784 Reading-Course for Farmers' Wives. 



so a longer time of cooking is frequently given to develop the mellow, 

 sweet taste which we all enjoy in a well-cooked cereal, starchy pudding 

 or sauce. 



If a starch paste after cooking is allowed to stand for some time ex- 

 posed to dry air, a skin forms on the surface. This skin should be re- 

 moved before using the starch since it is even less easy to digest than 

 raw starch. 



The underlying principle in cooking starchy foods is to cook them in 

 such a way as to cause the starch grains to swell and change from a 

 form exceedingly difficult to digest and not digested at all by many 

 persons, to a form easy to digest. This is accomplished by the use of 

 sufficient heat and moisture. 



White sauce making. The characteristic which starch has of absorb- 

 ing hot water and swelling makes it useful as a means for thickening 

 various mixtures. 



One of the most important things in the art of cookery is to know 

 how to make a good, smooth, lumpless, finely flavored, white sauce, 

 or as it is more familiarly known, white gravy. With this as a working 

 foundation, a larger power to make good wholesome things to eat is 

 within our grasp. It is not the knowing how to make a white sauce 

 that is the really important point, but the understanding of many 

 other things which such a knowledge gives. The white sauce or white 

 gravy seems a simple thing, but sauce-making is really a very particular 

 art and demands all our knowledge of what starch is and how it behaves. 

 Lumpy sauces, gravies, puddings and soups are by no means uncommon. 

 They mean raw starch and hence are a waste of food and an imposition 

 on the digestive apparatus of the person who must eat them. 



All the ways or methods which we have of making starchy sauces are 

 intended to prevent lumping. We mix flour with cold liquid or butter 

 or lard and the little grains are thus kept apart until each has an oppor- 

 tunity to be penetrated by the hot liquid. 



The fundamental principle in making a white sauce is therefore to 

 separate the little starch grains before cooking them, in such a way 

 that all the grains absorb water and swell, and change to a digestible 

 form and none will be left uncooked to form lumps. 



A little experience will soon give wisdom as to the thickening power 

 of starch, and it is this wisdom which will be of use in applying what 

 is known as a formula. The formula may be defined as the recipe which 

 is elastic enough to fit many occasions. May the following formula 

 prove such. 



