Homemaker’s Handbook — For Buying Staples
Article #1 of Reference Guide
This series of handy reference guides designed to answer your questions about various staple items. I have included in these foods, chocolate and cocoa, fats, oils and other shortenings, flours, leavening agents, mild and milk products, nuts, olives and pickles, sugars and syrups, and spices, herbs, extracts, and vinegars.
It is more factual material than you would probably enjoy reading at one stretch, but every article will contains facts about commonly used foods, that would be of interest and practical help to everyone buying food. Just a casual glancing on the next few articles will bring to your attention numerous little-known facts about many of these foods, and I feel certain, will encourage you to return to these articles often when you are seeking an answer to some question.
Remember these articles when you are tasting an exotic dish in an unusual restaurant: the spice chart will suggest the spice to go with different kinds of foods. Remember these ages when you are wondering how cocoa is made or why you keep the hydrogenated shortenings at room temperature, or the difference between brown sugar, granulated, powdered, and confectioners’. These and number of other questions can be answered by reading the readily accessible material in the following chapter.
The answers to your questions about chocolate and cocoa
Chocolate and Cocoa are produced from the roasted beans of cacoa trees, grown in the tropical belt near the equator. These beans are the seeds of the fruit from the cacao trees. At the present time, millions of pounds of chocolate and cocoa are used annually in this country.
Chocolate is made by grinding the fermented, roasted, shelled cacao beans. Different flavors such as vanilla may be added, and many special processes are employed to give a smooth mellow product. The resulting chocolate mass is then molded into the familiar bars, squares, etc. Chocolate contains about 50 per cent of cocoa butter, about the same amount as the original bean. The degree of roasting brings out the flavor, and accounts in part for differences in flavor.
The difference between Bitter, Semi-sweet, Sweet, and Milk chocolate is based upon the amount of sugar and milk that is added to the chocolate. Bitter chocolate contains 5 to 20 percent sugar, semi-sweet from 20 to 40 percent sugar, and sweet from 40 to 60 percent sugar. Milk chocolate contains about 12 per cent whole milk solids and from 35 to 50 per cent sugar.
Cocoa is made by removing about one-half of the cocoa butter from the ground chocolate. The remaining mixture contains about 22 per cent of the original cocoa butter. It is allowed to harden into a cake and is then pulverized into cocoa powder.
Dutch Process cocoa is chemically treated to darken and enrich the color. Dutch process cocoa is also said to dissolve more easily and has less tendency to settle out when made into a beverage.
Cocoa and chocolate may be used interchangeably if the following adjustments are made. Three level tablespoons of cocoa plus two teaspoons shortening are approximately equal to one ounce of baking chocolate. Chocolate should be melted over hot water or cut and added to liquid and heated until it melts, then cooled and added to the other ingredients. Cocoa may be sifted with dry ingredients, or mixed with cold liquid and stirred until smooth and then added to the remaining ingredients.
Both cocoa and chocolate should be stored in a fairly cool place. If the temperature is above 85 deg. F., chocolate usually becomes crumbly and grayish, because some of the cocoa butter separates out and accumulates on the surface. Then the chocolate cools, the butter on the surface takes on a whitish appearance.
The Answers To Your Questions About
Fats, Oils, And Other shortenings
Fats, oils, and other shortenings are important in the preparation of foods of many kinds. All are important nutritionally for their caloric value, and some contribute vitamins and other growth and health promoting substances. They give a sense of satisfaction after eating, because of their richness and “staying” quality. In addition, butter, olive oil, and meat drippings, add their distinctive flavor to many kinds of foods. They all contribute shortness and pleasing texture to baked products, and aid in developing delicate crusting coatings when foods are fried. All fats except the all-hydrogenated lard and vegetable fats must be covered closely to prevent the abortion of other flavors, and should be stored in the refrigerator.
Butter is made by churning pasteurized sweet or soured cream until the particles of butterfat cling to each other and the buttermilk can be washed out. The federal standards requires that butter contain at least 80 percent butter ft, with the remaining 10 percent of water, salt and curd. The presence of water keeps butter plastic. It is extremely important that butter be handled carefully and cleanly to prevent contamination and changes in flavor during its preparation and storage. Large quantities of butter must be carefully stored in cold storage to make equal quantities available during the entire year.
Because of its fine characteristic flavor, butter is valued as a spread for breads, for making butter cakes and for flavoring vegetables, sauces, icings and confections. Since butter contains water and milk proteins, it is not suitable for deep fat frying and because its shortening power is lower than most other fats, it does not make economical or tender pastry.
Butter is a particularly valuable source of Vitamin A. its vitamin content varies, being high when cows are on pasture, and low when on dry feed. The color also varies depending on the feed, and in winter a harmless pure food coloring is added to give butter more appetite appeal.
Salted butter is most commonly sold, but “sweet” butter (unsalted) is also available. Sweet butter has an especially pleasing butter flavor, but it is so perishable it quickly loses its fine flavor.
Butter becomes soft at room temperature. It should be refrigerated in a covered container to keep it firm and preserve its delicate flavor.
Margarine is the chief fat other than butter used for cooking. It is made from either vegetable or animal fats other than butter fat. In processing, margarine is churned in pasteurized milk, which causes it to take up milk solids and to acquire butter flavor. Margarine is fortified by adding a minimum of U.S.P. unites. The vitamin A content of butter throughout the entire year. Scientific test also show margarine to be about the equal of butter in digestibility, caloric and nutritive value. Good margarine is far superior to poor butter in eating quality. Margarine of good quality is a thoroughly wholesome fat and is suitable for all food preparation in which butter is used. It is also far less costly than butter because the processes of production are less expensive.
Lard is made by rendering the leaf, visceral and back fat from healthy hog carcasses which have been freed from flood and muscular tissue as much as possible. Great care and skill are necessary to make a fine lard, and home rendered products vary widely in quality. Commercial packers have greater scientific control over the entire process, therefore the quality of commercial lard is uniformly higher than that produced in the home. The packer treats lard in several ways to reduce the tendency to become rancid, to deodorize, and to assure a uniform plasticity and consistency.
Lard is important nutritionally since it is an animal fat containing fatty acids essential to growth. Also, as has long been recognized by experienced pastry makers, it ranks high in shortening power. In the past, it has been used principally to make pastry, cookies, yeast breads, and quick breads. Now we have learned to use the improved lards to make good cake. Commercial brands of lard have a high smoking temperature, above 359 F., and are well adapted to deep-fat frying.
Lard requires proper storage to retain its natural good qualities. On the farm, it should be stored in the coolest possible place. When brought to the kitchen and opened, it should be kept closely covered in the refrigerator.
Hydrogenated Vegetable Shortenings are odorless, flavorless, and pure white in color. They are pure vegetable oils that have been scientifically treated with hydrogen to prevent their melting at room temperatures, and to keep them from becoming rancid. Hydrogenation also guarantees that the fat will always be of the same consistency, since the entire process is carefully and completely controlled. The hydrogenated purified oils are creamed to give a smooth texture and a fluffy consistency. These bland types of shortenings are particularly useful in products which can depend upon other ingredients for flavor, or when it is desirable to have a shortening that will add no for flavor, or when it is desirable to have a shortening that will add no flavor. Their smoking point is high, above 390 F., which makes them highly satisfactory for frying and deep-fat frying. Since they are already creamed, they save time and energy in baking. They should be stored at a normal room temperature.
Oils are used chiefly in American cookery for salad dressings, and are especially suitable for this use as they are liquid at room temperatures. They are convenient to use in many recipes calling for shortenings, but when used in baked products as cake and pastry, they sometimes give a crumbly texture and an oily appearance. Vegetable oils of domestic origin on the retail market are cottonseed, corn, peanut and olive oils. The oils are pressed out of the seeds or fruit (usually with the aid of heat) Olive oil is imported in large quantities. Its color is usually an indication of its quality. A golden straw color characterizes the high grades, and a greenish tint the inferior grades. If labeled “olive oil” it is never mixed with other oils, but may be mixed with various grades of olive oil. It is a good plan to read the labels on oils to determine the ingredients.
Bacon, ham, sausage and roast pork drippings are excellent for pan-frying various foods, for greasing the griddle, for making cream sauce, for seasoning various foods, for greasing the griddle, for making cream sauce, for seasoning some vegetables (such as green and lima beans), and for which they give a savory flavor.
Cracklings are the solid residue remaining from tried-out pork fat and are especially flavorsome in hot breads. They should never be discarded when rendering lard, or small amounts of chicken or pork fat. They add flavor not duplicated by any other shortening in such food a “crackling corn bread.”
Beef drippings, especially if they contain some of the brown juice, are also excellent for sautéing, and for making gravy and cream sauce.
Lamb drippings are too tallow to be desirable for cooking, but if allowed to accumulate they can be used to make soft laundry soap.
Mineral oil has had only one culinary use, and that is to make low-calorie salad dressings that are often included in reducing diets. The oil has neither nutritive nor caloric value, but it acts as a lubricant laxative. It should never be recommended, because it is not absorbed by the system and tends to carry valuable food elements (especially vitamin A) through the digestive tract with it, unabsorbed.
