ELEVATION

There's plenty of information on the web on this subject, and a good cookbook, such as the Joy of Cooking, will have pointers on cooking at higher altitudes.

Here's one link:

bread advice at this link seems to contradict the general cure you mentioned.

Bob

Write to the County Extension Service at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, Colorado and ask for their printed information about cooking/baking at altitude.

gloria p

I missed the original query so I'm responding to it via the response posted by Puester who posted good advice.

In article , Puester wrote: = wrote: = > We moved from an area near sea-level = > to a town, elev. 4500 feet. = > = > Suddenly, these cautions about high-elevation cooking are real. = > = > The general cure seems to be ..."add some flour". = > = > But why does it work ? = > Why do my initial batches seem underbaked ?

It could be related to the lower boiling point of water at higher altitudes. While your oven may be set to a temperature in excess of 300 degrees Fahrenheit, the internal temperature of any thing that contains water cannot exceed the boiling point of water. While that's 212 degrees F at sea level, it is quite a bit lower at higher altitudes.

Whether there's enough difference between sea level and 4500 feet ASL, I don't know offhand but as the OP suggested, contacting the extension service at any of the higher altitude states would be a good approach.

Here's the URL of the one suggested by the OP:

to that site, the boiling point of water at 5000 feet is203 degrees vs. 212 degrees at sea level. At 4500 feet, it would,of course, be slightly higher than 203 but not much. Using thatchart, one can calculate the BP change per foot of altitude or,perhaps, more convenient, per hundred feet. For each foot of altitude increase, the BP of water decreases

0.0018 degrees F, 0.18 degrees per hundred feet, or 1.8 degrees per thousand feet.

According to that site, the compensation for cakes made with shortening is to decrease the amount of leavening (i.e. baking powder):

Cakes Made with Shortening Most cake recipes perfected for sea level need no modifications up to 3,000 feet. Above that, decreased atmospheric pressure may result in excessive rising, which stretches the cell structure of the cake, making the texture coarse, or breaks the cells, causing the cake to fall. This usually is corrected by decreasing the amount of leavening agent. Also, increasing the baking temperature 15 to 25 degrees "sets" the batter before the cells formed by the leavening gas expand too much. Excessive evaporation of water at high altitude leads to high concentration of sugar, which weakens the cell structure. Therefore, decrease sugar in the recipe and increase liquid. Only repeated experiments with each recipe can give the most successful proportions to use. Table 3 is a helpful starting point. Try the smaller adjustment first, this may be all that is needed.

In making rich cakes at high altitudes, you might have to reduce shortening by 1 or 2 tablespoons. Fat, like sugar, weakens the cell structure. Also, increasing the amount of egg strengthens the cell structure and may prevent the too-rich cake from falling.

And Farther down:

Cake Mixes Adjustments usually take the form of strengthening the cell walls of the cake by adding all-purpose flour and liquid. Suggestions for high-altitude adjustments are provided on most cake mix boxes. Follow these suggestions.

So, apparently the answer to your question as to *why* one does that, is that adding flour strengthens the cell walls (i.e. the walls of the bubbles that make the cake rise) while decreasing the leavening decreases the force on those walls. In either case, the idea is to keep them from becoming to large (a coarse texture) or bursting (a fallen cake).

There's a great deal more information at that site for all sorts of cooking. Take a look.

Incidentally, while I rarely use box mixes (where I have seen the high-altitude adjustments), in general I seldom bother with high-altitude compensation. I presently live at about 6500 feet ASL and previously lived at about 7500 feet. Naturally, YMMV...

Would some things that I bake be improved by making the adjustments? Quite possibly but the results are satisfactory to me.

I'm sure it depends a lot on what you happen to be cooking.

Finally, from the web site cited above:

Practical Baking Notes: 1. Flour, use any brand of enriched all-purpose flour (or cake flour, if called for by the recipe). 2. Do not assume that your sea level recipe will fail. Try it first. It may need little or not [sic] modification.

I specially like #2. :)

= > I've got a lot of recipes in my notebook. = > Is there some general cure I can apply to all of them ? = > = > = = = Write to the County Extension Service at Colorado State University = in Ft. Collins, Colorado and ask for their printed information about = cooking/baking at altitude. = = gloria p