FORM IV: SENIOR GRADE
FOODS
The Senior Fourth class is the preparatory class for entrance into the
high school, and for many girls it is the final school year. For this
reason the Course of this year should cover as many of the remaining
household operations as possible.
The training of the previous years should have formed good habits of
work and have given experience in ordinary cleaning, and in the cooking
and serving of the simple food materials. Through this training the
pupils should also have been impressed with the value of food, and
should have learned the sources of food and of all well-known household
materials.
The training of this last year, while continuing the Junior work, should
also emphasize the household processes that require greater mental
development to understand and greater practical skill to carry out. It
is the border year between the public school and the high school, and
must necessarily anticipate the elementary science of the latter. In
this year more responsibility should be given to the pupils and more
originality should be expected of them. Where they have hitherto
followed recipes and been given rules, they should now follow principles
and deduce rules.
Of the several topics outlined in the Course for Form IV Senior, it is
advisable to start with the preservation of food. Fruit and vegetables
are most plentiful when the school year opens, and September is the
most opportune month to preserve these for winter use. Facts concerning
food preservation may have been taken incidentally in previous lessons,
but now the subject should be systematically taught, so that canning,
preserving, and pickling may be intelligently practised.
PRESERVATION OF FOOD
CAUSE OF DECAY
The lesson may be introduced by referring to the unusual attention given
to fruit at the time of ripening. The economical housekeeper takes
certain foods when they are most plentiful and preserves them for use
when they are not in season. Some foods require special care to keep
them from decaying. The decay is caused by the action of microscopic
plants called "bacteria", which get into the food.
BACTERIA
It is difficult for any one to get a correct conception of bacteria;
especially is it so for children. The teacher should be most careful not
to attempt to give the class unimportant details, but the few necessary
facts should be made very clear and real. The following points should be
impressed:
1. Bacteria are plants. (This fact should be kept clearly in mind.)
2. They are microscopic in size and hence the more difficult to deal
with.
3. They are found everywhere that there is life--in the air, in water,
in the soil.
4. They multiply very rapidly under favourable conditions.
5. Some bacteria are useful to the housekeeper; many kinds are her
enemies.
6. Some of these enemies get into food and, growing there, cause a
change in it--then we say the food is spoiled.
CONDITIONS OF BACTERIAL GROWTH
All plants have the same requirements. Any well-known plant may be put
before the class to help them to think of these. They must be told that
microscopic plants differ from other plants in one respect; they do not
need light. Hence bacterial requirements are as follows: (1) water, (2)
food, (3) air (oxygen), (4) heat.
The class should be led to see that if any one of these conditions is
removed, the remaining ones are insufficient for the plant's activity.
MEANS OF OVERCOMING BACTERIA
To the housekeeper, preserving food means overcoming bacteria. There are
only two ways of doing this, either of which may be chosen:
1. Kill the bacteria in the food and exclude others.
2. Subject the food to conditions which are unfavourable for bacterial
growth.
In the first way, extreme heat is used to kill the bacteria in the food,
and then while hot, the food is sealed to keep out other bacteria:
Example, canning.
In the second way, conditions are made unfavourable to the bacteria in
the food, as follows:
1. The bacteria are deprived of water; the food is dried.
2. The bacteria are deprived of sufficient heat to be active; cold
storage is used.
3. Large quantities of certain substances which are detrimental to the
growth of bacteria are put into the food, and the bacteria become
inactive. Examples: salt, sugar, spices, vinegar, smoke, or certain
chemicals.
When the lesson is finished, the class is ready to practise the
principles it involves. The lessons on the special preservation of fruit
may follow at once.
[Illustration: Utensils used in canning]
CANNING
As canning is the method of preservation most commonly used, practice
should be given in this method. In rural schools with a limited
equipment, it may be that only one jar can be prepared. In other
schools, it may be impossible to provide each pupil with material for
work, on account of the expense. In the latter case, the materials may
all be brought from home, or each pupil may bring her own jar and fruit,
and the school supply the sugar.
Instruction on the care of jars and the preparation of fruit and syrup
must precede the practical work.
CARE OF JARS
1. See that the jars are air-tight; partly fill the jar with water;
place rubbers, covers, and rims; screw tightly, and invert. If any water
oozes out, the jar is not air-tight. Often an extra rubber will correct
the trouble.
2. Wash the jars thoroughly with the aid of a small brush.
3. Sterilize the jars in every part; dip them in boiling water, or place
them on a rest (folded paper or wooden slats) in a kettle, to prevent
the jars from touching the bottom. Fill and surround them with tepid
water, then place them over heat until the water boils. Keep them in the
boiling water until ready to fill with fruit. Dip the rubber bands in
boiling water, but do not allow them to remain in it. Use new rubbers
each season.
4. When filling the jars, place them on a folded cloth wrung out of warm
water, then seal, and invert until cool.
PREPARATION OF FRUIT
Use fresh, sound fruit, not too ripe.
1. Berries.--Pick over, wash in a strainer, and hull.
2. Currants, gooseberries.--Pick over, wash, remove ends and stems.
3. Cherries.--Pick over, wash, remove stones and stems.
4. Plums.--Pick over, wash, remove stems, and prick three or four times
with a silver fork, in order to prevent the steam bursting the skin.
5. Pears, apples.--Pick over, wash, pare, and, to prevent discoloration,
keep in cold water until used.
6. Peaches.--Pick over, plunge into boiling water a few seconds (using a
wire basket), then into cold water; peel; drop into cold water to
prevent discoloration.
SYRUP FOR CANNING
Use about 1 cup of water for each pint can.
No. 1 Syrup.--Equal parts of sugar and water, or 1 cup of water and 1
cup of sugar.
No. 2 Syrup.--1 1/2 cups of water and 1 cup of sugar.
1. Use No. 1 syrup for watery fruits and acid fruits.
2. Use No. 2 syrup for pears, peaches, sweet plums, sweet cherries, etc.
METHODS OF CANNING
1. Fruit cooked in a steamer:
Fill the sterilized jars with prepared fruit,
with or without syrup. Place the covers, but do
not fasten them down. Stand the jars in a
steamer over cold water. Cover the steamer and
heat to the boiling point. Steam at least
fifteen minutes, or until the fruit is tender.
Remove from the steamer, fill to overflowing
with boiling syrup, and seal at once. Invert.
2. Fruit cooked in a boiler:
Put a false bottom in the boiler, to prevent
the jars from being broken. Fill the jars with
fruit, and add syrup if desired. Cover and
place the jars in the boiler without touching
one another. Pour in tepid water to within an
inch of the top of the jars and bring gradually
to boiling heat. Cook and finish as directed in
1, above.
3. Fruit cooked in an oven:
Fill sterilized, hot jars with prepared raw
fruit and cover with hot syrup. Place the jars
in a moderate oven, in a baking dish containing
about an inch or two of hot water. Cook and
finish as in 1, above.
4. Fruit cooked in a kettle:
Make a syrup in a fairly deep kettle. Put the
prepared fruit into it and cook gently until
tender. When the fruit is cooked, lift
carefully into hot, sterilized jars, and fill
to overflowing with boiling syrup. Seal at once
and invert.
NOTE.--By Methods 1, 2, and 3 the fruit is kept
more perfect in shape and loses less flavour
than by Method 4. Methods 2 and 4 are best to
choose for class practice.
After the lesson in Canning, it may not be wise to take the school time
for further practice in the preservation of fruit. When such is the
case, the theory of jam and jelly making may be discussed in class for
home practice. The notes of these lessons may appear as follows:
JAMS AND PRESERVES
POINTS IN MAKING JAM
1. In this method sugar is the preservative, therefore the amount used
must be large.
2. The quantity of sugar used is from three quarters to one pound of
sugar to each pound of fruit. Little or no water is used.
3. The natural shape and appearance of the fruit is not kept.
4. The flavour of the fruit is not so natural, on account of the
excessive sweetness.
5. The jar need not be sealed, but merely covered.
JELLY
COMPOSITION OF JELLY
1. Jelly is made from certain fruit juices and sugar.
2. The fruit juice must contain a certain amount of _pectin_, or
jellying principle, and also a certain amount of acid.
PARTS OF FRUIT CONTAINING MOST PECTIN
(1) Skin, (2) core, (3) pits and seeds.
[Illustration: Utensils used in making jelly]
FRUITS CONTAINING MOST PECTIN
1. Currants
2. Crab-apples, apples
3. Quinces
4. Cranberries, blackberries, raspberries
5. Grapes, if rather green.
METHOD OF MAKING JELLY
1. Cut up the prepared fruit if necessary, and add barely enough water
for cooking.
2. Set over the heat and simmer gently until the cellulose is very soft.
3. Turn into a jelly-bag, and drain for a number of hours or over night,
in order to get rid of the cellulose.
4. Measure the drained juice and take the same quantity of sugar.
5. Heat the sugar in the oven.
6. Boil the juice gently and steadily for twenty minutes, skimming when
required.
7. Add the hot sugar and boil very gently from three to five minutes, or
until the mixture will jelly when tested.
8. Empty at once into hot glasses and set to cool.
9. When cold and firm, cover and set in a cool, dark place.
METHODS OF COVERING JAM OR JELLY
1. Melt paraffin and pour a layer on each glass, cover with a tin cover
or paper pasted with egg-white.
2. Cut clean, white paper to fit the glass, and lay on the jelly when it
is firm and cold. Place the cover or paper as in 1, above.
PICKLING
Where the teacher finds it desirable, a lesson should now be given on
pickling, with or without class practice. At least one or two good
recipes may be given for home use.
There are no new principles to teach. The use of vinegar, salt, and
spices as preservatives should be reviewed.