Part 25

FLANNEL CAKES.--Put a table-spoonful of butter into a quart of milk, and warm them together till the butter has melted; then stir it well, and set it away to cool. Beat five eggs as light as possible, and stir them into the milk in turn with three pints of sifted flour; add a small tea-spoonful of salt, and a large table-spoonful and a half of the best fresh yeast. Set the pan of batter near the fire to rise; and if the yeast is good, it will be light in three hours. Then bake it on a griddle in the manner of buckwheat cakes. Send them to table hot, and cut across into four pieces. This batter may be baked in waffle-irons. If so, send to table with the cakes powdered white sugar and cinnamon.

INDIAN BATTER CAKES.--Mix together a quart of sifted Indian meal, (the yellow meal is best for all purposes,) and a handful of wheat flour. Warm a quart of milk, and stir into it a small tea-spoonful of salt, and two large table-spoonfuls of the best fresh yeast. Beat three eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the milk in turn with the meal. Cover it, and set it to rise for three or four hours. When quite light, bake it on a griddle in the manner of buckwheat cakes. Butter them, cut them across, and send them to table hot, with molasses in a sauce-boat.

If the batter should chance to become sour before it is baked, stir in about a salt-spoonful of pearl-ash dissolved in a little lukewarm water; and let it set half an hour longer before it is baked.

INDIAN MUSH CAKES.--Pour into a pan three pints of cold water, and stir gradually into it a quart of sifted Indian meal which has been mixed with half a pint of wheat flour, and a small tea-spoonful of salt. Give it a hard stirring at the last. Have ready a hot griddle, and bake the batter immediately, in cakes about the size of a saucer. Send them to table piled evenly, but not cut. Eat them with butter or molasses.

This is the most economical and expeditious way of making soft Indian cakes; but it cannot be recommended as the best. It will be some improvement to mix the meal with milk rather than water.

JOHNNY CAKE.--Sift a quart of Indian meal into a pan; make a hole in the middle, and pour in a pint of warm water. Mix the meal and water gradually into a batter, adding a small tea-spoonful of salt. Beat it very hard, and for a long time, till it becomes quite light. Then spread it thick and even on a stout piece of smooth board. Place it upright on the hearth before a clear fire, with a flat iron or something of the sort to support the board behind, and bake it well. Cut it into squares, and split and butter them hot.

INDIAN FLAPPERS.--Have ready a pint of sifted Indian meal, mixed with a handful of wheat flour, and a small tea-spoonful of salt. Beat four eggs very light, and stir them by degrees into a quart of milk, in turn with the meal. They can be made in a very short time, and should be baked as soon as mixed, on a hot griddle; allow a large ladle full of batter to each cake, and make them all of the same size. Send them to table hot, buttered and cut in half.

INDIAN MUFFINS.--Sift and mix together a pint and a half of yellow Indian meal, and a handful of wheat flour. Melt a quarter of a pound of fresh butter in a quart of milk. Beat four eggs very light, and stir into them alternately (a little at a time of each) the milk when it is quite cold, and the meal; adding a small tea-spoonful of salt. The whole must be beaten long and hard. Then butter some muffin rings; set them on a hot griddle, and pour some of the batter into each.

Send the muffins to table hot, and split them by pulling them open with your fingers, as a knife will make them heavy. Eat them with butter, molasses or honey.

WATER MUFFINS.--Put four table-spoonfuls of fresh strong yeast into a pint of lukewarm water. Add a little salt; about a small tea-spoonful; then stir in gradually as much sifted flour as will make a thick batter. Cover the pan, and set it in a warm place to rise. When it is quite light, and your griddle is hot, grease and set your muffin rings on it; having first buttered them round the inside. Dip out a ladle full of the batter for each ring, and bake them over a quick fire. Send them to table hot, and split them by pulling them open with your hands.

COMMON MUFFINS.--Having melted three table-spoonfuls of fresh butter in three pints of warm milk, set it away to cool. Then beat three eggs as light as possible, and stir them gradually into the milk when it is quite cold; adding a tea-spoonful of salt. Stir in by degrees enough of sifted flour to make a batter as thick as you can conveniently beat it; and lastly, add two table-spoonfuls of strong fresh yeast from the brewery. Cover the batter and set it in a warm place to rise. It should be light in about three hours. Having heated your griddle, grease it with some butter tied in a rag; grease your muffin rings round the inside, and set them on the griddle. Take some batter out of the pan with a ladle or a large spoon, pour it lightly into the rings, and bake the muffins of a light brown. When done, break or split them open with your fingers; butter them and send them to table hot.

SODA BISCUITS.--Melt half a pound of butter in a pint of warm milk, adding a tea-spoonful of soda; and stir in by degrees half a pound of sugar. Then sift into a pan two pounds of flour; make a hole in the middle; pour in the milk, &c., and mix it with the flour into a dough. Put it on your paste-board, and knead it long and hard till it becomes very light. Roll it out into a sheet half an inch thick. Cut it into little round cakes with the top of a wine glass, or with a tin cutter of that size; prick the tops; lay them on tins sprinkled with flour, or in shallow iron pans; and bake them of a light brown in a quick oven; they will be done in a few minutes. These biscuits keep very well.

A SALLY LUNN.--This cake is called after the inventress. Sift into a pan a pound and a half of flour. Make a hole in the middle, and put in two ounces of butter warmed in a pint of milk, a salt-spoonful of salt, three well-beaten eggs, and two table-spoonfuls of the best fresh yeast. Mix the flour well into the other ingredients, and put the whole into a square tin pan that has been greased with butter. Cover it, set it in a warm place, and when it is quite light, bake it in a moderate oven. Send it to table hot, and eat it with butter.

Or, you may bake it on a griddle, in small muffin rings, pulling the cakes open and buttering them when brought to table.

SHORT CAKES.--Rub three quarters of a pound of fresh butter into a pound and a half of sifted flour; and make it into a dough with a little cold water. Roll it out into a sheet half an inch thick, and cut it into round cakes with the edge of a tumbler. Prick them with a fork; lay them in a shallow iron pan sprinkled with flour, and bake them in a moderate oven till they are brown. Send them to table hot; split and butter them.

TEA BISCUIT.--Melt a quarter of a pound of fresh butter in a quart of warm milk, and add a salt-spoonful of salt. Sift two pounds of flour into a pan, make a hole in the centre, and put in three table-spoonfuls of the best brewer's yeast. Add the milk and butter and mix it into a stiff paste. Cover it and set it by the fire to rise. When quite light, knead it well, roll it out an inch thick, and cut it into round cakes with the edge of a tumbler. Prick the top of each with a fork; lay them in buttered pans and bake them light brown. Send them to table warm, and split and butter them.

RICE CAKES.--Pick and wash half a pint of rice, and boil it very soft. Then drain it, and let it get cold. Sift a pint and a half of flour over the pan of rice, and mix in a quarter of a pound of butter that has been warmed by the fire, and a salt-spoonful of salt. Beat five eggs very light, and stir them gradually into a quart of milk. Beat the whole very hard, and bake it in muffin rings, or in waffle-irons. Send them to table hot, and eat them with butter, honey, or molasses.

You may make these cakes of rice flour instead of mixing together whole rice and wheat flour.

CREAM CAKES.--Having beaten three eggs very light, stir them into a quart of cream alternately with a quart of sifted flour; and add one wine glass of strong yeast, and a salt-spoon of salt. Cover the batter, and set it near the fire to rise. When it is quite light, stir in a large table-spoonful of butter that has been warmed by the fire. Bake the cakes in muffin rings, and send them to table hot, split with your fingers, and buttered.

FRENCH ROLLS.--Sift a pound of flour into a pan, and rub into it two ounces of butter; mix in the whites only of three eggs, beaten to a stiff froth, and a table-spoonful of strong yeast; add sufficient milk to make a stiff dough, and a salt-spoonful of salt. Cover it and set it before the fire to rise. It should be light in an hour. Then put it on a paste-board, divide it into rolls, or round cakes; lay them in a floured square pan, and bake them about ten minutes in a quick oven.

COMMON ROLLS.--Sift two pounds of flour into a pan, and mix with it a tea-spoonful of salt. Warm together a jill of water and a jill of milk. Make a hole in the middle of the pan of flour; mix with the milk and water a jill of the best yeast, and pour it into the hole. Mix into the liquid enough of the surrounding flour to make a thin batter, which you must stir till quite smooth and free from lumps. Then strew a handful of flour over the top, and set it in a warm place to rise for two hours or more. When it is quite light, and has cracked on the top, make it into a dough with some more milk and water. Knead it well for ten minutes. Cover it, and set it again to rise for twenty minutes. Then make the dough into rolls or round balls. Bake them in a square pan, and send them to table hot, cut in three, buttered and put together again.

BREAD.

Take one peck or two gallons of fine wheat flour, and sift it into a kneading trough, or into a small clean tub, or a large broad earthen pan; and make a deep hole in the middle of the heap of flour, to begin the process by what is called setting a sponge. Have ready half a pint of warm water, which in summer should be only lukewarm, but even in winter it must not be hot or boiling, and stir it well into half a pint of strong fresh yeast; (if the yeast is home-made you must use from three quarters to a whole pint;) then pour it into the hole in the middle of the flour. With a spoon work in the flour round the edges of the liquid, so as to bring in by degrees sufficient flour to form a thin batter, which must be well stirred about, for a minute or two. Then take a handful of flour, and scatter it thinly over the top of this batter, so as to cover it entirely. Lay a warmed cloth over the whole, and set it to rise in a warm place; in winter put it nearer the fire than in summer. When the batter has risen so as to make cracks in the flour on the top, scatter over it three or four table-spoonfuls (not more) of fine salt, and begin to form the whole mass into a dough; commencing round the hole containing the batter, and pouring as much soft water as is necessary to make the flour mix with the batter; the water must never be more than lukewarm. When the whole is well mixed, and the original batter which is to give fermentation to the dough is completely incorporated with it, knead it hard, turning it over, pressing it, folding it, and working it thoroughly with your clenched hands for twenty minutes or half an hour; or till it becomes perfectly light and stiff. The goodness of bread depends much on the kneading, which to do well requires strength and practice. When it has been sufficiently worked, form the dough into a lump in the middle of the trough or pan, and scatter a little dry flour thinly over it: then cover it, and set it again in a warm place to undergo a farther fermentation; for which, if all has been done rightly, about twenty minutes or half an hour will be sufficient.

The oven should be hot by the time the dough has remained twenty minutes in the lump. If it is a brick oven it should be heated by faggots or small light wood, allowed to remain in till burnt down into coals. When the bread is ready, clear out the coals, and sweep and wipe the floor of the oven clean. Introduce nothing wet into the oven, as it may crack the bricks when they are hot. Try the heat of the bottom by throwing in some flour; and if it scorches and burns black, do not venture to put in the bread till the oven has had time to become cooler.

Put the dough on the paste-board, (which must be sprinkled with flour,) and divide it into loaves, forming them of a good shape. Place them in the oven, and close up the door, which you may open once or twice to see how the bread is going on. The loaves will bake in from two hours and a half to three hours, or more, according to their size. When the loaves are done, wrap each in a clean coarse towel, and stand them up on end to cool slowly. It is a good way to have the cloths previously made damp by sprinkling them plentifully with water, and letting them lie awhile rolled up tightly. This will make the crust of the bread less dry and hard. Bread should be kept always wrapped in a cloth, and covered from the air in a box or basket with a close lid. Unless you have other things to bake at the same time, it is not worth while to heat a brick oven for a small quantity of bread. Two or three loaves can be baked very well in a stove, (putting them into square iron pans,) or in a Dutch oven.[J]

If the bread has been mixed over night (which should never be done in warm weather) and is found, on tasting it, to be sour in the morning, melt a tea-spoonful of pearl-ash in a little milk-warm water, and sprinkle it over the dough; let it set half an hour, and then knead it. This will remove the acidity, and rather improve the bread in lightness. If dough is allowed to freeze it is totally spoiled. All bread that is sour, heavy, or ill-baked is not only unpalatable, but extremely unwholesome, and should never be eaten. These accidents so frequently happen when bread is made at home by careless, unpractised or incompetent persons, that families who live in cities or towns will generally risk less and save more, by obtaining their bread from a professional baker.

If you like a little Indian in your wheat bread, prepare rather a larger quantity of warm water for setting the sponge; stirring into the water, while it is warming, enough of sifted Indian meal to make it like thin gruel. Warm water that has had pumpkin boiled in it is very good for bread.

Strong fresh yeast from the brewery should always be used in preference to any other. If the yeast is home-made, or not very strong and fresh, double or treble the quantity mentioned in the receipt will be necessary to raise the bread. On the other hand, if too much yeast is put in, the bread will be disagreeably bitter.[K]

You may take off a portion of the dough that has been prepared for bread, make it up into little round cakes or rolls, and bake them for breakfast or tea.

FOOTNOTES:

[J] If you bake bread in a Dutch oven, take off the lid when the loaf is done, and let it remain in the oven uncovered for a quarter of an hour.

[K] If you are obliged from its want of strength to put in a large quantity of yeast, mix with it two or three handfuls of bran; add the warm water to it, and then strain it through a sieve or cloth; or you may correct the bitterness by putting in a few bits of charcoal and then straining it.

BRAN BREAD.--Sift into a pan three quarts of unbolted wheat meal. Stir a jill of strong yeast, and a jill of molasses into a quart of soft water, (which must be warm but not hot,) and add a small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash, or sal-aratus. Make a hole in the heap of flour, pour in the liquid, and proceed in the usual manner of making bread. This quantity may be made into two loaves. Bran bread is considered very wholesome; and is recommended to persons afflicted with dyspepsia.

RYE AND INDIAN BREAD.--Sift two quarts of rye, and two quarts of Indian meal, and mix them well together. Boil three pints of milk; pour it boiling hot upon the meal; add two tea-spoonfuls of salt, and stir the whole very hard. Let it stand till it becomes of only a lukewarm heat, and then stir in half a pint of good fresh yeast; if from the brewery and quite fresh, a smaller quantity will suffice. Knead the mixture into a stiff dough, and set it to rise in a pan. Cover it with a thick cloth that has been previously warmed, and set it near the fire. When it is quite light, and has cracked all over the top, make it into two loaves, put them into a moderate oven, and bake them two hours and a half.

COMMON YEAST.--Put a large handful of hops into two quarts of boiling water, which must then be set on the fire again, and boiled twenty minutes with the hops. Have ready in a pan three pints of sifted flour; strain the liquid, and pour half of it on the flour. Let the other half stand till it becomes cool, and then mix it gradually into the pan with the flour, &c. Then stir into it half a pint of good strong yeast, fresh from the brewery if possible; if not, use some that was left of the last making. You may increase the strength by stirring into your yeast before you bottle it, four or five large tea-spoonfuls of brown sugar, or as many table-spoonfuls of molasses.

Put it into clean bottles, and cork them loosely till the fermentation is over. Next morning put in the corks tightly, and set the bottles in a cold place. When you are going to bottle the yeast it will be an improvement to place two or three raisins at the bottom of each bottle. It is best to make yeast very frequently; as, with every precaution, it will scarcely keep good a week, even in cold weather. If you are apprehensive of its becoming sour, put into each bottle a lump of pearl-ash the size of a hazle-nut.

BRAN YEAST.--Mix a pint of wheat bran, and a handful of hops with a quart of water, and boil them together about twenty minutes. Then strain it through a sieve into a pan; when the liquid becomes only milk-warm, stir into it four table-spoonfuls of brewer's yeast, and two of brown sugar, or four of molasses. Put it into a wooden bowl, cover it, and set it near the fire for four or five hours. Then bottle it, and cork it tightly next day.

PUMPKIN YEAST.--Pare a fine ripe pumpkin, and cut it into pieces. Put them into a kettle with a large handful of hops, and as much water as will cover them. Boil them till the pumpkin is soft enough to pass through a cullender. Having done this, put the pulp into a stone jar, adding half a pint of good strong yeast to set it into a fermentation. The yeast must be well stirred into the pumpkin. Leave the jar uncovered till next day; then secure it tightly with a cork. If pumpkin yeast is well made, and of a proper consistence, neither too thick nor too thin, it will keep longer than any other.

BAKER'S YEAST.--To a gallon of soft water put two quarts of wheat bran, one quart of ground malt, (which may be obtained from a brewery,) and two handfuls of hops. Boil them together for half an hour. Then strain it through a sieve, and let it stand till it is cold; after which put to it two large tea-cups of molasses, and half a pint of strong yeast. Pour it into a stone jug, and let it stand uncorked till next morning. Then pour off the thin liquid from the top, and cork the jug tightly. When you are going to use the yeast, if it has been made two or three days, stir in a little pearl-ash dissolved in warm water, allowing a lump the size of a hickory-nut to a pint of yeast. This will correct any tendency to sourness, and make the yeast more brisk.

TO MAKE BUTTER.

Scald your milk pans every day after washing them; and let them set till the water gets cold. Then wipe them with a clean cloth. Fill them all with cold water half an hour before milking time, and do not pour it out till the moment before you are ready to use the pans. Unless all the utensils are kept perfectly sweet and nice, the cream and butter will never be good. Empty milk-pans should stand all day in the sun.

When you have strained the milk into the pans, (which should be broad and shallow,) place them in the spring-house, setting them down in the water. After the milk has stood twenty-four hours, skim off the cream, and deposite it in a large deep earthen jar, commonly called a crock, which must be kept closely covered, and stirred up with a stick at least twice a day, and whenever you add fresh cream to it. This stirring is to prevent the butter from being injured by the skin that will gather over the top of the cream.

You should churn at least twice a week, for if the cream is allowed to stand too long, the butter will inevitably have a bad taste. Add to the cream the strippings of the milk.

Butter of only two or three days gathering is the best. With four or five good cows, you may easily manage to have a churning every three days. If your dairy is on a large scale, churn every two days.

Have your churn very clean, and rinse and cool it with cold water. A barrel churn is best; though a small upright one, worked by a staff or dash, will do very well where there are but one or two cows.

Strain the cream from the crock into the churn, and put on the lid. Move the handle slowly in warm weather, as churning too fast will make the butter soft. When you find that the handle moves heavily and with great difficulty, the butter has come; that is, it has separated from the thin fluid and gathered into a lump, and it then is not necessary to churn any longer. Take it out with a wooden ladle, and put it into a small tub or pail. Squeeze and press it hard with the ladle, to get out all that remains of the milk. Add a little salt, and then squeeze and work it for a long time. If any of the milk is allowed to remain in, it will speedily turn sour and spoil the butter. Set it away in a cool place for three hours, and then work it over again.[L] Wash it in cold water; weigh it; make it up into separate pounds, smoothing and shaping it; and clap each pound on your wooden butter print, dipping the print every time in cold water. Spread a clean linen cloth on a bench in the spring-house; place the butter on it, and let it set till it becomes perfectly hard. Then wrap each pound in a separate piece of linen that has been dipped in cold water.

Pour the buttermilk into a clean crock, and place it in the spring-house, with a saucer to dip it out with. Keep the pot covered. The buttermilk will be excellent the first day; but afterwards it will become too thick and sour. Winter buttermilk is never very palatable.

Before you put away the churn, wash and scald it well; and the day that you use it again, keep it for an hour or more filled with cold water.

In cold weather, churning is a much more tedious process than in summer, as the butter will be longer coming. It is best then to have the churn in a warm room, or near the fire.

If you wish to prepare the butter for keeping a long time, take it after it has been thoroughly well made, and pack it down tightly into a large jar. You need not in working it, add more salt than if the butter was to be eaten immediately. But preserve it by making a brine of fine salt, dissolved in water. The brine must be strong enough to bear up an egg on the surface without sinking. Strain the brine into the jar, so as to be about two inches above the butter. Keep the jar closely covered, and set it in a cool place.

When you want any of the butter for use, take it off evenly from the top; so that the brine may continue to cover it at a regular depth.