School and Home Cooking Part 28

How many persons may be served by using these recipes for Scrambled Eggs and Foamy Omelet?

LESSON XLV

EGGS: OMELETS (B)

WHITE SAUCE OMELET

3 tablespoonfuls flour 2 1/2 tablespoonfuls b.u.t.ter or subst.i.tute 1 teaspoonful salt 1 cupful milk Pepper 4 eggs 2 teaspoonfuls b.u.t.ter or subst.i.tute

Make a White Sauce of the milk, fat, flour, and seasoning. Separate the whites and yolks of the eggs, and beat them until light. When the White Sauce is cool, stir in the yolks and fold in the whites. Cook and serve as Foamy Omelet.

BAKED OMELET

Prepare a White Sauce Omelet. Instead of turning it into a frying pan, pour it into an oiled baking-dish. Bake in a hot oven (375 degrees F.) for 30 to 40 minutes, or until it is "puffed" in appearance and golden brown in color. Serve at once from the dish in which it was baked.

MODIFICATION OF FOAMY AND WHITE SAUCE OMELETS.--Mix and cook a Foamy or White Sauce Omelet. As soon as the omelet begins to set, spread it while cooking with finely chopped cooked ham, veal, or chicken. Continue to cook and then dry, fold, and serve as with the usual omelet.

Cooked peas, asparagus, cauliflower, or flaked fish may be added to the sauce of White Sauce Omelet. Cheese may be used in place of meat with either omelet.

Foamy Omelet may be varied by using tomato juice instead of milk. Tomato sauce may be served with either of these omelets.

Sweet Omelet may be made as follows: Add 4 tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar to the Foamy Omelet mixture; after cooking, spread with softened jelly; after folding, sprinkle with powdered sugar. Use 1/2 cupful of jelly for the Foamy Omelet recipe.

QUESTIONS

Why is the White Sauce cooled before adding the egg yolks in White Sauce Omelet?

Point out the most important differences between a Foamy and a White Sauce Omelet.

What is the purpose of cutting and folding in the whites of eggs in omelets?

What is the purpose of beating eggs?

What are the tests that show when egg white is beaten stiff and when dry?

What are the tests for thoroughly beaten egg yolk?

LESSON XLVI

MILK

MILK, AN INVALUABLE FOOD.--It has been said that there is no one food _except milk_ which cannot be eliminated from the diet. Milk is the only food for which there are no easily found subst.i.tutes. The housekeeper or one who plans the food for the family should purchase daily, if possible, a pint of milk for each adult and a quart for each child under ten years. She should see to it that this amount of milk is entirely used either as a beverage or in cooked foods. If one must economize in foods, _less should be spent for meat, and more for milk_.

Although more than 4/5 of milk is water, it contains only a little more water than do potatoes and lean meat. The value of milk is due to the fact that it contains: (_a_) _Proteins of "excellent quality_." An authority on diet says [Footnote 48: See "The Newer Knowledge of Nutrition," by McCollum, p. 74.]: "There can be no doubt that the proteins of milk are far superior to those of any foods derived from vegetable sources." The most important protein existing in milk is called _casein_.

Casein is a complete protein and is very important for growth. It has a peculiar property; it precipitates when acid is added to milk. When milk sours, the sugar contained in the milk changes to an acid, and this acid causes the casein to precipitate. Casein is also clotted by an enzyme occurring in the digestive juice of the stomach.

(_b_) _Valuable ash_. Lime which is so essential to bodybuilding is one of the minerals in milk. The following diagram from United States Food Leaflet No. 11 shows that milk is especially rich in lime. (Lime is calcium oxide.)

[Ill.u.s.tration]

(_c_) _Vitamines_. These are substances contained only in certain foods. They are essential for maintaining life and health. Milk is rich in these indispensable materials (see Division Seven).

Milk also contains fat and carbohydrate. The presence of the foodstuffs in milk is shown by the following:

EXPERIMENT 44: SEPARATION OF MILK INTO FOODSTUFFS.

(_a_) By means of a cream dipper, remove the cream from a bottle of milk. Place a drop of the cream on a piece of paper. Let the paper dry.

What foodstuff is indicated by the stain on the paper?

(_b_) Take 1/4 cupful of the skimmed milk. Heat it to blood temperature (test by dropping the milk on the wrist, see _Junket Custard_). Crush 1/8 junket tablet and add it to the warm milk. Stir until the powder is dissolved. Let the milk stand in a warm place until it is clotted. Heat the clotted milk and boil 1 minute. Pour it into a filter paper. Catch the filtrate in a beaker. What is the foodstuff that remains in the filter paper (see Proteins of "excellent quality")?

(_c_) Put 15 cubic centimeters of Fehling's Solution [Footnote 49: NOTE TO THE TEACHER.--Fehling's Solution is made as follows: Prepare a solution of Roch.e.l.le salts,--175 grams of Roch.e.l.le salts, 50 grams of sodium hydroxide, and 250 cubic centimeters of water. Prepare a solution of copper sulphate,--57.73 grams of copper sulphate, 250 cubic centimeters of water, and 0.4 cubic centimeter of sulphuric acid. Then combine 1 part of the alkaline Roch.e.l.le salt solution, 1 part of copper sulphate, and 4 parts of water. Boil the mixture.

This solution deteriorates readily. The best results are obtained by using a "fresh" mixture for testing sugar and by boiling just before using.] in a flask. Boil for 2 minutes. Add 2 cubic centimeters of the filtrate from (_b_) and boil one minute. To what color does the blue mixture change? A red precipitate indicates sugar. What foodstuff does this test indicate that milk contains?

(_d_) Put the remainder of the filtrate from (_b_) in a custard cup and evaporate over hot water to dryness. Note the residue. What foodstuff other than sugar is contained in the residue?

(_e_) What foodstuff has pa.s.sed off in the form of vapor during evaporation?

(_f_) As mentioned above, milk also contains vitamines.

LESSON XLVII

MILK WITH COCOA AND CHOCOLATE

EXPERIMENT 46: SCALDING MILK.--Fill the lower part of a double boiler one third full of boiling water. Put 1/2 cupful of milk in the top of the double boiler, cover, and heat over the boiling water. In a few minutes examine. Carefully note the appearance of the surface of the milk. Explain why it is that dishes that have contained milk should be soaked in cold water, and then washed in warm water.

Insert a thermometer in the milk and record temperature. Is it possible to boil milk over hot water? Explain your answer. (Use this scalded milk to make cocoa and chocolate.)

The taste of milk is changed by heating it above 158 degrees F. Less change, however, is produced by scalding than by boiling. Milk is also apt to scorch if cooked at boiling temperature. It is sometimes necessary to boil milk to sterilize it.

COCOA AND CHOCOLATE as found at market are prepared from cacao beans. The latter grow in pods,--the fruit of the tropical cacao trees (see Figure 41). The beans are taken from the pods, allowed to ferment, dried, and roasted. The husks loosened by roasting are then removed from the beans.

Cacao beans are ground, molded, and sold as bitter or baker's chocolate.

In the preparation of sweet chocolate sugar is added to the powdered chocolate before molding. Cocoa differs from chocolate in that some of the fat is removed.