fine, close-whipped cream use a Dover egg beater.
(2) For a lighter whipped cream, use a wire beater.
2. To mold butter.—A pair of wooden butter pats is necessary for this. Dip these first into hot water, then into cold. Cut off a square piece of butter, enough for one person, make it flat or round with two knives, and then roll it into shape between the butter pats. Chill, and serve in a dish on ice;
or give one to each person on a butter plate, just at the last moment before serving the meal. Never serve soft butter.
3. To cook bacon.—Bacon has alternate layers of fat and lean, but it is the fat that has chief consideration in the cooking process. The aim is to brown and crisp the fat without burning it and without causing a volume of smoke in the kitchen. Make ready a frying pan, and have at hand a jar for holding fat standing on a plate. Cut the bacon in thin slices with a sharp knife. Heat the pan, and put in the bacon. The fat will begin to “try out” at the melting point. Pour this melted fat into the jar. Turn the pieces of bacon with a fork. If the smoke is rising in volumes the pan is too hot. The novice should not try this experiment for the first time by herself. The fat may even burst into flame if the pan is too hot. When the bacon is sufficiently cooked to become crisp on cooling, it is ready to serve, by itself, with toast, or with eggs.
The making of sauces and gravies.—Many sauces and gravies are made from a fat, mixed with a starchy substance, the two mingled with a liquid. The fat gives flavor and nutriment, the starch is used for thickening, the liquid also gives flavor. You are now familiar with the cooking of fat and starch, and can readily understand that the combination of all these ingredients is not an easy matter. The fat will float upon the top of the liquid unless the right amount of starch or flour is used, and the flour will have a tendency to lump. There are several good methods in use. The method given for your experiment is one of the simplest, because it uses only a few utensils, and gives uniformly good results. It requires no more watchfulness than the other methods.
These sauces and gravies are not foods for little children and invalids.
4. Foundation recipe for sauces.
Proportions.
(1) Thin sauce (for milk toast)
1 tablespoonful of fat, 1 of flour, 1⁄2 pint liquid.
or (2) Medium sauce (for vegetables).
2 tablespoonfuls of fat, 2 of flour, 1⁄2 pint liquid.
or (3) Thicker sauce, also for vegetables, meats, fish, and macaroni.
3 tablespoonfuls of fat, 3 of flour, 1⁄2 pint liquid.
Salt is used to taste.
Method.—Melt the fat in a saucepan. Pour in the flour, all at once, and stir the flour and fat together, until the mass thickens slightly. Pour in all the liquid at once, cold. Set the saucepan where the heat is moderate.
Stir steadily with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens.
5. A white sauce is made with butter, and milk the liquid. Stop the cooking just short of the boiling point.
6. A tomato sauce is made with butter or beef fat, strained tomato juice the liquid. Cook a piece of onion, a sprig of parsley, or a small portion of dried herbs, and a clove with the tomato before straining, if these flavors are liked.
7. A brown sauce or meat gravy may be made in the same way, using beef fat, and (as the liquid) water that has been poured into the pan in which the meat is cooked. When you are familiar with cooking there is an easier way for thickened meat gravies, as follows:
Pour off some of the fat from the meat pan. Set the pan upon the stove and stir in the flour,—about two tablespoonfuls for the ordinary roasting pan. When the flour is thoroughly mixed in, add about a pint of water, cold or warm, and stir again. Pour this mixture through a strainer. With practice you can make an excellent gravy in this way. It requires judgment to proportion the flour and liquid to the material in the pan.
The Sugars
Sugars are of common occurrence in the vegetable world in the fruits and juices of many plants. Pure grape juice may contain as high as 25 per cent of glucose though usually it is not so concentrated. Glucose is also found in considerable amount in sweet corn and onions. It is not so sweet as
cane sugar (sucrose). Fructose is one of the sweetest of sugars, and helps to give honey its great sweetness.
Lactose or milk sugar is found chiefly in milk. It is the least sweet of all the sugars. If there were as much cane sugar in milk, we should soon grow tired of it because it would be too sweet. It is sometimes added to milk to make its fuel value higher, especially in case the milk has been diluted, as in the diet of babies and invalids.
Maltose or malt sugar is formed from starch in germinating seeds.
Sucrose or cane sugar is most commonly manufactured from sugar cane and sugar beets. To a much smaller extent it is made commercially from the sugar maple, sorghum cane, and sugar palm, and it is found in considerable amount in some common fruits and vegetables.
Its manufacture forms a great industry, and its consumption is enormous, some ten million tons coming into commerce annually, and this does not represent the total consumption.
Figure 48 shows the composition of several common sugars. Notice that the granulated sugar is a pure foodstuff, being 100 per cent carbohydrate, while all the others contain traces of protein, ash, and water. Sugar is a fuel food, exclusively, like olive oil and other pure fats.
Fig. 48.—Composition of sugars.
Sugar is a valuable food material, but should not be used in excess; the tendency in the United States is rather toward an excessive use of sugar. It is liable to cause an acid fermentation in digestion, when taken in large amounts, and is sure to irritate the stomach. It should be well diluted by other foods. The amount that may be eaten daily varies for most people from two ounces for young children to four ounces for adults, but many people cannot eat these amounts without more or less irritation of the stomach. It is a common practice to oversweeten cakes and desserts, the sweetness
of the sugar often disguising other agreeable flavors. The liking for sweets should be well under control, for the eating of too much sugar is a habit easy to form, and one which crowds out other valuable foods.
Cane Sugar is sold both brown and white, and is manufactured in powdered, granulated, and solid form, the latter usually cut in cubes or dominoes.
The canes are first crushed, the juices passing from the machine being of a rather dark greenish color. This juice is first clarified and filtered, and then boiled down in order to crystallize the sugar, the liquid sirup forming molasses. In the older methods the sirup was boiled in open pans, and the crystals filtered from the molasses by a slow process. In the modern process the sirup is boiled at a low temperature in vacuum pans, and the sugar is separated from the molasses by a centrifugal machine, built on the same principle as a cream separator. The principles of beet sugar manufacture are essentially the same, with some differences in detail.
The molasses manufactured in the older method is richer in cane sugar and is a better table molasses than the new process molasses, the latter being used chiefly for the manufacture of alcohol. Molasses is either dark or light, the darker having a stronger flavor especially suited to gingerbread and Indian meal pudding. Molasses comes in the bulk, and may be slightly acid; or in cans, in which case no acid fermentation should have taken place. Where canned molasses is used in a batter, it is sometimes necessary to use baking powder instead of soda. “New Orleans” is a light-colored molasses, “Porto Rico” dark.
Brown sugar has not passed through the refining processes necessary to the whitening of the sugar. It is softer than the granulated white, has a decided brownish color and a rich flavor.
In buying sugar it is economy to purchase granulated in large quantities, a fraction of a cent per pound being saved in this way. The cut sugar comes in convenient boxes, which keep the product clean. Powdered sugar may be bought in small quantities, three or five pounds, since it is not used so much in cooking as the granulated.
Candy, homemade and purchased.—Candy, if not eaten between meals, is an allowable form of sugar. The best time for eating it is at the end of a meal, one or two pieces. Even in this case, however, it would be better for the body if the craving for sweet were satisfied by fruit rather than candy.
Candy made at home costs less than high grade commercial candy, even counting in the labor. It is superior to cheap grade candy, which may even contain poisonous coloring matter. It is a pleasure to make it at times, and it is always a pleasing gift at the holiday season.