24.2 Cereals, Flour Mixtures and Baking, Sugar Cookery, Fats and Oils, and Beverages

The Understanding Foods competency area asks examinees to explain composition, market forms, ingredient functions, and reactions during processing. Starch gelatinization, retrogradation, and emulsions are explained in the food chemistry section; this section applies them to grains, baking, sugars, fats, and beverages.

Cereal Grains

Structure: the bran (outer layers with fiber, B vitamins, and minerals), the germ (embryo with fat, vitamin E, and B vitamins), and the endosperm (mostly starch with some protein). Milling removes the bran and germ, lowering fiber, thiamine, and other nutrients, so refined grains are often enriched.

Rice:

• Grain length: long, medium, and short grain; short grains are stickier.
• Glutinous rice (malagkit) is almost all amylopectin, giving its sticky texture for suman and biko.
• Brown rice keeps the bran and germ; well-milled rice has most bran removed.
• Parboiled rice is soaked, steamed, and dried before milling, driving B vitamins into the endosperm.
• Washing rice repeatedly removes water-soluble B vitamins and any enrichment coating; wash briefly.
• Typical cooking ratio is about 1 part rice to 1.5-2 parts water, depending on the variety.

Corn: white corn grits are a rice substitute in parts of the Visayas and Mindanao. Treating corn with lime (nixtamalization) releases bound niacin.

Wheat flours:

Gluten forms when glutenin (elasticity) and gliadin (extensibility) are hydrated and mixed. Kneading develops gluten for bread; minimal mixing keeps cakes and muffins tender.

Functions of Baking Ingredients

Leavening agents:

• Air: creaming fat and sugar, beating eggs, sifting flour.
• Steam: important in cream puffs and popovers.
• Carbon dioxide: from yeast fermentation (breads) or chemical leaveners. Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) needs an acid such as buttermilk, yogurt, molasses, or calamansi; excess gives a soapy taste and yellow color. Baking powder contains soda plus an acid; double-acting powder releases gas when mixed and again when heated.

Batters and doughs (approximate liquid-to-flour ratios): pour batter about 1:1 (pancakes); drop batter about 1:2 (muffins); soft dough about 1:3 (biscuits, rolls); stiff dough about 1:6-8 (pie crust, cookies).

Mixing methods: the muffin method mixes wet and dry ingredients just until moistened (overmixing causes tunnels and toughness); the biscuit method cuts solid fat into flour for flakiness; the creaming method beats fat and sugar for butter cakes. Foam cakes (sponge, chiffon, angel food) rely on beaten eggs. Steamed rice cakes such as puto use rice flour and chemical leavening or fermentation.

Sugar Cookery

Crystalline candies (fudge, fondant, pastillas) need small crystals: cool before beating and use interfering agents such as corn syrup, cream of tartar (which inverts sucrose), fat, and milk proteins. Noncrystalline candies (brittles, hard candies, caramels) are cooked to high temperatures with interfering agents to prevent crystallization.

Fats and Oils

Types: butter (about 80% fat), margarine, shortening, lard, coconut oil (highly saturated), palm oil, and liquid vegetable oils.

Functions: tenderizing, aeration in creaming, flakiness in pastry, heat transfer in frying, flavor, and emulsions.

Frying practices:

• Fry at about 175-190 °C; food fried in oil that is too cool absorbs more fat.
• Do not overload the fryer, which drops the temperature.
• Filter oil after use and store covered away from light.
• Discard oil that is dark, foams, smells rancid, or smokes at normal frying temperature.
• Avoid adding salt over the fryer, and keep water away from hot oil.

Beverages

The TRAIN Law (RA 10963, 2017) imposed an excise tax on sweetened beverages: ₱6 per liter for drinks with caloric or non-caloric sweeteners and ₱12 per liter for drinks using high-fructose corn syrup.