Frying is cooking in hot fat. To be done properly there should be fat enough to float the articles to be cooked, or in some instances to cover them. Lard and dripping may be used, and as they often contain water they should be heated until all the water is evaporated. So long as there is water in them they can be made no hotter than boiling water, and they will bubble and sputter until the water has all evaporated. It is useless to attempt to cook anything in the fat until it is still. Clear fat may be made very hot, but for cooking purposes it is never boiling hot, as some receipts indicate, as it would burn before it reached that point. When it smokes in the centre as well as on the edge it is about 385°, and is hot enough for the quickest kind of frying.

For flour mixtures like the doughnuts we are to make to-day, it is better to test the heat with a bit of the mixture. It should rise at once to the surface, swell, and begin to brown on the under side. The hot fat hardens the gluten in the dough, and forms a crust through which the fat cannot penetrate ; but if the fat be not hot enough, the dough will soak the fat and the cakes will be greasy.

If too great a proportion of soda be used, more than can be neutralized, doughnuts will soak the fat. It is not extravagant to use eggs in doughnuts, as the albumen in the eggs hardens quickly, and helps to keep out the fat, and thus makes them more wholesome.

Drop cakes, or fried muffins, are mixed soft, and dropped from a spoon into the fat, and shape themselves in cooking. They will also turn over when half done. Doughnuts are mixed stiff, rolled and cut into different shapes, and must be turned over in the fat.

After every frying, as soon as the fat is slightly cooled, strain it through a fine cloth into a pail. Never set it away to harden in the frying kettle without straining it, for the flour or crumbs which settle on the bottom will burn easily when it is heated again, and will adhere to anything that may be fried in it.

Suggestion to the Teacher.

For further information see " Boston Cook Book," pages 14-17, 80-82, 102; Williams's "Chemistry of Cookery," pages 84-110.