The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-04-09
THE HOME.
Care in Cooking.

The work of plain cooking may be LAID
down by definite rules that are as GER
tain in their workings as any other
chemical process. Given a certain
amount of flour, water and yeast, a GER
tain temperature of the room, certain
method and length of time in lzneading,
a certain time for rising, an oven OF
proper temperature and the proper time
of baking. and the result is sweet, light
bread. Vary one of these essentials and
the result is leaden loaf, unfit for food.
The Same rule of ingredients thus may
produce vastly different results if the
method of treating them has been differ
emit. The method of kneading bread
seems to some persons very trivial
matter. but the successful baker, who
depends for living on his trade, learns
a method and never dares to vary it,
lest he vary the result. The most sue
cessful worker is one who learns the
best method, not only of mixing his in
gradients, but of raising, kneading and
baking his bread. Some of the best
bakers are so exact that they depend en-
tirelv upon the therm ometer for testing
the heat of their ovens, as well as for
testing the heat of the room in which
the bread rises.
In the simple matter of cup cake: the
results of two different workers. with
different rules, will vary so much that
the cakes will hardly be recognized as
the same. A badly made pound cake is
an infinitely coarser cake than we'll
made cup cake, in spite of the richer
materials used. In nothing does method
and care show SO quickly as in cake. The
careless worker puts her butter and
sugar together in a perfunctory way,
adds the eggs without separating the
yolks and whites, and the result is a
curdled mass. Her cake has been spoiled
before she has finished mixing it, An
other way of spelling cake when the
whites and yolks have been beaten sepa-
rately is to stir in the whites, thus break
ing down all the air cells that have been
formed by beating.
Cake made in this way may be light,
but it will never be as tender and deli
cate as when the whites are folded in
from side to side, uniting them carefully
with the cake batter, but leaving them
intact. Butter and sugar should always
be creamed to light, delicate consis-
tency. After this the yolks of the eggs
shonId be added. They should be beat
en- thoroughly before adding, or. better
still, strained through an ordinary gravy
strainer. The milk and soda. if they
are used, should then be added, after
mixing them together. This mixing of
LIQUID with the creamed butter and sugar
aud volks is delicate process, and some
of the best cake makers dislike to use
liquid in this way, preferring to depend
exclusively upon eggs for moisture.
The danger is curdling the whole mass.
In a pound cake this would be IRENE
dable, but in cup cake, where soda
cream o'tartar are used, it is not SO seri-
Gus matter
To prevent curdling the liquid must be
added slowly to the creamed mixture,
stirred in as it is added. The next pro-
cess is mixing the flour and cream
o'tartar in the cake. The ordinary
method is to sift them at once into the
cake. The better method, and the one
employed by the best cake makers, is to
sift the soda and cream O tartar together
at least twice before sitting them finally
into the cake. The last process is fold
ing in the whites. Where favoring is
used it may be added to the butter,
sugar and yolks of eggs before the milk
is added, or it may be rubbed on the
bottom of the cake after it is baked and
while it is yet wasm.-New York Trib-
une.
Is Night Air Injurious.
Is night air injurious? Since the day