Common Mistakes in Cooking 15

Baking powder or soda biscuits, gems, articles containing
baking powder, need a very hot oven, and should be baked on the
bottom before they are browned on the top.

Cakes split in the centre and burst open when they have been
baked too quickly on top.

Pop-overs depend for their lightness entirely upon the heat of
the oven, and must be baked quickly with the greater heat
underneath, to drive them up, as it were. Pop-overs are often
sodden when the batter is too thick, or when they have not been
sufficiently mixed. :

Batter puddings are soggy and heavy when they contain too
little flour, or when the baking powder has been mixed with the
flour, and ‘this added to the milk and egg sometime before the
pudding has been baked.

Whole wheat bread should be as light as white bread; if it is
not, too much flour has been added, or it has been kneaded a
third time. :

Pies lose their juices in the oven when the upper and under
crusts are not well fastened together. Use a wide-rimmed dish ;
brush the edge of the under crust with water or white of egg
before placing the upper crust. ‘Then press the paste together
on the inner edge of the rim, but loosen it from the outer edge of
the dish. To be more explicit, if the undercrust fastens itself
to the dish the upper crust, in swelling, separates from it, and the
juices escape.

The meringue on a pie will usually remain fluffy, if it is left
in the warm kitchen after taking from the oven; but if taken into
the cold it will fall.

All pastry should be baked in a hot oven.

The hottest part of the oven. The question often arises as to
which is the hottest part of the oven. ‘‘Where shall we bake
pastry and cakes — on the grates, or on the floor of the oven?”
This depends largely upon the stove. If it is a gas stove they
should be baked on the grate, and, perhaps, one burner turned