200 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the ail", was a question which would not influence the flavor of roast beef, nor 

 prevent the potatoes from being mealy. 



Now-a-days people of an intelligent, inquiring nature are aiming to reduce 

 evervthing to principle — to do an operation right, and also to know why it is 

 right; and here especially in the life of our homes and their surroundings 

 chemistry can yield its place to no science. 



In the limits of this article I shall only attempt to illustrate as well as I 

 maybe able some few things chemistry can throw light upon in the common 

 every-day life of our homes. 



Let us suppose that like some favored guests, we are invited to " go around 

 and see the house;" we will saunter through an imaginary mansion, out into 

 the dining-room, prowl around the kitchen, investigate the cellar, peer into 

 the pantry cupboard, go down the back steps, look at the drain, taste the 

 well water, examine the soap-kettle, and generally make ourselves quite free 

 with an ideal domestic establishment. 



As the smell of cooking is inviting, especially at about this hour of the day, 

 let us turn our steps to the kitchen and pantry first. A.s we enter, the sound 

 of subdued sizzling comes from the oven. ''Yes, there's a roast of beef in 

 there." 



"Did you have your oven hot at first?" 



No ; not very. 



"Well, you should, and you want some water in the roast basin." 



Why? 



Because the meat wants to retain its juices and not contribute them to the 

 gravy ; so you must seal up the pores on the outside by a quickly applied heat, 

 and to do it without burning we must have water in the pan to keep the heat 

 from being too high, and still make it a ''muggy day" for the roast beef. 

 Dredge flour on, too, to help seal things up. 



In a chair by the stove is the bread just about ready for the oven. It is one 

 example where prohibition will never prevent the manufacture and use of 

 alcohol. Every loaf of sweet white bread is the result of a small but exceed- 

 ingly active brewery. The yeast plant as it induces fermentation in the 

 dough, converts the starch of the flour into sugar, the sugar is then made into 

 alcohol and carbonic acid — then it is light and ready for the oven. The car- 

 bonic acid gas is the thing sought for in all this process of setting the sponge, 

 kneading and keeping the dough warm. 



Flour is composed of two principal things, viz. : gluten and starch. Gluten 

 when obtained pure, is a tough, dark-colored substance looking like and hav- 

 ing many of the characteristics of glue. Its oflSce in the flour is to retain the 

 minute bubbles of carbonic acid gas formed during the fermentation process 

 and thus make the bread light and porous. 



Many times the flour is found to be dead — that is, when it is set to rise it 

 doesn't rise. This is found usually to be on account of bad milling— the 

 stones being set too close and the heat thus caused destroying the tenacious 

 property of the gluten. 



If we wait too long before putting the dougli in the oven, the alcohol 

 doesn't wait for us but goes right along and makes acetic acid and the bread 

 is sour of course. 



Carbonic acid gas being the means used for making bread light, why can't 

 we, you ask, use baking powder and make just as nice light bread? There 

 are two good reasons why you cannot. The first is that you never can mix the 

 baking powder with the "^flour as thoroughly as the constitutents of the flour 



