626 Reading-Course for Farmers' Wives. 



The cooking of doughs is another important process. In general, the 

 larger the shape the more gradual should be the application of heat. 

 Yeast doughs which are well risen before they are put in the oven, should 

 there meet heat sufficient to check at once all fermentation ; but loaves 

 should not have so hot an oven as rolls or the outside may be burned 

 before the heat penetrates the center. Too great heat may cause loaves 

 to crack ; and a thick crust acts as a non-conductor of heat and the center 

 of the loaf is liable to be soggy. Rolls placed close together in a pan 

 are much the same thing as a loaf, so far as the penetration of heat is con- 

 cerned ; but when buns or rolls are some distance apart on the pan, cur- 

 rents of hot air can pass between them and the baking is shorter and 

 more thorough. 



The same principle applies to crowding an oven — there should be 

 some space between loaves of bread and cake for the heated air to cir- 

 culate. For long periods of baking — loaves of fruit cake for example — 

 new pans absorb less heat, paper linings act as non-conductors ; and to 

 lower the temperature of the oven still more a pan of water may be placed 

 in it. Such cakes are often steamed because the temperature is then 

 lower than that of an oven. On this account it is wise to use small 

 shapes for puddings and brown bread that are to be steamed. These 

 cook through more quickly and there is less danger of settling from jar- 

 ring the stove or if the kettle stops boiling for a moment. 



Frying is another interesting process for doughs, but here the danger 

 is that the fat may be too hot and the dough will not have time to rise 

 enough before a thick crust forms, or if the fat is not hot enough that it 

 will be absorbed by the dough. 



7. gathering the fragments. 



If we count the labor involved in the cultivation and milling of grains 

 as well as in their preparation in our kitchens for the table, we shall 

 realize that it is wrong to allow such food to be wasted, as it is in some 

 households. The garbage carts in any large city contain many large 

 portions of loaves, beside smaller bits of bread. In the country such 

 scraps are not wholly lost for they are fed to chickens, but even this 

 means a waste of labor. 



