CHAPTER XI
FORM IV: SENOR GRADE (Continued)
COOKERY
The first work in cookery, for this Form, should consist of practice lessons, which will test the ability of the class in cooking the simple animal and vegetable foods. The recipes used for these should be such as to attract the interest of the pupils, and each may be a combination of several food materials. Cream soups, custards, scalloped dishes, and shepherd's pie, would be useful for this purpose.
It is desirable that this test shall be made in as few lessons as possible, because nearly all the time in cookery for this year will be required for the new work, namely, a series of lessons on flour mixtures.
OUTLINE OF LESSON ON FLOUR
Flour is a food substance ground into a powder.
1. Sources of flour:
(1) Certain cereals—wheat, rye, barley, buckwheat, rice
(2) Potatoes.
2. Kinds of flour made from wheat:
(1) Graham flour—the entire wheat seed is ground.
(2) Whole wheat flour—the first outer coat of cellulose with its valuable mineral contents is removed before the seed is ground.
(3) White flour—only the central white part of the seed is ground.
Note.—The pupils should be given specimens of fall wheat to examine, so as to compare the outer coat of cellulose with the central white part of the grain.
3. Composition of white flour:
(1) Starch—a fine, granular, white substance
(2) Gluten—a sticky, yellowish, elastic substance (a protein food).
To find the substances in white flour, each pupil should mix half a cup of bread flour with enough cold water to make a dough. She must then be taught to knead it. This knowledge will be of use later in the bread lessons. After it is thoroughly kneaded until it is smooth and well blended, the dough should be washed in several waters. The first washing water should be poured into a glass and allowed to settle, to show the starch. After all the starch is washed away, the gluten will remain.
The gluten may then be put into a greased pan and baked, to demonstrate that it admits of distention, and also to show that it may be stiffened permanently by heat into any distended shape. The baked gluten should be reserved to be used as a specimen in succeeding lessons.
4. Kinds of wheat flour:
(1) Bread flour—contains much gluten.
(2) Pastry flour—contains little gluten.
Note.—Macaroni is a paste made from wheat flour which contains much gluten.
5. Tests for bread flour:
(1) The colour is a deeper cream than pastry flour, on account of the larger amount of gluten which it contains.
(2) When squeezed, it will not hold the impress of the hand.
(3) When the flour is made into a dough and washed, about one fourth of the original quantity remains as gluten.
OUTLINE OF SERIES OF LESSONS ON FLOUR MIXTURES
LESSON I
1. Meaning of flour mixtures:
A lightened mixture of flour and liquid, with or without other ingredients, is called a flour mixture.
2. Kinds of flour mixtures:
(1) Batters.—(a) Pour batters—pancakes, popovers
(b) Drop batters—cake
(2) Doughs.— (a) Soft dough—cookies, baking-powder biscuits, doughnuts
(b) Stiff dough—pastry.
3. Methods of mixing flour mixtures:
(1) Stirring.—A roundabout movement which simply mixes the ingredients.
(2) Beating.—An upright, circular movement, which incorporates air into the ingredients while being mixed.
(3) Folding.—A slow, careful beating, which blends the ingredients without loss of the air they contain.
(4) Kneading.—A movement of the hands to blend the ingredients and also to incorporate air.
(5) Cutting.—A hacking movement of a knife to mix fat through flour.
4. Framework of flour mixtures:
(1) Gluten
(2) Gluten and egg-white.
To show the framework, the gluten baked in the flour lessons should be used. It should be pointed out as the skeleton of the mixture which upholds the entire structure and on which the other ingredients depend. To have light mixtures, this framework must admit of being expanded and also of being stiffened permanently into the stretched shape. Since egg-white has both of these necessary qualities, it may be used for a framework either alone or in combination with gluten.
It should also be observed that a mixture of ingredients light in weight does not prevent the framework from rising as much as heavy ones do.
The pupils will see that the framework of a mixture must increase in size in order to make the mixture light, but it must be made very clear that, while heat stiffens any framework, it will not distend it. Some other agency is required for this.
5. Lightening agents used in flour mixtures:
(1) Air.—Incorporated by beating, kneading, and sifting.
(2) Steam.—Incorporated in the form of a liquid which, when heated, changes to steam.
(3) Carbonic acid gas.—Formed in the mixture by the chemical union of soda with some acid. Examples: soda and sour milk; soda, cream of tartar and water; soda and molasses.
The lightening agents, air and steam, may be taught from the samples of baked gluten. Experiments will show how to produce the carbonic acid gas.
Experiments:
1. Put into a thick glass 1/8 tsp. of soda and 1/4 tsp. of cream of tartar. Mix, and note the result. Stir in 1/8 cup of cold water, and note the result.
2. In No. 1, use hot water in place of cold, and note the result.
3. Put 1/4 cup of sour milk in a glass. Stir into the milk 1/4 tsp. of soda, and note the result.
4. Put 1 tbsp. of molasses in a glass. Stir into the molasses a pinch of soda, and note the result.
Baking-powder:
It may now be explained that, for the sake of convenience, soda and cream of tartar may be obtained already mixed, in accurate proportions of two parts of acid to one of the soda. This mixture is known as baking-powder. As very little moisture is necessary to start the action of the powder, a little cornstarch is added to it to keep it dry. For the same reason, it should always be kept tightly covered.
Soda is made from common salt and is cheap, but the source of cream of tartar makes it expensive, so that good baking-powder cannot be low priced. If such be advertised, it is usually adulterated.
As soon as the foregoing principles of flour mixtures are understood, they should be put into practice. The lessons on cake, bread, and pastry should follow in the order named, with as much practical work in connection with each as the time will allow.
CAKE MAKING
LESSONS II AND III
1. Classes of cake:
(1) Cakes without butter.—These mixtures contain no heavy ingredients and have little weight depending on the framework. They are lightened by air and steam only. Examples: sponge cake, angel cake.
(2) Cakes with butter.—These are mixtures having ingredients of greater weight; and the three lightening agents—air, steam, and carbonic acid gas are used to raise them. Examples: pound cake, chocolate cake, nut cake, etc.
Note.—Practice should be given in making at least one of each kind of cake, to demonstrate the method of mixing employed.
2. General directions for making cake:
(1) Attend to the fire, so as to have the oven at a proper heat.
(2) Grease the pans thoroughly; greased paper may be used to line the bottom of the tin, but, in the case of fruit cake, the whole tin should be lined.
(3) Have everything ready, so that the mixing may be quickly done.
(4) Use pastry flour.
(5) Use fine granulated sugar to ensure its being dissolved.
(6) Blend the ingredients thoroughly, and at the same time incorporate as large an amount of air as possible.
(7) Fill the pan about two-thirds full, pushing the mixture well to the corners and sides, so as to leave a depression in the centre.
(8) Attend carefully to the baking.
3. General rules for mixing cake:
(1) Cake without butter—
(a) Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs.
(b) Beat the yolks until thick and lemon-coloured.
(c) Add sugar to the yolks gradually and continue beating; add the flavouring.
(d) Beat the whites until stiff and dry, then fold them into the first mixture.
(e) Gradually sift and fold in the flour until well mixed.
(2) Cake with butter—
(a) Cream the butter by working it with a wooden spoon.
(b) Add the sugar gradually by stirring it in.
(c) Beat the eggs until light, and add to the first mixture. (The eggs may be separated and the whites added later.)
(d) Add the liquid and beat until the sugar is thoroughly dissolved.
(e) Mix the flour and baking-powder in a sifter and gradually sift and beat it into the mixture until it is thoroughly blended.
(Liquid and flour may be added alternately.)
(f) Fold in the stiffly beaten whites, if the eggs have been separated.
(g) If fruit, peel, nuts, etc., are used, they should be floured out of the quantity allowed for the cake and added last.
4. General directions for baking cake:
(1) Small, thin cakes should be baked in a hot oven.
Examples: cookies, layer cake.
(2) All loaf cakes require a moderate oven.
(3) In baking cakes, divide the time stated in the recipe into quarters as follows:
First quarter—mixture should begin to rise.
Second quarter—mixture should continue rising.
Third quarter—mixture should begin to brown and to stiffen into shape.
Fourth quarter—mixture should finish browning and stiffening and shrink slightly from the sides of the pan.
(4) Mixture is cooked when a slight pressure leaves no dent, or when a small skewer or fine knitting-needle put into the centre comes out clean and dry.
To the inexperienced minds of the girls in the Fourth Form, to whom the study of flour mixtures is new, the number and variety of these seems very large. All cook books give an almost endless collection of recipes for cakes, cookies, muffins, etc., and to the pupils each of these seems an entirely new mixture. In reality, many of them are but slight variations of the same type. A certain mixture of materials is used for a foundation, and numerous varieties are made from this by addition, subtraction, or substitution of ingredients. The original mixture is called a basic recipe. Instead of teaching isolated mixtures, it will be found an excellent idea to give the class the basic ingredients for a recipe and encourage them to suggest variations, either original or from memory.
Typical basic recipes for cake and biscuits are given below:
BASIC RECIPE FOR CAKE
| 1/4 cup butter | 1 1/2 cup flour |
| 3/4 cup sugar | 1/4 tsp. salt |
| 2 eggs | 2 tsp. baking-powder |
| 1/2 cup milk | 1/2 tsp. vanilla. |
VARIATIONS OF BASIC RECIPE FOR CAKE
1. Spice cake:
To the basic recipe add 1 tbsp. of spice. Sift in the spice with the flour.
2. Nut cake:
Add 1/2 cup of chopped nuts. Increase the baking-powder by one third. Put a little of the flour on the nuts and beat them in at the last.
3. Fruit cake:
Add 3/4 cup of currants, raisins, figs, or dates, or a mixture of all. Increase the baking-powder by one third. Flour the fruit and add it last.
4. Chocolate cake:
Add 1/2 cup grated chocolate. Increase the milk by 2 tbsp. Heat the chocolate in the milk just enough to dissolve it. Cool the mixture and use in place of milk.
BASIC RECIPE FOR BISCUITS, ETC.
| 2 cups flour |
| 1/2 tsp. salt |
| 4 tsp. baking-powder |
| 2 tbsp. fat (butter, lard, or dripping) |
| About 2/3 cup milk. |
VARIATIONS OF BASIC RECIPE FOR BISCUITS
1. Sweet biscuit:
Add 2 tbsp. of sugar after the fat is added.
2. Fruit biscuit:
Add 2 tbsp. of sugar and 1/2 cup of fruit, (currants, raisins, peel, or a mixture of all) after the fat is added.
3. Scones:
Add 2 tbsp. of sugar, and use one egg and only 1/2 cup of milk. Beat the egg until light, add to milk, and use this for liquid. Form into round cakes about eight inches in diameter, and cut into quarters.
4. Fruit scones:
Add 1/2 cup of fruit to the scone recipe.
5. Short cake for fruit:
Same as scones, but double the amount of fat.
6. Dumplings for stews:
Use the basic recipe, leaving out the fat.
7. Steamed fruit pudding:
Use the basic recipe to make the dough that incases the fruit.
BREAD MAKING
In beginning the bread lessons, it will be found that there are no new principles to teach. It will, however, be necessary to explain the new means of producing gas which is used in this particular mixture, namely, yeast.
From their lessons on the "Preservation of Food" and "Canning", the pupils are already acquainted with one class of microscopic plants. The little plants, in that case, were a source of great inconvenience to the housekeeper. Yeast may be introduced as another family of one-celled plants, but one which is most useful. Under good conditions these tiny plants will produce a large amount of carbon dioxide gas, provided they are given sufficient time. If, however, the gas be required quickly, soda and acid must be used. For this reason, plain flour mixtures, in which the carbon dioxide is quickly made, are called quick breads, to distinguish them from breads in which yeast is used. Examples of these are baking-powder biscuits, gems, corn-bread, etc.
The use of yeast is the simplest and cheapest way of obtaining carbonic acid gas, and mixtures so made remain moist longer than those in which baking-powder is used.
Throughout the introductory lesson, this fact must be kept prominently before the class, that yeast is a plant and, as such, requires plant conditions. The necessary conditions will be known from the lesson on "Bacteria", so that they have only to be reviewed. The pupils may be told that although they cannot see the plants, they can very plainly see the bubbles of gas which the plants give off when the latter are made active under favourable conditions.
LESSON I
OUTLINE OF LESSONS ON YEAST
1. Description of yeast:
Yeast is a one-celled plant which can be seen only with a microscope. Under good conditions it becomes very active and multiplies rapidly by a process called budding. It is used by the housekeeper for the carbonic acid gas it gives off.
Yeast plants magnified
2. Conditions necessary for the activity of yeast:
(1) Oxygen
(2) Water
(3) Food.—This must be sugar, or starch which it will change into sugar. Potato starch is more easily used by yeast than flour starch. It uses also some nitrogenous food and mineral matter.
(4) Heat.—The yeast plant thrives in a heat of about the same temperature as our bodies. A little extra heat will only make it grow faster; but excessive heat will kill it.
Freezing will not kill the plant, though cold makes yeast inactive.
3. Sources of yeast:
Yeast was first found as wild yeast in the air, but now it may be obtained at grocery stores, in three forms:
(1) Liquid yeast.—The plants are put into a starchy liquid. This will keep only a few days, as the starch sours.
(2) Dry yeast.—The plants are put into a starchy paste and the mixture is dried. This form will keep for months, because it is perfectly dry but, for the same reason, it takes the plants a long time to become active when used.
(3) Compressed yeast.—The plants are put into cakes of a starchy mixture and left moist. They will keep only a few days. Good compressed yeast is a pale fawn colour, smells sweet, breaks clean, and crumbles easily.
4. Experiments with yeast:
Make a yeast garden by using the plants obtained at the grocery store as follows:
Take half a cup of lukewarm water to give the plants moisture, a teaspoonful of sugar for immediate food, and the same of wheat starch (flour) for a reserve food. Beat the mixture to infold oxygen, and then put in one-quarter cake of yeast plants.
Divide the mixture among a number of test-tubes, so that each group of four pupils has three.
(1) Place one test-tube in warm water and heat to boiling.
(2) Place one test-tube in water which feels warm to the hand.
(3) Place one test-tube in cracked ice and freeze the mixture. Afterwards thaw, and place the same test-tube in lukewarm water.
Observe the results, and compare the amount of gas formed under the different conditions.
LESSON II
PRACTICAL BREAD-MAKING
Ingredients of plain bread:
1. Liquid.—(1) It wets the mixture and causes the ingredients to adhere.
(2) It furnishes steam for a lightening gent.
(3) It allows the gluten to become sticky and elastic.
(4) It furnishes moisture for yeast plants.
2. Yeast.—It gives off carbonic acid gas, which lightens the mixture.
3. Salt.—(1) It gives a flavour.
(2) It retards the growth of the yeast plant.
4. Flour.—(1) It thickens the mixture.
(2) It supplies food for the yeast plant.
(3) It supplies gluten for a framework for the mixture.
Amount of ingredients for one small loaf:
Liquid—1 cup or 1/2 pt.
Salt—1/2 tsp.
Flour—About three times the amount of liquid
Yeast—Amount depends on the time given the bread to rise, as follows:
| 12 hr. to rise | 5 hr. to rise | 3 hr. to rise |
| 1/4 yeast cake | 1/2 yeast cake | 1 yeast cake |
Note.—One cake of compressed yeast contains about the same number of yeast plants as one cake of dry yeast or one cup of liquid yeast.
Process in making bread:
(1) Mixing (stirring, beating, and kneading).—
(a) This mixes the ingredients.
(b) It incorporates air to aid the yeast plant and to act as a lightening agent.
(c) It makes the gluten elastic.
(2) First rising.—This allows the yeast plants conditions and time to produce carbonic acid gas, until the dough is distended to twice its original size.
(3) Moulding.—(a) This distributes the gas evenly throughout the loaf.
(b) It shapes the loaf.
(4) Second rising.—This again allows the yeast plants time to produce gas which will distend the dough to twice its size.
(5) Baking.—(a) The heat of the oven expands the air and gas in the dough, which causes the gluten framework to distend.
(b) The water changes to steam, which becomes another agent in distending the gluten.
(c) The starch on the outside of the loaf becomes brown in the dry heat of the oven, while the inside starch is made soluble in the moist heat of the mixture.
(d) The gluten stiffens into the distended shape.
(e) The yeast plants are killed.
In this lesson, after deciding on the necessary ingredients, the pupils may be told the amount of each to use for their class work. They should then measure and mix these ingredients and set the dough away for the first rising. While the bread is rising, the kitchen may be put in order and the other steps of the process reasoned out and written.
Other school work must be taken then, until the dough has fully risen, when the process may be completed. After each stage of the process has been carried out, the notes on it may be written.
With the foregoing principles of bread-making in mind, the class should be able to make any bread mixture. Each pupil should have entire responsibility for the process of making one small loaf of plain bread. About half a cup of liquid, mixed with the other necessary ingredients, makes a good-sized loaf for practice. Smaller loaves than this give little chance for manipulation.
In Household Management centres, where the pupils come from other schools for the lesson period only, the process will have to be divided into two lessons. The first lesson may include the first two stages—mixing and first rising—each pupil using small quantities, say for one eighth of a loaf of the ordinary size. At the end of the lesson, they may carry their dough home for completion, or it may be used by another class which is ready for the later steps of the process.
The second lesson will include the last three steps—moulding, second rising, and baking—and it will be necessary for the teacher to have dough prepared for the moulding stage when the class arrives.
LESSON III
FANCY BREADS
These mixtures are but variations of plain bread. The extra ingredients, such as milk, eggs, butter, spices, sugar, currants, raisins, peel, etc., are added at the most convenient stage of the process.
Note.—If there is not time to have one fancy bread, such as Parker House rolls or currant bread, made in school, recipes for these may be discussed in class and the work done at home.
THE BREAD-MIXER
1. This utensil mixes and beats the bread by means of a large beater turned with a handle, thus avoiding the use of the hands for this purpose.
2. It does this work with less energy and in a much shorter time than if the hands were used.
3. It can be used only for the first two steps of bread-making, namely, mixing and first rising.
4. The ingredients must all be put in at once; hence, they must be accurately measured.
5. The amount of ingredients may be learned by calculation from previous bread-making done in the old way, or by using the book of recipes accompanying each mixer.
Note.—There are several good kinds of bread-mixers which may be bought in three sizes. Small size makes 1 to 2 loaves and costs $1.35 (about). Medium size makes 2 to 6 loaves and costs $2.00 (about). Large size makes 4 to 10 loaves and costs $2.50 (about).
PASTRY
Pastry is one of the simplest flour mixtures, and one that has the lowest food value. The intimate blending of butter or lard with the flour envelopes the starch grains with fat, and makes the mixture difficult to digest. The same thing occurs in frying food and in buttering hot toast; so the idea is not a new one to the class.
In introducing the lesson on pastry, this principle of digestion should be reviewed, and it should be made plain that delicate pudding and seasonable fruits are a much better form of dessert.
There are no new principles to teach, but some old ones to impress. The object of the housekeeper should be to make a mixture that is light and one that will fall to pieces easily. To ensure the latter, anything that would toughen the gluten must be avoided.
From the bread lesson, the pupils have learned that working the water into the gluten or much handling of flour after it is wet, makes a mixture firm and tough. In pastry there must be enough gluten to stick the ingredients together, but its elastic quality is undesirable. For the latter reason also, a small amount of water is used.
In the cake mixtures, it was found that the use of fat in the "butter cakes" made the framework tender and easily broken, so in pastry the same means may be employed. Fat of some kind is mixed with the flour to act on the gluten and destroy its toughness.
Air and steam are the only lightening agents commonly used in pastry. Since cold air occupies less room than warm air and admits of more expansion, it is desirable that the mixture be kept very cold. The low temperature also prevents the fat melting; hence, the necessity for the use of cold utensils and materials throughout the process.
OUTLINE OF LESSON ON PASTRY
1. Ingredients:
(1) Flour, (2) salt, (3) fat, (4) water.
2. Notes on flour:
(1) Use only pastry flour, which will have a small amount of gluten.
(2) After the flour is wet, handle the mixture as little as possible, to avoid working the water into the gluten and making it tough.
3. Notes on fat:
(1) Fat is used to destroy the elasticity of the gluten, so that it will not be tough when cooked.
(2) Butter, lard, or dripping may be used.
(3) Lard makes more tender pastry than butter.
(4) Butter gives the best flavour.
(5) Half butter and half lard makes a good mixture.
(6) Layers of fat may be put in between layers of pastry, to separate it into flakes.
(7) If two fats are used, the softer is cut into the flour, and the harder one laid on the paste and folded in.
4. Notes on water:
(1) Use the water as cold as possible.
(2) Use the least amount of water necessary to make the ingredients adhere.
5. Lightening agents used in pastry:
(1) Air.—(a) This should be as cold as possible.
(b) The air may he folded in, between layers of pastry.
(2) Steam.
6. Kinds of pastry:
(1) Plain pastry.—In this, one quarter to one third as much fat as flour is used, and it is all "cut in".
(2) Flaky pastry.—In this, the same amount of fat is used as in plain pastry, but half of it is "laid on" and folded in.
(3) Puff pastry.—In this, one half as much fat as flour, up to equal parts of each is used; one quarter of the fat is cut in, and the remainder is laid on and folded in.
7. Amount of ingredients for plain pastry for one pie:
1-1/2 cup pastry flour; 1/4 tsp. salt; 1/2 cup fat (lard and butter); ice water.