Let's look at shortening / Lever Brothers Company.

Date:
1940
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Let's look at shortening / Lever Brothers Company. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Note that the baked circles of dough resem- ble hard-tack. They are dull brown in color and extremely hard and tough in texture. Considerable pressure is required to break them. In such a product the flour structure is made up of long, tough, glutinous strands. B. Flour mixture (with shortening added ) Add 21% tablespoons Spry to 1 cup sifted flour and cut in fine. Sprinkle !'4 cup water over mixture and work lightly into a dough with a fork. Roll and cut as before and bake in a very hot oven (450°F.) 15 minutes. Note the striking change in appearance. The circles now have slightly blistered tops. While they may be broken more readily, they still have the hardness of pilot bread. Note the flaky layers inside. The shortening has tended to prevent the formation of long, tenacious strands of gluten and thus promoted tenderness. C. Flour mixture (with more shortening added) Cut 5 tablespoons Spry into 1 cup sifted flour. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons water over mix- ture and work into dough. Roll and cut as before; bake in very hot oven (450°F.) 138 minutes. Now the baked circles look like pastry. They are golden brown, tender, and flaky. The larger amount of shortening has modified the gluten, making a crisp and tender product. Importance in Cookery Baked foods are dependent upon shortening power for tenderness and pleasurable eating quality. Pastry owes its tenderness and flaki- ness to effective shortening action. Cakes, cookies, and breads may be made _ passably tender or meltingly tender by varying the amount of shortening. It is of prime impor- tance to select a shortening known to be 100% efficient in its shortening action. 9. MOISTURE-HOLDING CAPACITY — enhances moistness and eating qual- ity of final product. Place 1 cup Spry in a large bowl. In a small bowl mix 1% teaspoon liquid red food coloring with 1 cup water. Add this colored water to the shortening, | tablespoon at a time, stirring carefully after each addition until the water is fully absorbed. Note that the shortening absorbs an equal measure of liquid readily. Store mixture at room temperature for sev- eral days. At the end of that time, notice that the shortening still retains the liquid — none has separated out. Shortening should be able to absorb at least an equal amount of liquid with perfect safety. One cup of shortening should be able to absorb and hold at least an equal amount of liquid. crumb of a cake, the silky moistness of a yeast roll, the soft creaminess of a frosting, and the ability of these products to stay fresh. 10. SMOKE POINT — sufficiently high to insure odorless, smokeless fryings. The behavior of a frying fat may be studied in conjunction with the potato-frying demon- stration outlined on page 15. Importance in Cookery The smoking behavior of a shortening is of major importance in frying. Smoke arising from a kettle of hot fat is a visible sign of the decomposition of that fat with the consequent lowering of the smoke point. This breakdown A fat should not smoke at proper frying temperatures. is accompanied by irritating fumes and a sharp, disagreeable odor. It is, therefore, highly desirable that the smoke point of a fat be well above those temperatures used for frying (360° to 390°F.). Furthermore, a fat
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