INDIANA BATTER CAKES.—Sift into a pan three large pints of yellow corn-meal; and add a large table-spoonful of fresh lard; or of nice drippings of roast beef, well cleared from fat. Add a small tea-spoonful of sal-eratus, or a large one of soda, dissolved in a little warm water. Next make the whole into a soft dough, with a pint of cold water. Afterwards thin it to the consistence of a moderate batter, by adding, gradually, not quite a pint and a half of warm water. When it is all mixed, continue to stir it well for half an hour. Have ready a griddle heated over the fire, and bake the batter in the manner of buckwheat-cakes; send them to table hot, and eat them with butter or molasses.
These cakes are very light and good, and convenient to make; as they require neither eggs, milk, nor yeast. They may either be baked as soon as mixed, or they may stand for an hour or more.
KENTUCKY BATTER CAKES.—Sift a quart of yellow indian meal into a large pan; mix with it two large table-spoonfuls of wheat flour, and a salt-spoonful of salt. Warm a pint and a half of rich milk in a small sauce-pan, but do not let it come to a boil. When it begins to simmer, take it off the fire, and put into it two pieces of fresh butter, each about the size of a hen’s egg. Stir the butter into the warm milk till it melts, and is well mixed. Then stir in the meal, gradually, and set the mixture to cool. Beat four eggs, very light, and add them, by degrees, to the mixture, stirring the whole very hard. If you find it too thin, add a little more corn-meal. Have ready a griddle heated over the fire, and bake the batter on it, in the manner of buckwheat-cakes. Send them to table hot, and eat them with butter, to which you may add molasses or honey.
RYE BATTER-CAKES.—Beat two eggs very light. Mix them, gradually, with a quart of lukewarm milk, and sufficient rye-meal to make a batter about as thick as for buckwheat-cakes. Then stir in a large table-spoonful of the best brewer’s yeast; or twice that quantity, if the yeast is home-made. Cover it, and set it to rise in a warm place. If too thin, add more rye-meal. When quite light, and covered on the surface with bubbles, bake it on a griddle, in the manner of buckwheat cakes. Butter them, and eat them warm, at breakfast or tea.
If you cannot obtain good yeast, and wish to have the cakes ready with as much expedition as possible, you may use patent yeast-powders, according to the directions that accompany them. In this case, the cakes must be baked in half an hour after the powders are mixed into the batter.
Yeast-powders, put in at the last, are an improvement to all sorts of batter-cakes that have been previously raised with good real yeast; also to cakes made light by eggs. But to depend entirely on the powders, without either real yeast, or eggs, is not well; as the cakes, though eatable, are generally too tough and leathery to be wholesome. In cities, fresh yeast, from the brewers, can be obtained every day, at a very trifling cost, during the brewing season; which is usually from October till April. At other seasons, it can be procured from the bakers, or made at home; and should always be used in preference to depending solely on yeast-powders. Though they improve the lightness of batter, for which real yeast or beaten eggs have already been used, they will not, of themselves alone, give it a wholesome degree of either lightness or crispness. Too much dependence on yeast-powders is one reason that the buckwheat-cakes of the present day are so inferior to those of former times, when they were always made with real yeast.
Indian batter-cakes may be made as above.
HARLEM CAKES.—Sift into a pan three pints of flour. Warm, in a sauce-pan, a pint of milk, and cut up in it half a pound of fresh butter. When the butter is soft enough to mix with the milk, stir them well together, and remove the sauce-pan from the fire. Beat three eggs, very light, and mix them with the milk and butter, after they have cooled. Then make a hole in the middle of the flour, and pour in the mixture, and two large table-spoonfuls of strong fresh yeast. With a spoon, mix the flour into the liquid, till the whole is thoroughly incorporated. Then cover the pan with a thick woollen cloth, and set it near the fire, to rise. It should be light in about five hours; perhaps sooner. When quite light, mix in a tea-spoonful of soda, dissolved in a very little warm water; divide the dough into long oval cakes, or rolls; knead each separately. Sprinkle an iron baking-pan with flour; put in the cakes; cover the pan, and let it stand half an hour before baking. Bake the cakes in a moderate oven. Eat them fresh, with butter. They are excellent tea cakes. Of course, they must be mixed in the forenoon.
BREAD MUFFINS.—Take four thick slices of baker’s bread, and cut off all the crust. Lay them in a pan, and pour boiling water over them; but barely enough to soak them well. Cover the bread, and after it has stood an hour, drain off the water, and stir the soaked bread till it is a smooth mass; then mix in two table-spoonfuls of sifted flour, and a half-pint of milk. Having beaten two eggs very light, stir them, gradually, into the mixture. Grease some muffin-rings; set them on a hot griddle, and pour into each a portion of the mixture. Bake them brown; send them to table hot; pull them open with your fingers, and spread on butter. They will be found an excellent sort of muffin; very light and nice.
SWEET POTATOE PONE.—Stir together, till very light and white, three quarters of a pound of fresh butter, and three quarters of a pound of powdered white sugar, adding two table-spoonfuls of ginger. Grate a pound and a half of sweet potatoe. Beat eight eggs, very light, and stir them, gradually, into the butter and sugar, in turn with the grated sweet potatoe. Dissolve a tea-spoonful of sal-eratus or soda, in a gill of sour milk, and stir it in at the last, beating the whole very hard. Butter the inside of a tin pan. Put in the mixture, and bake it four hours, or more. It should be eaten fresh.
RICE BREAD.—To a pint of well-boiled rice, add half a pint of wheat-flour, mixing them well together. Take six eggs, and beat the whites and yolks separately. Having beaten the whites to a stiff froth, mix them, gradually, with a pint of rich milk, and two large table-spoonfuls of fresh butter, softened at the fire. Mix, by degrees, the yolks of the eggs with the rice and flour. Then add the white-of-egg mixture, a little at a time. Stir the whole very hard. Put it into a buttered tin pan, with straight or upright sides. Set it in a moderate oven, and bake it an hour or more. Then turn it out of the pan, put it on a dish, and send it warm to the breakfast-table, and eat it with butter.
This cake may be baked, by setting the pan that contains it, into an iron dutch-oven, placed over hot coals. Heat the lid of the oven on the inside, by standing it up, before the fire, while the rice-bread is preparing, and, after you put it on, keep the lid covered with hot coals.
Rice-bread may be made of ground rice-flour, instead of whole rice.
RICE-FLOUR BREAD.—Sift into a pan a pint and a half of rice-flour, and a pint and a half of fine wheat-flour. Add two large table-spoonfuls of fresh butter, or lard; and mix in a pint and a half of milk. Beat four eggs, very light, and then stir them, gradually, into the mixture. When the whole has been well-mixed, add, at the last, a small tea-spoonful of soda, or sal-eratus, dissolved in as much warm water as will cover it. Put the whole into a buttered tin pan; set it, immediately, into a quick oven, and bake it well. It is best when eaten fresh. Slice and butter it.
RICE-FLOUR BATTER-CAKES.—Melt a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, or lard, in a quart of milk; but be careful not to let it begin to boil. Divide the milk equally, by putting it into two pans. Beat three eggs, very light, and stir them into one half of the milk, with the addition of a large table-spoonful of wheat-flour. Stir in as much ground rice-flour as will make a thick batter. Then put in a small tea-cupful of strong, fresh yeast, and thin the batter with the remainder of the milk. Cover it, and set it to rise. When it has risen high, and is covered with bubbles, bake it on a griddle, in the manner of buckwheat-cakes. Send them to table hot, and butter them.
Similar cakes may be made with indian-meal, instead of rice-flour.
LONG ROLLS.—Sift three quarts of flour into a large pan, and mix with it a tea-spoonful of salt. Warm half a pint of water, but do not let it become hot. Mix with it six table-spoonfuls of strong, fresh yeast. Make a deep hole in the middle of the pan of flour. Pour in the liquid, and, with a spoon, work into it the flour, round the edge of the hole; proceeding gradually till you have all the flour mixed in, so as to form a batter. Stir it well, for two or three minutes. Then strew the top all over with a handful of dry flour. Cover the dough with a thick, double cloth, and set it in a warm place, to rise. When it is quite light, and the surface cracked all over, mix in three table-spoonfuls (not more) of lard, or fresh butter. Knead it long and hard, and make it into long, oval-shaped rolls, making, with a knife, a cleft in the top of each. Sprinkle some square baking-pans with flour; lay the rolls in them, at equal distances; cover them, as before; and set them in a warm place, for half an hour. In the meantime, have the oven ready; put in the rolls, and bake them brown.
Their lightness may be improved by mixing in (while kneading the dough, previous to forming it into cakes) a heaping tea-spoonful of soda, or sal-eratus, dissolved in as much warm water as will cover it.
In cold weather, you may mix these rolls with milk, instead of water; but in summer the milk may turn sour, and spoil the dough. This, however, may be corrected, by adding the soda, or sal-eratus; always a good remedy for sour dough or batter.
POTATOE ROLLS.—Take fine large potatoes. Boil, peel, and mash them. Then rub the mashed potatoe through a sieve. To each potatoe allow a pint of sifted flour; a table-spoonful of strong fresh yeast; a jill of milk-warm water; a salt-spoon of salt; the yolk of an egg; and a bit of fresh butter about the size of a large hickory-nut. Mix together in a large broad pan the flour, the mashed potatoe, and the salt. Make a hole in the centre of the mixture, and pour into it the yeast mixed with the warm water. Sprinkle a little flour over the top, and mix in a little from round the sides of the hole. Cover it with a clean towel, and over that a flannel, and set it near the fire to rise. When the dough is quite light, and cracked all over the surface, knead in the butter and also the yolks of eggs, having previously beaten them well, and add a small tea-spoonful of soda dissolved in a little warm water. Then divide the dough into equal parts, make it into long-shaped rolls, and lay them in a tin or iron pan sprinkled with flour. Cover them, and again set them to rise in a warm place. When perfectly light, (which should be in about an hour,) set the pan into the oven, and bake the rolls brown. They are best when quite fresh. Pull them open with your fingers, and eat them with butter.
