Add the other fruits and cook the mixture at simmering temperature until the apricots and raisins are tender. Add the sugar and salt. Stir until dissolved. Serve the sauce cold as a dessert.
QUESTIONS
Weigh 1 cupful of dried fruit and record weight.
Weigh and measure soaked fruit (1 cupful before soaking) and record weight and measure. To what is the increase in measure of the soaked fruit due? What use should be made of the water in which dried fruit is soaked? What does this water contain? (See Experiment 10.)
What is the purpose of soaking dried fruit before cooking?
What is the purpose of covering the fruit while soaking?
Using the data regarding fresh fruit obtained in Lesson I, and that obtained by weighing dried fruit before and after soaking, estimate the difference in the cost of one pound of fresh and of soaked dried fruit.
State two reasons for combining raisins with apples and apricots in Baked Apples and Mixed Fruit Sauce.
LESSON XVIII
SUGAR-RICH FRUITS: DRIED FRUITS (B)
DESSERTS AND FOOD VALUE.--Very often dried fruits and nuts are used as accessories after a meal. Under these conditions they are digested often with difficulty, because the meal itself has taxed the digestive organs. These foods should be considered as a part of the meal and should not be added after enough other foods have been eaten. Not only dried fruits and nuts but other desserts often prove distressing, not because they are unwholesome, but because too much food has been eaten.
PRUNE PUDDING
1 cupful cooked prunes, seeded and chopped 1/2 cupful sugar 1 cupful chopped nuts 1/2 cupful milk or prune water 1 teaspoonful vanilla 1 tablespoonful butter or substitute, melted 3 crackers (rolled fine) or 1/2 cupful dried bread crumbs 1 teaspoonful baking powder Salt
Mix all the ingredients. Pour into a buttered baking-dish. Place the baking-dish in a pan of hot water. Bake in a moderate oven for 20 minutes, or until the mixture is firm. Serve hot or cold with plain or whipped cream.
DATE PUDDING
1/2 cupful sugar 1 egg 2 tablespoonfuls milk 1/3 cupful flour 1 teaspoonful baking powder Salt 1 cupful dates, seeded, and cut in pieces 1 cupful California walnuts, chopped
Mix the sugar, milk, and egg. Mix the remaining ingredients; then add to the first mixture. Mix, and turn into an oiled baking-dish or pan. Bake in a moderate oven from 30 to 40 minutes or until it is firm. Serve hot or cold with plain or whipped cream.
QUESTIONS
How many dry, uncooked prunes are required to make 1 cupful of cooked prunes? (See Questions, Lesson XVII.)
What are the prices per pound of figs and dates?
How many will the above recipes serve?
What ingredients in these puddings scorch readily? Why is Prune Pudding surrounded with hot water during baking?
LESSON XIX
CEREALS: STARCH AND CELLULOSE
STARCH is a very important FUEL food; like sugar, it gives energy to the body. Starch is closely related to sugar; it has much the same composition and the same use in the body. In certain respects, however, starch differs from sugar.
EXPERIMENT 14: THE STARCH TEST.--Put a drop of tincture of iodine on,-- corn-starch, flour, rice, cream of wheat, wheatena, oatmeal, tapioca, potato, meat, and egg. What is the result?
If a substance contains starch, it changes to a blue color when tincture of iodine is added to it.
From these experiments determine in which class--animal or vegetable--the starchy foods belong.
EXPERIMENT 15: THE EFFECT OF COLD WATER ON STARCH.--Mix half a teaspoonful of corn-starch or flour with cold water in a test tube or glass cup. What happens to a solid substance when it is dissolved? (See Experiment 6.) Set the mixture aside for a few minutes, then note its appearance. Is starch soluble in cold water? What important difference between starch and sugar does this experiment show?
EXPERIMENT 16: THE EFFECT OF HEAT ON STARCH.--Hold to the light the starch and water mixture from Experiment 15. Is it opaque or transparent? Turn the mixture into a saucepan, heat, and stir it; return the mixture to the test tube or cup and again hold it to the light.