Part 44

GRAPE JELLY

Separate the pulps from the skins of a quantity of washed grapes. Cook each separately for a few minutes, and slowly, so as not to evaporate the juice. Press the pulps through a soup-strainer, mashing them if they are not broken, until there is nothing left but the seeds; strain into this the juice from the skins, mashing and squeezing out all that is possible. Measure the mixture, and for every cup add a cup of sugar. Put all into a granite-ware saucepan and boil slowly for ten or twelve minutes.

The time required for cooking depends upon the condition of the grapes. If they are very ripe, and it is late in the season, ten minutes is sufficient time to obtain a fine, delicate jelly; but if it is early in the autumn, and the fruit has not been as thoroughly changed by nature as late in the season, twelve or fifteen minutes will be required to obtain the same result. Even less than ten minutes' cooking will sometimes cause the pectin of the fruit to dissolve, which, on cooling, forms the jelly. The time required will always be variable, according to the condition of the fruit, so it is well to ascertain by experiment what number of minutes gives the desired result.

Another and important point to notice in making fruit jellies is, that if the fruit be cooked longer than is necessary to dissolve the jelly-forming substance, that is the pectin, the natural flavor of the fruit is more or less injured; consequently, if grapes which require only ten minutes' boiling are boiled for fifteen, the flavor is inferior to what it would be if they were exposed for the lesser time.

It is impossible to give a rule which shall at all times apply to the making of fruit jellies, on account of the always variable condition of the fruit. But in general, grapes, cranberries, currants, and similar fruits require a short time, while apples, crab-apples, lemons, and oranges will take from one and a half to three hours. One is therefore obliged to test the jelly at intervals by taking out a little on a saucer to cool. If it becomes firm quickly, the mixture is cooked enough; if not, one may get an idea, from the consistency which it has, what further cooking will be necessary.

APPLE JELLY

Wash and wipe good tart apples. Cut them in quarters or, better, eighths, but do not pare them. Stew them in half their bulk of water,--that is, if you have four quarts of cut apples, put in two quarts of water,--until the skins as well as the pulp are perfectly soft. No definite time can be given, because that depends upon the kind and ripeness of the fruit. When done, turn them into a jelly-bag and drain until the juice is all out. Measure it, and for each cup add a cup of sugar, one clove, and one square inch of thin lemon-peel. Simmer gently for half an hour, then test it, to see how near the jellying-point it is, by taking out a little into a cool saucer. With some kinds of apples it will be done in that time, with others it will take an hour or more longer. When a little becomes firm on cooling, remove the whole immediately from the fire, skim it, and strain it into jars or tumblers which have been thoroughly washed in soap and water, and have been standing in boiling water for some minutes.

When the jelly is cool, pour over the surface a thin coating of melted paraffin, let it harden, then pour in another; for, as the first hardens, it may crack or shrink from the sides and leave spaces where ferments may enter; in other words, the jars need to be made air-tight--not that the air does mischief, but because it contains the organisms which, on entering the jelly, cause by their growth the various fermentative changes known to occur in fruits. The object then will be to exclude all micro-organisms.

There are other ways of sealing jelly than by the use of paraffin, as, for instance, with paper soaked in alcohol, or coated with oil; but paraffin, if properly used, is a sure, easy, and economical means.

A wad of sterilized cotton batting, packed into the mouth of the jar or tumbler, like a stopper, is sometimes employed, but it is not as effectual as the paraffin; for that, being poured in hot, sterilizes the surface of the jelly, thus killing any organisms that may have lodged upon it during the cooling. Organisms cannot go through batting; but, though it may be properly sterilized, it cannot be packed over the jelly until it has become firm, and during the time ferments may have settled upon it. Paraffin is a most satisfactory means of preserving jelly, and the only precaution necessary in using it is to put on two layers, the second one two or three hours after the first, or when all contraction has ceased.

BREAD

The two most practicable methods of making bread are with yeast, and with cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda.

Yeast is a micro-organism--an exceedingly minute form of plant life--which by its growth produces carbonic acid and alcohol. When this growth takes place in a mass of flour dough, the carbonic acid generated, in its effort to escape, puffs it up, but, owing to the viscous nature of the gluten, it is entangled and held within. Each little bubble of gas occupies a certain space. When the bread is baked, the walls around these spaces harden in the heat, and thus we get the porous loaf.

Barley, rye, and some other grains would be very useful for bread if it were not that they lack sufficient gluten to entangle enough carbonic acid to render bread made from them light.

Good bread cannot be made without good flour. There are two kinds usually to be found in market, namely bread flour, and pastry flour. The former is prepared in such a way that it contains more gluten than the latter. In making Pastry, or St. Louis flour, as it is sometimes called, the grain is crushed in such a manner that the starch, being most easily broken, becomes finer than the gluten, and in the process of bolting some of the latter is lost. For pastry and cake this kind is best. Lacking gluten, bread made from it is more tender, whiter, but less nutritious than that made from so-called bread flour.

New Process, or bread flour may be distinguished by the "feel," which is slightly granular rather than powdery, by its yellow color, and by the fact that it does not "cake" when squeezed in the hand; while St. Louis is white, powdery, and will "cake."

The best method to pursue in buying flour is, first, to find a good dealer, upon whose advice you may rely. Next, take a sample of the flour recommended and, with a recipe which you have proved to be correct, try some; if the first loaf of bread is not satisfactory, try another, and then another, until you are confident that the fault lies in the flour, and not in the method of making. Finally, having found a brand of flour from which you can make yellow-white instead of snow-white bread, which has a nutty, sweet flavor, which in mixing absorbs much liquid, and does not "run" after you think you have got it stiff enough, and which feels puffy and elastic to the hand after molding, keep it; it is probably good.

Often the same flour is sold in different sections of the country under different names, so that it is impossible to recommend any special brand. Each buyer must ascertain for herself which brands in her locality are best. It is just as easy to have good bread as poor. It only requires a little care and a little intelligence on the part of the housekeeper.

Having found a brand of good flour, next give your attention to yeast. In these days, when excellent compressed yeasts may be found in all markets, it is well to use them, bearing in mind that they are compressed, and that a very small quantity contains a great many yeast cells, and will raise bread as well, if not better, than a large amount.

Home-made liquid yeast is exceedingly easy to prepare. It simply requires a mixture of water and some material in which the plant cells will rapidly grow. Grated raw potato, cooked by pouring on boiling water, flour, and sugar form an excellent food for their propagation. A recipe for yeast will be given later.

Now we have come to the consideration of what will take place when the two, flour and yeast, are made into dough. According to some accounts of the subject, the yeast begins to act first upon the starch, converting it into sugar (glucose C{6}H{12}O{6}). While this is taking place there is no apparent_ change, for nothing else is formed except the glucose, or sugar. Then this sugar is changed into alcohol and carbonic acid; the latter, owing to its diffusive nature, endeavors to escape, but becomes entangled in the viscous mass and swells it to several times its original bulk.

This has been the accepted explanation; it is now, however, believed not to be correct. It is thought, and I believe demonstrated, that the yeast plant lives upon sugar; that it has not the power to act directly upon starch, but that it is capable of producing a substance which acts upon starch to convert it into sugar.

The production of the carbonic acid is the end of desirable chemical change, and when it has been carried to a sufficient degree to fill the dough with bubbles, it should be stopped.

Kneading bread is for the purpose of distributing the gas and breaking up the large bubbles into small ones, to give the loaf a fine grain. One will immediately see that kneading before the bread is raised is a more or less useless task. Kneading is a process which should be done gently, by handling the dough with great tenderness; for if it is pressed hard against the molding-board, the bubbles will be worked out through the surface, and the loaf consequently less porous than if all the gas is kept in it.

The best temperature for the raising of bread (in other words, for the growing of yeast) during the first part of the process is from 70° to 75° Fahr. It may touch 80° without harm, but 90° is the limit. Above that acetic fermentation is liable to occur, and the bread becomes sour. When the bread is made into loaves, it may be placed in a very warm temperature, to rise quickly if it is intended for immediate baking. Besides killing the yeast, the object sought in baking is to form a sheath of cooked dough all over the outside, for a skeleton or support for the inside mass while it is cooking. Baking also expands the carbonic acid, and volatilizes the alcohol. The latter is lost.

A good temperature in which to begin the baking of bread is 400° Fahr. This may gradually decrease to not lower than 250°, and the time, for a good-sized brick loaf, is one hour. If it is a large loaf, increase the time by a quarter or a half hour.

"The expansion of water or ice into 1700 times its volume of steam, is sometimes taken advantage of in making snow bread, water gems, etc. It plays a part in the lightening of pastry and crackers. Air at 70° Fahr. expands to about twice its volume at the temperature of a hot oven, so that if air is entangled in a mass of dough it gives a certain lightness when the whole is baked. This is the cause of the sponginess of cakes made with eggs. The viscous albumen catches the air and holds it."

There are other means of obtaining carbonic acid to lighten bread, besides by the growing of yeast. The most convenient, perhaps the most valuable, method is by causing cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda to unite chemically. (The products of the union are carbonic acid and Rochelle salts.) The advantage of using these over everything else yet tried is, that they do not unite when brought in contact except in the presence of water and a certain degree of heat. Rochelle salts, taken in such minute quantities as it occurs in bread made in this way, is not harmful.