On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 1052

theAmericanstandard;andhydrogenated
shorteningandchlorinatedflourbecame
standardkitchensuppliesforcakesmade
“fromscratch.”
AnEarlyEnglishPoundCakeRecipe
Inthecenturiesbeforeelectricmixersand
preleavened shortenings, filling a dense
cakebatterwithmanyfineairbubbleswas
hard,prolongedwork!
ToMakeaPoundCake
Take a pound of butter, beat it in an
earthenpan,withyourhandoneway,tillit
islikeafinethickcream;thenhaveready
twelveeggs,buthalfthewhites,beatthem
well, and beat them up with the butter, a
pound of flour beat in it, and a pound of
sugar,andafewcaraways;beatitallwell
together for an hour with your hand, or a
greatwoodenspoon.Butterapan,andput
itinandbakeitanhourinaquickoven.


—HannahGlasse,TheArtofCookery
MadePlainandEasy,1747
The Disadvantages of Modified Fats and
Flours Hydrogenated vegetable shortenings
andchlorinatedflourareveryuseful,buthave
drawbacks that lead some bakers to avoid
them.Hydrogenatedshorteningdoesnothave
the flavor that butter does, and has the more
seriousdisadvantageofcontaininghighlevels

of trans fatty acids (10–35% compared to
butter’s 3–4%; seep. 38). Chlorinated flour
hasadistinctivetastethatsomebakersdislike
(othersfindthatitenhancescakearoma).And
the chlorine ends up in fat-like flour
molecules that accumulate in animal bodies.
There’snoevidencethatthisaccumulationis
harmful, but the European Union and the
United Kingdom consider the safety of
chlorinatedflourunproven,andforbiditsuse.
The U.S. FDA and the World Health
Organizationconsiderchlorinatedflourasafe