School and Home Cooking Part 34

What care should be taken in cooking Vanilla Sauce?

Compare the recipe for Chocolate Corn-starch Pudding with that for Chocolate Sauce. What material and how much of it is used for thickening each? What difference in consistency is there in the two cooked mixtures?

What liquids are used in each mixture? Why is the sauce cooked directly over the flame and then over, boiling water, while the pudding is cooked only over boiling water?

LESSON LVII

CHEESE (A)

THE RELATION OF CHEESE TO MILK.--To show the relation of cheese to milk, and to understand the manufacture of cheese, try the following:

EXPERIMENT 47: EFFECT OF RENNET ON MILK.--Put a small quant.i.ty of milk in a test tube and heat the milk a very little, taking care not to boil it.

Add to it 1/4 teaspoonful liquid rennet, or 1/8 junket tablet, and set aside. After a few minutes examine the milk. How has the rennet changed the milk? What substance in the milk has been clotted by the rennet (see Lesson XLVI)?

EXPERIMENT 48: SEPARATION OF CURD AND WHEY--Again heat the contents of the test tube of Experiment 47, turn the mixture into a cheese-cloth, and press the cloth until the mixture is dry. Examine the material left in the cloth. How does it differ from ordinary cheese in color and texture? In cheese making what names are given to the solids and liquids of clotted milk?

Cheese is prepared for the market in a way somewhat similar to that shown in Experiments 47 and 48, except that it is colored, salted, pressed into shape, and allowed to ripen. While ripening, changes take place in the ingredients of cheese which develop characteristic flavors and make the cheese firm.

There are two general cla.s.ses of cheese,--hard cheese and soft cheese. A hard cheese commonly known as "American Cream Cheese" is generally used in this country.

ACTION OF RENNIN IN DIGESTING MILK.--The rennet or junket used to clot the casein of the milk is obtained from the digestive juices of the stomach of a calf. An enzyme called rennin exists in the gastric juice of the human stomach also. When milk is digested, it is first clotted by the enzyme in the stomach.

EXPERIMENT 49: EFFECT OF ACID ON MILK.--Add a few drops of vinegar to warm milk in a test tube. What is the result? What substance in the milk has been curdled by the acid?

To what substance in milk is its sweet taste due? Into what has this substance changed when milk sours? What causes the change in this material (see _Care of Milk_)? Knowing the effect of acid on milk, explain the clotted condition of sour milk.

JUNKET "CUSTARD"

1 quart milk 1/4 cupful sugar 1 teaspoonful vanilla 1 tablespoonful liquid rennet _or_ 1 junket tablet Powdered cinnamon or nutmeg

Heat the milk in a double boiler until it is _lukewarm_ only; do not heat it to scalding temperature. Test milk for lukewarm, _i.e._ body temperature, by letting a drop fall on the wrist. If the milk "feels like the wrist"--neither warmer nor colder--it is lukewarm in temperature. If a junket tablet is used, crush it. Add the sugar, vanilla, and rennet or junket, and stir until dissolved. Pour into a gla.s.s dish and stand in a warm place until it thickens. Then set the Junket "Custard" in a cool place. When cold, sprinkle with a little cinnamon or nutmeg, and serve with cream.

COTTAGE CHEESE

1 quart thick sour milk 1/4 teaspoonful salt Cream, top milk, or b.u.t.ter

Pour at least 2 quarts of boiling water into the sour milk. Allow the mixture to stand until the curd separates from the whey. Strain the mixture in a cloth, pressing the cloth until the curd is dry, or allow it to drip for several hours or overnight. Put the curd in a bowl, add salt and a little cream, top milk, or melted b.u.t.ter, and mix thoroughly. Serve lightly heaped, or molded into b.a.l.l.s.

QUESTIONS

Why should junket tablets be crushed before adding to the milk (see Experiment 12)?

In what way is the preparation of milk for Junket "Custard" like the digestion of milk in the stomach?

Tell why Junket "Custard" is quickly digested.

How much Cottage Cheese is obtained from 1 quart of milk?

Explain the use of boiling water in preparing Cottage Cheese from sour milk.

What is the price per pint of Cottage Cheese prepared at home?

What is the price per pint of Cottage Cheese obtained at market?

LESSON LVIII

CHEESE (B)

FOOD VALUE AND USE OF CHEESE.--Cheese is concentrated food, _i.e._ it contains much nourishment in small bulk. One pound of cheese contains as much protein as two pounds of eggs or one and one half pounds of meat, and as much fat as three pounds of eggs and one pound of beef. In addition to protein and fat, cheese contains ash and vitamines (see Division Seven).

Cottage Cheese is a particularly good food. Since it is less expensive than most foods rich in protein, it should be used to a greater extent than it is at the present time. Most tasty salads and meat subst.i.tute dishes may be prepared from cottage cheese.

Cheese was formerly considered somewhat difficult of digestion, but investigations (see Farmers' Bulletin 487, _The Digestion of Cheese_, p. 15.) show that cheese differs but little from meat in ease of digestion. Cheese, like protein foods in general, if cooked at all, should be heated at low or moderate temperature.

It is well to cook cheese in combination with other food materials. The use of cheese at the close of a dinner, when sufficient food has already been eaten, is not advisable.

CARE OF CHEESE.--Molds grow rapidly upon cheese, especially if it is placed in a warm place and the air is excluded from it (see _Why Foods Spoil_). For this reason, cheese should never be placed in a tightly covered dish or jar. It may be placed in a dish or jar and covered with a cloth. To keep cheese that has been cut from drying, wrap it in paraffin paper, then in a slightly dampened cloth, and then in paper. It should not, however, be kept in the damp cloth too long; molds will grow upon it.

MACARONI AND CHEESE

1 cupful macaroni 1 1/2 cupfuls medium White Sauce 2 cupfuls b.u.t.tered crumbs 3/4 cupful grated cheese

Break macaroni into one-inch pieces. Cook in a large quant.i.ty of boiling, salted water, in the same manner as Boiled Rice. When tender, pour into a colander, and run cold water through it. Make the sauce, using half milk and half "macaroni water" for the liquid; then add the cheese and macaroni to it. Pour into a b.u.t.tered baking-dish. Cover with the b.u.t.tered crumbs and bake at 450 degrees F. for 20 minutes or until brown.

_Rice or noodles_, cooked in the same way, may be subst.i.tuted for macaroni.

QUESTIONS

What must be the condition of cheese in order to grate it? If it is very soft, how should it be prepared to add to the sauce?

What is macaroni? What foodstuff does it contain in large quant.i.ty?

What is the effect of cold water on cooked macaroni (see Experiment 17)?

Why is it cooked in a large quant.i.ty of boiling water?

What does the water in which the macaroni was cooked contain?

What use can be made of the water that is drained from the macaroni (see _Cheese Sauce,_)?

What is the price per pound of macaroni? What is the price per pound of rice? What is the price per pound of cheese?