There are several degrees of thickness in batters. Thin batters are about the consistency of thin cream; thick batters are like thick cream; still thicker batters are stiff enough to keep their shape when poured from a spoon. Any batter is a pour batter until it is made so stiff that it breaks in the pouring and drops from the spoon. Then we call it a drop batter. So long as it is soft enough to be beaten it is a batter, but when a spoon can no longer be made to go through it easily, with a beating motion, it is a dough. Doughs may be of any thickness, from " just stiff enough to be shaped," or " as soft as can be handled easily," to those that are so stiff that they may be rolled thin as a wafer. It is better to become familiar with the proper consistency of batters and doughs by learning these descriptions, than to trust to such phrases as these, - " stiff as pound cake," "soft as ginger-bread," etc., which one often hears.

Muffin mixtures are thicker than the batters we learned to make in Lesson XII. The general proportion is one scant measure of liquid to two full measures of flour. The proportions will vary somewhat according to the thickness of the liquid - cream, milk, or water - and the thickening quality of the meal or flour.

This lesson shows us another way of obtaining; carbonic acid gas to lighten batter, namely, by the union of soda with molasses. Old-fashioned molasses (not syrup) contains acetic acid, and when it is mixed properly with soda, carbonic acid gas is liberated, and the soda is neutralized.

Soda may also be neutralized by the lactic acid in sour milk. In using soda with any acid, care must be taken to use the correct proportion, so that no alkali may be left, as any excess of alkali hinders digestion.

As the amount of acid in sour milk varies, it is often difficult to know how much soda to use. Sour milk is best when it sours quickly and becomes thick and solid. Then the proportion is 1 even tsp. of soda to 1 pt. of milk. When the milk is so old that it becomes watery and separates, or has a mouldy scum on the surface, it is unfit to use.

In winter, milk grows bitter before it sours, and often tastes sour but is not thick. Then it may be used as if it were sweet milk, with baking-powder, or in gingerbread or brown bread where you have molasses to complete the acidity.

Some people dissolve the soda in water, but as some of the gas escapes as soon as the soda is wet, a better way is to mix the soda with the flour, or other dry ingredients. Soda becomes lumpy in keeping, and should always be finely pulverized before it is measured, and then sifted through a fine wire strainer, and thoroughly mixed with the flour. Then when the liquid is added., the chemical action takes place in the dough, and none of the gas is lost, provided the mixture be quickly cooked.

Cream of tartar, made from the crystals which collect in wine casks, is the most convenient acid to use with soda ; for it unites with soda only when heated, and the gas therefore is not all liberated until the mixture is in the oven. Unless you have pure cream of tartar, it is safer to use a reliable baking-powder.

The proportion of soda and acids is as follows : 1 level tsp. soda and 2 slightly rounding tsp. cream of tartar for

1 qt. of flour. 1 level tsp. baking-powder for each cup of flour. -1 level tsp. soda to 1 pt. of thick sour milk. 1 level tsp. soda to 1 c. of molasses for batters. 1/2 tsp. soda to 1 c. of molasses for stiff doughs.

In any receipt where soda is to be used with cream of tartar you may substitute baking-powder, in the proportion of one level teaspoonful of baking-powder to each cup of flour or meal.

Where only a small amount of carbonic acid gas is desired, it is safer to use baking-powder, as it is more accurately measured than fractions of a spoonful of soda and cream of tartar.

In preparing all kinds of batters and soft doughs, which are made light with soda and an acid, mix the dry ingredients in one bowl; then mix the liquids with the beaten eggs, stir this quickly into the dry mixture ; add the butter, melted, and when these are thoroughly mixed, bake or fry immediately.