White House Cookbook

Revised Edition

Francis Folsom Cleveland The Bride of the White House

No copyright or publisher information in my copy; it probably fell out.

Well used and loved by my grandmother. I was taught dozens of these guidlines for the methods of cooking.

Page 284 - Pastry, Pies and Tarts
Great care is requisite in heating an oven for baking pastry. If you can hold your hand in the heated oven while you count twenty, the oven has just the proper temperature, and it should be kept at this temperature as long as the pastry is in; this heat will bake to light brown, and will give the pastry a fresh and flakey appearance.

Page 252 - Cakes
To ascetain when the cake is done, run a broom straw into the middle of it; if it comes out clean and smooth, the cake will do to take out.(sic)

Pages 251-252
...care should be taken that no cold air enters the oven....the oven should be a moderate heat, not too cold or too hot; much depends on this for success.

....The heat should be tested fefore the cake is put in, which can be done by throwing on the floor of the oven a tablespoonful of new flour. If the flour takes fire, or assumes a dark-brown color, the termperature is too high, and the oven must be allowed to cool; if the flour remains white after the lapse of a few seconds, the temperature is too low. When the oven is the proper temperature, the flour will slightly borwn and look slightly scorched.

Pages 212-213 Bread

As a general rule, the oven for baking bread should be rather quick, and the heat so regulated as to penetrate the dough without hardening the outside....When the loaves are ready to put into the oven, the oven should be ready to recieve them. It should be hot enough to brown a teaspooful of flour in five minutes. The heat should be greater at the bottom than at the top of the oven, and the fire arranged as to give sufficient strength of heat through the baking without being replenished.

Page 94 Meats

A great deal of the success in roasting depends on the heat and goodness of the fire; if put into a cool oven it loses its juices, and the result is a tough, tasteless roast; whereas, if the oven is of the proper heat, it immediately sears up the pores of the meat and the juices are retained.

The oven should be hottest when the meat is put into it, in order to quickly crisp the surface and close the pores of the meat, thereby confining it natural juices. If the oven is too hot to hold the hand in for only a moment, then the oven is right to receive the meat.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Always in the best of taste.