St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-01-20

nothing more disastrous to her efforts.
Rapid baking is the cause Of more fail
ures in cooking than anything else.
4 Bread is hopelessly dried; cake has the
| moisture driven out of it, while sponge
/ cake and meringueS are reduced to the
consistency of leather. A fruit cake
baked at such heat without being
burned becomes reduced to the conSis-
tency Of a chip.
A French writer on cuisine many
years ago pointed out the paper test OF
an oven formerly in vogue among cooks
before oven thermometers were intro
duced. This consists of placing sheet
Of common writing paper in the oven
for ten minutes. If it takes fire the
oven is too hot, and according to the
degree of color attained the five de-
greeS of heat necessary for general
cooking are indicated. Different va
rieties of paper, however, color at diff
ferent degrees of heat; so this test is
not always a perfect one.
1t is good plan for the cook, how
ever, to recognize five different degrees
Of heat. The most intense heat which
4 the oven of an ordinary stove can give
is required by roast meats and game.
1t is a heat that would burn an ordi-
nary sheet of writing paper to char
in few minutes. Il is the intention
of the baker to scar over the surface of
the meat by this strong heat, so that
all the juices are sealed up. In the
after roasting there will be as Ittle
dripping as possible. There will be
some for the theory of scaling up all
the juices can neber be completely car
ried out. After about ten minutes of
this strong heat the hampers are turned
so as to reduce the heat a very little.
The meat is now basted, and the roast
ing finished, the basting being repeat
ed every ten minutes till the meat is
done
Next to meat pastry requires the hot
test oven. The oven should be as hot
as it is possible to get it in an ordinary
stove during the first ten minutes; after
this the draught should be slackened
so as to reduce the heat of the fire, but
the damper over the oven should never
be turned off except when baking
meringue or fruit cake. Intense heat
may always be reduced by setting
pan of cold water on the oven slide.
Pastry should be baked at first on the
bottom in order to insure the browning
of the under crust, and afterward 1t
should be transferred to the slide to
brown. An apple or nnince pie requires
an hour to bake. If it is to be well
Drowned. according to the highest ideal
of A well-baked pie. Pumpkin or GUS
| tard pie will require three-quarterS of
an hour.
The second degree of heat is for soda
or baking powder biscuits and mullins
raised with cream tartar and soda or
! baking powders. These preparations
would burn in the intense first heat Of
a meat or pastry oven. They require,
| however as quick an oven as they can
| bear. and brown n good rich brown by
| the time they are cooked through. IN
short. the more rapidly thew are cooked
without burning the better Wheat
biscuits and mullins ought to be baked
! through with deicately tender brown
crust in fifteen minutes Longer bal5-
ing makes them dry and the crust hard.
! 1t will take from five to ten minutes
! longer to cook mullins of cornmeal, rye
or graham -four. Mullins, biscuit and
| breakfast breads raised with yeast re-
quire baking for about half an hour in
an oven but slightly less intense in
| heat.
! Small wheat rolls raised with heat
| ought to be baked fifteen minutes in an
oven as hot as for soda biscuit. They
are much sweeter and more delicious
when baked thus rapidly, because the
intense heat developes thesugary por-
| lions ofthe wheat.
We have thus far considered rapid
baking A loaf Of bread requires
medium slow oven,' but strong, hot
oven, though not one SO intense as
those already considered. 1t is desir
able that the bread should rise TO its
| full bulk before it begins to brown. 1t
will require about one hour to bake
! loaf of bread Of ordinary size thor
oughly, as it should be baked A very
small, thin loaf of bread may be baked
in three-quarters of an hour.
About the same degree of heat is re-
quired for cake raised with soda and
cream-tartar or baking powder that is
required for bread if the cake contains
butter or shortening. A loaf Of cake of
average sze will require about an hours
baking. 1t should rise in the pan to its
full height before it begins to brown.
What are termed cheap" or water"
! sponge cakes should be baked in sheets
and should be taken out of the oven
while they are still moist. Ten or
/ fifteen minutes are enough for the
layer of a layer cake, and twenty-five
minutes for a sheet two inches thick
If these cakes are baked longer they
will be dry and worthless. 1t is es-
sential to successful cake baking to
remove the cake from the oven just as
soon as it is done, so that it will not
fall. If 1T is cooked longer it loses
moisture and is not so tender and del
icate as it should be.
Pound cakes and other rich cakes
er oven than bread. There is every
danger of Overlooking them if the oven
is too hot; but in a slow oven where
they are allowed to rise slowly they are
much richer from long baking. A
pound cake should remain in the oven
for at least two hours, but should be
rich and moist at the end of that time
1t is somewhat difficult to get the prop
err degree of heat and moisture in the
oven. Pound cake is better when there
is a pan Of water kept beside it while
baking. to keep the heat from becom-
ing dry and hardening the cake before
it is cooked through
The most extreme example Of slow
baking is that required for black fruit
cake raised with eggs alone. This cake
must be baked for four hours vet al
the end of the time be moist. Old-fash-
Toned Indian buildings and creamy rice
buildings which are baked in the oven
for two hours (and in the case of In
dian pudding much longer) require a
pound cake heat
Sponge cake and that white sponge
cake called angels FOOD which con-
tain no butter, must be baked at a
| moderately slow heat, not quite so slow
as fruit cake. These cakes are better
when baked in brick-shaped tins with
straight sides about three inches in
depth. A sponge cake should rise in
the pan before it browns and when it
is thoroughly risen the heat should be
increased a little by opening one of the
top hampers of the stove, and the cake
is then Drowned. On no account should
a sponge cake or angel cake be allowed
to color till it has risen to the top of
he toll