  FOOD PREPARATION, THE PRINCIPLES AND TECHNIQUE The principles of cooking.—In science the word “principle” ordinarily means a formulation of some general or constant mode of behavior—a generalization based on many observations of fact. In cookery the word is used in the same sense; for example, one may say that an important principle to bear in mind when cooking with any fat is that the fats may be melted without decomposition, but when too strongly heated they begin to decompose with the production of acrid and irritating products. Sometimes, however, we speak of “principles of cookery” in a broader and somewhat less exact sense to indicate the general purposes of cooking operations, as when we say that the most important principle of vegetable cookery is to soften the fiber without destroying the flavor or dissolving away the ash constituents of the vegetable. That is, the change either chemical or physical that takes place in a certain foodstuff by the application of heat or cold or by the use of a fermentation process may be referred to as the underlying, working principle. We shall study in detail these changes as we experiment with and prepare each food material, but a general statement of the effect of heat on various foodstuffs will be helpful here. Protein.—There are several forms of protein, with differences that we can understand only after a thorough study of chemistry. The most important proteins in meat, fish, Fats.—Solid fats are liquefied by heat, and freed from the tissue that contains them in animal fats like suet. When a fat begins to smoke with heat, a chemical change is taking place. If intense heat is continued, all the hydrogen and oxygen are driven off and pure carbon remains. When the fat is “brown,” giving the flavor we like, a part of the oxygen and hydrogen have been driven off. The “boiling” of fat in a kettle is ordinarily due to the boiling of the water contained in the fat. Starch.—Starch occurs in the form of granules. See Fig. 39. In boiling water, the granule expands and finally bursts, and frees the content, the pure starch, and the whole mass thickens. Boiled with an acid the starch is changed to dextrin, a substance resembling a gum, and the mixture becomes thin; and this process continued changes the dextrin to dextrose. With intense “dry” heat, as in toasting, the granule expands and opens, and the contents change to dextrin. Continued heat reduces the starch to pure carbon. The brown color and pleasant flavor in toast are a stage on the road to carbon. Sugar.—Sugar first melts with heat, then begins to decompose, giving off water. This is also a stage on the road to pure carbon. Caramel, a familiar flavor, is sugar in the brown stage, with the water partly driven off. The art in applying intense heat to fat, starch, and sugar is to know the stopping point,—to reach the “brown taste” and stop short of the “burnt taste.” Mineral matter.—The “ash” remains for the most part unchanged by heat, but may be lost in the water in which vegetables and meat are cooked if the water is thrown away. Vegetable fiber is softened by heat and moisture, and the protein, starch, fat, and sugar are freed, making them available for our digestion and nutrition. Meat fiber softens at a low temperature, that is, below the boiling point of water, with moisture; continued intense heat shrinks and hardens it. A tender steak fried with fat in a hot pan will soon resemble sole leather. The technique of food preparation.—From the moment the food materials enter the kitchen until the unusable portions are destroyed or carried away, there is a best way of working with them at each step, and the sum of these may be said to make a good technique. This technique will include cleanliness first and foremost, then skill in the use of tools, judgment in managing cooking apparatus and in applying heat in cooking processes, and accuracy and rapidity of execution. It will also include or add to itself the Æsthetic element, the fine art of flavoring, the dainty garnishing of a dish. Moreover, this technique is the method of putting into practice some basic, scientific principle. To illustrate: The principle that underlies toast-making is threefold,— Heat evaporates moisture throughout the slice of bread. Intense heat changes the content of the starch granules on the surface of the slice of bread to dextrin. Intense heat, long continued, will change first the surface starch, and then all, to carbon (charcoal). A good technique will secure the first two, and avoid the third and includes,— The selection of bread already partially dry. The cutting of bread into slices of uniform thickness. Regulating the source of heat. Placing the slices firmly in a toaster, or on a fork, or evenly on a rack when toasting by gas. Keeping the toast at a distance from the source of heat that insures a steady but not too rapid change. Turning the toaster or the slices to cook each surface in turn and thus to make the process slower. Stopping the process before carbon is formed and the toast “burned.” (A good technique does not include scraping the toast!) The Æsthetic element in toast-making might be a pretty shape of the slices, say triangular pieces, and a dainty arrangement. In this case and in others it is true that the result of a good technique is Æsthetic, in that correct manipulation while securing the desired chemical change also develops the pleasing golden brown that makes the toast so attractive. The care of food materials.—When food materials are delivered, have receptacles ready for each kind of food. (See kitchen furnishing.) Attend first to perishable foods. Wash and dry milk and cream bottles before putting them in the refrigerator. Treat eggs in the same way. This is also a good plan with lemons and other skin fruit, unless the quantity is too large, in which case they should not be put into the refrigerator. Remove wrappings from meat, poultry, and fish; wipe them with a soft cloth, dipped in salt and water, dry them, and place them in the ice box. Wash the cloth thoroughly and dry it. Fish should be covered that its odor may not affect other food. Vegetables like lettuce, celery, and spinach should be washed and picked over immediately, and the poor portions thrown away. All semi-perishable foods should be put in a cool, dry place, and the non-perishables in their separate receptacles. (See page 20.) Do not keep anything in brown paper bags, but save these bags for other uses. Have a regular time for inspecting and for cleaning all the places and receptacles where food is kept. Do not allow any spilled food material to remain anywhere, and do not tolerate The processes of food preparation.—With kitchen in order, tools ready, and food materials at hand, we are ready for the actual food preparation. A distinction is to be made between cookery and cooking. Cookery includes all the steps necessary to produce the finished product, while cooking is the actual application of heat, only one step of the whole process, though, indeed, one of the most important and difficult. The order of procedure in food preparation is as follows: See first that the stove is ready (Chapter IV). Then comes the choice and study of the recipe or the method of cooking. The word “recipe” is from a Latin word meaning “take.” Follow this advice and “take” or bring together on the work table whatever materials are needed. Decide upon the necessary utensils, and place them conveniently near. As you gather the materials together you will measure and weigh the exact amounts. Do this before you begin the putting together or mixing. Sometimes instead of mixing, the necessary process is paring, or scraping, or cutting, each with its own best way. Then follows the application of heat. Some foods are then served at once, others must be carefully put away after cooling. Or again, there is no application of heat, for instance, when the freezing temperature is used in ice cream; or in a salad, or fruit preparation where cooling in the refrigerator is the next step. The technique of preparing a meal and serving will be found in Chapter XVI. How to study a recipe.—Remember that a recipe is a bit of experience handed down for us to make useful. Some one experimented at some time long ago, perhaps failed at first, tried again, finally succeeded, and passed on the result by word of mouth to others. There were doubtless good At first in using a recipe follow its directions exactly. Notice the proportions, and read carefully the directions for combining the ingredients, noting those points that are most important. Have the whole process well in mind before you begin work. Do not let it be necessary to refer to the printed page at every move you make. This is poor technique. When the use of a recipe is preceded by some simple experiment that makes the basic principle clear, it is much easier to use the recipe with intelligence. When you are no longer a novice you may take liberties with a recipe, even a new one, scanning it with a critical eye, and perhaps giving it a cool welcome. It may not be new at all! For this is the secret of recipes,—there are really only a few, and the key to their use is the recognition of the old in the new garb, and the having of a few type recipes clearly in mind. Each kind of prepared dish has one, or two, or three basic forms or mixtures. Learn these, and then with experience you will become inventive, and make your own variations. For example, there are but two kinds of cake,—those made with butter (or other fat) and those without butter (the sponge cake). You will not attempt to memorize many recipes, but you will find that in studying these type recipes you have learned a few proportions so well that you cannot forget them. When you have reached this stage of freedom you will still do exact work, but your ingenuity and taste will have free play and you will not be Make some plan for recording new recipes that you test and find good. It may be a printed recipe, or one that a friend gives you. The most convenient plan is a recipe box or card file. The guide cards are arranged alphabetically, and each recipe is either pasted upon a card or written upon it. This plan makes it easy to discard an old recipe, or one that has proved unsatisfactory, and to keep new recipes in alphabetical order, which cannot be done in a book. A loose-leaf book is made for recipes, alphabetized at the side, with envelopes for holding cuttings that may be fastened in between the pages. This is a little less easy to use than the card file. Weighing and measuring.—The system is “Avoirdupois,” sixteen ounces to the pound. Learn to read the scales exactly, and when weighing, always allow for the weight of the utensil or paper holding the food. Weighing is more accurate than measuring, but it is slower, and the measuring can be made sufficiently accurate for most daily work. Weighing is necessary in the cookery of large pieces of meat and with poultry in order to estimate correctly the time for cooking; and it is more convenient to weigh than measure when preserving fruit if the quantities are large. Also in studying food values it is usually necessary to weigh the articles of food. The measures in common use are the saltspoon, teaspoon, and tablespoon, the half-pint measuring cup, the pint, quart, and gallon of liquid measure. The saltspoon is not accurate, and it is better to use some fraction of a teaspoonful. Teaspoons and tablespoons of a standard volume may be found at some furnishing shops. The spoons in common use vary in size, and the only way to approximate accuracy is to use the level spoonful. It is necessary to know the relation of these different weights and measures to each other. While you may find tables of relative weight and measures in many cookbooks, it is much better for you to work out a few of the most useful for yourself, making careful record in your notebooks. The following abbreviations are short cuts in reading and writing.
If you wish something quicker even than this for notebook work, you can use,
Experiments in weighing and measuring. Answer these questions by performing the experiments. Record in notebook in orderly form. Apparatus. Standard scales, a quart measure, and for each pupil a measuring cup, table knife, teaspoon, and tablespoon. Materials. Those mentioned below. 1. How many eggs (medium size) to 1 lb.? 2. What is the weight of one egg? 3. Of one pint of flour? 4. Of one cup of flour? 5. Of one cup of granulated sugar? 6. Of one cup of powdered sugar? 7. Of one pint of milk? 8. Average the weight of six potatoes. 9. How many level teaspoonfuls of flour to a level tablespoonful? 10. How many teaspoonfuls of water to a tablespoonful? 11. How many tablespoonfuls of flour to a cup? 12. How many tablespoonfuls of water to a cup? (These relative measures are convenient for dividing recipes.) 13. Measure a level tablespoonful of flour, by filling the spoon, holding it level, and leveling the flour by running the back of the knife quickly from the base of the bowl of the spoon to the tip. How can you most accurately divide this in halves? In quarters? 14. How much does a cup of flaked cereal weigh? 15. How much does a cup of granular cereal weigh? 16. Butter is hard to measure in a cup. If a recipe calls for 1/4 cup butter, it is easier to measure it by tablespoonfuls. Find out how many make 1/4 cup. 17. How much does a cup of butter weigh? If you know this, you can weigh it, instead of measuring, or if your butter is in pound “pats,” you will be able to cut off a cupful, instead of weighing it. 18. An old-fashioned recipe for sponge cake reads thus: Take the weight of the eggs in sugar and half their weight in flour. Translate this into measures. Preparing and mixing.—Food materials that are not to be mixed with others still need special preparation before heat is applied. For fruits and vegetables, washing is the first stage, followed by scraping, paring, peeling, cutting, or slicing. Meats, poultry, and Cooked meats and fish and vegetables may be chopped or sliced. Cooked vegetables are also mashed and beaten. Cream is whipped or beaten, and eggs served raw likewise. These seem simple processes, but each one needs a good tool and a knack in the muscles. Each method will be taken up in detail, with each food material. Methods of mixing are important, where several ingredients are combined. We seek for a way that will give the most complete mingling of all the substances with smoothness and lightness, at the same time saving time and strength. We must look always for the “short cut.” It is necessary to have the texture of the food such that it can be well masticated and mixed with the digestive fluids, but time is too precious to spend hours on a dessert, or in beating biscuits. Sifting, or putting materials through a fine mesh, is used to lighten flour that has been packed down, to remove coarse portions, or to mix thoroughly several dry ingredients. Stirring is done with a spoon, and is a round and round motion, used for mixing a liquid and a dry ingredient. Rubbing is used for combining a dry ingredient with a semi-solid substance like butter. Creaming is a term used for the rubbing of butter until it becomes soft and creamy. A spoon should be used, not the hand. “Cutting in” with a knife is used for combining butter with flour in biscuit and pastry where the butter should not be softened. Beating with a spoon, or beater of the spoon type, is a free over and over motion, the spoon being lifted from the mixture for the backward stroke. This is used for increasing the smoothness of the mixture after the first stirring, and for beating in air. It needs a strong free motion of the forearm. Beating is also accomplished by the rotary motion of a mechanical beater like the Dover. Cutting and folding is the delicate process of mixing lightly beaten egg with a liquid or semi-liquid without losing out the air. The Kneading is a motion used with dough, and is a combination of a rocking and pressing motion, accomplished by the hands. A good result can be obtained by some bread machines, and this is the cleaner method. Rolling out is just what the term denotes, a rolling of a thick piece of dough by means of a cylindrical wooden “pin” to the thickness proper for cookies and crusts. Dry bread is also rolled to break it into fine crumbs. Pounding and grinding are usually accomplished for us now in factories in breaking of spices and coffee. It is better to have a coffee mill at home. The order of mixing is important in its effect in batters and doughs and is discussed in that chapter. Cooking processes.—For the beginnings of cooking we should need to go back to the days when game was roasted by the open fire, built for warmth, or corn parched on hot stones. Perhaps some root was cooked in the hot ashes. This primitive method of roasting we still use in camp fires, and in modified form wherever food is directly exposed to the heat of coal or gas. Water could not be a cooking medium until man advanced at least to the first stage of pottery making, when some rude basket daubed with clay was water-tight and sufficiently heat proof. Application of heat is the most difficult stage of the whole process of cookery. It is so easy to have the heat too intense, or too low, to expose the food for too long or too short a time to its action. Most of our apparatus fails to give us a uniform heat, the tendency being to an increase or decrease of temperature. Since the boiling temperature of water remains at 212° F., boiling is an easy process to manage, provided the water does not boil out. The presence of water insures a low or moderate temperature always. It requires patience and time to learn how to bring this Look upon the application of heat as a continuation of nature’s slow ripening process, a softening of tough fibers and a development of pleasing flavors. For why do we cook at all except for these reasons? Primitive man thought only that the food had a better taste. He may have decided, too, that it was easier to masticate; but we have learned that in some cases we may, with right methods of cooking, make it easier to digest farther on in the alimentary canal. Modern science carries us a step farther and teaches us that cooking destroys lower organisms, such as harmful bacteria that may be present, and even animal parasites in meats. We cook, therefore, to improve the appearance of food, to develop flavors, to render some foodstuffs more digestible and to destroy microÖrganisms. We have at our command the following processes: Heat direct from coal, charcoal, wood, or gas. Toasting.—Surfaces of food exposed and turned for browning. Broiling.—Thin portions of meat or fish exposed and turned for searing, browning, and short cooking of the interior. Roasting.—Thicker cuts of meat exposed and turned frequently for searing, browning, and gradual cooking of the interior. This is an ancient method. It survives in the French “RÔtisserie”; and we use it in the modern gas stove when we cook directly under the gas. Heat through an intervening medium. Water, the medium. Boiling.—Cooking in boiling water, temperature, 212° F., or 100° C. Simmering, stewing, or “coddling.”—Cooking in water below the boiling temperature, 180° F. up to 210° F. Steaming.—Cooking in a receptacle into which steam penetrates, 212° F.—or in a closed receptacle surrounded by steam or boiling water as in a double boiler, or a “steamer,” temperature from 200° F. to 210° F. Fat, the medium. Deep fat frying, temperature 350°-400° F. Heated surfaces, the medium. Pan broiling.—Cooking of chops or steaks in a heated pan, without additional fat. SautÉ.—To cook in a heated pan with a small amount of fat, enough merely to prevent the food from sticking to the pan and to hasten the browning process. “Baking” cakes on a griddle is a modification of this method. Baking.—Cooking in a heated oven, temperature from 300° F. to 450° F., or higher for rapid browning. Meat and poultry cooked in an oven are baked and not roasted, although we use the word “roast” for this method. Braising.—Cooking meat in a heated oven in a closed vessel, with a supply of water to keep down the temperature. This might be called an “oven stew.” These methods are sometimes combined in one process. In a brown stew, the meat is first cooked in a pan with a little fat to brown it, and to sear the outside for retaining the juices, before the actual stewing begins. A “pot-roast,” is an old-fashioned method of cooking a solid piece of meat with a little water in a pot on top of the stove. The water simmers out, and the meat is browned. What methods does this process unite? The American Indians in their Squantum, or Clam Bake, heated a layer of stones by means of a fire on top, removing the ashes when the fire died down. A layer of wet seaweed was placed on the stones, and upon this clams, fish, and corn were laid, and covered with another layer of seaweed. We have inherited this method from the Indians, and use it at the shore. What is the cooking process? Care of food after cooking.—Bread, cake, cookies, and pastry should be cooled on a rack, or spread out in such a way that they do not steam. They should then be placed in a tin box or stone jar, which has been cleaned by washing and scalding with boiling water, and thoroughly dried. This process destroys any mold that might be lurking about. Keep paraffin paper on hand to cover this class of food in its box or jar. This will prevent too rapid drying out. Do not use cloth. It flavors the bread or cake, no matter how clean it may be. All food that is to be served cold or reheated should be cooled before placing in the ice box. For what reason? Cool by placing in a draught, or set the vessel containing the food in running cold water from the faucet. It is particularly important to cool soups and broths rapidly. Which of these methods will you use, as being the more rapid? All meat that is to be served cold should be cooled, especially if it is rare, or underdone. How will you accomplish this? Care of left overs.—This is one of the tests of food management. It is so easy at the end of a meal either to throw food away, or set it into the refrigerator on the dish in which it has been served. Have a good supply of cheap bowls, plates, and saucers to hold left overs in the refrigerator, thus avoiding one possibility for breakage of the table china. Keep slices of bread for toasting, pieces of bread, to dry for crumbs, with special receptacles for each. Return pieces of cake to the cake box. Muffins may be reheated. Toast may be kept to serve under eggs or meat. All butter should be saved. Pieces left on butter plates if clean should be scraped into a wide-mouthed jar and kept for cooking. Pieces of meat should be kept for reheating or “made” dishes, stews or soups or for salads. In hot weather, let your first order of meat be small, and dispose of left overs as rapidly as possible. Vegetables may be reheated, or used for flavoring soups and stews, or used cold in salads. Desserts and fruits may be used for a “pick up” luncheon. Salads do not keep their freshness and flavor well, and should be used very soon. Milk and cream should be returned to proper receptacles in the refrigerator as soon as possible. Disposal of waste food.—This is the final test of good housekeeping, and many otherwise good housekeepers fail just here. Even at its best the garbage pail is not altogether a pleasing object, and at its worst it is unspeakable. It must not be ignored. Have a system adapted to your own kitchen, and the municipal method of disposal, if there is such. Use a covered pail of enamel ware, rather than one of galvanized iron. The surface of the enamel is smooth, and therefore easier to wash, and there is no excuse for putting off the cleansing of the pail. Wash, rinse, and dry the pail and the cover immediately after it is emptied. Do not put a piece of paper in the bottom of the pail. This request is made by the department in New York City, and it is always better not to mix food waste and paper waste. If you live in an apartment house, your name should be painted on the pail. Never put liquid into the garbage pail with solid refuse. Strain out whatever liquid may be left in coffee or tea, and pour it into the sink drain. If there is a greasy liquid to throw away, add to it a teaspoonful or more of washing powder, and let it stand a time. If you have used enough of the powder, you will find that you have a soapy liquid to pour down the sink. Coffee, tea, cocoa, or lemonade left in cups should be diluted and poured down the sink and never into the garbage pail. Empty garbage at evening when possible, to prevent the long standing through the night. Keep the pail closely covered both day and night, to keep out flies, and water bugs, if they are about. Allow the pail to stand outside the kitchen unless the fire escape is the only accessible out-of-doors. Remember that the fire escape is not a back porch, and that you would be fined for using it as such if the inspectors were efficient. There are two classes of waste: uncooked refuse, like potato skins, egg shells, pea pods, meat trimmings and bones; and table scraps from plates. Pieces of fat may be “tried out,” but do not accumulate more than you use. A few egg shells may be kept for settling coffee, but again do not keep too many. The country dweller has a simple problem. What the farm animals do not eat will serve as fertilizer for plant life. After the bones have been picked, keep them together, in some receptacle, and finally bury or burn them. Have a compost heap properly covered where the uneaten fragments will decompose and make fertilizer, or bury them at once if preferred. The city dweller who uses a coal stove is able to burn some refuse. Strain out whatever liquid is present, dry the refuse under the grate, and put it into a hot fire. Do not crowd damp refuse into the fire box when the fire is low, for it will smoulder, and this heavy smoke will eventually clog the flues. The odor of this smoke, too, is disagreeable in the neighborhood. A garbage drier, set into the stove pipe, has been devised, but the simpler plan of drying the refuse under the grate is quite as satisfactory. Where gas or kerosene is the fuel, or where electricity is used, the garbage pail is the only resort, unless one lives in a building equipped with a special stove or “garbage burner” for the disposal of waste. EXERCISES1. What is a principle in cooking? 2. What are the effects of heat upon the foodstuffs? 3. What is meant by technique in cookery? 4. What are the essentials in caring for food in the house? 5. What are the steps in the preparation of food? 6. Explain the origin and usefulness of a recipe. 7. What are the standard weights and measures? 8. What is the purpose of stirring ingredients? Of beating? 9. What is the difference between boiling and steaming? 10. The difference between baking and roasting? Roasting and broiling? Broiling and toasting? 11. What is the difference between frying and the sautÉ? 12. Describe the care of “left overs” and waste. |
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