Wayne Boatwright wrote:
> On Mon 04 Apr 2005 08:23:44a, jmcquown wrote in rec.food.cooking:
>
>> K. Reece wrote:
>>> "Wayne Boatwright" > wrote in message
>>> ...
>>>
>>>
>>>> Baking, OTOH, is chemistry, pure and simple, particularly baked
>>>> goods like cakes. Without the proper formula of flour, fat, sugar,
>>>> eggs, leavening, etc., a failure is almost assured. When one
>>>> becomes competent with the essentials, modifications are more
>>>> easily made with successful results.
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Wayne Boatwright
>>>
>>> So then, how did they make cake before Fannie Farmer came along with
>>> her precise measurements? And if a cake has to be an exact formula,
>>> why are there so many variations? There are probably thousands and
>>> thousands of different cake recipes all with different ratios of
>>> flour, fat, sugar, eggs, leavening, etc.
>>>
>>>
>>> Kathy
>>
>> OTOH, would you know how to bake (anything) in a wood or coal burning
>> oven? You don't have a dial to set to say "350F" - you can't really
>> regulate the heat. My great-aunt Ada *never* replaced her big wood
>> burning stove with a modern stove and she made wonderful pies that
>> came out perfectly. Guess it was just practice over all those
>> years; she could just use her hand to figure out if the temp was
>> right. I couldn't do that.
>>
>> Jill
>
> We have the "luxury" of precision equipment in almost every facet of
> home cooking today that virtually did not exist in the kitchens of our
> ancestors. Probably most people who cooked well back then got an
> early sart at their mother's knee, then continued through practice to
> hone their skills.
>
Exactly. Of course, it was "expected" of women of that era.

> Both my grandmothers had wood burning cookstoves and produced
> wonderful food and baked goods using them. I know that I couldn't
> bake on one of those. The stove on my dad's mother had a small
> dial-type thermometer mounted on the outside of the main oven door.
> I remember asking my grandmother why she never paid attention to the
> numbers on the termometer. She said it was never right, and she just
> stuck her hand into the front of the oven to test for temperature.

My great-aunt did exactly that. I don't know how old she was when I saw her
last; she was my dad's aunt and he's now 80. She must have been close to
that age when I saw her back in 1971 and she was still cranking out pies on
that old cast iron wood stove by "feel". I couldn't begin to tell you how
she measured ingredients but I doubt seriously if she had anything really
measured (except perhaps by weight for flour and lard). Amazing, isn't it?

Jill