BREAD, BREAKFAST CAKES, ETC.
Flour—Making Bread—Milk Bread—Potato—Household—Dyspepsia—Indian—Yeast—Rolls—French—Toast—Biscuit—Tea Cakes—Breakfast—Short—Belvidere—Lapland—Sally Lunn—Nuns—Flannel—Crumpets—Batter—Buck-wheat Waffles—Indian meal bread of various kinds.
Flour.—The first requisite for good bread is that the flour or meal be good. Wheat is always better for being washed; if it be at all injured by smut, it is not fit for food unless it be thoroughly washed. In the country this is easily done.
Put the grain in a clean tub, a bushel at a time; fill the tub with water, and stir the whole up from the bottom, briskly, with your hand, or a stick. Pour off the water and fill it with clean till the water ceases to be colored or dirty. Two or three waters usually are sufficient. Finish the washing quickly as possible, so as not to soak the grain; then spread it thinly on a large, strong sheet, (it is best to keep a coarse unbleached sheet solely for this purpose, if you wash your grain,) laid on clean boards in the sun, or where the sun and air can be freely admitted. Stir the grain with your hand every two or three hours; it will dry in a day, if the weather be fair.
Fresh-ground flour makes the best and sweetest bread. If you live in the vicinity of a mill, never have more than one or two bushels ground into flour at a time.
A bushel of good, clear wheat will make 56 pounds of flour, beside the bran and middlings.
If you purchase flour by the barrel or sack, be careful to ascertain that it is good and pure. In Europe, flour is often adulterated, that is, mixed with other substances, to swell its bulk and weight. Whiting, ground stones, and bones, and plaster of Paris, are the ingredients chiefly used. To be sure, none of these things are absolutely poisonous; but they are injurious, and no one wants them in bread. In our country we think such deceptions are seldom attempted, still it may be well to know how to detect the least bad matter in flour.
To discover whiting, dip the ends of the fore-finger and thumb into sweet oil, and take up a small quantity of flour between them. If it be pure, you may freely rub the fingers together for any length of time, it will not become sticky, and the substance will turn nearly black; if whiting be mixed with the flour, a few times rubbing turns it into putty, but its color is very little changed.
To detect stone dust or plaster of Paris—drop the juice of lemon or a little sharp vinegar on a small quantity of flour; if adulterated, an immediate effervescence takes place; if pure, it will remain at rest. Another quick, and pretty sure method of trial is to squeeze tightly for a minute a handful of the flour—if it be pure, when the hand is opened, the flour will remain in a lump, and the grains or wrinkles of the skin of the hand will be visible; but if it contain foreign substance, it will crumble almost immediately.
Making Bread.—To make the proper quantity for a small family, take 10 quarts of flour, put it into a kneading trough, or well-glazed earthen pan, large enough to hold double the quantity of flour. Make a deep round hole in the centre of the flour, and pour into it half a pint of brewer’s yeast, or the thick sediment from home-brewed beer—the last, if good, is to be preferred. In either case the yeast must be mixed with a pint of milk-warm water, and well stirred before it is poured in. Then with a spoon stir into this liquid, gradually, so much of the surrounding flour as will make it like thin batter; sprinkle this over with dry flour, till it is covered entirely. Then cover the trough or pan with a warm cloth, and set it by the fire in winter, and where the sun is shining in summer. This process is called “setting the sponge.” The object is to give strength and character to the ferment by communicating the quality of leaven to a small portion of the flour, which will then be easily extended to the whole. Setting sponge is a measure of wise precaution—for if the yeast does not rise and ferment in the middle of the flour, it shows that the yeast is not good; the batter can then be removed, without wasting much of the flour, and another sponge set with better yeast.
Let the sponge stand till the batter has swelled and risen so as to form cracks in the covering of flour; then scatter over it a table-spoonful of fine salt, and begin to form the mass into dough, by pouring in, by degrees, as much warm water as is necessary to mix with the flour. Ten quarts of flour will re quire about two quarts of water. It will be well to prepare rather more; soft water is much the best; it should in summer be warm as new milk; during winter, it ought to be somewhat warmer, as flour is a cold, heavy substance.
Add the water by degrees to the flour, mix them with your hand, till the whole mass is incorporated; it must then be worked most thoroughly, moulded over and over, and kneaded with your clenched hands, till it becomes so perfectly smooth and light, as well as stiff, that not a particle will adhere to your hands. Remember that you cannot have good bread, light and white, unless you give the dough a thorough kneading. Then make the dough into a lump in the middle of the trough or pan, and dust it over with flour to prevent its adhering to the vessel. Cover it with a warm cloth, and in the winter the vessel should be placed near the fire. It now undergoes a further fermentation, which is shown by its swelling and rising; this, if the ferment was well formed, will be at its height in an hour—somewhat less in very warm weather. It ought to be taken at its height, before it begins to fall.
Divide the dough into four equal portions; mould on your paste-board, and form them into loaves; put these on well-floured tin or earthen plates, and place them immediately in the oven.
Of the Oven.—A brick oven, heated with wood, is far superior to any other for baking bread, as well as for most other purposes, being much more easy to regulate, as well as more economical, than an iron one.
If the brick oven be a good one, it will heat sufficiently in in hour. Kindle the fire with some quick burning material; when fill it up with hard wood, split fine and dried; let the wood burn down, stir the coals evenly over the bottom of the oven, and let them lie till they are like embers. When the oven is sufficiently hot, the bricks at the arch and sides will be clear from any color of smoke. Sweep out the oven; throw in a little flour on the bottom; if it turns black at once, do not put in the bread, but let it stand a few moments and cool.
It is a good rule to put the fire in the oven when the dough is made up—the latter will rise, and the former heat in about the same time.
When the bread is in the oven it must be kept closed, except it is opened for a moment to see how the bread appears. If the oven is properly heated, loaves of the size named, will be done 1½ or 2 hours. They will weigh 3½ lbs. nearly, per loaf.
When loaves are done, place them on a clean shelf in a cool pantry. If the crust should be scorched, or the bread too much baked, the loaves, when taken from the oven, may be wrapped in a clean coarse towel, which has been slightly damped. Keep a light cloth over all the loaves. When one has been cut, it should be kept in a tight box to prevent its drying.
Obs.—Three things must be exactly right in order to have good bread—the quality of the yeast; the lightness or fermentation of the dough; and the heat of the oven. No precise rules can be given to ascertain these points. It requires observation, reflection, and a quick, nice judgment, to decide when all are right.
Milk Bread.—To 14 pounds of flour use a pint of yeast, 4 eggs, and milk of the warmth it comes from the cow; make it into a dough, the thickness of hasty-pudding; leave it 2 hours to rise; sift over it a sufficient quantity of fine salt; work it with flour to a proper consistence. It takes a quick oven: always try a little bit before the bread is made up, as it will show the state of the bread as well as the oven.*
A very light Potato Bread.—Dry 2 pounds of fine flour, and rub into it a pound of warm mealy potatoes; add warm milk and water, with a sufficient quantity of yeast and salt, at the proper time; leave it 2 hours to rise in a warm corner, in winter; bake it in tin shapes, otherwise it will spread, as the dough will rise very light. It makes nice hot rolls for butter. An excellent tea or bun bread is made of it, by adding sugar, eggs, and currants.*
Bread for flatulent Stomachs.—Add to a pound of well-dried sifted flour 8 eggs; sift in a pound of sugar; beat all together for an hour and a half; form it into cakes, and bake them in a quick oven.†
Excellent Household Bread—Take 4 quarts of the best flour, a tea-spoonful of salt, three table-spoonsful of yeast, a pint and a half of warm water.
Another Excellent Bread.—Sift half a peck of the finest flour into a kneading-trough; make a hole in the middle, and put in half a pint of warm milk, and half a pint of good yeast; work it with a little of the flour; cover it well up in a warm place an hour to rise; add 1½ pint of milk and half a pint of water, of a proper warmth, with a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, and 2 spoonsful of sugar; knead it well, and set it again before the fire; put in a little fine pounded salt; knead it well; form it, and put it again before the fire to rise; bake in a quick oven.
Obs.—Where families bake but once a week—often the case in the country during winter—they will find simple additions very economical, as the bread goes much farther, and, if well made, keeps longer sound and good. In families, two kinds of bread are generally made; and this management holds equally good with both. When the large batch is made, a certain quantity may be taken off, into which a little butter or top-pot, eggs, carraway-seeds, currants, ginger, &c., may be added; also, sugar may be worked in. Two or three different cakes may be thus prepared for breakfast, tea, or the children. Such cake-bread is more nourishing than rich cakes, and less likely to injure children.
Brown, or Dyspepsia Bread.—This bread, made of unbolted wheaten flour, is an excellent article of diet for the dyspeptic, and would be beneficial for most persons of sedentary habits. The most difficult point in making this bread is to obtain good pure meal. To make it, take 6 quarts of meal, 1 tea-cupful of good yeast, and half a tea-cupful of molasses; mix these with a pint of milk-warm water, and a tea-spoonful of pearl-ash or saleratus: make a hole in the flour, and stir in this mixture in the middle of the meal till it is like batter. Proceed as with fine flour bread. When sufficiently light, make the dough into 4 loaves, which will weigh 2 lbs. per loaf, when baked. It requires a hotter oven than fine flour bread, and must bake about an hour and a half.
Rye and Indian Bread.—There are many different proportions of mixing it—some put one-third Indian meal with two of rye; others like one-third rye and two of Indian; others prefer it half and half.
If you use the largest proportion of rye meal, make your dough stiff, so that it will mould into loaves; when it is two-thirds Indian, it should be softer, and baked in deep earthen or tin pans, after the following rule:
Take 2 quarts of sifted Indian meal; put it into a glazed earthen pan, sprinkle over it a table-spoonful of fine salt; pour over it about a quart of boiling water, stir and work it till every part of the meal is thoroughly wet; Indian meal absorbs a greater quantity of water. When it is about milk-warm, work in 1 quart of rye meal and a tea-cupful of lively yeast, mixed with half a pint of warm water; add more warm water, if needed. Work the mixture well with your hands: it should be stiff, but not firm as flour dough. Have ready a large, deep, well-buttered pan; put in the dough, and smooth the top by putting your hand in warm water, and then patting down the loaf. Set this to rise in a warm place in the winter; in the summer it should not be put by the fire. When it begins to crack on the top, which will usually be in about an hour or an hour and a half, put it into a well-heated oven, and bake it nearly 3 hours. It is better to let it stand in the oven all night, unless the weather is warm. Indian meal requires to be well cooked. The loaf will weigh about 4 lbs. Pan bread keeps best in large loaves.
Indian bread is economical, and, when wheat is scarce, is a pretty good substitute for dyspepsia bread.
Obs.—Many use milk in mixing bread. In the country, where milk is plentiful, it is a good practice, as bread is certainly richer wet with sweet milk than with water; but it will not keep so long in warm weather.
Baking can very well be done in a stove; during the winter this is an economical way of cooking; but the stove must be carefully watched, or there is danger of scorching the bread.
Yeast.—It is impossible to have good light bread, unless you have lively, sweet yeast. When common family beer is well brewed and kept in a clean cask, the settlings are the best of yeast. If you do not keep beer, then make common yeast by the following method:—
Take 2 quarts of water, 1 handful of hops, 2 of wheat bran; boil these together 20 minutes; strain off the water, and while it is boiling hot, stir in either wheat or rye flour, till it becomes a thick batter; let it stand till it is about blood-warm; then add a half pint of good smart yeast and a large spoonful of molasses, if you have it, and stir the whole well. Set it in a cool place in summer, and a warm one in winter. When it becomes perfectly light, it is fit for use. If not needed immediately, it should, when it becomes cold, be put in a clean jug or bottle; do not fill the vessel, and the cork must be left loose till the next morning, when the yeast will have done working. Then cork it tightly, and set in a cool place in the cellar. It will keep 10 or 12 days.
Obs.—Never keep yeast in a tin vessel. If you find the old yeast sour, and have not time to prepare new, put in saleratus, a tea-spoonful to a pint of yeast, when ready to use it. If it foams up lively, it will raise the bread; if it does not, never use it.
To Preserve Yeast.—Lay the yeast with a brush on a board or tub, and as it dries, lay on more, and continue to do so till it cracks and falls off; put it into clean bottles, and cork it well. This is excellent for taking to sea, where sugar-beer with little trouble might be made in any quantity, and always fresh.
To Assist Yeast.—When there is a scarcity of yeast, use the following method: Work into half a pint of water a spoonful of flour, until it becomes smooth, and boil it; put it into a jug and stir it till it cools. When milk-warm, put in a spoonful of yeast, and a spoonful of moist sugar; stir them well, and put in a warm place, and if well made, there will be as much in a short time as will raise 3 pecks of flour; the bread made of this yeast requires to be laid 5 hours before it is baked.
To Extract Bitter from Yeast.—Beat it up with the white of an egg; add a double quantity of water; beat all well together: cover it; let it stand all night, and pour off the water, when it will be sweet; 1 egg is sufficient for a quart of yeast.
Milk Yeast.—Take 1 pint of new milk; 1 tea-spoonful of fine salt, and a large spoon of flour—stir these well together: set the mixture by the fire, and keep it just lukewarm; it will be fit for use in an hour. Twice the quantity of common yeast is necessary; it will not keep long. Bread made of this yeast dries very soon; but in the summer it is sometimes convenient to make this kind when yeast is needed suddenly.
Hard Yeast.—Boil 3 ounces of hops in 6 quarts of water, till only 2 quarts remain. Strain it, and stir in while it is boiling hot, wheat or rye meal till it is thick as batter. When it is about milk-warm, add half a pint of good yeast, and let it stand till it is very light, generally about 3 hours; then work in sifted Indian meal till it is a stiff dough. Roll it out on a board; cut it into oblong cakes about 3 inches by 2, and half an inch thick. Lay these cakes on a smooth board, over which a little flour has been dusted; prick them with a fork, and place the board in a dry clean room, where the sun and air may be freely admitted. Turn them every day. They will dry in a fortnight, unless the weather be damp. When the cakes are perfectly dry, put them in a coarse cotton bag; hang it up in a cool, dry place. If rightly prepared these cakes will keep a year.
Two cakes will make yeast enough for a peck of flour. Break them into a pint of lukewarm water, and stir in a table-spoonful of flour, the evening before you bake. Set the mixture where it can be kept moderately warm. In the morning it will be fit for use.
French Rolls are usually made by the bakers, but in country houses, where families bake their own bread, they may be done in either of the following ways:—
Sift 1 lb. of flour, and rub into it 2 ozs. of butter; mix in the whites only of 3 eggs beaten to a froth, and a table-spoonful of strong yeast; to which add enough of milk, with a little salt, to make a stiff dough, and set it, covered, before the fire to rise—which will take about an hour; and, if cut into small rolls, and put into a quick oven, will be done in little more than 10 minutes.
Or:—Take quarter of peck of the very finest flour, 1 oz. of butter melted in milk and water: mix with it 2 or 3 spoonsful of yeast, according to its strength, and strain it through a hair sieve; whisk the white of an egg and work it into a light paste, acid salt, and leave it all night. Then work it up well again and make it into rolls.
English Rolls.—Sift 1 lb. of flour into a pan, and mix with it a small tea-spoonful of salt. Warm a gill of milk and water; make a hole in the middle of the flour and put into it a gill of brewer’s yeast, making it all into a thin batter, which must be stirred until quite free from lumps: then strew a handful of flour over it; set it in a warm place, and leave it to rise, which will take 2 hours or more; let it, however, remain until it has cracked on the top, and then make it into a dough with more milk and water. Knead it well for 10 minutes, cover it, and set it again to rise for 20 minutes longer. Then form the dough into small rolls, bake them, and send them to table hot.
Or:—To 2 lbs. of flour well dried, and 1 pint of water milk-warm, put 3 spoonsful of yeast: then knead in 2 ozs. of fresh butter and a little salt, and work all well together. The oven must be very quick, and quarter of an hour will bake them; the dough should make 12 rolls.
Or:—One pound and a half of flour, a pint of milk, 1 egg, and 2 spoonsful of yeast, well mixed and set before the fire to rise, will make still nicer rolls, and 20 minutes will bake them. They should be served hot, cut in 3, buttered, put together again, and covered when brought to table.
Rolls.—Warm an ounce of butter in half a pint of milk, then add a spoonful and a half of yeast of small beer, and a little salt. Put 2 pounds of flour into a pan, and put in the above. Set it to rise for an hour; knead it well; make it into 7 rolls, and bake them in a quick oven.
Hot Short Rolls.—Dry before the fire a sufficient quantity of flour to make three penny rolls, or larger if you like; add to it an egg well beaten, a little salt, 2 spoonsful of yeast, and a little warm milk; make into a light dough, let it stand by the fire all night. Bake the rolls in a quick oven.
Light Rolls.—Take 1 lb. of flour, and rub in it a little butter and salt; mix as much milk and yeast in it as will wet it; knead them together; after it is light, knead it again; make the rolls 1 hour before they are to be baked; let the oven be quick.
Another receipt for Light Rolls.—Mix together 2 quarts of flour; and a lump of butter as big as an egg melted with a little milk and water, enough to make the flour the consistency of dough; add 2 table-spoonsful of yeast, and set it before the fire to rise; then make it into rolls and bake them half an hour in a quick oven.
Fresh Rolls.—Take 3 quarts of flour; 3 eggs, and a piece of butter as large as a walnut; mix them with milk enough to moisten them well, and as little yeast early in the morning. Stir the dough well and make it into rolls. Set them by the fire to rise, and when risen bake them in a quick oven.
Part of this dough rolled very thin and baked quickly makes a nice breakfast bread.
Milk Toast.—Boil a pint of rich milk; then take it off the fire and stir into it a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, with a small tablespoonful of flour, and a teaspoonful of salt. Let it come again to a boil. Have ready two deep plates with 6 slices of toasted bread in each. Pour the milk over them hot, and keep them covered till they go to table. Milk toast is generally eaten at breakfast.
Milk Biscuit.—Take three-quarters of a pound of flour, and put in a wine-glassful of yeast, half a pint of milk, and a little salt. Roll the dough into small balls, and set them to rise. When risen sufficiently, bake them in a quick oven.
Biscuits.—A pound and a half of flour, made wet with equal quantities of milk and water, moderately warm, made stiff and rolled out very thin; cut them to any size you please, prick them, and bake them in a moderate oven on a tin. No flour to be put on the tins or biscuits.
Soda Biscuit.—Take 1 lb. of flour, and mix it with milk enough to make a stiff dough; dissolve in a little milk 1 tea-spoonful of carbonate of soda; add this to the paste, with a tea-spoonful of salt. Work it well together, and roll it out thin; cut it into round biscuits, and bake them in a moderate oven. The yolk of an egg is sometimes added.
A Galette.—The galette is a favorite cake in France, and may be made rich, and comparatively delicate, or quite common, by using more or less butter for it, and by augmenting or diminishing the size. Work lightly three-quarters of a pound of good butter into 1 lb. of flour, add a large salt-spoonful of salt, and make these into a paste with the yolks of a couple of eggs mixed with a small cup of good cream, should it be at hand; if not, with water; roll this into a complete round, three-quarters of an inch thick; score it in small diamonds, brush yolk of egg over the top, and bake the galette for about half an hour in a tolerably brisk oven; it is usually eaten hot, but is served cold also. 1 oz. of sifted sugar is sometimes added to it.
A good galette:—flour, 1 lb.; butter, three-quarters of a pound; salt, 1 salt-spoonful; yolks of eggs, 2; cream, small cupful: baked half an hour. Common galette: flour, 2 lbs.; butter, three-quarters to 1 lb.; no eggs.
Tea Cakes.—Rub into 1 lb. of flour 2 ozs. of butter, a beaten egg, and half a tea-spoonful of salt; wet it with warmed milk; make the paste rather stiff, and let it remain before the fire, where it will be kept warm for an hour or two; then roll it thin, and cut it with the top of a tumbler; back it quick.
Breakfast Cake.—Put into a quart of flour four ounces of butter, and, if you use new milk, put in three large spoonfuls of yeast; make it into biscuits, and prick them with a fork.
If you have sour milk, omit the yeast, and put a tea-spoonful of pearlash in the sour milk; pour it while effervescing into the flour. These biscuits are less likely to injure the health than if raised with yeast.
Cream Short Cakes.—In the country, where cream is plenty this is a favorite cake at the tea table. Rub into a quart of flour a bit of butter as large as an egg, sprinkle over a tea spoonful of salt; take half a pint of thick cream, a little sour, half a tea-spoonful of pearlash dissolved in water, poured into the cream, and milk added sufficient to wet the flour. Some use all cream, and that sweet. Then there needs no paarlash. It is expensive food.
Belvidere Cakes, for Breakfast or Tea.—Take 1 quart of flour, 4 eggs, a piece of butter the size of an egg, a piece of lard the same size; mix the butter and lard well in the flour; beat the eggs light in a pint bowl, and fill it up with cold milk; then pour it gradually into the flour; add a tea-spoonful of salt; work it for 8 or 10 minutes only; cut the dough with a knife the size you wish it; roll them into cakes about the size of a breakfast-plate, and bake in a quick oven.
Laplands, for Breakfast or Tea.—Beat separately the whites and yolks of 5 eggs; add 1 pint of rich cream, and 1 pint of flour, or perhaps a little more—enough to make it the consistency of pound-cake. Bake it in small round tins, in a quick oven.
Sally Lunn Tea Cakes.—To 1 quart of milk, add a quarter of a pound of butter, 3 eggs, (yolks and whites beaten separately,) 1 tea-spoonful of salt, 1 gill of yeast; beat it very light. Let it rise an hour, and bake it in a quick oven.
Nun’s Puffs.—Boil for a few minutes 1 pint of milk with half a pound of butter; then stir the milk and butter into three-quarters of a pound of flour; stir it until it does not stick to the sides of the pot; let it cool; add the yolks of 9 eggs; beat the whites to a stiff froth and stir them in last. Butter small round tins, and fill them half full.
Rusks.—Beat 7 eggs well, and mix with half a pint of new milk, in which have been melted 4 ozs. of butter; add to it a quarter of a pint of yeast and 3 ozs. of sugar, and put them by degrees into as much flour as will make a very light paste, rather like a batter, and let it rise before the fire half an hour; then add some more flour to make it a little stiffer, but not stiff. Work it well, and divide it into small loaves or cakes, about 5 or 6 inches wide, and flatten them. When baked, and cold, slice them the thickness of rusks, and put them in the oven to brown a little. The cakes, when first baked, eat deliciously, if buttered for tea; or, made with carraways, to eat cold.
Flannel Cakes.—Beat the yolks of 3 eggs, and put them into 1 quart of milk; stir in flour till it is about the thickness of buckwheat or pan-cake batter; then add 2 table-spoonsful of yeast—if the yeast be good, 1½ will do; and lastly, the whites of the 3 eggs, beaten light. Let it rise about 3 hours, and bake it on a griddle as you would buckwheat cakes.
Or:—Stir into 2 pints of flour as much milk as will make a light batter. Melt a large lump of butter, and add with it a little salt. Beat together 5 eggs, and stir them into the batter.
These cakes are to be baked on a griddle. Serve them with powdered sugar.
Muffins.—Take 1 pint of new milk, 1 pint of hot water, 4 lumps of sugar, 1 egg, half a pint of good brisk yeast, and flour enough to make the mixture quite as thick as pound-cake. Let it rise well; bake in hoops on a griddle.
Rice Muffins.—Rice muffins are made in the same manner exactly as rice cakes, except that the batter of the former is thinner—that is, to a quart of milk and 3 eggs, you put less rice and less flour.
Rice Cakes.—Boil a cupful of rice until it becomes a jelly; while it is warm, mix a large lump of butter with it and a little salt. Add as ranch milk to a small tea-cupful of flour as will make a tolerable stiff batter—stir it until it is quite smooth, and then mix it with the rice. Beat 6 eggs as light as possible, and add them to the rice.
These cakes are fried on a griddle as all other pancakes—they must be carefully turned.
Serve them with powdered sugar and nutmeg. They should be served as hot as possible, or they will become heavy—and a heavy pancake is a very poor affair.
Crumpets.—Take 3 tea-cups of raised dough, and work into it, with the hand, half a tea-cup of melted butter, 3 eggs, and milk to render it a thick batter. Turn it into a buttered bake-pan; let it remain 15 minutes, then put on a bake-pan, heated so as to scorch flour. It will bake in half an hour.
Batter Cakes.—Beat 2 eggs, put them in half a pint of milk and a tea-cup of cream, with half a tea-spoonful of pearlash dissolved in it; sprinkle a tea-spoonful of salt, and grate half a nutmeg, a little cinnamon, and rose-water, if you like. Stir in sifted flour till the batter is smooth and thick. Bake them on a griddle or in a pan. Butter the pan well, and drop the batter in small round cakes and quite thin. They must be turned, nicely browned, but not made black; lay them on a plate, in a pile, with a little butter between each layer. This batter will make good pancakes, fried in hot lard.
Buckwheat Cakes.—Take 1 quart of buckwheat meal, a handful of Indian meal, and a tea-spoonful of salt; mix them with 2 large spoonsful of yeast and sufficient cold water to make a thick batter; beat it well; put it in a warm place to rise, which will take 3 or 4 hours; or, if you mix it at night, let it stand where it is rather cool.
When it is light, bake it on a griddle or in a pan. The griddle must be well buttered, and the cakes are better to be small and thin.
Indian Slapjacks.—Mix 1 pint of sifted Indian meal and 4 large spoonsful of wheat flour into a quart of new milk, and 4 eggs beaten, and a little salt. Bake them on a griddle, like buckwheat cakes; eat with butter and molasses.
Raised Flour Waffles.—Stir into a quart of flour sufficient lukewarm milk to make a thick batter. The milk should be stirred in gradually, so as to have it free from lumps. Put in a table-spoonful of melted butter, a couple of beaten eggs, a tea-spoonful of salt, and half a tea-cup of yeast. When risen, fill your waffle-irons with the batter, bake them on a bed of coals. When they have been on the fire between 2 and 3 minutes, turn the waffle-irons over—when brown on both sides, they are sufficiently baked. The waffle-irons should be well greased with lard, and very hot, before each one is put in. The waffles should be buttered as soon as cooked. Serve them up with powdered white sugar and cinnamon.
Quick Waffles.—Mix flour and cold milk together, to make a thick batter. To a quart of the flour put 6 beaten eggs, a table-spoonful of melted butter, and a tea-spoonful of salt Some cooks add a quarter of a pound of sugar, and half nutmeg. Bake them immediately.
Rice Waffles.—Take a tea-cup and a half of boiled rice—warm it with a pint of milk, mix it smooth, then take it from the fire, stir in a pint of cold milk, and a tea-spoonful of salt. Beat 4 eggs, and stir them in, together with sufficient flour to make a thick batter.
Wafer Cakes.—Wafer cakes are an excellent tea-cake, and they do not take long to make, although a little practice is necessary before they can be successfully made.
Beat 3 eggs quite light. Wash a little less than a quarter of a pound of butter, to extract the salt from it, and mix it with a quarter of a pound of sifted sugar—add the beaten eggs, a tea-spoon of rose-water, and as much flour (that has been carefully passed through a sieve) as will make a stiff batter. Stir the batter with a wooden spoon until it is perfectly smooth and so tight as to break when it falls against the sides of the vessel. Your wafer-iron should be heated, but not too hot, or the butter will burn. Grease the iron with butter tied up in a linen rag, twice doubled. Fill the iron with the batter and close it. Place it in the fire in such a manner that both sides will heat at once; if this cannot be done, turn the iron frequently. The batter should be cooked in about 2 minutes.
Take out the wafer, split it open with a knife, and butter it, or sprinkle it with pounded sugar and roll it over a smooth stick made for the purpose.
Grease the iron every time you put in the batter.
Indian Meal Bread.—Mix 1 quart of Indian meal with enough boiling milk or water to make a very stiff batter; stir in a tea-cupful of molasses and a tea spoonful of salt, with half a tea-spoonful of saleratus dissolved in a little hot water. Let the mixture stand till it is lukewarm, then add a gill of bakers yeast; stir it well together, and let it stand in a warm place to rise, for 2 hours. Then fill to the depth of an inch buttered basins with the mixture; bake it one hour in a moderate oven, and serve it hot.
Indian Meal Muffins.—Scald a quart of Indian meal with enough boiling water to made a thick batter; let it cool; when lukewarm, add a small tea-cupful of butter, a table-spoonful of yeast, a tea-spoonful of salt, and 2 eggs well beaten. Put it in a warm place for 2 hours, then bake it in muffin rings, on a hot griddle. When one side is well browned, turn them.
They may be made without the yeast, if baked as soon as they are mixed.
Indian Meal Cake for Breakfast.—Pour enough boiling water on a pint of corn meal to make a stiff dough; dissolve in a little hot water half a tea-spoonful of saleratus, and stir it in the meal, with 1 tea-spoonful of salt, 2 eggs well beaten, and a table-spoonful of butter. Stir the materials well together, and bake it in buttered tin pans for half an hour in a quick oven. Serve it hot.
Another Indian Meal Cake.—Take 1 quart of milk, and stir into it enough Indian meal to make a very thick batter; beat well 4 eggs and add them to the batter, with a tea-spoonful of salt; fill small buttered tin pans with this mixture, 1 inch deep, and bake them in a moderate oven from forty minutes to one hour. Open the oven as seldom as possible.
Bannock or Indian Meal Cakes.—Stir to a cream 1¼ lb. of brown sugar, a pound of butter—beat 6 eggs, and mix them with the sugar and butter; add a tea-spoonful of cinnamon or ginger; stir in 1¾ lb. of white Indian meal, and a quarter of a pound of wheat flour, (the meal should be sifted.) Bake it in small cups, and let it remain in them till cold.
Johnny Cake.—Take a quart of sifted Indian meal, sprinkle a little salt over it, and mix it with scalding water, stirring it well; bake it on a board before the fire, or on a tin in a stove. It is healthy food for children, eaten warm (not hot) with molasses or milk.
Indian cake made with buttermilk, or sour milk, with a little cream or butter rubbed into the meal, and a tea-spoonful of pearl-ash in the milk, is very light and nutritious.
Indian Slappers.—Take 1 quart of Indian meal, 2 quarts of milk, and 4 eggs; beat the eggs and put them into the milk, and then stir in the meal with a little salt. They require no rising and may be made 5 minutes before they are to be baked. Bake them on a griddle, as you would buckwheat cakes.
Hoe Cakes.—Scald 1 quart of Indian meal with just water enough to make a thick batter. Stir in 2 tea-spoonsful of salt and 2 table-spoonsful of butter. Put it in a buttered tin pan, and bake it half an hour.
Egg-bread (for Breakfast)—Cut stale bread in slices; dip it in cold water; let it soak until thoroughly moist; beat one or more eggs, according to the quantity of bread, and put in a little salt. Dip the bread in the eggs so that both sides will be covered with it, and then fry it in lard. This is a good way to use stale bread.
Rice Omelets (for Breakfast or Tea.)—Take 1 pint of cold boiled rice. Mix with 2 eggs well beaten, a little salt, 1 pint of milk, and flour enough to make a batter not very stiff. Put in a frying-pan a little butter, and fry the batter in it. This quantity should make three cakes as large as a dessert-plate, and about half an inch thick.
* If the oven is cold, it will sodden; if too hot, it will burn; if the bread has not been enough worked, it will rise in holes. The proof of well-made bread is the fine, close, yet light texture. Some flour takes much more working than others, and some, more water.
* When bread gets stale, particularly at sea, where it is very apt to get mouldy, dip it in water, wipe, and dry it in a middling hot oven. It may also be cut in pieces, and dried as hard as rusks. Sugar and eggs should always be put into bread for sea store, as it keeps longer.
† When bread sours upon flatulent stomachs, instead of having recourse to diet bread, it is better to soak good light bread in a quantity of hot or cold water; this takes out the gelatine, which may be done in more or less quantity according to the degree necessary to the stomach for which it is prepared.