The other day in the Aug. 1 Forum, Randy Bindner and Sherrill Boyle, both of Everett, shared recipes for sunshine cake. Taken from the same source, but different editions of 1927 cookbooks published by the Royal Baking Powder Co., the recipes were similar, yet somewhat different.
Readers who checked them out might have noticed a couple of oldtime terms, “cook until syrup hairs” and “cut and fold,” neither of which may have rung a bell with today’s cooks.
Today, Rosalie Francisco of Edmonds tells us, “Before there were candy thermometers, ‘hairs’ was a candymaking term. When you boil sugar and water for candy (or the sunshine cake), you test the readiness by dropping a small amount of syrup into a half-cup of cold water. It may form a soft ball, firm ball, hard ball, crack stage, etc.
“In my 1937 ‘Boston Cookbook,’ on page 274 is a list of the tests for sugar sirup (sic). Most other old cookbooks have it in the candy, frostings or confections section.
“The ‘hair’ stage can also be determined by letting a drip fall off the spoon into the pan and watching the drip — if instead of a fat drip, it forms a thin hair or thread, it is ready for the next ingredient or step in the recipe. An interesting note is that in ‘Meta Givens Modern Encyclopedia,’ using the cold water test allows you to evaluate the candy reflecting atmosphere — humidity, air temp, etc.
“Another note — remove the pan from the heat while you are testing or you may overcook the syrup.”
Rosalie adds, “To cut and fold just means to gently fold in the flour with a spatula instead of stirring around with a spoon or using a mixer. It lifts the batter and incorporates air into the egg white mixture, as for angelfood cake. You can cut down and then lift up the mixture until the flour is incorporated.”
Next, when the doctor gives you the dreaded “cut or radically reduce the salt,” speech, a lot of us feel that food as we have previously known and enjoyed it is gone forever. And that’s a really lousy way to feel about something …
But hang on, it may not be totally hopeless. Spice Islands has a few tips that should make the situation more hopeful:
Increase the amount of herbs and spices by 25 percent when reducing or eliminating salt in a recipe. For example, if a recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of oregano, use 1 1/4 teaspoons. Remember some popular seasoning blends contain mainly salt. Be sure to check the label; salt must be listed. If the term “spices” is listed, this does not include salt.
Use onion and garlic powder in place of onion and garlic salt. You’ll get all of the onion or garlic flavor without the salt.
For long-cooking soups and stews, reduce the salt. Then, reserve about one-quarter of the spices called for, and add them at the end of cooking. This will give a more intense flavor to the dish. For leafy herbs such as rosemary and leaf oregano, lightly crush the herbs to bring out maximum flavor.
If a recipe calls for fresh herbs and you have dried on hand, simply use 1/3 to 1/2 as much dry for the fresh.
The next Forum will appear in Monday’s Good Life section.
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