The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-02-13
SECRETS OF BAKING.
Rapid Baking Causes Many Failures-Fivs
Different Degrees of Heat Required.

Rapid Baking Causes Many FaiIures-Fivs
Different Degrees of Heat Required.
Rapid baking is the cause of more
failures in cooking than anything else
Bread is hopelessIy dried; cake has the
moisture driven out of it. It is matter
of regret that stove ovens are not regu-
lated in domestic kitchens by the Their
mometer, as they are in large bakeries.
1t is good plan for the amateur cook
to recognize five different degrees of
heat, which are treated as follows in the
New York Tribune:
The most intense heat which the oven
of an ordinary stove can give is required
by roast meats and game. 1t is heat
that would burn an ordinary sheet of
writing paper to a char in few mo-
ments. 1t is the intention 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
little dripping as possible. After about
ten minutes of strong heat the hampers
are turned SO as to reduce the heat a
very little. The meat is now basted,
and the roasting finished, the basting
being repeated every ten minutes till
the meat is done
Next to meat pastry requires the hot
it is possible to get it in an ordinary
stove during the first ten minutes. After
this the draft 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 me-
ringue 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 it should be
transferred to the slide to brown. An
apple or mince pie requires an hour to
bake if it is to be well Drowned accord
ing to the highest ideal of a we'll baked
pie. Pumpkin or custard pie will require
three-q 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 powder. These preparations
would burn in the intense first heat of q
meat or pastry oven. They require, how
ever, as quick an oven as they can bear,
and brown good rich brown by the
time they are cooked through. In short,
the more rapidly they are cooked with
out burning the better. Mullins, biscuit
and breakfast breads raised with yeast
require baking for about half an hour
in an oven but slightly less intense in
heat.
We have thus far considered rapid
baking. A loaf of bread requires me-
dunn hot oven. 1t is desirable that the
bread should rise to its full bulk before it
begins to brown. 1t will require one
hour to bake loaf of bread of ordinary
size thoroughly. About the same degree
of heat is required for cake raised with
soda and cream tartar or baking pow
der that is required for bread if the cake
contains bntter or shortening. A loaf Of
cake of average size will require about
an hours baking. Tt should rise in the
pan to it's full height before it begins
to brown. Ten or fifteen minutes are
enough for the layer of layer cake, and
% minutes for sheet two inches thick.
1t is essential to successful cake baking
to remove the cake from the oven just
as soon as it is done, SO that it will not
fall.
Pound cakes and other rich cakes con-
tanning butter require a much slower
oven than bread. A pound cake should
remain in the oven for at least two
hcars, but should be rich and moist at
tIas end. Pound cake is better when
thtre is a pan of water kept beside it
while baking, to keep the heat from be-
coming dry and hardening the cake be-
fore 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, yet at the
end of the time be moist. Old fashioned
Indian buildings and creamy rice pud
dings which are baked in the oven for
two hours (and in the case of Indian
pudding much longer) require a pound
cake heat. Sponge cake and that white
sponge cake called "angel's food"
which contain no butter, must be baked
at moderately slow heat, not quite SO
slow as fruit cake.