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Baking Powder

Is a sa onience which the chemistry of the nineteenth century has given to the cook; its uses are indicated in the following pages ; a question is sometimes asked as to the healthfulress of Baking Powder, it may be replied that a good Cream Tartar baking powder will, not only not injure the most delicate constitution, but may prove in many cases highly beneficial, whilst those in which Lime phosphates and Alum are used should be avoided. To be certain of its composition the cook might prepare her own baking powder; it is, however, confessedly difficult to obtain pure ingredients for this purpose at retail, no article being more generally found adulterated than Cream of Tartar, it is, therefore, safest to purchase the powder of a respectable maker who procures his supplies on a large scale, from places of production, and can test their purity.

In using baking powder, the proper proportion should, in every case, be mixed intimately and uniformly with the dry flour, if shortening is to be used, it, also, should be mixed with the flour before wetting, the best powders give ample time for kneading, etc., but some-those using Tartaric Acid for instance-require expeditious use, else their effect will be lost from the too rapid production of gas.

Unlike yeast, which changes to some extent the nature of all the flour used in a batch, and entirely destroys a portion of it, for the production of gas, baking powder leaves the flour quite unchanged, there is, therefore, no danger from yeast spores, which may have escaped alive from insufficient baking, obtaining access to the stomach; these latter are the cause of pains and eructations which frequently follow the use of warm yeast bread.